Know Everything About The History of the T-Shirt
The history of
the T-shirt is replete with origin myths. In one sense, T-shirts --
lightweight undergarments designed to be worn in hot or extremely
temperate conditions -- have been around for thousands of years.
Archaeological evidence suggests that laborers in ancient Egypt wore
a kind of “T-shirt,” and anthropologists and clothing
historians can point to many similar garments throughout history.
Last Century
The modern
incarnation of the T-shirt originated sometime between the late-19th
and mid-20th century. Some Anglophiles remain convinced that the
English were the first to design the T-shirt in around 1880. In any
case, by the turn of the century, many clothiers in Europe had picked
up on the trend.
United States
citizens first became aware of the existence of “light cotton
undergarments” during World War I, after American soldiers saw
their European counterparts wearing them. Members of the US Navy at
that time were required to wear heavy wool uniforms, which were
incredibly uncomfortable during the hot European summers.
The US
Navy’s claim that it introduced the first T-shirt to America in
1913 is not unchallenged. Many believe that a man named Howard Jones
engineered the first “true T-Shirt,” an absorbent athletic
garment designed for athletes on the University of Southern
California football squad.
The moviegoing
public was stunned in 1934 when Clark Gable appeared in the Oscar
winning film, It Happened One Night, wearing his slacks with just a
T-shirt. With Claudette Colbert in the same motel room, albeit behind
a flimsy hanging-sheet “wall,” it was too much for some
moralizers, who quickly instituted censorship via a movie rating “commission.”
In World War
II, the T-shirt soared to new heights of popularity. Somewhat
ironically, photos of American soldiers doing labor in T-shirts
glamorized the garments. Shortly after the war ended, in 1948,
presidential challenger Thomas Dewey used a massive T-shirt campaign
to advocate for his candidacy. Four years later, general Dwight D.
Eisenhower also employed a T-shirt campaign (“I like Ike!”)
to generate interest. Around this time, American icons like James
Dean, John Wayne and Marlon Brando “shockingly” wore
T-shirts both in public and in their TV and film appearances. These
cultural moments paved the way for a broad new popular appreciation
of the T-shirt.
Modern History
In the 1960s
and 1970s, the counterculture movement claimed the T-shirt as a
symbol of its rebellion. So-called “tie dyed” T-shirts
became the rage; screen printing and other home design techniques
also empowered people to tailor their own T-Shirt messages.
Professional designers expanded the form as well, offering
alternative cuts and styles, such as the scoop neck, tank
top, and V-neck.
By the 1980s,
the T-shirt had solidified its place as a defining garment of a
generation. Counterculture figures galore embraced the T-shirt and
made it a staple of the American wardrobe. Rock bands, political
activists, and other iconic figures of the Vietnam and Woodstock
generation all helped cement the T-shirt’s
cultural position in the pantheon of native dress.
In the 1990s,
the T-shirt evolved further as a social phenomenon. So-called
“joke T-shirts” became prominent. Many such shirts included
bawdy jokes, lewd plays on words, and the like. At the same time,
top-tier designers were reinventing the form as a luxury garment.
By the turn of
the 21st century, designers like Diesel and Versace were selling
ultra high-end T-shirts for hundreds of dollars. What’s more,
during the first decade of the 21st century, we have seen an
increasing trend towards proliferation of independent labels. Thus,
the T-shirt marketplace has become more variegated than ever.
Traditional T-shirt manufacturers, like Jockey, Heinz, and Calvin
Klein, continue to produce millions of standard undergarments every
year. Simultaneously, medium and high-end designers evolve their own
takes on the concept of t-shirt.
Where did the
actual word “T-shirt” come from? The answer to this riddle
is a matter of debate. Conventional wisdom suggests that the name
comes from the shape of the shirt on the body. However, some believe
that “T” in “T-shirt” comes from the last
syllable of the word “amputee.” The idea behind this theory
is that T-shirts
with short sleeves resemble the bodies of amputees. Finally, some
believe that the “T” is short for “training.”
Given the military origins of the garment, there is some at least
anecdotal support for this idea.
Future of the T-shirt
How the
T-shirt concept will evolve in the future is anyone’s guess. One
trend which many marketers point to is America’s increasing
desire for “mass customization.” Society demands more and
more mass-produced commodities -- like T-shirts -- but our
increasingly individualistic culture simultaneously urges us towards
customization. Thus, suggest many designers, the T-shirts of the
future may be mass-produced yet made to order. We’ll continue to
see the full range of T-shirts
currently on the market, but we will also see an increasing number of
both professionally customized and clever, “home branded” garments. |
