Vintage band t-shirts have been a fashion trend for a few years now, and now music artists are pushing their own merchandise harder than ever. Although there are plenty of bands to look out for when shopping for a vintage band t-shirt, there's one group that sells consistently at exuberantly high price points... Nirvana.
 |
| Source: Happy Mag |
 |
| Source: Hypebeast |
- Celebrity Influence: Justin Bieber and his rare Fear of God "Resurrected" Heart-Shaped Box vintage t-shirt
- The "Death Effect": posthumous increase in demand
- Kurt Cobain's Art: more than just a logo
Celebrity Influence
On November 22nd, 2015, Justin Bieber was seen wearing the Nirvana Heart-Shaped Box vintage t-shirt at the American Music Awards. Now this was already a rare vintage t-shirt, however, this was actually apart of Jerry Lorenzo's "Resurrected T-Shirt Project" for Fear of God. The hype around photos of Bieber on this night made many question if he actually even listened to Nirvana. Nonetheless, Bieber's influence garnered more demand for this specific vintage band t-shirt, increasing its popularity and price.
 |
| Source: Fashionista |
The "Death Effect"
The phenomenon goes as such: someone of significance dies, and the products associated with them go up in demand and price. Ever since Kurt Cobain passed away in 1994, his fans have created a higher demand for Nirvana merchandise, particularly true vintage Nirvana merchandise. This does not include the reprinted Nirvana t-shirts that you might see at Hot Topic.
Kurt Cobain's Art
One difference between vintage band t-shirts and modern band t-shirts seems to be that the former took a more graphic approach to merchandise. Many bands would collaborate with actual artists for their graphics, a practice that isn't as prevalent in today's music industry. Metallica was known for working with the artist Pushead and Megadeth was known for working with the artist Ed Repka.
Now what sets Nirvana's merchandise apart from many bands is that Kurt Cobain was a multi-faceted artist who actually created unique graphics for his group. When Incesticide released in 1992, the cover art for the album was a painting done by Cobain himself. Original prints of this album art on t-shirts go for upwards of $400.
That concludes my basic outline of the road to Nirvana's merchandise hype, if you are interested in authenticating more band t-shirts, check out my article with the link below:
Now what sets Nirvana's merchandise apart from many bands is that Kurt Cobain was a multi-faceted artist who actually created unique graphics for his group. When Incesticide released in 1992, the cover art for the album was a painting done by Cobain himself. Original prints of this album art on t-shirts go for upwards of $400.
 |
| Source: Rolling Stone |
That concludes my basic outline of the road to Nirvana's merchandise hype, if you are interested in authenticating more band t-shirts, check out my article with the link below:
Comments
Post a Comment