A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt, or tee for short) is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a crew neck, which lacks a collar. T-shirts are generally made of stretchy, light, and inexpensive fabric and are easy to clean. 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.
The modern T-shirt evolved from undergarments used in the 19th century. First, the one-piece union suit underwear was cut into separate top and bottom garments, with the top long enough to tuck under the waistband of the bottoms. T-shirts 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.
Navy first issued them as undergarments. These were a crew-necked, short-sleeved, white cotton undershirt to be worn under a uniform. It became common for sailors and Marines in work parties, the early submarines, and tropical climates to remove their uniform jacket, thus wearing (and soiling) only the undershirt. They soon became popular as a bottom layer of clothing for workers in various industries, including agriculture. The T-shirt was easily fitted, easily cleaned, and inexpensive; for these reasons, it became the shirt of choice for young boys. Boys' shirts were made in various colors and patterns. 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. Following World War II, it was worn by Navy men as undergarments; gradually, veterans could be seen wearing their uniform trousers with their T-shirts as casual clothing.
T-shirts were originally worn as undershirts, but are now worn frequently as the only piece of clothing on the top half of the body, other than possibly a brassiere or, rarely, a waistcoat (vest). 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. Long T-shirts are also sometimes worn by women as nightgowns. A 1990s trend in women's clothing involved tight-fitting cropped T-shirts, called 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.
In the early 1950s, several companies based in Miami, Florida started decorating T-shirts with different resort names and various characters. The first to do so on an extensive scale was Tropix Togs, founded by Sam Kantor. After meeting The Walt Disney Company in a Miami airport in 1976, Kantor's company became the original licensee for Walt Disney characters including Mickey Mouse and Davy Crockett. Later, other companies expanded into the T-shirt printing business, including Sherry Manufacturing Company, also based in Miami. Founded in 1948 by owner Quentin H. Sandler, Sherry initially screen printed souvenir tourist scarves. In the 1960s, the ringer T-shirt appeared and became a staple fashion for youth and rock-n-rollers. The 1960s also saw the emergence of tie-dyeing and screen printing on the basic T-shirt, which became a medium for wearable art, commercial advertising, souvenir messages, and protest art messages. In the late 1960s, Richard Ellman, Robert Tree, Bill Kelly, and Stanley Mouse set up the Monster Company in Mill Valley, California to produce fine art designs expressly for T-shirts. Today, many notable and memorable T-shirts produced in the 1970s have become ensconced in pop culture. Examples include bright yellow happy face, Rolling Stones "tongue and lips" logo, and Milton Glaser's iconic "I ♥ N Y" designs.
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Since the 1960s, T-shirts have flourished as a form of personal expression. Screen printed T-shirts have been a standard form of marketing for major American consumer products, such as Coca-Cola and Mickey Mouse, since the 1970s. They have also been commonly used to commemorate an event or make a political or personal statement. Since the 1990s, it has become common practice for companies of all sizes to produce T-shirts with their corporate logos or messages as part of their overall advertising campaigns. Since the late 1980s and especially the 1990s, T-shirts with prominent designer-name logos have become popular, especially with teenagers and young adults. These garments allow consumers to flaunt their taste for designer brands in an inexpensive way, in addition to being decorative. Examples of designer T-shirt branding include Calvin Klein, FUBU, Ralph Lauren, American Apparel, and The Gap. These examples also include representations of rock bands, among other obscure pop-culture references. Licensed T-shirts are also extremely popular. Movie and TV T-shirts can have images of the actors, logos, and funny quotations from the movie or TV show. In the early 1980s, designer Katharine Hamnett 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 humor and/or irony. The trend only increased later that 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 one to statements or quotes that may be found to be offensive, shocking, or pornographic to some. 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.
