Historical Artistic Styles.

1. Egyptian
Most of Egyptian artworks were symbolic and often found from tombs and monuments; consequently, those artworks would convey the story about the death life and gods. The characteristic of Egyptian dress is a white gown, which is decorated by ornamented shoulder strap. The white gown is made from a lone piece of linen, and drape and wrap by a waistband. Typically, people used stones, faience, which is the first ceramic material was invented, and gold to decorate their shoulder strap.

According to the unique and elegant style of Egyptian dress, John Galliano has inspiration to design his Autumn-Winter 2009. He chose sheer fabric to emphasis feminine look and made bias cut dresses, which have richly embroideries and embellishments to add elegance look.Egyptian artwork

John Galliano Autumn-Winter 2009 Collection

2. Greek
As we have known that Greek has reputation about architecture, art and sculpture throughout the ages. Many artists, such as Michael Angelo, inspired by Greek art and sculpture. Most arts and sculptures are made from various materials, such as stone, marble, and limestone. Additionally, most artworks were conveyed about Gods, heroes, and cultures.
During Greek-Roman period, there are two main garments, which are a peplo or chiton, and a cloak. A peplo or chiton is a large rectangle fabric, which is wrapped around a body and fastened on a shoulder by a pin or brooch and has floor length only for women. A cloak, is made from heavy fabric, such as wool, is slanting draped over a shoulder or symmetric both shoulders.
Bottega Veneta Autumn-Winter 2009 collection has been inspired by Greek goddess gown. The designer used a soft fabric in neutral color tone to made pleat long dresses. Additionally, the designer spun the fabric over shoulders and waist in order to fasten fabric.

Greek Sculpture

Bottega Veneta Autumn-Winter 2009 collection

3. Byzantine
Most of art during Byzantine period were mainly created for the Eastern Orthodox churches because of the fell of the Western Empire. As a result, artworks tended to look somber and dark color tone. One dimension and flat figure on mosaic artworks were preferred, which effected to any garments. People preferred fully ornamented garments.
Givenchy Autumn-Winter 2009 collection was inspired by this period. The designer decorated his designed clothing with golden, jewelry and stones, and chose luxury fabrics in basic color tone as black and white in order to support the ornaments.

Byzantine Artwork

Givenchy Autumn-Winter 2009 collection

4. Renaissance
Renaissance arts focus on perspective and human beauty; consequently, most Renaissance artworks look realistic. The dominate of clothing in this period is extravagant embellished of neckline. Christian Dior Spring-Summer 2006 Couture collection was inspired by Renaissance era. The designer minimized the lavish embroidery of neckline by creating an highly neckline and use crucifix-festooned to decorate his designed dresses.

Renaissance Painting

Christian Dior Spring-Summer 2006

5. Art Nouveau
La Pyramide Inversee is a pyramid founded in front of the
Musee de Lourve in France. The Lourve pyramid was built in 1993 by a group of architectures, such as Pei, Cobb, Freed, and partners. The structure of this pyramid is mainly consisted of laminated glassess and stainless steals.
Gareth Pugh Spring-Summer Collection 2007 inspired by the structure of pyramid and chose specific fabric to create a solid structure on the garment. The designer also chose vinyl fabric to emphasis the detail of innovative dress.

Gareth Pugh Spring-Summer Collection 2007

La Pyramide Inversee

6. Surrealism Art
Surrealism art is one kind of art that expresses a combination of conscious and unconscious realms. Salvador Dali, a Spanish painter, is a well-known surrealism artist, who can combine realistic and his imagination of unrealistic through his paintings. One of his masterpiece paintings is One second before awakening from a dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate.
Christian Lacroix Spring-Summer Collection 2009, the designer completely matched one practical designed garment with another impractical designed garment. Additionally, the designer chose vivid color palette that show the perfect of color ratio.

One second before awakening from a dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate.



Christian Lacroix Spring-Summer Collection 2009

Genealogy of T-Shirt

A T-shirt, a common and basic garment, is a typically short sleeve, button less, and collarless top garment, which is made by a lightweight fabric. Apparently, the T-shirt was an undergarment because it was worn under other tops garments, such as a shirt or a jacket.

A Simple white T-shirt

The US Navy first created a T-shirt approximately around late 19th century to the early 20th century during the Spanish-American war in 1898. They often wore white cotton T-shirt under their jacket uniform because it is a tropical climate. Consequently, they would like to take off their jackets, but leave their T-shirt, while they were working.



The US. Navy in Spanish-American War


It is named T-shirt because of its shape, which looks like a T alphabet. Because of the durable, easily fit, and inexpensive of a T-shirt, it was popular garments among various industrial workers. Likewise, after Charlie Brown, a cartoon character, who usually wore a T-shirt was published around 1950 and Marlon Brando wore in A Streetcar Named Desire movie, a T-shirt became a common garment for everyone. Ultimately, a T-shirt was worn as an outerwear and came to be a fashionable garment.


Charlie Brown

A Poster of A Streetcar Named Desire


Currently, the status of a T-shirt is not only a fashionable garment, but also a political and social statement. For instance, in 2008, H&M launched the AIDS charity campaign by sale T-shirt, which is printed some statements about preventing AIDS. Some people screen their T-shirt in order to express their notion to support some politician. Additionally, some businesses manufacture their own T-shirt to advertise their products. For example, Singha Beer company, a Thai beer company, makes T-shirts, which is screened the name and logo of Singha Beer and give to their clients and sale representative to promote their products.

H&M AIDS T-shirt Collection 2008

Singha Beer T-shirt




Baby Phat Obama Campaign 2009

Interestingly, styles, patterns and fabrics of manufacturing t-shirt have been dramatically changed and innovated from the past. The length of historical T-shirt covered a top torso, but currently, the length of T-shirt is various and depends on fashion trends. We also could see many styles of T-shirt, such as a tie-dyed T-shirt. Additionally, there are many tops garments that were developed from a T-shirt, such as a tank top and A-shirt.



A Tie Dye T-shirt




Zara T-shirt Collection 2007


As a long journey of a T-shirt that I stated above, we could conclude that a T-shirt would be one of our classic garments for everyone.