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Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Retro T-Shirts - Forward to the Past

By Kathy Austin

Beginning its forage into the arena of fashion in 1901 as nothing but a piece of underclothing, the t-shirt has - helped inadvertently by the U.S. Navy when it issued a "T" shaped undergarment to its sailors and established as a dress on its own right by actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean when they appeared on the silver screen clad in this piece of clothing - come a long way.

Printing technology changed its entire course of history and skyrocketed its popularity when simple messages began appearing on them. Now there is just no field left untouched by this simple and usually inexpensive dress.

In the fifty years since it became a popular item of wear, the t-shirt has been used in umpteen number of ways, leaving its mark on just about any subject under the sun. It is a media of expression of practically everything that you can think of and some more. Touching every possible human emotion, it has endeared it self in such a way that it is a national phenomenon. From infants to seniors every one sports them. It has evoked good healthy laughter, raised serious issues, made people smirk, ridiculed just about any topic and has also been blatantly nasty.

Others would have depicted some famous bygone actor, actress, musician, baseball player or some other such celebrity in some field or another. Yet some others could have carried a quote or a unique message or even a joke relevant to that particular era but which is not pertinent in the present context.

This is more so with political t-shirts. A t-shirt used in support of Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1952, with the slogan "I Like Ike" splashed across it front is of use, only as a collector's item. Pictures of those heroes - in whatever walk of life - in their heydays suffer the same fate.

These t-shirts imitate those designs that were once popular. There might just be a saying or message or joke or some picture that might find relevance to the present. For a person with a penchant for oldies songs, a t-shirt with just the lyrics of some long lost favorite printed on it could bring out the "Agony and the Ecstasy" of that era. This is more so for the elderly, for whom a retro t-shirt could make a wonderful gift, a souvenir.

Retro t-shirts can make an impression just as much as the modern ones can, inspite of all the advances in printing techniques and computer generated fonts, patterns and graphics. A slogan used to protest some event or product ages ago might just be reused again. Joke can be recycled. The demand for these t-shirts peaks during the happenings of related pageants and games.

In as much as retro t-shirts are staging a strong comeback, they can be purchased off the shelf or if a person happens to find a picture, joke or catchphrase from those days of yore that one thinks is relevant to the present times or could make a unique statement, then al one has to do is get on the Internet and get a customized retro t-shirt made and delivered. Could make a happy time travel too.

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