Thrillist New York
Emailed on: Tuesday November 18, 2008Emperial Nation
From time immemorial, men have commemorated seminal figures and moments through books, and statues, and other stuff that, if you wore it, would totally chafe your nips. Celebrating history through something more comfortable, Emperial Nation t-shirts.
Inspired by five tumultuous historical periods, EN's the debut line from an eagle-eyed group of NY aesthetes who "noticed a demand...for sophisticated and meaningful designs inspired by historical events" (you're totally kicking yourself for not pouncing on this first). The graphic journey starts with two French Revolution numbers (a gold-inked Napoleon, and a guillotine silhouette) and three Ottoman tees covering the Empire's priceless contributions to culture: lawmaker Constantine XI, a concubine, and a hookah. Stateside, EN covers 20th Century New York crime (gold-framed mugshot of Five Points Gang founder Paul Kelly, burning Model Ts, the ghost of a cop protecting a living comrade as he reloads his rifle) and the Civil War, including a griffin reloading a musket before a purple cannon, and a pixelated photo of the ghost of soldier Andrew Benton, whose lackluster Google search results suggest this memorial tee's about as good as it's gonna get.
EN's tightest U.S. line's Wild West, with pistol-pointing cowboys and a huge graphic of John Salmon Ford, the journalist who coined "R.I.P" -- though Ford'll be resting anything but peacefully once he finds out you haven't washed him in weeks.
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