Power to the t-shirt a brief history

Named the T-shirt due to the shape of the

garment's outline, It’s hard to imagine life without
the t-shirt. Yet, “t-shirt” didn’t become a word in
the English dictionary until the 1920’s and the style
didn’t enter mainstream fashion until the 1960’s.
T shirts history begins with the industrial revolution in England and the rise
of international trade. Before then people wore clothes hand stitched from
locally sourced materials, and had no predilection for slogan T-shirts or any
design on their clothes. Being alive was the important indicator of health and
to this end clothes were made for warm and life giving properties. Whilst
garments existed that had short sleeves, they bore no resemblance to what
we call a T shirt and so are generally excluded from T-shirts history on the
basis of not having all the qualities now associated with a T-shirt.
During W.W.I, American troops wore wool uniforms during hot summer days
in Europe and noticed European soldiers wearing lightweight cotton
undershirts. This cool apparel caught on fast with the Americans and by
W.W.II, both the Army and the Navy included them in their uniforms.

Up until the 1950’s, t-shirts were still considered underwear, until John
Wayne, Marlon Brando, and James Dean shocked Americans by wearing
their “underwear” on T.V. In 1955, James Dean helped make the T-shirt
a standard item of clothing in Rebel Without a Cause.

Advances in Screenprinting gave people the opportunity to print on T-shirts

in the 1960’s. Tye dying also become popular in addition to other forms of the
t-shirt, such as tank tops and muscle shirts. Beginning in the late 1960s, the
T-shirt became a medium for wearable art. Psychedelic art poster designer
Warren Dayton pioneered several political, protest, and pop-culture art
T-shirts featuring images of Cesar Chavez, political cartoons, and other
cultural icons in an article in the Los Angeles Times magazine in late 1969.
Today, many notable and memorable T-shirts produced in the 1970s have
now become ensconced in pop culture.

In the late sixties and seventies, people began to realize that printing on
t-shirts could be a lucrative business. Rock and Roll bands and professional
athletic teams started to make huge profits selling custom screen printed
t-shirts.

Since then, t-shirts have become a fashion staple of virtually every human
being worldwide. TV personalities have increased the popularity of custom
t-shirts and “message shirts” and celebrities have used them as a way to
communicate with the public. Because they are both convenient and fun, it is
doubtful that the t-shirt will disappear from our culture anytime soon.

You should not have to ask why branded T-shirts have become a standard
form of marketing for major consumer products such as Coca-Cola, Its
simple because your can’t beat a walking talking advert.

Your t-shirt can become part of this history.

Power to the T-shirt!!!

Call Wild Thang today for all your printed t-shirt
& merchandise requirements

www.wildthang.co.uk 0800 917 9809

331-337 Derby Road Liverpool L20 8LQ Tel: 0151 933 3289 Fax: 0151 922 4865 E-mail: sales@wildthang.co.uk