By all accounts, Janet Jackson’s Thursday night show at Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa was a smoking-hot success, with the 49-year-old thrilling a crowd ready to eat up decades of hits. The “Control” diva ended up working through three-dozen songs over the course of the evening, but things got even better for BOTB-winning designer and artist Chad Mize.
Mize, 41, is locally adored thanks to his sweetass t-shirts (“Gay Pride Cat Gonna Lick You & Make You Gay”), but was not in attendance since he has plans to catch her in San Francisco. His design, however, was there in the form of a “Penny, Charlene, Cleo, Justice” shirt (modeled after his “Paris London Tokyo St. Pete” design), which was thrown on stage to Jackson. The shirt refers to characters she's played in television and film, and by the looks of this Instagram post by Ryan Prado, she was genuinely tickeled to receive the gift. Prado, pals with Mize, flew from New York City to attend Jackson’s Tampa and Orlando shows, and asked his friend to print some shirts.
“It’s awesome,” Mize said of the events from last night. “Ryan was front row and threw the tee up to her. Now we have tons of fans wanting the tee.”
You can grab your own here, and check out more of Mize’s wares via society6.com. See the happiness below and more ensue on Instagram.
A photo posted by @ryanpradophoto on Sep 24, 2015 at 9:37pm PDT
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2015.