Back view of a woman's Wikipedia globe shirt

Comic book creator Valerie D’Orazio at the November 2008 Big Apple Convention in Manhattan

A T-shirt (T shirt or tee) is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, usually with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line.

T-shirts are typically made of cotton fibers (sometimes others), knitted together in a jersey stitch that gives a T-shirt its distinctive soft texture. T-shirts can be decorated with text and/or pictures, and they are often used to advertise (see human billboard), promoting products, companies, films and websites.

T-shirt fashions include many styles for both men and women, and for all age groups, including baby, youth, teen, adult and elderly sizes.

The T-shirt evolved from undergarments used in the 19th century, through cutting the one-piece "union suit" underwear into separate top and bottom garments, with the top long enough to tuck under the waistband of the bottoms. T-shirts, with and without buttons, were adopted by miners and stevedores during the late 19th century as a convenient covering for hot environments.

T-shirts, as a slip-on garment without buttons, originally became popular in the United States when they were issued by the U.S. Navy during or following the Spanish American War. These were a crew-necked, short-sleeved, white cotton undershirt to be worn under a uniform. It became common for sailors and Marines in work parties, the early submarines, and tropical climates to remove their uniform "jacket", wearing (and soiling) only the undershirt.^[1]

Named the T-shirt due to the shape of the garment's outline, it soon became popular as a bottom layer of clothing for workers in various industries, including agriculture. The T-shirt was easily fitted, easily cleaned, and inexpensive, and for this reason it became the shirt of choice for young boys. Boys' shirts were made in various colors and patterns. By the Great Depression, the T-shirt was often the default garment to be worn when doing farm or ranch chores, as well as other times when modesty called for a torso covering but conditions called for lightweight fabrics.^[1]

World War II[link]

Following World War II, it became common to see veterans wearing their uniform trousers with their T-shirts as casual clothing, and they became even more popular in the 1950s after Marlon Brando wore one in A Streetcar Named Desire, finally achieving status as fashionable, stand-alone, outer-wear garments.^[2]

In the mid-1980s, the white T-shirt became fashionable after the actor Don Johnson wore it with an Armani suit in Miami Vice.^[1]

They can also be used to carry commercial advertising, souvenir messages and protest art messages. Beginning in the late 1960s, the T-shirt became a medium for wearable art. Psychedelic art poster designer Warren Dayton pioneered several political, protest, and pop-culture art T-shirts featuring images of Cesar Chavez, political cartoons, and other cultural icons in an article in the Los Angeles Times magazine in late 1969.

Today, many notable and memorable T-shirts produced in the 1970s have now become ensconced in pop culture. Examples include the bright yellow happy face T-shirts, The Rolling Stones tops with their "tongue and lips"^[3] logo, and Milton Glaser's iconic "I ♥ N Y” design.

Trends[link]

A T-shirt with a protest art message on it in the mid-2000s.

T-shirts were originally worn as undershirts. Now T-shirts are worn frequently as the only piece of clothing on the top half of the body, other than possibly a bra or an undershirt (vest). T-shirts have also become a medium for self-expression and advertising, with any imaginable combination of words, art, and even photographs on display.^[4]

A T-shirt typically extends to the waist. Variants of the T-shirt, like the tank top, crew neck, A-shirt (with the nickname "wife beater"), muscle shirt, scoop neck, and V-neck have been developed. Hip hop fashion calls for "tall-T" T-shirts which may extend down to the knees. A 1990s trend in women's clothing involved tight-fitting "cropped" T-shirts short enough to reveal the midriff. Another popular trend is wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt of a contrasting color over a long-sleeved T-shirt. This is known as "layering". T-shirts that are tight to the body are called fitted, tailored or "baby doll" t-shirts.

Decoration[link]

An example of a tie-dyed T-shirt.

T-shirts with bold slogans were popular in the UK in the 1980s.

