A Look At The Story Of Printed T-Shirts

Having a few standout graphic tees in your wardrobe will surely make you proud. It is a weapon in your fashion arsenal to make a bold and loud statement. Graphic T-shirts give you endless opportunities to have fun with prints, logos, and patterns that tell the world who you are, what you want, and what you expect from others.  The design choice is your own because you want to express yourself through T-shirts. Those wishing to make some statements would find energetic bold and neon patterns, while lovers of minimalist designs would have plenty of options to choose some subtle print and then match the other outfits with the color of the design.

You can use graphic tees to rake up the nostalgia of a bygone time by printing an image of the famous movie ‘A streetcar named Desire’ in which Marlon Brando donned T-shirts that triggered its popularity.

From Underwear To Outerwear

The evolution of T-shirts is quite interesting because the most popular garment made its appearance as humble undershirts when the first manufactured T-shirt came to the market in 1898 during the Mexican American War. Its use continued with the US Navy in 1913. It took another seven years until in 1920 the term ‘T-shirt’ found its place in the English dictionary. The trend of wearing Tees as undershirts continued through the first half of the twentieth century until Marlon Brando’s white T-shirt in the 1950 film created a milestone and established the garment as stand-alone outerwear. And this sparked the beginning of a new era of T-shirts that attained sky-rocketing popularity.

Decorated T-Shirts Preceded Graphic Tees

As T-shirts started gaining popularity, several companies in Miami began experimenting with garment decoration that paved the way for applying graphics printing to decorate T-shirts. A presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey was the first to don a T-shirt printed with a slogan ‘Do it with Dewey,’ a campaign in the run-up to the election.  In the fifties, only Walt Disney’s characters appeared on T-shirts and the subsequent developments in printing technology during the sixties that introduced screen printing allowed businessmen to go for mass printing of T-shirts that turned into the multi-billion industry of our times.

Powerful Messaging Platform

Although graphic printed T-shirts continued through the fifties and sixties, it took some more time until the seventies to turn into a powerful messaging platform as we see it today. The punk movement contributed to the change. The events around the world, like the Vietnam War, together with the rising popularity of logos of rock bands, the stage was set for the transformation of decorated T-shirts into a platform for messaging.

A rebellious mindset that challenged the status quo was at the root of the change as people displayed their thoughts and ideas boldly through messaging on T-shirts that they wore.  Graphic Tees empowered people to vent their feelings and establish their identity in a new light that spoke about what they believed in and the way they viewed the world around them. And this makes T-shirts the most democratic garment.