Punk's Not Dead Tee

A punk's not dead tee that still means what it says

A skull rendered in heavy black and white hatching, PUNK'S NOT DEAD cut across the top in rough pink lettering, and a spray of pink dripping down across the bone. The punk's not dead tee takes the oldest slogan in the genre and refuses to treat it as nostalgia.

The phrase came out of a 1981 record by The Exploited and has been argued over ever since, which is the most punk outcome available. It was never a claim about record sales. It was a response to journalists announcing the scene was finished about four years after it started — and forty-odd years later, the fact that it is still being printed on garments made one at a time in small runs is the argument answering itself.

The drawing matches the sentiment. The skull is built from dense crosshatching rather than smooth shading, the way a photocopied fanzine cover would be, and the pink is applied as if it were sprayed over the top afterwards rather than planned. That two-layer look — something printed, something defaced — is the entire visual grammar of punk graphics, and it only works if the base drawing is good enough to survive it.

It comes in white, black, apricot, slate and piggy pink. White is the fanzine reading, closest to a photocopied original. Black flips the hatching into something colder and lets the pink burn. Apricot warms the whole thing toward aged paper, slate keeps it grey, and piggy pink puts the accent colour into the base itself.

The fabric is 240 gsm cotton, and dense hatching is exactly the case that needs it: closely spaced black lines merge into a solid grey mass on a fabric that absorbs too much ink. Oversized cut, dropped shoulder, crew neck. Take your usual size, or size down for a closer fit.

• Type: Oversized graphic tee
• Material: Heavyweight cotton, around 240 gsm
• Print: Back print — hatched skull with sprayed pink, 'PUNK'S NOT DEAD'
• Fit: Oversized, drop shoulder, crew neck, short sleeves
• Sizing: True to size for an oversized look — size down for a closer fit
• Colours: White, black, apricot, slate, piggy pink
• Wear it with: Black trousers, heavy boots