What is a faux-vintage graphic tee?

A faux-vintage graphic tee is a brand-new shirt manufactured to look decades old. The process typically combines a heavyweight cotton body with deliberate fading across the torso and intentional distressing at high-wear points like the collar and cuffs. Evangelion:95's FW26 run is a clear example: 6.5oz 100% cotton with the wear specified as part of the design rather than treated as a defect. The aim is a garment that reads as an artefact from a specific year — in this case 1995 — instead of a generically washed shirt.

How can you tell good pre-distressing from cheap pre-distressing?

Check four things. First, weight: convincing aged cotton is usually 6oz or heavier, because thin fabric reads as cheap rather than old. Second, placement: real wear concentrates at collars, cuffs, hems and shoulder seams, not randomly across the chest. Third, gradient: genuine fading moves gradually across a panel instead of sitting as one flat pale wash. Fourth, print consistency — the ink should show cracking or thinning that matches the age of the fabric around it. A perfectly crisp graphic on heavily aged cotton is the most common tell.

What is in the Evangelion:95 Fall/Winter 2026 collection?

The first FW26 drop, reported on August 7, 2026, consists of five graphic T-shirts, each built around one piece of Neon Genesis Evangelion imagery. The lineup draws on End of Evangelion, the Episode 9 battle, the Mass Production Evas, and the sleeve artwork from Yoko Takahashi's "Soul's Refrain" single. Every shirt uses the same 6.5oz heavyweight 100% cotton construction with built-in body fading and distressed collars and cuffs, which is what ties the five designs together as a collection.

How should you wash a pre-faded graphic tee?

Wash cold and inside out, and air-dry whenever practical. Heat is what accelerates both ink cracking and collar failure, and a pre-distressed shirt has already spent part of its structural budget before you bought it. Turning it inside out protects the print surface from abrasion against the drum. Expect the fade to keep developing regardless — that is consistent with the design intent rather than a sign of damage, provided the base cotton is heavyweight enough to carry it.

Evangelion:95 Pre-Faded Its New Tees to 1995