Category: Shirts

Suicide Machines – Just Do It.

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

The Clothing From The Lost Boys Is Worth Sinking Your Teeth Into

If sexy teen vampire films are a genre, then The Lost Boys might be the grandfather of all of them. Joel Schumacher combined 80s surf culture, sexy vampires, Jim Morrison, and a fictitious costal town based on Santa Cruz to create an 80s classic. Enlisting the help of Wardrobe director Susan Becker they made iconic looks for the central vampires and created an 80s Neverland-like costal town full of skateboards and tight spandex. Susan had this to say about the film: “My view of this film and story from the very start was that these kids were like homeless kids… ... Read more

The Most Expensive Vintage Sade Tees Sold on eBay

Welcome to a deep-dive into the last 3 years of confirmed sales on eBay for the top ten highest-selling Sade designs.  Several entries would have made multiple appearances, so these are the designs with the highest sales. Not all the magic happens on eBay. In fact, many of these t-shirts are sold privately, so we’re going to do our best to update this list with notable sales that we’ve done our best to confirm. If you have confirmed sales and some photos, please contact us to have your t-shirt added to this list! Some ground rules before we get into ... Read more

The Ultimate Guide to Vintage T-Shirt Books

I’ve been on a mission for at least a decade to document all the vintage t-shirt books in the galaxy. When I first started my mission, a handful of books were published in the 2000s, but once the first wave of the vintage t-shirt gold rush was over, things went dark. So, I started to dig into the earliest t-shirt books I could find, which now all have vintage content by default. The oldest one I could find was from 1974, then 1978, and one from 1988, so we’re gonna go back, way back. However, vintage t-shirt books have picked ... Read more

Defunkd Turns 20!

We are now the definition of vintage. It’s hard to believe – time has flown by. It all started in early 2004 when I witnessed the first wave of online vintage t-shirt sales erupting on eBay and thought, “That looks easy enough!” (Spoiler: It wasn’t) First, I conjured up the name and registered the domain. My pal Colm built the website, while another friend created a nifty Flash intro. I miss Flash. https://www.defunkd.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/defunkdhistoryflash1.mp4 Meanwhile, I stockpiled inventory I thrifted, which I then photographed on actual models. Ok, they weren’t actual models, just friends that I pleaded with to stand against a ... Read more