T-shirt
A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt, or tee for short) is a style of fabric
They are typically made of cotton textile in a stockinette or jersey knit, which has a distinctively pliable texture compared to shirts made of woven cloth. Some modern versions have a body made from a continuously knitted tube, produced on a circular knitting machine, such that the torso has no side seams. The manufacture of T-shirts has become highly automated and may include cutting fabric with a laser or a water jet.
T-shirts are inexpensive to produce and are often part of fast fashion, leading to outsized sales of T-shirts compared to other attire.[1] For example, two billion T-shirts are sold worldwide per year,[2] and the average person in Sweden buys nine T-shirts a year.[3] Production processes vary but can be environmentally intensive and include the environmental impact caused by their materials, such as cotton, which uses a lot of water and pesticides.[4][2][5]
History
Simple, T-shaped top garments have been a part of human clothing since ancient times; garments similar to the T-shirt worn earlier in history are generally called tunics.
The modern T-shirt evolved from
In 1913, the U.S. Navy first issued them as undergarments.
By the Great Depression, the T-shirt was often the default garment to be worn when doing farm or ranch chores, as well as other times when modesty called for a torso covering but conditions called for lightweight fabrics.[7] Following World War II, it was worn by Navy men as undergarments and slowly became common to see veterans wearing their uniform trousers with their T-shirts as casual clothing. The shirts became even more popular in the 1950s after Marlon Brando wore one in A Streetcar Named Desire, finally achieving status as fashionable, stand-alone, outerwear garments.[8] Often boys wore them while doing chores and playing outside, eventually opening up the idea of wearing them as general-purpose casual clothing.
Printed T-shirts were in limited use by 1942 when an Air Corps Gunnery School T-shirt appeared on the cover of Life magazine.[9] In the 1960s, printed T-shirts gained popularity for self-expression as well as for advertisements, protests, and souvenirs.
Current versions are available in many different designs and fabrics, and styles include crew-neck and V-neck shirts. T-shirts are among the most worn garments of clothing used today. T-shirts are especially popular with branding for companies or merchandise, as they are inexpensive to make and purchase.
Trends
T-shirts were originally worn as undershirts, but are now worn frequently as the only piece of
A T-shirt typically extends to the waist. Variants of the T-shirt, such as the V-neck, have been developed. Hip hop fashion calls for tall-T shirts which may extend down to the knees. A similar item is the T-shirt dress or T-dress, a dress-length T-shirt that can be worn without pants.[11] Long T-shirts are also sometimes worn by women as nightgowns. A 1990s trend in women's clothing involved tight-fitting cropped T-shirt or crop tops short enough to reveal the midriff. Another less popular trend is wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt of a contrasting color over a long-sleeved T-shirt, which is known as layering. T-shirts that are tight to the body are called fitted, tailored or baby doll T-shirts.
With the rise of social media and video sharing sites also came numerous tutorials on DIY T-shirt projects.[12] These videos typically provided instructions on how to modify an old shirt into a new, more fashionable form.
Expressive messages
Since the 1960s, T-shirts have flourished as a form of personal
Designer Katharine Hamnett, in the early 1980s, pioneered outsize T-shirts with large-print slogans. The early first decade of the 21st century saw the renewed popularity of T-shirts with slogans and designs with a strong inclination to the humorous and/or ironic. The trend has only increased later in this decade, embraced by celebrities, such as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and reflected back on them, too ('Team Aniston'). The political and social statements that T-shirts often display have become, since the first decade of the 21st century, one of the reasons that they have so deeply permeated different levels of culture and society. These statements range from completely harmless to statements or quotes that may be found to be offensive, shocking, or pornographic to some. Despite this, or perhaps due to it, companies like T-Shirt Hell (a T-shirt store known for using offensive and shocking messages) and various other organizations have caught on to the statement-making trend (whether offensive, etc or otherwise), including chain and independent stores, websites, schools, clubs, and groups of all kinds, with some even incorporating said trend into their respective business models.
