Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
A T-shirt is a shirt with short sleeves and a round neck, put on over the head, without pockets. It was originally used as an undershirt, and that use continues, but it is also often worn as the only clothing on the upper part of the body. The length varies, but it typically reaches the waist. Text and pictures are often printed on T-shirts: a slogan, something funny, or something about an event. The idea came to the United States during the First World War, when US soldiers noticed the light cotton undershirts European soldiers used while Americans sweated in wool uniforms.
The length varies, but it typically reaches the waist. One fashion is an "oversized" T-shirt, a more recent trend are tight and short T-shirts for women that frequently show part of the lower abdomen with the belly button. Often a text and/or picture is printed on it: a slogan, something funny, about an event.
The idea of the T-shirt came to the USA during WWI when US soldiers noticed the light cotton undershirts European soldiers were using while the US soldiers sweated in their wool uniforms. Since they were so much more comfortable they quickly became popular among the Americans, and because of their design they got the name T-shirt.
During WWII the T-shirt had become standard issue underwear in both the US army and navy. After WWII the T-shirt started appearing without a shirt covering it. John Wayne, Marlon Brando and James Dean all wore them on national TV. At first the public was shocked but by 1955 it had became acceptable. The T-shirt became cool when James Dean wore it in the film Rebel Without A Cause.
In the 1960s people started to tie dye and screenprint the basic T-shirt and variants such as the tank top, muscle shirt, scoop neck, V-neck, U-neck etc. became popular.
Learn about men's t-shirts.
Learn about different t-shirt styles.
Learn about shirt neckline options.
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/t-shirt). 10/20/04 |
No other garment took printing as completely as the T-shirt. A flat cotton front is a ready-made poster, and screen printing made slogans, band names, political messages, jokes and event souvenirs cheap to produce in any quantity. That single feature explains the T-shirt's second career: it is simultaneously clothing, advertisement, uniform and souvenir, the shirt given away at fun runs, sold at concerts, issued to teams and worn to declare allegiances. Collectors and vintage dealers trade early printed examples as documents of popular culture.
Classic T-shirts are cotton jersey, soft, breathable and prone to shrink and fade; polyester and blended performance shirts add moisture management for sport; heavyweight cotton gives a structured drape that fashion brands favour. Fit cycles through the decades, boxy and oversized in one era, tight and cropped in another, standard and straight in between, but the pattern underneath never changes: a tube or cut body, set-in short sleeves, a ribbed round collar. That stability is why the T-shirt is the default first product of new clothing brands and the benchmark garment of the basics market.
The name comes from the garment's shape: short sleeves and a straight body form a T. The light cotton undershirts spread after US soldiers in the First World War saw European soldiers wearing them in place of hot wool uniforms, and by the Second World War the T-shirt was standard issue underwear in both the US Army and Navy.
Both. The T-shirt began as an undershirt and is still used as one, but after the Second World War it increasingly appeared on its own as the only upper-body clothing. Printed designs, slogans, jokes and event graphics, turned it into a standard outerwear and fashion garment.
Short sleeves, a round neck, no pockets, and a pull-on design that goes over the head with no fastenings. Length typically reaches the waist, though fashions range from oversized T-shirts to the tight, short women's styles that show part of the lower abdomen.