t shirts

T-shirts



From undershirts worn by soldiers in WW1, to the first printed t-shirt in 1948, “Dew it with Dewy” (nothing to do with Mountain Dew or sex) to $200 part silver designer (http://www.onthefly.com/category_brand.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302027449) undershirts, the humble garment has penetrated every strata of culture in the last 100 years. Cool, comfy, sexy, cheap and malleable, t-shirts tell stories about their wearers, even without slogans. And now they have moving light up versions, http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yd99gyE4jCk, the precursor to having a video running full time on someone’s chest in a couple of months.

Probably the first and last garment you will wear – tiny versions for newborns, and large soft ones for old achy bodies – t-shirts are your basic item of clothing. My favorite is my John Lennon in NYC, tattered, faded, four sizes too big black one that saw me through by big weight loss. It brings smiles and thumbs up from passersby, since I live in a liberal neighborhood, but might endanger my life in other ‘hoods. Some people believe he was the downfall of America and will not be talked out of it. When I wear my Lesley College t-shirt, everyone knows I am on the creative, feminist side. But usually I try not to talk to people on the street with my shirt, even though I love to see what everyone else wants to say to me – who to vote for, what music they like, and whether or not they want to date me.
For a while, in the beginning of t-shirt wearing, there was a cultural war going on between political groups. First the left started using t-shirts to stop the war or declare they could make their own clothes with tie-dye. In response the right started wearing ferocious little alligators on their shirts to show they supported Nixon and golfing. The lefties responded with in your face insults to the right, such as Make Love Not War, and the right began buying expensive designers t’s to show they supported capitalism. But eventually when designers started copying street fashion, no one could tell the difference anymore.

That’s where the designers saw an in to get their cuts, and not let Fruit of the Loom have it all. Color, shape, fabric – savvy shopping addicts can tell at a glance if you are wearing Lauren, DKNY, or Versace, even without logos. Poor K-Mart shoppers did not even realize they were exposing their indigence when they set out in their so-last-year yellow scoop necks, while in-the-know lilac cap sleeve wearers scoffed at them behind their backs. One half inch below or above the waist cuts reveled volumes about the wearers lives – car driven, house description, even job status.

Hard choices in buying t-shirts include: 100% cotton? Comfortable but they shrink. Baggy or tight? Depends on the goal. And of course: what message or image. Obscure French words or ancient writers’ faces indicate intelligence, rock band city tour lists show authenticity, and misspelled sentences indicate beer drinker. Everyone is going to be staring at your chest instead of your face, so it’s a good choice for not so beautiful people to have long paragraphs. Swear words are not allowed in schools; so wearing such shirts might make others think you are a drop out if you look young.
A very popular t-shirt phrase is “My____ went to _____ and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” – a very American sentiment. It conjures up images of the ugly American tourist, the spoiled American child, and the ever-innovative American marketer.

Many t-shirts end up on destitute third world bodies, with the wearer completely unaware of the meaning of the message or nuance of cut, but glad to have something to cover his or her body. People have to throw or give away t-shirts on a regular basis, so I guess some end up on jet planes for Unicef, or maybe Nike just sends over new ones to try for product placement on the CBS Evening news. It does look odd to see a malnutrition baby wearing a Phat Farm t, or an Ecuadorian peasant in a Gap logo, but does pretty well describe the state of our world.

In any case, t-shirts hold our world together in more ways than they divide it, since its one of the few things everyone on earth has in common. May they find a way to connect our hearts before we get buried in them.