Cumming, Valerie; C. W. Cunnington & P. E. Cunnington (2010). The Dictionary of Fashion History. Berg Publishers. p.211. ISBN 978-1-84788-534-0. While the garment’s history is a highlight of the exhibition, it isn’t the focus; rather, curator Dennis Nothdruft and team have decided to showcase – as per the show’s title – the various subcultures that have surrounded the T-shirt, as well as its power as a socio-political medium. “It feels quite relevant … it was a matter of the personal as politicised,” says Nothdruft in reference to the exhibition’s premise. “[The T-shirt] is a really basic way of telling the world who and what you are.” A popular phrase on the front of demonstrating the popularity of T-shirts among tourists is the humorous phrase "I went to _____ and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." Examples include "My parents went to Las Vegas and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." T-shirt exchange is an activity where people trade the T-shirts that they are wearing. Bullet Hole Tees: Terence Koh's Capsule T-Shirt Collection for Opening Ceremony". TrendHunter.com . Retrieved 2017-05-23. Designers can also create multiple color designs, or multi-layered designs using HTV. This process would be 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. The temperature and pressure vary according to the manufacturers specifications.

Solid ink is changed into a gas without passing through a liquid phase ( sublimation), using heat and pressure. The design is first produced in a computer image file format such as jpg, gif, png, or any other. It is printed on a purpose-made computer printer (as of 2016 [update] most commonly Epson or Ricoh brands) [ citation needed] using large heat presses to vaporize the ink directly into the fabric. By mid-2012, this method had become widely used for T-shirts. Hurst, Nathan. "What's the Environmental Footprint of a T-Shirt?". Smithsonian Magazine . Retrieved 2021-02-27. Prior to this, the T-shirt was, by and large, an undergarment meant to be worn beneath one’s ‘proper’ clothes, and was seldom regarded as an article in its own right. “It’s just a white T-shirt, but it already has that kind of disruptive potential,” Nothdruft says of the kind worn by Brando and Dean. “It was rebellious, because [T-shirts] were actually undergarments … It was a tough political statement.” More than they could have ever imagined, Brando and Dean nailed the style and spirit of what had thitherto been an unassuming piece of underwear to a tee. A Breakdown of the Environmental Impact of a Cotton T-Shirt – Treefy". Archived from the original on 2022-08-17 . Retrieved 2021-02-27. None of this was lost on Vivienne Westwood and her then-partner in crime Malcolm Maclaren, whose T-shirts – both in terms of graphics and tailoring – effectively encapsulated the ethos of the punk movement taking place in Britain in the late 70s. Nor did veteran designer Katherine Hamnett fail to appreciate the subversive potential of three stitched-together pieces of cotton. “It seemed as if democracy was slipping through our fingers,” she says regarding the late 70s, when she first began producing her signature slogan T-shirts. “[The slogan T-shirt was] something to give you a voice … something to believe in that you could wear on your chest that could be read from two-hundred yards [away].”In the 1980s, thermochromatic dyes were used to produce T-shirts that changed color when subjected to heat. The Global Hypercolour brand of these was a common sight on the streets of the UK for a few years but has since mostly disappeared. These were also very popular in the United States among teenagers in the late 1980s. A downside of color-change garments is that the dyes can easily be damaged, especially by washing in warm water or dye other clothes during washing.

Aerial Gunners". Life. Vol.13, no.2. Time Inc. 13 Jul 1942 . Retrieved 23 June 2022– via Google Books. a b "History of the T-shirt". Tee Fetch. Archived from the original on 2019-01-07 . Retrieved 2014-04-15. Tie dye originated in India, Japan, Jamaica, and Africa as early as the sixth century. [23] Some forms of tie dye are Bandhani (the oldest known technique) used in Indian cultures, and Shibori primarily used in Japanese cultures. It was not until the 1960s that tie dye was introduced to America during the hippie movement. [23] Heat transfer vinyl (HTV) [ edit ]

Kirby, Michael B. (Spring 2008). "90th IDPG History of the T-shirt During WW2". 90th Infantry Division Preservation Group . Retrieved 2 August 2010.

Pieri, Kerry (2013-10-03). "Street style: Paris fashion week 2014". Archived from the original on 2014-05-30 . Retrieved 2018-03-13. Printed T-shirts were in limited use by 1942 when an Air Corps Gunnery School T-shirt appeared on the cover of Life magazine. [10] In the 1960s, printed T-shirts gained popularity for self-expression as well as for advertisements, protests, and souvenirs. a b "Peace, Love and Tie-Dye". Iml.jou.ufl.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27 . Retrieved 31 October 2017.

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. [8] Following World War II, it was worn by Navy men as undergarments and slowly became common to see veterans wearing their uniform trousers with their T-shirts as casual clothing. The shirts became even more popular in the 1950s after Marlon Brando wore one in A Streetcar Named Desire, finally achieving status as fashionable, stand-alone, outerwear garments. [9] Often boys wore them while doing chores and playing outside, eventually opening up the idea of wearing them as general-purpose casual clothing. There are dozens of different colors available, as well as glitter, reflective, and now even unique patterns (such as mermaid skin) which come in rolls and sheets.