Category: Popular Culture

If memory serves correct, the first concert I went to without parental supervision was a Suicide Machines show at the Metro in Chicago in 1997. Some friends and I took the Green Line from Harlem/Lake in Oak Park down to the Loop, transferred to the Red Line, rode it up to the Addison stop, walked past Wrigley Field, and found ourselves at the doors of adolescence. Thirteen years old with a pack of Newports that a homeless fellow purchased for me, a long chain wallet hanging off a pair of gaberdine slacks, and my brother’s brown Chuck Taylors, I was ... Read more

This 1982 teen film adaption of the Cameron Crowe book by the same name was an instant Gen X classic. It provided a snapshot, even if a bit embellished, of teen life in the early 80s. While most analyses’ of the movie focus on many iconic scenes, we are going to look at it from a different lens: the T-shirt game. The 80s were a coming of age for the graphic tee. Wardrobe director Marylin Vance sought to closely depict what the youth of the day were wearing in southern California in the early 80s.  Director Amy Heckerling said this ... Read more

In 2015. Han, Leia, and Luke all came back. The box office boomed. Two of those beloved characters were killed off and one of them passed away in real life. Fans and critics raved and complained. And of course, original Star Wars memorabilia got more expensive than ever. A mint Luke Skywalker action figure sold for $20k on eBay. Leia’s “slave dress” from ROTJ sold for $80k. That’s chump change considering a miniature from the original film went for $375k. Then the dust settled after the final trilogy came to an end. At that time there was one genre of ... Read more

Food for the vintage popular culture vulture. Shirt #1: Malcolm Garrett Availability: Search Defunkd’s Pop Culture Selection Year: 1980 Fact: Malcolm Garrett is a highly influential British graphic designer best known for the iconic images he created for bands. His first important music gig was for The Buzzcocks in the late 1970s and went on to do work for Duran Duran, Simple Minds, Peter Gabriel and many others. Approximate Value: $470

Here’s a gem from 1943 that was recently sold by vintage clothing merchant torray. It was acquired from the widow of a WWII veteran who resided in the bay area of California. The art was hand drawn by a friend of her husband’s who made it to celebrate deployment. Home made t-shirts were quite common back then, the t-shirt was quickly becoming a new medium for messages and people were percolating with social commentary (and couldn’t wait 60 years to wait until Threadless was born). Get a load of the 1940s Hanes logo which almost inspired the title of this post to be ... Read more