A Brief History of the T-Shirt
While it has become one of the most popular garments on the planet, the modern t-shirt has been a relatively brief staple in our collective wardrobe. The t-shirt started solely as an undergarment. Initially, a one-piece garment, similar to Long Johns. Members of the Navy started cutting the item in half to create a top and bottom to allow for more flexibility and breathability. They even started cutting the sleeves off to stay cool. This trend was seen by manufacturers, who started making what we know as a t-shirt. And in 1913, the US Navy adopted the classic plain white t-shirt as their official undergarment, as it dried faster and was more comfortable than the previously used flannel shirts. It was around this time that The P.H. Hanes Knitting Company (now known as Hanes), Fruit of the Loom, and other underwear companies started showing up.
The popularity of the t-shirt grew over the next couple of decades, being adopted by college sports teams and others. However, the t-shirt was seen mainly as an undergarment in normal society. You wouldn’t wear just a t-shirt as a top, just as you wouldn’t wear just tighty-whities as pants. But sailors were photographed wearing only a t-shirt when they were lounging around the ship and doing simple tasks. This led to Sears, Roebuck, & Company advertising the t-shirt as an outergarment for the first time in 1938.
T-shirts at this time were almost solely solid white. They did not often come in different colors and almost never had any sort of design on them. That’s why it is so surprising that the first known appearance of a t-shirt as an outergarment in film was in The Wizard of Oz, 1939. When Dorothy and her friends visited the City of Oz, three characters can be seen stuffing Scarecrow (1:01:17). These three men are all wearing green t-shirts with the word “OZ” likely painted or sewed on them. These characters were only on screen for about 9 seconds, though, so the cultural impact of this, even in such a huge movie, was virtually nonexistent. It wasn’t until the early 1950s when rebellious actors, such as Montgomery Cliff, Marlon Brando, and James Dean, started wearing t-shirts in films that the garment finally became a staple in the male wardrobe that could be worn outside. About a decade later, female actresses and singers began wearing t-shirts, and by the early 70s, the t-shirt finally was accepted as a unisex garment.
In the 1960s, as the t-shirt became a staple, the plain white shirt became a canvas for political, social, and cultural statements. Screen printers, air brush artists, painters, and more began creating custom t-shirts all over the country and the world. This was soon followed by the iron-on, which allowed designs to be made quickly and cheaply and then added to the garments later on, meaning that custom shirts could be made quicker, and more shirts could be made. By the 70s, companies, rock bands, and others began to realize that they could advertise through these shirts, getting customers to don their logo wherever they went. The first licensing deals started to pop up around this time, and t-shirts became a big-time money maker. Luxury brands, such as Yves Saint Laurent and Dior, started selling high quality t-shirts around this time, as well. All of this sped up the advancement of printing techniques, and soon, shirts could be made and sold by the thousands. In the late 1970s / early 1980s, printing t-shirts for small local events, such as marathons and car rallies, became normal practice, as well. This trend continued to increase over the following four decades.
The t-shirt had quickly gone from underwear to ubiquitous in modern society. By the late 90s, the t-shirt had become a marketing tool, a way to make a political statement, a piece of nostalgia, and many many other things. Throughout this time, however, the design remained virtually unchanged. Shirts had become available in different colors and new fabrics, but the pattern was essentially the same. One of the biggest changes came in the late 1990s when stitching on t-shirts changed from a single stitch to a double stitch to make the shirt more durable and also decrease the possibility of the stitching coming undone during a now more automated manufacturing process. This difference in stitching, though not always reliable, is one of the easiest ways to tell a vintage shirt from a more modern shirt. There are exceptions to this; however, it is a good general rule of thumb for beginner vintage collectors.
The invention of the Internet and the popularity of companies, such as CafePress, Custom Ink, Zazzle, and more, has revolutionized the way that t-shirts are designed, made, and sold. These companies have decentralized these processes, meaning that anyone can design and sell a shirt without having to put any money down whatsoever. This explosion of new designs and manufacturing capabilities, mixed with often incredibly cheap prices means that the number of shirts made in the past decade have eclipsed the total number of shirts made before that. It is estimated that 2 billion t-shirts are made each year now. This is great for creative freedom and creates a way that people can make money and support themselves. However, the environmental and social impact of these cheap t-shirts has been huge. The cotton for one t-shirt takes 2700 liters of water to create. Cotton farming also is responsible for 24% of insecticide use and 11% of pesticides. Most t-shirts are also made in foreign cheap-labor factories, meaning people work for practically no money in terrible conditions, and are shipped all over the world before reaching their final destination, wasting valuable fossil fuels. Many t-shirts are also only worn a few times before being donated or thrown away.
T-shirts are an amazing piece of clothing with an almost endless list of social purposes, but the overproduction, especially in the past decade or two, has contributed greatly to many social and environmental issues. The easiest way for an individual to make a difference is to buy used or vintage t-shirts. They can be bought from local thrift stores and Goodwills, from sites like eBay, Etsy, and Depop, or even from more high-end vintage stores. I also understand that people do make their living from selling merch, but there are options for them, as well. You can buy shirts from stores going out of business, deadstock blank vintage shirts, or even printed vintage shirts that are “on brand,” and then go to a local print shop and have them print your shirts for you.
Overall, even though its history is relatively brief, the t-shirt has been and will continue to be a staple in the collective world wardrobe. We just need to make sure that we hold ourselves and the manufacturers accountable for creating a sustainable trade system of these amazing garments.
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