Kurt Cobain’s old Foxes T-shirt is being sold at auction by Hole drummer Patty Schemel. Find all the details below.
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The late icon wore the tee during a Nirvana shoot with photographer Anton Corbijn in 1993. An image from that session is currently being used as the band’s avatar and banner on Spotify.
Cobain ended up gifting the T-shirt to Schemel, who has put it up for sale via Julien’s Auctions. The item was estimated to fetch between $4,000 and $6,000 (£2,962 and £4,443), but the current bid is already at $8,000 (£5,925).
A description notes that Cobain and Schemel were both fans of the 1980 coming-of-age drama Foxes, starring Jodie Foster, and “loved watching the film together”.
The sale includes a signed letter of authenticity from Schemel, which reads: “Seattle, WA. Summer, 1993… I went to Kurt and Courtney [Love‘s] house to pick up Courtney for Hole rehearsals. I went upstairs and sat on the bed while Courtney got ready to leave.
“Kurt came in and grabbed a shirt from a pile of clothes. He said, ‘You should have this’. It was a blue promo T-shirt from the 1980 movie Foxes. We shared an interest in 1970’s and 1980’s teen angst cult movies. Kurt had the soundtrack. I loved Jodie Foster who starred in it.”
She concluded: “I’ve kept the shirt over the years. It’s a very special piece.” The letter is dated May 1, 2026.
The listing shows the following measurements for the tee: 16″ chest, 18″ hip, 24.5 length.
“A T-shirt owned and worn by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, gifted to Patty Schemel in the early 1990s,” the description reads. “Cobain and Schemel were close friends, and Schemel was a huge fan of films which she would often encourage Cobain to watch, such as the 1980 film Foxes starring Jodi Foster who Schemel was a huge fan of.
“The friends were also big fans of fun and obscure thrifted T-shirts, and frequently shopped together at thrift stores away from the city, sharing their finds with each other.”
It continues: “At an early 1990s photoshoot a stylist had several shirts for Cobain to wear. He chose the Foxes shirt because he and Schemel loved watching the film together. He asked if he could keep the shirt after the photo shoot and gifted it to Schemel soon after.
“Patty Schemel was the drummer for the legendary rock band Hole from 1992 to 1998, and was one of the first lesbian rock musicians to come out officially in Rolling Stone magazine in 1995. Her deep friendship with Cobain is a central part of her 2017 memoir Hit So Hard.”
Last December, the guitar Cobain used in Nirvana’s legendary MTV Unplugged performance was donated to the London Royal College Of Music. The instrument had been put under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions in 2020 for $6million (£4.4million) – making it the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction.
Nirvana, 1993. Anton Corbijn. pic.twitter.com/sbOtpp9JCV
— hold.btc (@BoredWeb3) June 12, 2021
A packet of American Spirit cigarettes owned by the late frontman went to auction in 2023. That same year, a smashed guitar he once played sold for $600,000 (£480,000).
In 2025, some of his hair went to auction, after six strands of Cobain’s hair were previously auctioned for £10,005. The guitar Cobain played in the video for Nirvana‘s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ sold at auction for £3.5million in 2022.
In February, police in Seattle responded to a report about the death of Cobain, which claimed that he may have been murdered.
Meanwhile, last month saw Hole’s Melissa Auf der Maur speak to NME about the possibility of a reunion from the band. This came after she sparked fresh speculation of a return by sharing a mysterious video online.
Love later clarified that there would be “no Hole reunion”, but did reveal that she and Auf der Maur would be “playing some shows, new songs” together.
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