Monday, June 30, 2014

Vintage 70's Hawaiian Tourist T-Shirt

file under: the 70's my favorite era



rare and hard to find original "Hawaii" tourist t-shirt
year: 1974
tag: "Crazy Shirts"
material: 100% cotton
condition: somewhat thrashed but nice distress
value: $150
*notes: just like if you were to take a typical "tourist" vacation in Hawaii today where you'd find an over abundance of "Tourist" souvenirs...back in the 70's the t-shirt seemed to be the souvenir of choice. Oddly enough it is actually quite difficult to find one that dates this far back that is in what I call "wearable" condition. This one happens to be an XL so despite it's hundreds of runs through the washer and dryer over the last 40 years it remains wearable. As I've mentioned in many previous posts the 100% cotton t-shirts shrank like crazy over the course of 4 decades rendering them mostly show pieces or one for the ladies. The screen printing job is really excellent which seems to be par for the course back then especially with "Crazy Shirts" who were responsible for printing a significant portion of these t-shirts back in the 70's. I love this era! It's probably my favorite because I was a surfer/skater kid growing up reading Surfer and Skateboarder magazine back in 1974. It's a nice  addition to my collection and I was able to pick it up from my favorite dealer a month or so back for only a few bucks which makes the find all the more sweet!



Beautiful 70's screen printing by Crazy Shirts




Not too many 40 year old cool vintage t-shirts floating around these days




Nice, colorful almost psychedelic artwork by Maier in 1974


Gerry Lopez at Pipeline in the 70's. An iconic image synonymous with this era


One fin was enough back in the day


The chosen mode of transportation in the 70's. Still looks good today!