The History of the T-Shirt : From Underwear to Everywhere
Designed as underwear, today the t-shirt is an apparel staple.
The story of the t-shirt began in the late 19th century, when workers cut their overalls to keep cool in hot weather.
The first t-shirts were manufactured some time between the Spanish-American War in 1898, and 1913 when the U.S. Navy made them standard undershirts for all crew.
It wasn't until 1920 that “t-shirt” was appeared in the English dictionary, the year writer F. Scott Fitzgerald used the word in his novel This Side of Paradise:
“So early in September Amory provided with ‘six suits summer underwear, six suits winter underwear, one sweater or T-shirt, one jersey, one overcoat, winter, etc,’ set out for New England, the land of schools.”
Above: James Dean T-shirt: CC BY-SA 4.0: File:Rebel Without A Cause (1955) by MoonRiver777,
The t-shirt becomes cool
But the t-shirt remained an undergarment. Veterans did wear a t-shirt tucked into their trousers post-World War II, but for the main part, t-shirts were worn under formal, dress shirts.
It all changed in 1951, when Hollywood idol Marlon Brando famously wore a plain white t-shirt in his role as Stanley Kowalski in the film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. And when in 1955, James Dean wore his plain white t-shirt beneath a red windbreaker with blue jeans in Rebel Without a Cause, all the cool kids wanted to wear one.
“It was rebellious, because T-shirts were actually undergarments … It was a tough political statement,” says Dennis Nothdruft, curator of the exhibition titled T-shirt: Cult — Culture — Subversion, which showcased the radical history of the t-shirt at London's Fashion and Textile Museum.
So much for the plain white t-shirt. Perhaps the first time the t-shirt got a slogan was in 1948, when US presidential candidate Governor Thomas E. Dewey printed the slogan “Dew-It with Dewey” on t-shirts during his campaign. One of the original t-shirts is on permanent display at The Smithsonian Institute.
Later in the 1950s though, printing company Tropix Togs won the original license to print Walt Disney characters. T-shirt design began to take off.
The business grew fast when American entrepreneur Michael Vasilantone developed his rotatable garment screen printing machine in 1960.
“The Medium for the Message”
The t-shirt became synonymous with slogans ion the 1970s. It was “about shocking and outraging people and challenging the status quo,” says Nothdruft. The New York Times said the graphic t-shirt was “the medium for the message.”
In the 1970s, novelty t-shirt designs were détourned by the late Malcolm McLaren, selling magazines, causing outrage, perverting and updating James Dean's Rebel look, and saying it loud and dirty.