The T shirt Thread

[House md]

…and I‘ve ordered this uber-cool Pherrows Tee from Cultizm today:

 

[crownzip]

One of my favorite t-shirts is an old Papa Nui design. 

[LazyS]

 

[cultpop 0217]

"Ma Bell, got the ill communications 
 Ma Bell, got the ill communications
 Ma Bell, got the ill communications"

-The Beastie Boys 

Been after one of these for a minute.

 Scarce but not terribly rare MA BELL strike tee, 1971

In July of 1971 workers at Southern Bell (a part of AT&T) went on strike and countless t shirts, pins, flyers, patches etc were made in various designs. This would continue well into the 90s as workers kept pushing back against massive technological change. 

There would be later strikes (notably in 1983) so this tee could be a from a little more recent history but the single stitch sleeves and hem as well as the simple paper tag seem to confirm the early 70s. 

Just a reminder: fuck monopolistic greedy corporations and support your fellow worker.  Class warfare is an ugly beast and we need more  class unity. Too many working class folks are cheering for their own destruction these days. 

 

 

[House md]

I just bought a 1950s tee from LVC and I'm a bit confused about whether I like the quality and cut... What surprises me most, though, is that this T-shirt isn't loopwheeled—weren't most T-shirts from that era loopwheeled? Anyway, I got it cheap on sale, so I'm going to keep it (the T-shirt regularly costs €89!!!)

[Double 0 Soul]

A t-shirt can be made on a loopwheel machine.. tubular knit without side seams

It can also be loopwheel material with side seams if they've cut the tube before cutting the pattern.

It can be non loopwheeled material without side seams, made on a tubular knitting machine

It can also be tubular knit with side seams..

[smoothsailor]

It can be a lot of things😀

[Maynard Friedman]

I’ve had lots of LVC t-shirts (all bought heavily discounted), none of them have been loopwheeled and I would have been amazed if any were.

[CSL]

It wasn't so long ago that many cheap, plain white Ts were still circle knit. I recall buying a 3-pack from Brooks Brothers maybe 10 years back.

[rbeck]

Dumb question maybe but is there a discernable difference in the knit pattern of a tubular vs loopwheel tee? 

[julian-wolf]

Most machines, incl. loopwheelers, can do a wide variety of patterns, and there’s a lot of overlap between the patterns folks knit on loopwheelers and on modern knitting machines

It’s akin to the comparison between weaving denim on an old shuttle loom vs. on a modern projectile loom—the feed mechanisms differ significantly, but the fundamentals of how the fabric comes together are the same

[CSL]

And then there's the 'standwheeler'. I don't know how it differs from a loopwheeler machine but the feel of the fabric is very nice. I've just bought a couple of Dubbleworks standwheeler T's and I'm liking them a lot.

[House md]

My question was actually about whether it was an accurate reproduction.

[Maynard Friedman]

Probably not

[beautiful_FrEaK]

23 minutes ago, Maynard Friedman said:

Probably not

would be a new one for LVC anyway  

[bod]

I have a couple of Warehouse x John Gluckow tees, nice texture, love the hang tag

[House md]

13 hours ago, Maynard Friedman said:

Probably not

I did a bit of research, and it seems likely that Levi's purchased fabric for T-shirts in the 1950s rather than producing them themselves. Moreover, these T-shirts were comparatively simple and, in the interest of cost-effective production, weren't loop-wheeled (like T-shirts from Sears or Champion). So probably a good (authentic) reproduction of a simple and lower quality Tee for an outrageous price. I‘ve paid 16€ on a sale- that‘s fair.

[julian-wolf]

1 hour ago, House md said:

it seems likely that Levi's purchased fabric for T-shirts in the 1950s rather than producing them themselves

…Did Levi’s ever produce any fabric themselves for anything?

[mlwdp]

Nonnative Laguna tshirt just came in.

has a picture of a Laguna from the Transit magazine on the back.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:55 PM by mlwdp

[cultpop 0217]

Paging @Dr_Heech

July 12th, 2002, Chicago Illinois.

I had just seen The White Stripes at Cabaret Metro in Chicago and I was high on life and I noticed some young punk out front was wearing a faded two sided vintage Scientifically Treated Petroleum t shirt. 

In 2002 The White Stripes had just began their meteoric rise to super stardom and I had just seen the greatest live rock and roll show of my life. The crowd was buzzing. We all knew we had just witnessed greatness. Seven Nation Army would come out the following year and for a brief time TWS would become the biggest band on the planet. And it would decades before Jack White would return to the Metro. 

Without hesitation I asked him how much he wanted for the t shirt. 

You see years earlier I had become enamored with the STP logo because my grandfather wore a quilted blue winter puffer coat that had some patches on it. Like many folks from his generation he kept everything until it was used and in tatters. This jacket was faded and dirty and I loved it. My grandma HATED it and that just made it more valuable to me. 

The punk kid said $5. I gave him a ten dollar bill. He took it right off his back and walked off. It became a reminder of that great night of music and it helped that STP was a nice abbreviation of STRIPES.

(It also became the night I bounced my drunken best friend from the bar next door which led to him deciding to get sober but that's a different story.)

Fast forward two decades and I found two NOS in mint condition on Velva Sheen tees for sale.  They had lower quality transfers instead of the beautiful discharge print my OG had but the tees themselves were identical so obviously I couldn't pass them up. One has about a half dozen wears and the other is staying fresh for now. 

You can see the difference between the prints below: 

All three shirts together below. 

You can see how much the transfer on the newer shirt has degraded with just two washes.

The OG shirt below. Those pit stains need attention and OXY. 

 

Paper thin

And the newer shirt. All of the tees are printed on 60s/70s era Velva Sheen. 

Back print comparison