The history of fashion trends is quite interesting. You can go to any era or any place in the past, to any civilization, and you’ll have wildly varying fashions and styles that the divas and princes of the day wore. In ancient Greece and Rome the toga was all the rage, in China and Japan it was robes, in India the sarong and in Scotland the kilt. Many of these fashions are still alive today and part of a lot of traditional folk costumes. But the one of the iconic images of the 20th century (and it probably will be well into the 21st) is the t-shirt.
The origins of t-shirts
It is interesting how the t-shirt evolved — it came from the undergarments worn in the 19th century. By cutting the “union suit” one piece into separate top and bottom garments, the two parts were adopted for miners in the 19th century as a convenient way of working. After all, in a sweltering mine you would want to take off your shirt after a while to work comfortably.
Eventually, the US Navy began issuing them to their marines after the Spanish American War. Thus it became common amongst army men as well.
Because of their origins, t-shirts have always been associated with the working class. This is partly why in many places they are still seen as informal attire. You would not really want to wear a t-shirt to a funeral, a gala concert or a wedding in most cultures. In situations like this it might be more appropriate to wear formal clothing such as shirts, ties, dress pants and tuxedos or dinner jackets.
Fashion trends through the 20th century
The t-shirt is one of the easiest pieces of clothing to make and modify. They are made from a wide variety of materials, such as cotton, linen, even silk and denim. There are many different types of fashions when it comes to t-shirts.
For instance, there are certain colors and styles which go with jeans. Demin pants and jackets made by companies such as Levis, also go well with blue and gray cotton t-shirts. Hikers, nature walkers and other outdoors people might go for khaki or tan colored t-shirts that would be good camouflage. Military outfits also use these colors for their t-shirts.
A lot of the entertainment that we consume can also be immortalized on a t-shirt. For instance, it’s common to see teenagers (and even many adults) wearing t-shirts with their favorite rock band or actor on them. T-shirts can be decorated with characters from movies, books and even computer games. As such, t-shirts have also become a form of “shock value”. There are many fashionable t-shirts among young people (such as Marilyn Manson’s t-shirts), which also shock many adults with their indecency. In some countries these fashion trends are a problem and the t-shirt has even been banned from public wear.
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