Band t-shirts - Can they be worn with style?

[DiplomaticTies]

Music has always been extremely important to me. Therefore hundreds of band t-shirts have passed through my life. Most of them are gone (never occured to me when I was young that they could become valuable). Some I still have and on rare occasions I may even buy a new one. I have t-shirts that are vintage, new, originals, replicas, cheap, expensive. All kinds really.

Band shirts mainly exist as a sign. By wearing them you signal what kind of music you like, which concerts you've been to, maybe even what kind or person you are (or want/pretend to be). It's tribal rather than stylish and today, sadly, extremely commercialised since plenty of down market chains sell replicas of supposedly "cool" artists. For many people Rolling Stones are better known as a logo than a band.

But here on SF the most relevant question should be: can a band t-shirt be worn with style?

I post below a few of my attempts. Let's see yours. All contributions are welcome, doesn't matter if it's CM or SW&D.

 

[DiplomaticTies]

Northern soul (not really a band shirt but anyway...), Talking Heads and Talulah Gosh.

 

[An Acute Style]

Paging @induere_to. Sounds right up your alley. I have one band t-shirt from college. I never wear it.

 

[induere_to]

Paging @induere_to. Sounds right up your alley. I have one band t-shirt from college. I never wear it.

Actually thought I didn’t have any examples of it thrown into a CM category look but I found these:

This is the suit as is alone, pictured below. In high school I destroyed all my jeans and jackets putting studs and patches on everything I owned and initially made this suit to push buttons:

I do, however, wear band shirts a lot in my daily life when I’m not in a suit, but something tells me this thread is a little more reserved for CM influenced looks? Otherwise:

 

[DiplomaticTies]

Actually thought I didn’t have any examples of it thrown into a CM category look but I found these:

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This is the suit as is alone, pictured below. In high school I destroyed all my jeans and jackets putting studs and patches on everything I owned and initially made this suit to push buttons:

View attachment 1652450

I do, however, wear band shirts a lot in my daily life when I’m not in a suit, but something tells me this thread is a little more reserved for CM influenced looks? Otherwise:

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All contributions are welcome, doesn't matter if it's CM or SW&D.

Btw, nice to see a Swedish band represented. Have actually seen Dissection live. They opened for Darkthrone if I remember correctly. Of course there was a lot of controversy surrounding Dissection, but that's another story...

 

[induere_to]

All contributions are welcome, doesn't matter if it's CM or SW&D.

Btw, nice to see a Swedish band represented. Have actually seen Dissection live. They opened for Darkthrone if I remember correctly. Of course there was a lot of controversy surrounding Dissection, but that's another story...

So, here's the fun backstory to those Dissection shirts: I spent about four years of my life surviving homelessness. One of those four years was couch-surfing throughout mid-California. I'd sleep anywhere I was offered a place to stay via Craigslist ads... but, those are stories of their own. One of the guys I stayed with, ended up trying to help me out as much as he could. He had health issues and allowed me to stay with him as long as I'd be willing to drive him into Merced, CA for his doctor's appointments every week. He was a tech guy and received residual income due to some patents he had under his name. At one point in his life he owned a skate shop and hung around a ton of metal head friends; he tried his hand at owning a skateboard company at some point also. Going through a closet once I found some of his old decks in a box with piles of Dissection merch.

Guy turned out be a dirtbag and I ran away and moved in to some roach-infested apartment in NYC where I was nearly hospitalized on several occasions from severe cat allergy induced asthma attacks. Anyways, soon after, going through my stuff I realized I had accidentally kept two of those Dissection shirts... Whoops. I will admit, I tried listening to them a couple times and never thought too much of them. I had a brief metal phase in High School and Dissection had never come up at the time, it was more bands like Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir and Black Dahlia Murder. Now, I pretty much only receive my dosage of Death Metal only when I visit my tattoo artist.

Unrelated: I was hoping to get the opportunity to travel to Stockholm because I have a sister that lives there, and I've built relationships with several people over social media now. If I had known a pandemic was around the corner, I would have come a lot sooner. Soon, though!

 

[Cause Moe]

 

[EFV]

I have a few band shirts, but I only wear them for working out nowadays. E.G.

 

[Clouseau]

Music has always been extremely important to me. Therefore hundreds of band t-shirts have passed through my life. Most of them are gone (never occured to me when I was young that they could become valuable). Some I still have and on rare occasions I may even buy a new one. I have t-shirts that are vintage, new, originals, replicas, cheap, expensive. All kinds really.

That’s quite an idea, at first I thought it was for a Friday Challenge, think about it, that might encourage me and others to dig in our cellars.
Didn’t wear any since the late 70s early 80s, I kept a few, most are pretty faded.

 

[Superb0bo]

@DiplomaticTies nice thread. And are those some Le Laboureur pants in the first picture?

I own a handful of black/death band tees that I use for working out. Could imagine throwing one on for casual wear as well, but rarely do.

 

[DiplomaticTies]

So, here's the fun backstory to those Dissection shirts: I spent about four years of my life surviving homelessness. One of those four years was couch-surfing throughout mid-California. I'd sleep anywhere I was offered a place to stay via Craigslist ads... but, those are stories of their own. One of the guys I stayed with, ended up trying to help me out as much as he could. He had health issues and allowed me to stay with him as long as I'd be willing to drive him into Merced, CA for his doctor's appointments every week. He was a tech guy and received residual income due to some patents he had under his name. At one point in his life he owned a skate shop and hung around a ton of metal head friends; he tried his hand at owning a skateboard company at some point also. Going through a closet once I found some of his old decks in a box with piles of Dissection merch.

Guy turned out be a dirtbag and I ran away and moved in to some roach-infested apartment in NYC where I was nearly hospitalized on several occasions from severe cat allergy induced asthma attacks. Anyways, soon after, going through my stuff I realized I had accidentally kept two of those Dissection shirts... Whoops. I will admit, I tried listening to them a couple times and never thought too much of them. I had a brief metal phase in High School and Dissection had never come up at the time, it was more bands like Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir and Black Dahlia Murder. Now, I pretty much only receive my dosage of Death Metal only when I visit my tattoo artist.

Unrelated: I was hoping to get the opportunity to travel to Stockholm because I have a sister that lives there, and I've built relationships with several people over social media now. If I had known a pandemic was around the corner, I would have come a lot sooner. Soon, though!

Wow, that’s quite a story. Thanks for sharing. My metal phase was also fairly short. But of course Scandinavia in the 90s was the place to be for Black/Death metal. There is an excellent Norwegian documentary called Helvete (”Hell”) about that scene which manages to cover both the great and the horrifying parts of that story without over sensationalising.

 

[DiplomaticTies]

@DiplomaticTies nice thread. And are those some Le Laboureur pants in the first picture?

I own a handful of black/death band tees that I use for working out. Could imagine throwing one on for casual wear as well, but rarely do.

Well spotted, those are indeed Le Laboreur pants.

 

[ter1413]

Great start to this thread.

 

[GG Allin]

I'm not huge into band t-shirts, but I've always wanted this primal scream one:

 

[induere_to]

Today:

Which, though isn’t technically a band shirt, I’m repping my tattoo artists shop whom designs merch graphics for many death metal bands… so I say it counts.

I feel like this may be the only thread I can post my outfits that would otherwise infuriate people on other threads…