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The conception and birth of the t-shirt was a normal occurrence. Nothing complicated. It might have passed off into the history of fashion without a walk down any of the world’s long ramps had not some subsequent events taken place. But its evolution, though short like is arm is quite an interesting one. For it started on its journey to fame as a humble underwear.

The T-Shirt began its existence as a humble piece of clothing hidden under another layer of clothing or sometimes under layers of clothing that men wore. It spent its life hidden away, soaked in his sweat, either because of his toils or because of the climate or just because of some metabolic quirk that he had. Some times he sweated for some primeval reason.

In the beginning the it was known only as a piece of underwear. The concept of underwear did not really take off till the early twentieth century when in 1901 the P.H. Hanes Knitting Company started the manufacture of men’s underwear. But it was the Navy that really accelerated my evolution when it issued my predecessor, a piece of apparel with a crew neck and short sleeves with a T like outline (hence the T-Shirt) during World War I.

From then on its development was extraordinary. It had to be worn. There was no discrimination between the sexes nor was it restricted to a certain age. It was considered to be cool - literally and figuratively. It became a national phenomenon and when it became a political tool for propaganda it reached its heyday. For a fact, the Smithsonian Institute boasts ownership of the oldest printed t-shirt on record, a shirt used during the then Governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey’s 1948 presidential campaign with the phrase “Dew-IT with Dewey” on it.

From then on its growth was phenomenal. Everybody was wearing one. It was something cool - literally and figuratively. Its history even has a political edge to it and the Smithsonian Institute boasts ownership of the oldest printed T-Shirt on record, imprinted with the phrase “Dew-IT with Dewey” from New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s 1948 presidential campaign.

This simple and inexpensive apparel became a means of displaying opinions, jokes, one-liners, graphic messages and the like. Anything and everything printable would have at one time or another been printed on it. Further developments in printing technology only helped in increasing its overall reputation. Now that the Internet is here, customizing a t-shirt to suit one idiosyncrasies is just a matter of mouse and keyboard use.

Jokes, one-liners, graphically symbolic messages, you name it and they all appeared on the simple, inexpensive piece of dress shaped like a “T”. As printing technology developed it became more and more graphical. Mass production techniques just edged it on the more.

What one wears speaks volumes of wearer; this is a well known saying but the humble t-shirt manages to say a lot more that the others. You just can’t beat a t-shirt.