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). The most common form of commercial T-shirt decoration is screen printing, in which a design is separated into individual colors. Plastisol or water-based inks are applied to the shirt through mesh screens partially coated with an emulsion, which limits the areas where ink is deposited. In most commercial T-shirt printing, a limited number of spot colors (typically one to four) are used to print the design. To achieve a wider color spectrum with a limited number of colors, process printing (using only cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink) or the simulated process (using only white, black, red, green, blue, and gold ink) is effective. The invention of plastisol in 1959 provided a more durable and stretchable ink than water-based inks, allowing much greater variety in T-shirt designs. Specialty inks trend in and out of fashion and include shimmer, puff, discharge, and chino-based 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.
Other methods of T-shirt decoration airbrushing, appliqué, embroidery, impressing or embossing, and the ironing on of either flock lettering, heat transfers, or dye-sublimation transfers. In the 1980s, thermochromatic dyes were used to produce T-shirts that changed color when subjected to heat; Global Hypercolour was one of the most popular youth brands to do so in the US and UK.
Tie-dye originated in India, Japan and Africa as early as the sixth century. Forms of tie-dye include Bandhani (the oldest known technique), used in Indian cultures, and Shibori, primarily used in Japanese cultures.
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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. After the design is cut, there is a process called "weeding" whereby the areas 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. Designers can also create multiple color designs, or multi-layered designs, using HTV. This process is 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.
Dye-sublimation printing is a widely used 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 previously impossible designs. The technology allows unlimited colors using large CMYK printers with special paper and ink, 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 vibrancy is greater than most standard printing methods, but the process requires synthetic fabrics for the ink to take hold. Dye sublimation is economically viable for small-quantity printing; the unit cost is similar for short or long production runs. Sublimation uses heat and pressure to change solid ink into a gas without first passing through a liquid phase. The design is first produced in a computer image file format such as jpg, gif, png. It is then printed on a purpose-made computer printer (as of 2016, most commonly Epson or Ricoh brands) using large heat presses to vaporize the ink directly into the fabric.
Other methods of decorating shirts include using paints, markers, fabric transfer crayons, dyes and spray paint. Some techniques that can be used include sponging, stenciling, daubing, stamping, screen printing, bleaching, and many more. Some new T-shirt creators have used designs with multiple advanced techniques, which includes using glow-in-the-dark inks, heat-sensitive fabrics, foil printing and all-over printing. Fashion designer Robert Geller created a T-shirt collection featuring oversized graphic T-shirts made from extremely soft jersey materials.
Anatomy of a T-shirt
Here is a summary of T-shirt decoration methods:
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| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Screen Printing | Design separated into colors, applied through mesh screens. |
| Tie-Dye | Ancient technique of binding and dyeing fabric. |
| Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) | Polyurethane material cut and heat-pressed onto fabric. |
| Dye-Sublimation Printing | Full-color artwork transferred to synthetic fabrics using heat. |
Bright yellow happy face on T-shirts became popular in the 1970s.
The man in the painting, his back turned to the viewer, wears a graphic T-shirt featuring an American flag and the face of Martin Luther King Jr., commemorating the 50th anniversary of the march. Over his right shoulder hangs a medallion in the shape of the African continent. President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama appear on a patch on the bed linens surrounded by gold glitter.
David Hammons' African American flag
A painting by Jammie Holmes depicting a reclining figure with a border composed of multiple flags. The central figure wears a black t-shirt and lounges on a bed, his back turned to the viewer to display the t-shirt's 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington graphic. The graphic features Martin Luther King, Jr. in front of the red and white stripes of the American flag as well as a depiction of a historical pinback button promoting the march. The button has a graphic of a white hand clasping a black hand with the text "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963." Hanging from around the figure's neck is a black leather medallion with the continent of Africa depicted in red, green, and black. Displayed next to it is a gold glitter framed portrait of Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton, where his face is depicted inside a snifter glass with a red rose next to it. Stitched into the bed's white cover in the foreground is a portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama with a halo of gold glitter embroidery. Surrounding the central scene is a thin border of gold glitter and a wide border with a repeating design of four flags: a yellow, green, red and black striped flag; the green, black, and red striped Pan-African flag; David Hammons' African American flag; and a flag with a large black field above a single red and green stripe, a white outlined star in the top left and two eyes in the top right.
