Bias on a Budget: Gen X-Inspired Punk T-Shirts

You know, every generation has its ups and downs, its good and bad, but we Gen Xers can’t help but be proud of our punk rock, do-it-yourself attitude.

When a Gen Xer becomes a parent, they get to pass down that know-how—along with an epic music playlist—to their progeny. Of course, it is always a trade-off, and we get to experience some great new sounds from them as well.

It was in middle school when my now grown daughter got into K-Pop, and happily took us all down that path. Mind you, this was when the second generation of K-Pop was a thing, and that included the amazing G-Dragon and his group BigBang. All their music is Fantastic, Baby, but it was this one solo effort that really grabbed me from the beginning:

All those who were teens and college-aged in the ’80s and early ’90s might find some of this look and attitude familiar. Not to mention the T-shirts. We “down-with-the-government” anarchy nihilists sure loved what capitalism offered when it came to buying band merch.

Our generation’s retro or “vintage” look is coming back with a vengeance, and newer generations have the advantage of finding shirts via sites like Zazzle, RedBubble, and countless other design sites with nearly anything on them. How spoiled!

When I wanted the right graphic tee, I had to hunt through racks and racks at old vinyl stores or specialty shops or be lucky enough to attend a concert.

Thanks to the internet, however, if you have access to a good printer, you can pick up a pack of cheap iron-on paper and sort of recreate a homemade version of any iconic graphic tee you want. If you pick up some cloth paint and pens, even better!

For example, I went through my favorite looks from the G-Dragon video and tried to recreate them, with little cost or effort. Here’s what I did.

First, I got a hold of some plain T-shirts. You can find really nice blank tees for a lot cheaper than in retail stores, and ShirtSpace provided me with some really nice Gildan tees that you can get for well under $10.

The Sex Pistols Classic

You can still find shirts featuring the iconic punk band the Sex Pistols, but I wanted that exact design from the video. Even if it was a new shirt then, the video itself is ten years old. BTS were just figuring things out and Stray Kids were still just little dudes of middle or high school age. A lot can happen in a decade.

I found an inexpensive pack of letter-size iron-on paper (make sure you get the ones for white tees) and scoured the online images for a good image of this particular design.

Sometimes, if the person holds still long enough, you can screen grab from the video. Not the case here, so I looked up “Anarchy in the UK Sex Pistols t-shirt,” “Sex Pistol Tees,” and finally “G-Dragon’s Sex Pistols shirt.” Found one via a very high-end consignment store, but the shirt was no longer available. No worries. There was a great image of it I grabbed.

Now, every iron-on brand has directions to follow, so heed these without skipping steps. What I did a little differently was print the image in two sheets. That way it would be quite a bit larger than a little iron on. I also very carefully ripped around the edges of the pages to give them a more shredded look. When I finished, it covered a good amount of space on the t-shirt. The good thing about the punk look is the more you wash it and get it worn-looking, the cooler it is.

The “Big Black Cross” Muscle Tee

I’m not sharing any religion with you here, but big blocky images, whether they are crosses, blocks, tribal icons, the anarchy sign, and later in the ’90s bar codes (go figure), were a thing. If you had a black Sharpie and some attitude, you could go crazy on your jeans, hi-top shoe tips, or book covers with big black blocky icons.

For the G-Dragon shirt, I traded in the felt tip marker for some plain, glossy cloth paint. The thing about big blocky designs is you want the lines to be straight. For the cross, I used painter’s tape and placed it on the shirt to match the video. I very lightly outlined the tape in pencil and pulled off the tape. This is why painter’s tape works best; it comes right off.

Then, I just colored in the cross with black paint. Once dry, I gave it a good second layer, so it fades less in washing.

To make a muscle shirt, I followed the seam of the sleeves and cut them off with good scissors. The second shirt was finished.

Hint: When you are painting any piece of clothing, it will soak through if you don’t place a piece of cardboard inside the shirt. Also, it makes the surface smoother and easier to paint.

The Black Velvet “Smiley Face” Coat

The final t-shirt design was just a simple version of G-Dragon’s cool faux-fur coat. Full disclosure: I did find this coat online at various outlets for about $45. Not too bad, but not in my budget right now. Also, I live in the desert. I don’t get to wear these big coats all the time. T-shirts, however, I can wear nearly year-round.

This is an easy enough idea if you have a good cloth paint pen and like to doodle freehand. I drew an easy outline of the image and then filled it in with the white paint pen and cloth paint.

That would have been fine on its own, but I wanted to go full ’80s with this one and “fringed” the shirttail and sleeves by cutting slits throughout them. You weren’t cool in the ’80s unless you sliced up a least one piece of clothing, after all. Hair band fans likely did this more than punks, but still, it looks cool.

The Gen X punk rock sensibility may have been angsty and angry, but we made it look good. Thank you, G-Dragon, for wearing it so well.

Lisa received blank tees from ShirtSpace for use in this DIY.