A popular phrase on the front of demonstrating the popularity of T-shirts among tourists is the humorous phrase "I went to _____ and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." Examples include "My parents went to Las Vegas and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." T-shirt exchange is an activity where people trade the T-shirts that they are wearing.
Artists like Bill Beckley, Glen Baldridge and Peter Klashorst use T-shirts in their work. Models such as Victoria Beckham and Gisele Bündchen wore T-shirts through the 2000s. Paris Fashion Week 2014 featured a grunge style T-shirt.[13]
Decoration
In the early 1950s, several companies based in
In the 1960s, the ringer T-shirt appeared and became a staple fashion for youth and rock-n-rollers. Ringer T-shirts are a solid-color shirt with bands of a second color around the collar and the lower edges of the sleeves, with or without an additional front decoration.
The decade also saw the emergence of
Today, many notable and memorable T-shirts produced in the 1970s have become ensconced in pop culture. Examples include the bright yellow happy face T-shirts, The Rolling Stones tops with their "tongue and lips"[16] logo, and Milton Glaser's iconic "I ♥ N Y” design. In the mid-1980s, the white T-shirt became fashionable after the actor Don Johnson wore it with an Armani suit in Miami Vice.[7]
V-Neck
A V-neck T-shirt has a V-shaped neckline, as opposed to the round neckline of the more common crew neck shirt (also called a U-neck). V-necks were introduced so that the neckline of the shirt does not show when worn beneath an outer shirt, as would that of a crew neck shirt.[17][18][19]
Screen printing
The most common form of commercial T-shirt decoration is
In 1959, the invention of plastisol provided an ink more durable and stretchable than water-based ink, allowing much more variety in T-shirt designs. Very few companies continue to use water-based inks on their shirts. The majority of companies that create shirts prefer plastisol due to the ability to print on varying colors without the need for color adjustment at the art level.
Specialty inks trend in and out of fashion and include shimmer, puff, discharge, and chino based[21] inks. A metallic foil can be heat pressed and stamped onto any plastisol ink. When combined with shimmer ink, metallics give a mirror like effect wherever the previously screened plastisol ink was applied. Specialty inks are more expensive to purchase as well as screen and tend to appear on garments in boutiques.
Other methods of decoration used on T-shirts include
In the 1980s,
Tie dye
Tie dye originated in India, Japan, Jamaica, and Africa as early as the sixth century.
Heat transfer vinyl (HTV)
Another form of T-shirt decoration is heat transfer vinyl, also called HTV. HTV is a polyurethane material that allows apparel designers to create unique layered designs using a specialized software program. Once the design is created, it is then cut through the material using a vinyl cutter (or Cut n Press) machine.
There are dozens of different colors available, as well as glitter, reflective, and now even unique patterns (such as mermaid skin) which come in rolls and sheets.
After the design is cut, there is a process called “weeding” whereby the areas of the design that do not represent the design are picked away from the transfer sheet and removed so that the intended design remains. HTV is typically smooth to the touch and does not feel rubbery or stiff. The edges are typically clean cut and produce high contrast.
Designers can also create multiple color designs, or multi-layered designs using HTV. This process would be done in the design software before the design is sent to the cutter for the different materials. A heat press is then used to apply pressure and heat to the vinyl so that the material permanently adheres to the garment. The temperature and pressure vary according to the manufacturers specifications.
Dye-sublimation printing
Dye-sublimation printing is a direct-to-garment digital printing technology using full color artwork to transfer images to polyester and polymer-coated substrate based T-shirts. Dye-sublimation (also commonly referred to as all-over printing) came into widespread use in the 21st century, enabling some designs previously impossible. Printing with unlimited colors using large CMYK printers with special paper and ink is possible, unlike screen printing which requires screens for each color of the design. All-over print T-shirts have solved the problem with color fading and the vibrancy is higher than most standard printing methods but requires synthetic fabrics for the ink to take hold. The key feature of dye-sublimated clothing is that the design is not printed on top of the garment, but permanently dyed into the threads of the shirt, ensuring that it will never fade.