A Taiwanese`s T-shirt

In the early 1950s several companies based in Miami, Florida, started to decorate T-shirts with different resort names and various characters. The first company was Tropix Togs, under founder Sam Kantor, in Miami. They were the original license for Walt Disney characters that included Mickey Mouse and Davy Crockett. Later, other companies expanded into the T-shirt printing business, including Sherry Manufacturing Company, also based in Miami. Sherry started in 1948 by its owner and founder Quinton Sandler as a screen print scarf business and evolved into one of the largest screen printed resort and licensed apparel companies in the United States.

In 1959, plastisol, a more durable and stretchable ink, was invented, allowing much more variety in T-shirt designs.

In the 1960s, the ringer T-shirt appeared and became a staple fashion for youth and rock-n-rollers. The decade also saw the emergence of tie-dyeing and screen-printing on the basic T-shirt. In the late 1960s Richard Ellman, Robert Tree, Bill Kelly, and Stanley Mouse set up the Monster Company in Mill Valley, California, to produce fine art designs expressly for T-shirts. Monster T-shirts often feature emblems and motifs associated with the Grateful Dead and marijuana culture.^[5] Additionally, one of the most popular symbols to emerge out of the political turmoil of 1960s were T-shirts bearing the face of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.^[6]

Screen printing[link]

The most common form of commercial T-shirt decoration is screen-printing. In screen-printing, a design is separated into individual colors. Plastisol or water based inks are applied to the shirt through mesh screens which limits the areas where ink is deposited. In most commercial T-shirt printing, the specific colors in the design are used. To achieve a wider color spectrum with a limited number of colors, process printing (using only cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink) or simulated process (using only white, black, red, green, blue, and gold ink) is effective. Process printing is best suited for light colored shirts. Simulated process is best suited for dark colored shirts. Very few companies continue to use water-based inks on their shirts. The majority of other companies that create shirts prefer to use plastisol due to the ability to print on varying colors without the need for color adjustment at the art level.

Specialty inks trend in and out of fashion and include shimmer, puff, discharge, and chino based inks. A metallic foil can be heat pressed and stamped onto any plastisol ink. When combined with shimmer ink, metallics give a mirror like effect wherever the previously screened plastisol ink was applied. Specialty inks are more expensive to purchase as well as screen and tend to appear on garments in boutiques.

Other methods of decoration used on T-shirts include airbrush, applique, embroidery, impressing or embossing, and the ironing on of either flock lettering, heat transfers, or dye-sublimation transfers. Laser printers are capable of printing on plain paper using a special toner containing sublimation dyes which can then be permanently heat-transferred to T-shirts.

In the 1980s, thermochromatic dyes were used to produce T-shirts that changed color when subjected to heat. The Global Hypercolour brand of these was a common sight on the streets of the UK for a few years, but has since mostly disappeared. These were also very popular in the United States among teenagers in the late 1980s. A downside of color-change garments is that the dyes can easily be damaged, especially by washing in warm water, or dye other clothes during washing.

At the turn of the 21st century, designing custom T-shirts online became more popular. Popular websites began to use digital printing (such as Direct to Garment or DTG printing) to allow customers to design their own T-shirts online with no minimum orders.^{[citation needed]}

Expressive messages[link]

Since the 1980s, T-shirts have flourished as a form of personal expression.^[4]

