Emperial Nation: Learning History Through T-Shirts

The street wear world is often filled with iconography from pop culture, hip-hop and sports. Since the cultural capital is being sucked dry from these reference points, it’s good to see a company dipping into other pots for graphic inspiration. Emperial Nation makes t-shirts using imagery from historic instances of upheaval including the Civil War, French Revolution, Ottoman Empire, The Wild West and The Gangs of New York. Though some of their subjects are well known, others (such as infamous Five Points gang founder Paul Kelly, seen above) are interesting characters that don’t often appear in the history books. Who’d have thought that a simple t-shirt could teach you a history lesson?

Emperial Nation

[via Thrillist]