It’s hard to pull off a collage. Alright, maybe it’s not hard for you, but I couldn’t do it. Blending several elements into a cohesive design can be difficult enough as it is. Try pulling those elements from seemingly unrelated sources now, and throw in a splash of color.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve got no idea what the designer was trying to convey with this shirt. Maybe though, that’s the point. The shirt is called “Imagine” after all. Maybe we’re each supposed to take away what we want to see in it. The part of me that’s a slave to logic tries to weave a thread through all the images, but I always come up empty handed, and maybe that’s a good thing.

Imagine is $19 from Design By Humans.

EDIT: I actually wrote this post last week, but I saw the other day that Imagine won shirt of the week and was featured just the other day. Check it out while it’s still around.

Alright, I’ll admit up front that I’ve had this shirt for about a year now. It’s a comfortable fit, and the fabric is soft. It doesn’t feel heavy like you’d expect a shirt with this much print to feel. It’s as bright as the day I bought it even though it’s been through a ton of wash cycles. You WILL stand out wearing this shirt. Everywhere except a Van Halen concert, of course. None of that’s why you’d buy this shirt though.

The artwork is based on Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein guitar, painted in black, red, and white. 5150, which is over the left breast, is supposedly the LAPD radio code for “criminally insane.” Van Halen has used this ambiguous number for years, with a song, album and his studio bearing the digits.

Even if you’re not a Van Halen fan, hear me out!

The real beauty of this shirt though, is that you don’t have to be a Van Halen fan. Unless someone knows what they’re looking at, they won’t get it. It doesn’t say Van Halen anywhere. It’s just a very unique shirt to anyone that isn’t familiar with VH.

The Van Halen stripe shirt is available from tshirts.com for $20.