'SNL' 1976 Shirt (Cast and Crew Only)

Recreation of a shirt from 1976 as a gift for SNL cast and crew in collaboration with costume designer, Tom Broecker. 

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MORE ABOUT THE SHIRT

SNL’s costume designer for over thirty years, Tom Broecker, tapped us to reproduce his very own SNL grail -- a unique shirt developed as a gift for cast and crew back in 1976.  The back of the shirt was chain-stitched in metallic thread with “Saturday Night” - the show’s working title back then - with the logo drawn freehand by the costume designer. This unique iteration of the logo in its earliest days doesn’t appear elsewhere in the official branding. Best of all, every shirt was customized with cast and crew’s positions embroidered on the shoulder: “Writer,” “Designer,” “Cast” etc. The front was adorned with an array of pins for branded skits.
 
Tom supplied Tombolo with every image he could of the shirts, and we worked with him to reproduce the shirt for the cast and crew of the 2024 / 2025 season. We did our best to do the original justice, down to the most minute detail, but chose to update the material into a slinky, chalky fabric that feels at once swanky and playful.

Unfortunately, this shirt is not for sale. It was created exclusively for internal use, just like the 1976 original.

DETAILS 

A faithful recreation of the shirts made for cast and crew in the second season of Saturday Night Live.
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Two-hole shell buttons dyed to match in teal

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Patch chest pockets. The wearer is invited to adorn them with an assortment of pins featuring iconography of classic SNL skits.

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Pick-stitching on collar and pocket flaps. 

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Custom SNL x Tombolo interior label.

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Chain-stitched “Saturday Night" in metallic thread on back.
 

MORE ABOUT THE COLLABORATION

Wind back the clocks to 11:29pm ET on October 11th of 1975 in Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Center. Listen closely and hear the nervous swallowing and heart palpitations of the first ever cast and crew – many in their twenties – waiting backstage in the moments leading up to the first ever live broadcast of Saturday Night Live. It’s now been 50 years since that first, fateful season changed television forever. We’re honored to play a part in celebrating an institution that brims with creativity and laughs. 

We developed this capsule in close collaboration with Tom Broecker, SNL’s costume designer for over thirty years.  Along the way, Tom’s creativity and enthusiasm propelled us. He helped us dig deep into the archives and tap into the aesthetic of the earliest decades of the show. As Tom explained to us, he rarely indulges nostalgia because SNL is, at its core, about pushing the envelope and never stopping moving. He made an exception for the 50th anniversary - a milestone that warrants some reflection. Even so, the mandate from Tom was clear - reference the old, but give it a new twist.  

The four-piece capsule centers around a rare iteration of the logo that was drawn freehand by the costume designer in 1976. We hope you enjoy exploring a capsule that pays homage to a show that has brought so many laughs to our beloved hometown of New York City and far beyond for five decades. You can read more about the process in our blog post.