Sade Portrait T-Shirt (Bootleg Brothers)

The photograph is the entire design: Sade Adu in a black glove, hand to her cheek, hair pulled straight back, shot in black and white against nothing at all, her signature beside it. The back is her name in letters the length of a forearm. Born Helen Folasade Adu in Ibadan in 1959, in England from the age of four, she took a three-year fashion design course at Saint Martin's and worked as a designer and part-time model before the band came together in London in 1982 — which is the fact that explains the picture. Diamond Life (1984) went four-times platinum in Britain and took the 1985 Brit Award for Best British Album; Promise went to number one on both sides of the Atlantic. She has given very few interviews in forty years, so the photographs did the talking, and that is exactly what the portrait tee needs: one great image, enlarged, name on the back, nothing else. The neck tag here reads BOOTLEG BROTHERS, which is at least candid.

Vintage Sade Adu portrait t-shirt with black and white photograph. Features elegant pose with gloved hand and "Sade Adu" signature. BOOTLEG BROTHERS tag.

Sourcing
We source these shirts from thrift stores, estate sales, and directly from bootleg and overprint collectors.