From Silver Screen to Screen Printed
Walk into any Target or Urban Outfitters and you’ll see rows of graphic t-shirts. You know the ones. Brand spanking new, printed to look old. (The kids call it “vintage” and “distressed”.) From Nintendo 64 to Star Wars you’ll find enough of your favorite memories to outfit your entire IT department.
Finding your tribe is the hot topic of our street culture episode. That same “tribe” psychology makes us want to wear retro cool movie tees. Especially the insidest of inside gags – replicas of shirts worn in our favorite movies. Who wouldn’t want to share John “Bluto” Blutarksy’s seven-year love of “College”? Sure, anybody can recognize the title Animal House from the 1978 hit movie, but only honorary fellow Deltas get it.
That’s just one movie example of a plausible prop that transcends the film and makes the wearer – and his tribe – part of the story. The list goes on.
Wearing graphics found in movies makes us part of the show. We recall the movie watching experience. We embody that character. We love showing that we’ve got a joke hiding here in plain sight. People who don’t get it struggle to figure out why one feels so strongly about voting for Pedro. Who’s that, you ask? Those who know, know.
To clarify, we’re not talking quotes from movies. That’s your business if “the dude abides” or you’re compelled to share your frustrations with strangers that “Smalls” is killing you. Nope. Give us the replicas that deliver the appearance of being the insiderest of cool – at least to others like us. The reason we love these scenes within scenes involving movie graphics is because movies don’t age. Your kids can experience them the same way today as you did back in the day, adding more joy by passing down the movie experience.
And speaking of joy, if you’re digging on this talk of movies and pop culture, check out our two-part episode on movie logos where we talk about the best known screen-to-shirt meta logo: Ghostbusters. It’s a movie title. It’s a business name. It’s a uniform patch. It’s genius.
We’ve been known to rock a retro tee with an ironic graphic, and damn! We love when a fellow tribe member recognizes, and gets it. We share a laugh at Pizza Planet or tell friends we’ll see them on the links at Bushwood, realizing the joke is on the people who don’t get it.
After all, if you don’t have your tribe, who you gonna call?