2023, Gatherings, Uncategorized, work

Band Shirts

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In an effort at team building and increased camaraderie, our new clinical director declared last Friday Band Shirt Day. Many of my coworkers wore band shirts, including a very middle aged addiction counselor who proudly showed off her Def Leppard shirt. There were lots of country music shirts, along with shirts worn by my younger colleagues sporting bands I had never heard of. All I had was a Handbell Musicians of America shirt, so I wore that.

It used to be that we could only wear jeans to work on Fridays if we paid a dollar. The proceeds went to fund the social committee and our annual Christmas party at the local Knights of Columbus Hall. We haven’t had a boozy blowout like that in almost 10 years after our party loving Regional Director retired. Now we just have a noon potluck in the big staff room in early December.

There isn’t much of a dress code at my agency now, which I think is a good thing. I dress in corduroy pants and sweaters most of the time. I like to be comfortable. I only dress up when I have to testify in court. We don’t have to pay to wear jeans anymore, either. We have more important things to be concerned about these days.

What kind of dress codes were there at your places of work? What band shirt or shirt with a picture or slogan do you like the most?

32 thoughts on “Band Shirts”

  1. I’ve never worked anywhere with an explicit dress code. I don’t remember that ever having been an issue.

    I’ve never owned a shirt that referenced a band and I don’t wear clothing with pictures or mottoes on them unless you count the yokes on my cowboy shirts.

    I have a couple of emblazoned t-shirts in a drawer. One is from some seaside restaurant called “Crabby Bills”. My daughters gave me that one.

    At my last employer we had a tradition of designing a new t-shirt each year for the summer picnic. I think I still have one with a faux college seal on it that says “School of Hard Knocks”. It’s about 30 years old and I may have worn it once, at the picnic.

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  2. The last place I worked that had a dress code was the Army. I finished a regular hitch in 1972, but went back for a couple years of reserve duty later on. I haven’t had to put on an Army uniform since I left the reserves early in 1979.

    The only remotely “band shirt” I own is from a church recorder-group that I was in from about 2013 to when I retired in 2018…in Taiwan. It even has a neckerchief! On the rare occasions that I don it now, it is as an undershirt.

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  3. My company’s dress code evolution is remarkably similar to yours, Renee. For the longest time no jeans ever no tennis shoes no sweatshirts no T-shirts. Then colored denim was ok as long as that color wasn’t blue. Then we got jeans/T-shirts on Fridays with a $1 fee that went to charity. There are also quite a few “wear a sports team t-shirt” if you wanted to wear jeans. I had to actually go buy a sports T-shirt — in those days, I would do anything to wear blue jeans. Then we move to pretty much casual all the time. Then the final stage of evolution was Summer of Love, which is every May through August, in which there is no dress code whatsoever; the owner of the company said as long as you can’t get arrested for wearing it, go for it.

    I prefer my current dress code which is sweatpants every day

    Not one single band t-shirt.

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  5. Back when we were all in the office, we could buy a pass to wear sports jerseys on Fridays during football season. Since I do not follow the sportsball, wore a Quidditch jersey (Ravenclaw, naturally).

    The last band shirt I owned was the Tannahill Weavers, which I got years ago when they played the Cedar. If I was buying a shirt now it’d probably be for Wardruna or Heilung or another of the neopagan Scandinavian bands. Wardruna has one with Hugin and Munin on their website that is tempting me right now…

    –Crow Girl

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    The closest thing I have to any “band shirt” would be public radio shirts. I have an old, probably qualifying as antique, “Prairie Home Companion” shirt, and a Morning Show shirt from the last performance celebration. Dress Codes: I have been working for myself or a good friend for the last 20 years. Dress codes went out the window and I wore jeans or whatever else I wanted. I was careful to maintain a professional appearance most days. But that was the only guideline.

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  7. I have tote boxes full of Rock Bend t-shirts. I have at least one for each year for 32 years. There are some years that I have multiple t-shirts, especially when I was on the committee. These were labeled “Bend Head” to signify a committee member or “Gravel Roadie” to signify a volunteer. They are collectible in my social circle and I can’t part with them.

    I also have John Prine t-shirts. I had a purple, ‘90s-era MPR t-shirt. I might still have it stashed somewhere. I wore it so much it was getting really thin. (And too small.)

