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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.

In the span of over a century, the t-shirt has touched everybody and everything in every conceivable way and has kindled every kind of emotion known to the human mind. Thought provoking expressions splashed across it have made people stop and ponder, jokes have had them doubled up with laughter, mild to extreme ridicule of practically any subject, person or walk of life has been the order of the day and some have been downright rude and offensive that just reading them might have made a decent person gargle in disgust.

Just as history is said to repeat itself, one of the best things about fashion is that it also has the tendency to revert to an older style, sooner or later - retro, in other words . This is inevitable. Some t-shirts would have necessarily gone out of fashion. These may be political ones, like the one in the Smithsonian Institute that houses the oldest known printed t-shirt with the message "Dew-IT with Dewey" from New York Governor, Thomas E. Dewey's 1948 Presidential campaign.

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 where "Retro T-Shirts" come in. These refer to older and exclusive designs that may or may not be still in use. Just like retro shoes and retro dresses of the 50s and 60s are making a come back, so are retro t-shirts that hark back to those former times and reproduce those unique messages, graphics or designs. These t-shirts recreate the magic of those days. The t-shirts of the era of the rock and roll symbol, Elvis Presley are just an example.

Retro t-shirts are just as fashionable as the current ones with their fancy catchphrases and, courtesy the computers, the psychedelic graphics. Some might even make a craze. Fashion is as unpredictable as the weather. Every retro-t-shirt has a message from the past that could be relevant today.

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.

Retro t-shirts are now flooding the shelves of t-shirt stores. But if the ones on sale are not attractive, and if it just happens that one stumbles across a quote, a joke, a picture from some bygone era that one thinks might make a statement relevant to the present then all that has to be done is to get on the Net, use the mouse and the keyboard, ask for a customization and get just one unique retro t-shirt made or make a corporate gift. The rich heritage of the printed t-shirt makes anything possible. Are you going to get one?

Article Source: http://www.articlemanual.com

Kathy Austin is a writer for an online gallery. Red Bubble enables you to retro t-shirts, and graphic tees and more.



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