The conception and birth of the t-shirt was a normal occurrence. Nothing complicated. It might have passed off into the history of fashion without a walk down any of the world’s long ramps had not some subsequent events taken place. But its evolution, though short like is arm is quite an interesting one. For it started on its journey to fame as a humble underwear.
The T-Shirt began its existence as a humble piece of clothing hidden under another layer of clothing or sometimes under layers of clothing that men wore. It spent its life hidden away, soaked in his sweat, either because of his toils or because of the climate or just because of some metabolic quirk that he had. Some times he sweated for some primeval reason.
It was brought out into the open when footage of news of the World War I showed these soldiers dressed only in this piece of cloth. They had shed their uniforms to overcome the warm and humid climate of Europe. But it wasn’t till the 1950s that the popularity of the t-shirt was established, by another theatre, when Marlon Brando in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) and by James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955) were seen wearing these shirts as something other than as an underwear. The t-shirt’s day was made. This innocuous piece of clothing shot into the limelight as more and more icons of the film industry began sporting it as a dress on its own rights.
There was no stopping it. Its subsequent progress was rapid and astonishing. People just had to wear it. Taking the nation by storm it became a national happening. Age was not a constraint. Neither was sex. Men, women, infants, teenagers and senior citizens sported it. It was considered to be cool - literally and figuratively and you were not “in” if you didn’t wear one, and when it became a tool for political propaganda it reached its peak exposure. It is not surprising that the Smithsonian Institute boasts ownership of the oldest printed t-shirt on record, a shirt by the then Governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey’ during his 1948 Presidential campaign. It had the phrase “Dew-IT with Dewey” emblazoned on it.
This casual dress was initially used for getting across a variety of simple messages, political, health etc. The Vietnam conflict saw it surfacing as a medium of protest. A more robust and elastic printing ink called Plastisol was discovered in 1950 and this invention saw more imaginative and creative communication being effected through the medium of the t-shirt.
Everything under the sun - Jokes, one-liners, graphic messages; just name it and they all would have at one time or another appeared on the simple, low-priced piece of dress shaped like a “T”. The development of printing technology boosted its popularity and it became more and more graphical.
Jokes, one-liners, graphically symbolic messages, you name it and they all appeared on the simple, inexpensive piece of dress shaped like a “T”. As printing technology developed it became more and more graphical. Mass production techniques just edged it on the more.
The advent of the Internet brought customization into the realms of the design of these t-shirts. Anyone can design and wear a unique t-shirt of his own, according to his fancy. There is a saying that says that clothes make a man, but none say as much this one does. The t-shirt is a wonderful product.
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