REAL Vintage Tees

admin    T-Shirt Articles     pre-owned tees, retro, retro t-shirts, vintage t-shirts

‘Scuse the uppercase but I just wanted to make sure you got the message loud and clear. This quickie post is only for the eyes of true t-shirt fanatics. If your money is burning a hole in your pocket and you lay awake at night wondering how on earth you’ll find another t-shirt exactly like the Simpsons tee you had as a kid in the 80s (only in a larger size), or if you’re desperate to get another original 1981 Pac Man t-shirt after your dog ate the last one, then listen up!

VintagePimps.com has been selling vintage t-shirts since 2004 and enjoy every second of it, if anyone is in love with retro chic and cornball nostalgia, across the board mind you, it has to be these guys. They sell their finds at Ebay and remember these aren’t reprints, in fact they may be the last of their kind in the world, so you’re going to have to pay through the nose for a slice of T-history. Here’s one of theirs I’ve picked out…

Vintage Prince T-Shirt (1982)

Totally mad original Prince tee, way before he became ‘symbol’, you know, back when he knocked out stompers like 1999 and When Doves Cry. This ultra rare, and take it from me almost all of them for sale at Vintage Pimps are, excellent condition Prince ’1999′ Tour t-shirt will set you back a massive $200 and only in a small size!!! Yes for Prince fanatics and potential stalkers only. Okay maybe not, but he is open to offers, not sure how much anyone can knock him down, but I bet that in the next few years this one will end up at a retro/vintage store in a trendy quarter of a city somewhere with a price tag at double that amount.

I thought whilst I was roaming around Ebay land I’d check out what else was on offer there and realised it wasn’t so easy to find genuine originals. You have to watch out, the word ‘style’ is a big giveaway, it means it’s a reprint, some might be fakes too, if they include a photo of the tag and it looks genuine or you know your t-shirt history you might even snap up a few vintage bargains without the seller even realising what they had! For mere mortals you will most likely come a cropper from time to time, so many merchandise t-shirts have been reprinted time after time, still if it’s obscure you’re probably safer.

Still I did find another major Ebay seller who specialises in genuine vintage tees, their feedback is superb and they try wherever possible to include all the info they can on each shirt including photographing labels and any defects. Labels give you a big clue, it doesn’t take long to realise if a t-shirt printers was even established a few decades ago, let alone if they had a license to print at the time of the original license. Sounds tricky but if you do your research you could make a tidy packet from selling on used tees just like Black Rebel Vintage.

Vintage ‘The Runaways’/Joan Jett ‘School Days’ European Tour T-Shirt (1977)

This seems to be the real deal, especially when you look at tag and the price, which is a record-breaking $1,499! Yes it’s rare but I can’t ever imagine paying that much for a tee, and I have a horrible feeling that someone probably dropped it off in a local charity store without even knowing the value. The fact is there are people willing to pay this much, imagine what an original official 1950′s Elvis T-shirt in mint condition would for? Probably enough to buy a new car at the very least.

Vintage Harley Davidson/Evel Knievel Tee

Supposedly 30 years old, it looks new because it’s ‘deadstock’ as in stored in a box or crate for decades without being sold to the public. It’s an incredible $999, again a mad mad price, but obviously it’s real slice of  Americana. Who knows, you might see one like this crop up at your local thrift store one day. You know what to do if it does ;)

If you’re thinking of retailing genuine vintage tees through your own store or site you might want to check out the British fashion sourcing company The Vintage Clothing Company. They sell real vintage tees by the pound (as in weight) to vintage fashion shops around the world. They grade them by quality and rarity, essentially nothing new gets through. Well worth a think if you’re tempted to set up shop.

But as always when it comes to real vintage bargains, the first place to check out is TeeCycle.org – they donate $1 from every sale to charity and even if their tees aren’t as rare they’re cool and affordable!

Vintage Beastie Boys Tee (Ladies)

Original Beastie Boys tee for women in a large size for just $15 + $3 shipping here!

Here are a few more worthy mentions:

Thriftstore Cowboy

Ghetto Vintage

Stormcrow Vintage

But to be honest you’re better off popping down your local boot fair, thift store, charity shop, flea market, you name it, if it’s cheap and local the effort of finding a rare vintage tee is worth it!

