Tee-cember: Threadless Holiday Sale Finale

The final week of Threadless' extensive holiday sale is upon us, and there are some serious discounts. Like what? Like at least 10% off all orders over $50 (as high as 20% for orders over $100, so if you've still got a massive cart, you can be seeing $20, $40, $60 off your bill). I personally like free shipping more, but that's maybe cheap of me. For the rest of you, this is pretty epically awesome.

Epically awesome comes in many forms, but one such form is RED, by Roadkill3d. I shouldn't need to enumerate the reasons why, because it should be obvious. The rendering is perfect... rarely do you see realism as real. The background elements turn back the real, and let the character be the main focus... I love how even the hyper-skilled drawing fades simpler toward the edges. Then again, there's not much to not love. The concept blends fantasy and humor, with a hefty dose of darkness and a little sexiness... it's like one big pulp shirt. Fairytale noir. It takes a child's tale, and makes every last bit of it mature in all the right ways. I'd go so far as to say that hating this shirt is like hating To Kill A Mockingbird: it's beautiful and elegantly composed and sums up all the potential and power of the medium... you don't need to love it, but you need to appreciate what it is. If this was the standard all shirts were held to, we'd need to do way more laundry, because there simply wouldn't be many to go around. Entire sites wouldn't exist. And that's all while thinking the print is maybe a tad too small on the finished product... this would be devastating otherwise. I'll be the first to admit that I'm glad to have simpler fare around, but we should consider ourselves lucky that there are people who can elevate a shirt to more than a consumable, but to something which is both incredibly artistic and incredibly wearable.

Of course, the other side of epic is knowing when simple is the way to go, such as kaloyster's "Friday, I'm in Love." Where "Red" should need no explanation to see why it is an amazing piece, this shirt may need some. Not that I'm giving it. When it comes right down to it, though, this is simply the sort of shirt that if you don't get it immediately, you shouldn't wear it. It's concept concept concept, and that makes up for a lot of things that should be flaws. The boxy design is forgivable because it gives it a calendar feel. The simple restroom man that is the main character oddly makes the charades he engages in all the more skillful that they came across so accurately. There is a time and place to use work this simple, and this is that time... the small space of each square makes detail a waste, and the infographic concept of this homage requires a simple, infographic look. It really is a homage to the original inspiration, too... there's clearly care put in, and some great subtle humor (I love the final Thursday, especially). There are lots of smart decisions also, like the consistant refusal to simply clone Tuesday and Wednesday... even cloned Friday at least flips back and forth on every other iteration. It's not something everyone will love, but I can't see how anyone not in on the joke wouldn't at least give a smile.

Get those Threadless orders in quicklike now... they're insisting over there that we won't see this sale come Christmas. This might be a time when your "purchase ban" should be broken, because nothing guarantees a post-Christmas sale, just like nothing guarantees a shirt will survive through the sale for you to pick up later even if there is one.