    At DNR, the dress code was office casual with jeans allowed on Friday. I think that has relaxed a lot. At the group home we wore street clothes, as long as they were clean and had no tears or holes. Shorts had to be a decent length and couldn’t be cut-offs with fringe. I started wearing yoga pants and t-shirts or sweatshirts most of the time. It was more flexible and comfortable and I wasn’t afraid to get them dirty.

    I guess I’m allowed to post and like things again. I don’t know why the WP gods didn’t like me yesterday. I didn’t change a thing this morning. I just opened WP to exactly where I was yesterday, refreshed the page, and everything was copacetic.

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  8. Morning-
    I had a pretty good number of band T-shirts. the one I miss the most is the Maynard Ferguson T-shirt.
    Working as a stagehand, about 50% of the time, bands would give out T-shirts at the end of the night. Many times it had some reference on it to the tour or backstage crew, so they were a little bit special. They weren’t just the left overs from the previous tour. 🙂
    Many of the country bands gave out T-shirts, and as I wasn’t a country music fan, I wore them as undershirts in the barn. I had a Bob Dylan crew shirt from about my last job as a stagehand but even that was 15 years ago.
    I don’t typically wear them in public, because I need my pockets. But once the sleeves are cut off they’re good comfort wear around home.

    I have T-shirts printed for the theater at the college and I give them out at the end of the year. “Strike” is what it’s called when we take the set down after the show. The T-shirts have “STRIKE FORCE” printed on them.

    I’m lucky I don’t really have a dress code. I always laugh that I am dressing for the job I want.
    There used to be some admin at the college who really didn’t like my sleeveless shirts. And I don’t go sleeveless to meetings or if there’s an event in the theater. And while no one actually called me out on it (except one maintenance guy who gave me some older Maintenance shirts. I used them as paint shirts) I would hear rumors from my dean that the sleeveless look wasn’t appreciated. But none of those people are here anymore and I still am… so there.

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  10. At the beginning of my nursing career (nearly 50 years ago – ugh!) we were required to wear a white dress, white pantyhose (white pants and top for men) and white nursing shoes. Thank goodness nursing caps were not required. Eventually we could wear a white pantsuit. From there we moved to white pants with colorful tops. I transferred to the NICU where white cotton scrub dresses were provided (and uncomfortable). Following that, we got blue synthetic fiber scrub dresses – still needed white pantyhose. Finally we were provided with surgical scrubs (pants and tops) in green first and blue later. The blue scrubs are still being worn. We got away from “nursing” shoes many years ago and many nurses switched to tennies or Dansko clogs.

    I never had a band shirt though I might have worn a Beatles one back in the day.

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  13. dylan t shirts are my musical t shirts
    i guess i also have musicals like lion king from over the years
    at the dylan concert earlier this month daughter emma popped for the 60’s eta dylan tshirt with him in in sunglasses and she loves it

    my dress code days from business dress recall target going casual friday t years ago when no suit was required
    one guy called me out for wearing a suit on friday and i said “do you think target is my only call today?”
    most people flew in for target presentations mi had them every week
    i smile at recollections from when leisure suits and platform hells were the style mid 70’s
    i’m feeling old

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        1. The son of the Danish crown prince (yeah, I know!) just turned 18. It was celebrated in Royal fashion with all kinds official ceremonies, including waving from the balcony of Amalienborg Castle to adoring Danes who had shown up for the noon appearance of the royals.

          That evening there was a fancy dinner at Christiansborg Castle to which a lot of “contemporaries” of the prince from all over the kingdom had been invited. Also present, of course, were the whole royal family and other nobility.

          I had to laugh this morning when I saw a photo of a lone, stiletto heeled golden shoe on the news as having been found on the grounds of Christiansborg Castle following the dinner. I swear I didn’t make this up.

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  15. I have a lot of T-shirts from volunteer gigs over the years. Also a several public radio T-shirts. My favorite is one for Afropop Worldwide. I beaded some earrings to go with it because I liked the colors a lot.

    I also have a T-shirt from WOJB, the Lac Courte Oreilles radio station. It’s a long sleeved T, good for chilly weather.

    One of my oldest T-shirts is one my sister brought home and gave tome after a trip to the Baltimore area. It’s from a very old and famous pub, The Horse You Came In On Saloon.

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