Yet another shirt painting the Emperor in a rather sad light, this time from German site Franchies Shirt Shop. At the bottom left corner of this short-sleeved t-shirt, a crestfallen Napoleon is depicted, arms folded, slumped on his equally fed-up white horse. Above the image is printed the phrase "Ihm felte etwas brot", which Google Translate tells me is German for "He lacked some bread".Not the catchiest Bonaparte slogan I've seen this year, but actually one of the most interesting. According to the designer, it's a reference to Napoleon's calamitous invasion of Russia in 1812. Overstretched, and frozen (newspaper cartoons of the time showed "General Frost" as Napoleon's greatest enemy), the French army was forced out of Russia in less than six months, with Napoleon's tendency to live off the land instead of relying on highly-structured supply lines cited as a key reason. In the bitter wastelands they passed through on this campaign, food rations were scarce, and Napoleon's men went hungry.
According to "Six Thousand Years of Bread: Its Holy and Unholy History" (H. E. Jacob, first published in 1944), Napoleon had spoken five years earlier of the importance of bread in his planned conquest of this vast land, saying "If I have bread, it will be child's play to defeat Russia." Unfortunately, by the end of 1812, he didn't and it wasn't.
This shirt is available in a man's size in "grass green" for €29.95. There are also several other colours and styles of shirt, ranging ijn price from about €25-€35. All shirts are 100% cotton, and - for a change - made by American Apparel. Most of the designs are based around the bread theme, but one or two feature a simple image of Napoleon standing with his arm inside his coat (perhaps hiding his sandwiches before the other guys see them).
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