Collecting Tee Shirts
This post was written by Mrs. ChatterboxJuly 28th, 2008
The tee shirt became the canvas upon which the history of popular culture and music was written. The graffiti tee shirt did the talking, with occasional pieces of text that mourned how those underground ideas were ransacked, distributed and undermined by big business. The revolution was put on a T-shirt and turned into a multi-million-dollar business.T-shirts of the past were once souvenirs of moments, events and personalities that seemed culturally significant have become merely souvenirs that are ironic or sincere, tacky or expensive, elitist or vulgar of a shopping trip.
Tee shirts of the past were once a highly prized limited-edition promotional item available to a select few. These are now hunted down by avid collectors as if they might bring back lost youth and crushed optimism. One Jimi Hendrix T-shirt recently sold for $5,000.
That well-worn “Tommy” T-shirt that commemorated The Who’s album and you have stuffed into a box in the back of your cupboard might be worth more than you think.
Some music tee shirts are seen as alien relics from the 20th-century vinyl age, with an allure remotely from their counter-cultural roots. Teenagers now wear T-shirts from the 60s and 70s that led to their freedom, even if it is only the freedom to shop or buy a comfortable cool tee shirt emblazoned with images of glamorous defiance.
They might not have lived through the fantastic birth of rock ‘n roll but, like most tourists, they bought the T-shirt.
Now wearing an aggressively controversial tee shirt is just an impassive and knowing act of nostalgic cultural obedience as ever before.
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Tags: cool tee shirts, graffiti tee shirts, Music tee shirts