Rooster King at Bad As Hell Clothing

admin    T-Shirt News     bad as hell, badashellclothing, burlesque, pin-up girls, retro, rooster king, t-shirt contest

Here’s the latest at BadAsHellClothing.com – one of my fave crowd sourcing (voter-based like Threadless) t-shirt sites out there. They always seem to produce incredibly unique and striking tees, and as you’re already thinking, yes the entrant quality is high! Still if you fancy submitting a design yourself I’ll tell you about their latest contest in a moment! I’ve given this site a couple of feature posts already so you know you’re on to a good thing, I especially like their latest winning design, very funky, very weird, just the way I wear them :D read more

Vintage Vantage Have The Advantage

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     classic designs, funny tees, retro, retro tees, vintage t-shirts, vintage vantage, vintagevantage.com

Now, I don’t normally ‘do’ funny t-shirt sites, there are plenty of them out there and for the main part they all clone Busted Tees style, quality, format, and even jokes to a tee, well no they don’t, because if they did they’d be as successful if not more. But VintageVantage.com have a distinct advantage over many of their competitors in the humorous t-shirt field, not only are their jokes genuinely funny, they actually create stylish shirts you’d be proud to wear, well proud if you’re a cynical nostalgic like me at least. read more

Alive and Kicking (and Jet Lagged)…

admin    T-Shirt News     Spunky.co.uk, T-Shirt Reviews, art, blah, conduit.com, humor, rant, retro, spreadshirt, t-shirt toolbar, teefeeds.com

Hey all you lovely t-shirt people, I am in shock, I’ve just got back from a week in Marrakech (yes we had a lovely time thanks) and the first thing I did after a quick cuppa (you know how us Brits like our tea) is switch on the old Macbook and look at my inbox which is heaving. It’s wonderful to be so missed, so appreciated, I’d never realised till now exactly how many people have cottoned on to my obscure little blog, it’s not the grandest of designs, or the greatest of concepts, but I enjoy it, and from what I’ve read it seems many of you out there feel the same. So, firstly thanks, thanks, and more thanks. Don’t worry, I haven’t had another funny turn if you’ve been left hanging out there in the world of t-shirts. Chris and I needed a little break away from the miserable weather here in the UK and Marrakech was the closest, sunniest hotspot we could afford, besides it gave us both a chance to practice our haggling skills, and our School French or what remains of it, hardly Franglais these days, but still funny how much you remember when you’re thrown in the deep end.

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Kowtow Bows To No One!

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     NZ, New Zealand, T-Shirts, Velvet Underground, art shirts, artists, bow, eco, grunge, hell, kowtow, purgatory, retro, tees, underground design

Kowtow are shaking New Zealand’s fashion scene to its foundations. I never thought I’d put the words fashion and New Zealand together, but there’s always a first for everything! My partner Christina spent a good few years of her childhood over there when her father tried to seek his fortune as a landscape architect. It didn’t work out, mainly due to the abundance of other Brits who’d had the same idea at the same time, but what Chris bring back was the memory of a drab and rather conservative fashion sense which she spent her teenage years ripping apart as a goth, a hippy, a raver and so on and so on.

Luckily the current generation of NZ fashion addicts can rest easy, Kowtow.com has it all under control. They tick so many my style boxes, that it’s hard to fault anything about these guys. For a start their designs mix the absurdist theatrics and wordplay of the Surrealists with a highly acute sense of style, something reminiscent of both American underground comics of the 60′s and the early British punk movement of the 70′s. Stylish and funny, gritty and colourful, it’s been fun roaming their collection, there should be something there for all of you to enjoy. read more

Robit – Built by Humans – Powered by Spirits

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Death, US government, cold war, illustration, irony, nostalgia, political t-shirts, political tees, retro, robot t-shirt, robots, terror, vector

T-shirts of a tortured soul? Perhaps not quite, but going on the biography Steve Orlando of Robit Studios is not a happy man, I quote “What is a Robit? A mechanical man with an void in his middle. it’s like a robot only simpler. This particular Robit was created by a four year old. It’s fuelled by distilled spirits.”

I’d venture to say there’s a bitter-sweet theme that runs through all of Steve’s works, a quality I find both reassuringly honest and revealing, especially when put in the context of his fine collection of unique and pithy t-shirt designs. All of his tees are fair trade, 100% cotton American Apparel, hand-printed and highly original for the most part, so it’s well worth taking a gander the next time you’re passing.

