T-Shirt Power!

Far more than cotton underwear, the T-shirt may very well be the most powerful item in our possession-comfy or otherwise.
By Lesley Bargar
Photos by Aaron Farley

In August, the Fancy Pants Society of America (yep, there is one) took a 1,000-person fashion poll that included various questions about T-shirts. The results were as follows:

- 62 percent of people said they were wearing a T-shirt under their business attire when they interviewed for their first job.
- 75 percent of males said they were wearing a T-shirt when they met the woman of their dreams.
- 57 percent of moms said they wore a T-shirt on the day their baby took his or her first steps.
- 99 percent of people said they own at least one white T-shirt.
- 11 percent of people said they were wearing sleeveless T-shirts when they were arrested. (The sleeves make all the difference.)
- And most astoundingly, over 60 percent of those questioned employed the adjective “stupendous” when describing how they feel when comfortably swathed in their favorite T-shirt.

Just the fact that 60 percent of the population has the word “stupendous” in their daily vocabulary says something encouraging about the world today. But probably the most notable conclusion we can reap from these results concerns the vital place in our hearts, minds, lives and closets now inhabited by the T-shirt-once the red-headed sweat rag of our collective wardrobe.

That simple cut of cotton-unmistakably distinct yet comfortingly conformist, simplistically patterned yet infinitely varied, so essentially innocent yet capable of immeasurable power-has become substantially more than an undergarment. It is now second to denim as the most iconic American garment. It’s frequently photographed in Parisian fashion rags as well as donned by bowling teams and Junior high P.E. students worldwide. With one choice of color or design, the T-shirt can unite us as a team or divide us as competitors. It can offend, arouse, inform, advertise, rebel, support, soothe, inspire and remind-all while maintaining the ability to be comfortable, clean your tires and show off boobies when wet.

How many sportcoats do you know that can do that?

And while the power and versatility of the T-shirt is relatively universal, its largest impact is geographically localized. Perhaps no place in the world is as aware and desperately infatuated with the T-shirt’s endless potential as Los Angeles. Only in a town where 10 a.m. is a realistic work time, where business casual includes flip-flops and where the harshest climates warrant … sleeves (gasp!) could the T-shirt really take root. It has, and our fertile soil of beach bums, brand logos and boho snobs has nurtured, fed and pruned the T-shirt into something like a (cultural) phenomenon.

Temporarily banished from runways and the dressers of the fashionably influential, the playing field has leveled once again, and the T-shirt-in all its immeasurable power-is back.

“Fashion has really moved toward the people,” says Mathew Swenson, Brand Manager for American Apparel, arguably the company most responsible for reintroducing the T-shirt to the couture class. “It’s about H&M and Target and Wal-Mart and American Apparel. It’s about getting this amazing T-shirt, some vintage jacket, designer bag or belt, and you look just as cool as 10 years ago when you had to wear more designer clothes … Today, we open an American Apparel in Paris and we’re treated like a designer brand.”

And in a way, they are. For years, the only difference among T-shirts was the screen-printing. Underneath whatever design graced the surface was almost always the thick, boxy Hanes or loose-fitting BVD brands. But recognizing the growing demands of a fashion forward/budget conscious age group, American Apparel re-defined the limits of the basic shirt design. “There’s a generation of kids my age who were looking for these T-shirts and things in the thrift stores, ” says Swenson, “and now they’re able to look in the store.”

It was a similar lack of retail T-shirt options that inspired Brit-native Worn Free founder Steve Coe to begin manufacturing his own vintage-inspired line of T-Shirts: “I started making T-shirts because there weren’t any that I wanted to buy,” he explains.

Well, it was partly that, but mostly John Lennon.

Worn Free specializes in reproducing authentic T-shirts worn by ’60s and ’70s-era celebrities like John Lennon, Frank Zappa, Joey Ramone and Debby Harry. “I started watching a bunch of older films and I saw a T-shirt that I really wanted,” says Coe. “I thought it would be amazing if you could get that T-shirt … so we started sending out some letters, and luckily enough, some of the first people to get back to us were Yoko Ono’s lawyers.”

