Something old ...
Vintage rock 'n' roll T-shirt collectors' scavenging pays off in a big way

By Wendy Navratil
Chicago Tribune

(KRT) CHICAGO—They don’t really call him “The Seeker”—to borrow a line from The Who—but he has been searching low and high.

With far less struggle, Jason Labrosse trafficked in vintage rock T-shirts before vintage rock T-shirts were cool.

Not so cool that prices had reached $250 for a peeling 1981 Rolling Stones concert tour T, anyway. And not so hot that Labrosse’s suppliers—leaky warehouses, rural flea markets—had nearly run dry.

“Everybody wants them now,” said Labrosse, who co-owns the store Land of the Lost in Chicago with Dan and Heather Cain. “We go out almost every morning looking for them; we have our secret places. They’re getting really hard to find.”

Of course, their work is rewarded more richly now. On this day, a scout from Los Angeles walked in and nearly cleaned out Land of the Lost’s supply of Michael Jackson T’s, which she intended to resell at her store in L.A.
Their broader popularity is a branch of the “statement-T” trend. It’s also about nostalgia, comfort and elaborate graphics.

Most aficionados are on a quest for “the perfect fade,” Labrosse said, typically on a tissue-thin poly/cotton blend, which is one indication of vintage authenticity. (Sometimes, copyright dates also are in fine print near the corner of the shirt’s design.)

Online, at one recent check, eBay had 350 T’s for sale from bands such as Bon Jovi, Journey and Black Sabbath, from $1 to $60. The San Diego-based Vintage Vantage website at www.vintagevantage.com offered a 1978 Stones Oakland concert shirt, which says “Happy birthday Mick!” on the back—for $7,800.

“I’m negotiating to buy an original Beatles shirt from ’64,” Vintage Vantage emperor John Keddie said. “You have to be careful about old Beatles shirts, though, because many of the ones circulating are fakes.”
Hot authentic ones now are Guns ’N Roses, AC/DC, Quiet Riot, the Cars, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith and Peter Frampton, Labrosse said, as well as the more obscure Iggy Pop and MC5.

(Disciples of that early-’70s Detroit band flamed Jennifer Aniston for wearing an MC5 shirt on “Friends.” It was a reproduction from Levi’s, which has a license to the logo, and MC5 fans doubted she was one of them.)

But repro-retros have their fans at stores like Urban Outfitters and Hot Topic. T-Shirt Deli, in Chicago has decals that can be ironed on.

T-shirts from a California company called Trunk Ltd., featuring Tom Petty, Yes and others, have flown out of the Chicago store Active Endeavors. At one check, the store had sold out of all but a few Kiss ones in long sleeves—even at $92. In short sleeves a single Beatles one remained ($80).

They recur on the covers of magazines. Meg Ryan wore a Trunk T, featuring Motley Crue, in the March issue of Jane.

“They’re very comfortable; I think that has more to do with [the popularity] than anything,” said Active Endeavors sales associate Paul Eggers. “People like to layer them.”

But when it’s the real thing, there’s nothing quite like it for Labrosse.

“I was at a flea market and met a guy who took me to this huge warehouse,” he said. “There was literally rain falling on the boxes from the leaky roof. I noticed a box in the corner and it said ‘rock shirts.’ He punched a hole in the cardboard and started pulling out Kiss, Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, Rush. I was just like, I won the lottery right there.

“They’re gone now. All sold out.”