Steve’s outlook on life may be on the dour side, but he still has a great sense of humour, I really think he should be British, we’re all like that over here, except the Scottish who are just dour, (I jest, we’re all miserable bleeders over here, especially since we haven’t had a Summer this year (or not one that you’d notice). Talking of the weather… read more

Lost in the world of Fast Joe

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     ATHF, FastJoe.com, SpongeBob SquarePants, T-Shirts, adult swim, cartoons, fast joe, funny t shirts, retro, retro tees, robot chicken, sci-fi, toons, weird tees

Fast Joe (a.k.a Carlos Arenas) of FastJoe.com requested a review recently, and to be honest I am still utterly confused, really, I think he should do the review because I’m damned if I know what to say. The thing is when you arrive at his site, the design, the strange background story (which seems utterly incomplete to me) and the t-shirts themselves (which almost feel like an afterthought), leave me feeling disorientated and perhaps even a little more out of touch and older than my years. Am I going senile here?

If I was Carlos I’d begin by creating an animated series, ‘something for the kids’, a tangible product to hang his ideas on. I don’t like ‘anonymous art’, and I haven’t an avenue to enter his strange, retro, and pseudo-sci-fi influenced universe as promised from the word go. I saw the video, which is strange (to say the least). I loved it, but it didn’t tell me much, and afterwards it felt like a rather brief and frustrating teaser, I was hoping for some kind of explanation to what the hell is going on over there. read more

Ice Cream, The Recession and The Rising Masses

admin    T-Shirt News     Adobe Illustrator, Glastonbury Festival, Icecream, IcecreamTshirts.com, Portuguese, Soviet Graphics, T-Shirt Votes, Vote, WW2, Win T-Shirt Prizes, fuel crisis, oil crisis, recession, retro, t-shirt competition, t-shirt contest, vectors

I was busy building up my database of my t-shirts on the Buy Tees blog, (yes a little bit shameless self-promotion can go a long way), when I received an email mentioning a new Threadless Clone, amusingly named IcecreamTshirts.com. I’ll be reviewing as many lesser-known Threadless.com style t-shirt voter sites shortly, I’ve built quite a substantial list so far and am more than open to other suggestions. In the meantime, perhaps it was their cute and friendly site design, or their laid-back approach to selling t-shirts, or the fact that this is the first dual language t-shirt voter site I’ve come across, whatever the reason, I couldn’t resist designing and submitting my latest work in to their capable hands (I hope they’ve washed them first, I wouldn’t want my shirt to get all sticky!).

For the few t-shirts submitted there (a major draw for any designer competing at the likes of read more

Option-G and Cole Gerst – T-Shirts to Perfect Life’s Imperfections.

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     DADA, Duchamp, Hollywood, Jasper Johns, LA designer, LaLa Land, MySpace, Surrealism, T-Shirts, Warhol, YouTube, music posters, outsider art, retro, urban

Option-G Apparel is an extension of the design firm Option-G based in Los Angeles and headed by artist extraordinaire Cole Gerst. You may have heard of him already, or seen one of his many designs on posters, paintings or prints. He has been particularly successful in the music world, where you’ll most likely recognize his works. Gerst even produces his own monthly comic strip in the LA Weekly called “LaLa Land” which features his two dogs roaming the streets of Hollywood.

Gerst has a prestigious arts background with a string of successful art shows behind him, having shown his work across had shows all over the USA as well as a retrospective show in Glasgow, Scotland of his rock posters. The t-shirt line was started as a mere sideline, simply another medium to explore his unique view of the world, and experiment with different ideas, whilst having fun with his audience. The instant feedback provided by t-shirt fans helps many creative minds in their quest to hone their skills and find perfection in their art. Option-G’s started selling to the public 4 years and since expanded into a variety of products, even wallpaper would you believe? Cole has a truly unique style, I’d describe him as the Jasper Johns of the T-Shirt World, take this design as a clear example:-

Ghetto Signage

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Epidemic T-Shirt by Linty Tees

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Eric Terry, art shirts, epidemic, illustrations, linty tees, retro

I love doodles, I’m not a great doodler myself, I suppose I like to refine the image and boil it down to its bare necessities, to be honest I don’t boil as much as I should with my iconography, but I do with the succinctness of the idea. It seems that the more t-shirts I find, the more I feel I have my own unique style and approach to t-shirt artwork. Most of my designs have some form of message or play on words, a simple subtext if you like, it is probably a habit I picked up at art college, but I’m glad I did. read more