Each shirt on the Worn Free label has been meticulously designed to be an exact replica of the original, down to the fibers and fit, thanks to input from celebrities’ friends and family. It’s hard to quantify exactly why wearing the T-shirt worn by a rock star is infinitely cooler than wearing one with their picture on it, but the difference is monumental. It could be because each T-shirt has a story behind it, a legend relating to either its origins or a specific moment in time it shared with the original wearer.

“It was something that someone gave to them or something they picked up from a thrift store themselves and liked it and wore it,” says Coe. “For instance, the ‘Home’ T-shirt John Lennon wears-he’s wearing it in The U.S. vs. John Lennon a couple of times-he used to wear it a lot. Home was one of his favorite little hangouts in New York on 22nd and 2nd [streets] and it was owned by a guy named Richard Ross. It was a supper house for musicians. You’d go in there and there’d be a bar and cheap home cooking and soul food, and they had jam sessions. That’s where John met Elephant’s Memory, which became the backing band for his final performance in New York. … And ‘THIS IS NOT HERE’ shirts were made for John’s birthday. Yoko put on an art show in Syracuse called This Is Not Here. Everybody put in an art piece, everyone from George Harrison to Andy Warhol to Peggy Guggenheim; they all put in a piece of work to this art show for birthday celebration. But it all kind of got out of hand-they invited coach-loads of kids to come and view all the artwork, and they ended up kind of running riot, smashing things up. John had to pay out $80,000 in damages out of his own pocket. But it’s a really nice shirt, this one, and there’s a really nice story to it.”

And that’s one of the amazing things about T-shirts: It’s in their nature-both due to their long-term durability and their every-day wear spirit-to gather hamper-loads of nostalgia. As the Fancy Pants study proved, it’s highly likely that you have worn or will be wearing a T-shirt during some of the most important moments of your life. The shirt you wore when the Dodgers won is now your lucky T-shirt. The one you sat in with the flu for two weeks became your comforting T-shirt. And as for why your “favorite” T-shirt is your favorite, only you know that, but chances are there’s a story there.

Or maybe it’s because you made it yourself. Thanks to companies like Silver Lake’s Matrushka and their T-Construction nights, it’s quite possible that you did.

“It’s hard to be a clothing company and not make T-shirts,” explains Laura Howe of custom couture clothing company Matrushka Construction. “But I can’t believe people wear shirts that say ‘Nike’ or ‘Gap.’ Why are you wearing that?! Do you love that company so much that you want to wear their logo? I mean, so many people don’t even think about what they’re putting on.”

Which is why, every four to six months, Howe hosts a night where customers are not only forced to think about their shirts, but they have to make them. With a huge selection of styles, colors, patches and screen-print images to choose from, you can create almost any T-shirt your heart (bleeding or not) can think of.

“We usually have a political theme and a fun image theme,” says Howe. “There’s always a ton of animals and a ton of political statements, and they combine to create whatever statement you want to make.” For example, her favorite shirt is one with a picture of a unicorn and a little girl hugging it, with the statement “Say No to Torture.”

“The T-shirt is a safe thing for people because everyone wears them, so they feel safe in the conformity,” says Howe. “But also, a T-shirt is one way in America to actually make a political statement. Like, I’ve had a ‘Stop Bush’ on my T-shirt and gone into an airport and then felt like that may not be such a smart thing. Or the guy with the Arabic writing on his T-shirt who they wouldn’t let get on a plane. I mean, that’s awesome! What a political statement. What power of a T-shirt!”

When it comes to the T-shirt, its impact far exceeds its thread count. And in a city that values appearances as much as this one, the T-shirt becomes an even more vital tool for defining who we are as individuals. We’re Bloods or Crips, Bruins or Trojans, Juicy or Phat, V-neck or crew, vintage or retail. And regardless of how much thought we put into choosing our shirts, that decision ultimately says something about us: that we were at the first Rolling Stones tour, that we think cartoon kittens are awesome, that we work here, that we rooted for Italy, that we’re on the same team, that we’re with stupid.

Sleeves and buttons be damned, God bless the T-shirt.