Monday, November 9, 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.




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