Celebrities Are Rocking Vintage Travel Merch—Here Are Some of Our Favorites

Joe Alwyn is the latest celebrity to bust out a hard-to-find travel tee

By

Published on 05/22/22

Fact checked by

When flipping through GQ's recent profile on British actor Joe Alwyn, I noticed a detail that stopped me right in my tracks: the editorial spread included a glam shot of Alwyn rocking a vintage Carnival Cruise Line t-shirt. My eyes zeroed in on the old-school Carnival logo with the text on top reading, "People Love Us." The shirt was discontinued in the '80s—and as soon as it appeared on Alwyn, any remaining pieces available on the internet immediately sold out.

The shirt reminded me of Princess Di's famous Virgin Atlantic sweatshirt, possibly one of her most famous looks—which says a lot about a woman widely regarded as a fashion icon. The sweatshirt, which she supposedly wore to the gym every day, has garnered such demand in recent years that massive quantities of replicas have been created, with the original auctioned off for a cool $50,000 in 2019.

So what is it about celebrities and vintage travel merch? The trend doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. With summer just around the corner, we thought it was the perfect time to pick out a few vintage travel tees to recreate these great looks. Here's what we found.

Alwyn's Carnival Cruise Line tee isn't the only vintage Carnival tee out there. This '80s style tee features the slogan the "Fun Ship," in reference to what the cruise line nicknames its fleet of ships.

If Delta is your carrier of choice, this bright '80s baseball tee is the perfect way to show your pride.

Royal Caribbean vintage tee — Courtesy of Etsy

This fun '80s Royal Caribbean tee would be perfect to rock at the gym. In true '80s fashion, its dancing stick figure even references the popular style of legendary street artist Keith Haring.

The beloved Trans World Airlines (TWA) may have shut down in 2001, but that won't stop true travel geeks from rocking this chic tee in homage to one of America's most classic carriers.

True Amtrak fans will impress with this 1993 tee celebrating the original Texas Eagle, which offered service from St. Louis to San Antonio, El Paso, and Galveston, Texas. That route shut down in 1971 but was revived again as today's Texas Eagle, which runs between Chicago and San Antonio.

Who says all the cool vintage has to be from the '80s and early '90s? For those of us who remember the threat of Y2K, this late '90s Crystal Cruises tee is sure to feel otherworldly.