Category: Movies

You’ve probably heard the claim by now: MGM handed out “Wizard of Oz” promotional T-shirts at the 1939 premiere. It’s a delightful image: moviegoers in Hollywood walking out of the theater in matching tees, long before the T-shirt conquered the world. There’s just one problem. There’s no evidence that it happened. And the most critical piece of evidence doesn’t exist. No documented surviving example of a 1939 premiere giveaway shirt has surfaced. “But it was 86 years ago, and there were probably only 500 made!” Given the cultural impact of Oz, how groundbreaking the film was at the time, how ... Read more

Tim Burtons blockbuster hit “Batman” turns 35 years old this month so we are celebrating by taking a look at the highest selling vintage Batman tees over the last 3 years on eBay! Some ground rules before we get into the list: I don’t personally authenticate these t-shirts, nor does Defunkd. I do my best to confirm the transaction is real, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t shill bid or returned. If a sale looks too fishy, I leave it off the list. These are eBay sales only since we have tools to verify the sale price. Private sales ... Read more

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

E.T The Extraterrestrial was a surprise sensation and adjusted for inflation still ranks as the 7th highest grossing film all-time. Allegedly set in northern California, the movie heavily features clothing from several popular pacific northwest clothing brands like Nike and The North Face. Since the movie doesn’t feature as many T-shirts as previous entries we’ll cover a variety of vintage clothing genres including the most expensive hoodie I’ve ever seen. 1. Greg’s Vintage Mystery Space T-Shirt Starting out with a stumper here. We searched high and low and couldn’t find an ID for this one. it doesn’t appear to be ... 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