The history of the T-Shirt: The way to modern T-Shirt printing



Many stories have been written about the origin and the history of the T-Shirt. However, nobody really answered the question where the T-Shirt originated, and why people actually call this piece of clothing a T-Shirt.

One version of the history of T-Shirts began at the time of the industrial revolution in England. Some writers state that seamen were the first people to wear T Shirts. In fact, the seamen of that time wore so-called tackle shirts. These tackle shirts (T-Shirts) were made of white cotton and very practical. They were easy to transport, easy to wash and affordable even for the workers of that era.

Other writers are of the opinion that the word T-Shirt had something to do with tea. In fact, there is evidence that the servants working at manor-houses in 19th and early 20th century England had to wear special Tee Shirts while serving Tea. Apparently, the servants often spilled tea over the sleeves of their clothes while serving the hot beverage. Therefore, they were supposed to wear white cotton shirts with short sleeves, the so-called T-Shirts.

However, T-Shirts didn´t really become a product for the masses until the end of World War II, when American soldiers brought the t-shirt and jeans fashion to Europe. Two famous actors then helped to boost the popularity of the T-Shirt: Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan´s „A streetcar named desire“ (1951) and James Dean in „Rebel Without a Cause“ (1955).

At the end of the 20th century, it was the internet that once again revolutionised the T-Shirt industry. The first online companies now allowed consumers from all over the world to buy T-Shirts online and even customise them with their own vector graphics, images or messages.

The most common form of commercial T-Shirt printing is screen-printing. In screen-printing, a design is separated into individual colors.
Water based inks or plastisols are applied to the shirt through a so-called mesh screen that limits the areas where ink is deposited.

Other T-Shirt Printing techniques include the ironing and embossing of flex and flock foils, dye sublimation and embroidery.