Dye-sublimation is economically viable for small-quantity printing; the unit cost is similar for short or long production runs. Screen printing has higher setup costs, requiring large numbers to be produced to be cost-effective, and the unit cost is higher.
Solid ink
Other methods
Other methods of decorating shirts include using paints, markers, fabric transfer crayons, dyes and spray paint. Some techniques that can be used include sponging,
See also
- Concert T-shirt
- Inkjet transfer
- Kit (association football)
- Polo shirt
- Raglan sleeve
- Wet T-shirt contest
References
- ^ "A Breakdown of the Environmental Impact of a Cotton T-Shirt – Treefy". Archived from the original on 2022-08-17. Retrieved 2021-02-27.
- ^ a b Wallander, Mattias (2012-09-02). "T-Shirt Blues: The Environmental Impact of a T-Shirt". HuffPost. Retrieved 2021-02-27.
- ^ Hurst, Nathan. "What's the Environmental Footprint of a T-Shirt?". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-02-27.
- ^ Hurst, Nathan. "What's the Environmental Footprint of a T-Shirt?". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-02-27.
- ^ "A Breakdown of the Environmental Impact of a Cotton T-Shirt – Treefy". Archived from the original on 2022-08-17. Retrieved 2021-02-27.
- ^ a b "History of the T-shirt". Tee Fetch. Archived from the original on 2019-01-07. Retrieved 2014-04-15.
- ^ a b c Harris, Alice. The White T. HarperCollins, 1996.
- ^ "A Streetcar Named Desire – AMC filmsite". Filmsite.org. 1947-12-03. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
- ^ "Aerial Gunners". Life. Vol. 13, no. 2. Time Inc. 13 Jul 1942. Retrieved 23 June 2022 – via Google Books.
- ^ ISBN 1-56640-454-1
- ISBN 978-1-84788-534-0.
- ^ "31 T-Shirt DIYs That Are Perfect For Summer". Buzzfeed.com. 13 May 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ Pieri, Kerry (2013-10-03). "Street style: Paris fashion week 2014". Archived from the original on 2014-05-30. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
- ^ Monster T-shirt ART, Monster Corporation catalog #3, Mill Valley 1974
- ^ The Most Famous Statement T-shirts Archived 2017-07-02 at the Wayback Machine by SoJones Asmara, September 10, 2009
- ^ File:The Rolling Stones Tongue Logo.png
- ^ "Crew neck". Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
- ^ "Sweaters Go Bulky". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 25 August 1957. p. 2. Retrieved 2 August 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Kirby, Michael B. (Spring 2008). "90th IDPG History of the T-shirt During WW2". 90th Infantry Division Preservation Group. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
- ^ Steve Rhodes. "CMYK Printing". ImpressionzPrinting.com.
CMYK is a widely used technique to replicate full-color images on light colored backgrounds. The full-color process originated to accurately reproduce artwork on white paper.
- ^ Huston, Lance. "Subject: Re: chino ink??". ScreenPrinters.Net. Archived from the original on 23 September 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
Chino is a special Rutland INK BASE mixing system.… While on the surface it looks similar to a reduced base, it does have a unique print quality to it that offers a waterbase feel, without the hassles of waterbase inks.
- ^ a b "Peace, Love and Tie-Dye". Iml.jou.ufl.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
- ^ Taylor, Carol. The Great T-Shirt Book!: Make Your Own Spectacular, One-of-a-kind Designs. New York: Sterling Pub., 1992. Print.
- ^ "T-Shirt by Darwin". NYMag.com. 12 August 2009. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
- ^ "Bullet Hole Tees: Terence Koh's Capsule T-Shirt Collection for Opening Ceremony". TrendHunter.com. Retrieved 2017-05-23.