Life, Love, Shirts Zine

Orhun Oner, also known by his Instagram tag @life.love.shirts has finally gotten around to publishing and releasing his first zine of the same name. A prolific collector and curator of hardcore shirts from the 80's until now, Orhun has a huge collection of rare shirts which is likely to have at least one thing everyone will nerd out on.

It features a huge selection of shirts, from early Bad Brains and Minor Threat shirts to late 90's New Age Records designs. Littered throughout are some neat stories from fellow collectors, band members and label owners. This book truly captures the pure, do-it-yourself attitude of hardcore itself, and any self respecting merch collector owes it to themselves to add it to their collection.

So why is it that merchandise is such a valued part of the hardcore scene? Personally, I think a big portion of it is to do with the value that is placed in the scene of expressing your individuality and your own taste, and shirts are an excellent way to do this. You can tell people exactly what your taste is, and take one look at an other person and think 'Hey, that guy's wearing a shirt of my favourite band, I'll go talk to him!' It almost serves as a sort of non-verbal communication between hardcore kids. Although hardcore in general is a pretty non-materialistic philosophy, merch definitely has a big role to play.


The book is available now through Orhun's own Bigcartel site if you live in the EU, or through both Revelation records and the Droid Rage online store if you're across the pond. Keep a look out for the 2nd issue coming soon and in the meantime check out his instagram if you want to drool over some incredible shirts from through the ages.