New York Doll Hospital Tee

ORDERS OPEN: 6/26/25
ORDERS CLOSE: 6/30/25
TO PRINT: 7/1/25

PRINTED ON WHITE LAA GD1801 TEES.

ALL ITEMS TAKE BETWEEN 3-6 WEEKS TO PRODUCE AFTER THE ORDER PERIOD ENDS. You will always receive your item unless otherwise contacted. All items are final sale. We are not responsible for lost, stolen, or misplaced packages.

By the late 1960s, guitarist Sylvain Sylvain (born Sylvain Mizrahi and no relation to designer Isaac) and schoolmate and drummer Billy Murcia were testing out their band The Pox. After their singer quit, the two transitioned into fashion and launched the clothing line Truth and Soul—even selling pieces to famed fashion designer Betsey Johnson. At the time, Sylvain also worked at a men’s boutique called A Different Drummer, which was adjacent to the New York Doll Hospital, the toy doll repair shop at 787 Lexington Ave in Manhattan. Founded by the late Irving D. Chais, the doll hospital remained in operation from 1964 through Chais’ death in 2009.

The doll shop would also inspire the name of Sylvain’s future band: the New York Dolls. Dressed like street hustling tarts, raised in their platform heels and painted faces, the New York Dolls invented their own gang-like drag aesthetic around the grittier rock burgeoning within lower Manhattan by the early 1970s—a scene already ravaged by the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, all preceding, and allied, with the punks about to burst just a few years later. 

Officially formed in 1971, the main lineup of the New York Dolls was rounded out by Staten Island-born singer David Johansen, along with guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets—later replaced by Sylvain—bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane and Murcia, who died a year later of an accidental overdose at the age of 21 and was replaced by Jerry Nolan. Predecessors of the mid-’70s punk scene, they called themselves the Dolls at first before Sylvain christened them with their “doll hospital” moniker.

“Once we got started and once we got going, we became the darlings of it all,” said Sylvain of the band’s lady-like style.