The series compromises of a “t-shirt” of my participant, his/her expressions/actions in his/her pose with her T-shirt of the moment and the tag that says “I wear my T-shirt because…” They filled up the latter part so each tag has their own “poetry” that say so much of its owner. The poetry we talk about here is not poetry per se, but how a person expresses through another sort of canvas in their own poetic way; a new media poetry. How through such a poetry, it, too, can express what a person want.

The archive is also a “t-shirt” with the archive of participants in T-shirts I’ve collected over the short period, and on the underside are quotes and highlights of entries I have on this blog.

All in all I like what I did with this archive, but maybe a more massive collection would have been more amazing! Like 100s and 100s of these, would be pretty cool.

Cheers!

I love this! Classy!

I love this too! Simple yet cosy.

Displays are fun to look at, hopefully fun to work with. Using the minimal to show the maximum, agree? Moving out of graphic design a lil, seeing something that’s more 4D. That’s pretty cool.

Okie this is like Tee-Archive class edition. PLEASE CONTINUE TO TURN UP IN TEES FOR THE WEEK! THANK YOU CLASSMATES!

Gets me thinking that a proper and simple signage/label may do good to the installation I’m aimming to put up!

I’ll be looking into how people can browse my archive as though stepping into a tee shop or a tee collection. Flyers as take-aways? Mannequins or equivalents for display tees?

But I do know that my showcase is actually the survey of my cotton poetry, the voices of my T-poets. Thinking!!

Anyway, I was doing some shopping over the weekends, I pretty much sneaked some shots on how tees are displayed.

This is from Zara.

I guess this is quite common, we kinda take it for granted. But we pretty much recognized this format very well too. It will be good if I can display my end-product in such a manner. I’ve been looking into such display more in-depth after this trip. Shall talk more about it later.

This is Topman where the staff are just EVERYWHERE. I practically snapped and ran.

The above 2 are kinda cute yes? Haha.

Okie that’s all for my lil trip. I realized Tee-dominated displays are not thaaaat common. I didn’t exactly take photos of the usual, so yeap, HERE GOES!

The word T-shirt originated from the letter “T’ and the word “shirt”. Brainless yes? Not quite, it’s really a shirt in the shape of T. Notice those early Tees where the cut is not that well-defined, it’s really horizontal, forming a “T”. In the 17th Century, workers unloading tea boxes from boats in the harbor of Annapolis, Maryland, used to wear a short-sleeved shirt whose shape evoked the letter T. In the 1880s, US Navy soldiers used to wear lightweight cotton shirts that dried easily. These shirts could also be worn as underwear to shield their clothing from sweat. In 1913, the US Navy approved the T-shirt as part of its uniform. The Industrial Revolution paved the way for the technology that allowed the mass production of T-shirts and soon, T-shirts became part of the uniforms of solders, workers, and sailors. By 1920, the word T-shirt appeared in official US dictionaries.

The widespread T-shirt trend was born in the 1950s, thanks to the movies. Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Art Carney, all dressed in T-shirts, created the tough guy image that launched the T-shirt into mainstream popularity. In 1951, a chiseled Marlon Brando starred in the film A Streetcar Named Desire. His tough, coarse, working-class Stanley Kowalski dressed in a white T-shirt became an iconic image. The film earned Brando his first ever Oscar nomination. In 1953′s The Wild One, Brando played Johnny Strabler, a rebel on Harley-Davidson; a white T-shirt under a black leather jacket became the standard look for young men during this era.

In the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean turned the image of a white T-shirt under a red jacket into a symbol of rebellion, turning the T-shirt into a historical icon. When the Baby Boomers came into adolescence after the war, feelings of a lack of national security appeared. This generation of  ”hippies” participated in anti-war movements as well as sexual revolution. With widespread rebellion challenging social normas, T-shirts became a forum for a rebellious attitude. From standard uniform to means of expression, T-shirts upended tradition within one generation. Young people dressed in T-shirts with in-your-face, lewd messages printed on them and wore torn jeans to criticize the US government. 

With the technical advancement of dyeing and printing techniques in the 1960s, T-shirts took on greater commercial value. Rock and Roll bands capitalized on this, and created fan memorabilia. Film studios printed posters and publicity stills on T-shirts. T-shirts with logos were given away as promotional items by innumerable companies. Even during presidential elections, supporters wore T-shirts with the candidates’ slogans. The anti-war sentiments brought on by the Vietnam War were printed, and the shirts became the uniform of the protest march. Also starting from that time, T-shirts became a medium for commercial promotions. This once humble garment became more vivid and mainstream.

I found the book by chance but yeah, cool covers do work. It’s cover is in cotton and yellow and the huge title plastered across.

It is kinda like his archive of his designs. It isn’t just a catalogue, it logs his sketches and thinking process, sharing them with everyone. I love the fact that the pages are french-folded with different designs in there. It’s pretty much working like a t-shirt as well, it’s not just the prints on the outside but prints on the inside are sometimes bonus that you might learn to love. Also love that there’s a mixture of different paper in there – glossy and newsprint kinda material and some in yellow. It’s a nice touch. To link it back to T-shirts, if you want to, it’s like there’s so many kinds of materials for T-shirt; from the common cotton to jersey, lycra to polyester.

It’s a book filled with personal touch. He added his own comments for every design he did, it’s an easy read! Great book design too if you ask me. He does a lot of street style, bold images/grafitti kinda stuff. Supreme and Stussy were some of his clients if you wanna know. Not a huge fan of such designs, at least not now, but pretty much still cool.

This was my first junk food tee. I love their music vintage collection! Thanks to dad, I’m a Rolling Stones fan too.

A birthday present from a good friend few years back.

I think vintage adverts are pretty cool too. Love this! 

Oooh, I want this!!!! The last time it didn’t have my size anymore. Arrgghh. Oh if you guys are interested I have a friend who actually brings in Junk Food Tees, pretty cheap, tell me! And another random shopping fact, 2001 sells Junk Food cheaper than NUM and Queen’s Couture.

Here are some new arrivals I wouldn’t mind owning! Haha

I can’t exactly name a distinct style for their Tees. After all they’re by different artists, pretty much collected from everywhere. But I love the fact that Graniph is a proud of many typography-based tees, as you can already tell from the 2 I’ve picked out.

And he brought you slogan tees! Simple, bold and incredibly fashionable. Lovesit! I discovered Agyness Deyn from House of Holland too, she’s awesome. If it’s a good idea, it’s a good idea, no matter how simple.