T-Shirt - A Versatile Piece of Clothing

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 notion of wearing underwear took off only in the early twentieth century when in 1901 the P.H. Hanes Knitting Company started the manufacture of men's underwear and the t-shirt came into existence only as an piece of underclothing stuffed away under a layer or layers of other dresses. But it was the Navy that really hastened its evolution when a piece of collarless, short sleeved dress with the silhouette of a "T" was issued to its sailors as standard equipment during World War I.

It was also the WWI that brought it out into the open when footage of news of the war showed the soldiers clad only in this piece of cloth, to overcome the hot and humid European type of weather. But as always its popularity was really established by Hollywood when it depicted it as a piece of clothing on its own rights. By the 1950s, the popularity of the t-shirt had skyrocketed when it was worn on the silver screen by Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) and then by James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955). As more and more icons of the film industry began sporting it as a dress on its own rights the image of the t-shirt grew in stature.

From then on its development was extraordinary. It had to be worn. There was no discrimination between the sexes nor was it restricted to a certain age. It was considered to be cool - literally and figuratively. It became a national phenomenon and when it became a political tool for propaganda it reached its heyday. For a fact, the Smithsonian Institute boasts ownership of the oldest printed t-shirt on record, a shirt used during the then Governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey's 1948 presidential campaign with the phrase "Dew-IT with Dewey" 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.

Throughout its history this informal dress has been used for promoting various causes. At first it carried just simple messages. Political messages, health messages etc. The Vietnam War saw them carrying protests. Plastisol, a more resilient and stretchable ink was invented in 1950 and it became a more versatile medium of just about any type of written or graphical communication.

This simple and inexpensive apparel became a means of displaying opinions, jokes, one-liners, graphic messages and the like. Anything and everything printable would have at one time or another been printed on it. Further developments in printing technology only helped in increasing its overall reputation. Now that the Internet is here, customizing a t-shirt to suit one idiosyncrasies is just a matter of mouse and keyboard use.

Now this humble piece of clothing has invaded cyberspace and you can get it customized with just about anything you want. There is a saying that every piece of clothing says something about the wearer, but none say as much this one does. The T-Shirt is a great product.

Article Source: http://www.myaddirectory.com

Kathy Austin is a writer for an online gallery, Red Bubble. Red Bubble sells high-quality t-shirts, funny t-shirts , framed prints, mounted prints and more.

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