Screen printed T-shirts have been a standard form of marketing for major consumer products, such as Coca-Cola and Mickey Mouse, since the 1970s. However, since the 1990s, it has become common practice for companies of all sizes to produce T-shirts with their corporate logos or messages as part of their overall advertising campaigns. Since the late 1980s and especially the 1990s, T-shirts with prominent designer-name logos have become popular, especially with teenagers and young adults. These garments allow consumers to flaunt their taste for designer brands in an inexpensive way, in addition to being decorative. Examples of designer T-shirt branding include Calvin Klein, FUBU, Ralph Lauren and The Gap. These examples also include representations of rock bands, among other obscure pop-culture references. Licensed T-shirts are also extremely popular. Movie and TV T-shirts can have images of the actors, logos, and funny quotes from the movie or TV show. Often, the most popular T-shirts are those that characters wore in the film itself (e.g., Bubba Gump from Forrest Gump and Vote For Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite). Designer Katharine Hamnett, in the early 1980s, pioneered outsize T-shirts with large-print slogans. The early first decade of the 21st century saw the renewed popularity of T-shirts with slogans and designs with a strong inclination to the humorous and/or ironic. The trend has only increased later in this decade, embraced by celebrities, such as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and reflected back on them, too ('Team Aniston').^{[citation needed]} The political and social statements that T-shirts often display have become, since the first decade of the 21st century, one of the reasons that they have so deeply permeated different levels of culture and society.^{[citation needed]} The statements also may be found to be offensive, shocking, or pornographic to some. Many different organizations have caught on to the statement-making trend, including chain and independent stores, websites, and schools. A popular phrase on the front of T-shirts demonstrating T-shirts' popularity among tourists is the humorous phrase "I did _____ and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." Examples include "My parents went to Las Vegas and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." T-shirt exchange is an activity where people trade their T-shirts they are wearing.

Artists like Bill Beckley, Glen Baldridge and Peter Klashorst use T-shirts for their artistic expression.

World record[link]

The current holder of the Guinness World Record for "Most T-shirts Worn at Once" with 257 T-shirts is Sanath Bandara^[7]. The record was set in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on December 22, 2011. The record was attempted on stage in front of a crowd of people in a public park in Colombo. Bandara surpassed previous record-holder Hwang Kwanghee from South Korea, who had held the record at 252 shirts.

See also[link]

Look up t-shirt in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: T-shirts

• Concert T-shirt
• Football kit
• Inkjet transfer
• Long-sleeved T-shirt
• Polo shirt
• Printed T-shirt
• Protest art
• Raglan sleeve
• Replica
• Wet T-shirt contest

References[link]

Shontelle
Shontelle in December 2010
Background information
Birth name	Shontelle Layne
Born	(1985-10-04) 4 October 1985 (age 26)
Origin	Saint James, Barbados
Genres	R&B, pop, dance, soca, reggae, hip-hop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Years active	2008–present
Labels	SRC, Motown, Universal Republic[1]
Associated acts	Rihanna, Akon, Pitbull, Beenie Man, Asher Roth, J-Status, Collie Buddz
Website	shontellemusic.com

Shontelle Layne (born 4 October 1985),^[2] known professionally as Shontelle, is a Barbadian singer, and songwriter. She released her debut album Shontelligence in November 2008. Her sophomore album, No Gravity, was released in September 2010. Her singles, "T-Shirt", and "Impossible," achieved modest international success.

Career[link]

[edit] Shontelligence (2008–2009)

Shontelle began work on her debut studio album in early 2008, and completed the album in six months. The album's title was given to her by the album's engineer who used the word "shontelligence" as a joke after Shontelle and her producers were playing a game that involved making up words from her name.^[3] "T-Shirt", Shontelle's debut single, was released in July 2008 and reached number thirty-six on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming a moderate hit. However, it reached the top ten in the United Kingdom, peaking at number six there.^[3]

Shontelle's debut album, Shontelligence, was released on 18 November 2008. The album reached number 115 on the Billboard 200,^[4] selling 6,200 records in its first week,^[5] and reached number twenty-four on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.^[4] It was re-released on 10 March 2009, and has since sold 30,000 records in the US.^[5]

The second single from the album, "Stuck with Each Other", featuring Akon, was released in February 2009 in the US and May 2009 in the UK. The single failed to chart in the US, but reached number twenty-three in the United Kingdom. Shontelle toured as a supporting act for the UK leg of the New Kids on the Block World Tour in January 2009. Shontelle was also Beyoncé Knowles' opening act for her I Am... Tour from May to June 2009 during the British leg.^[6]

Shontelle was also the host of My Prom Style! and Universal Motown's 2009 Ultimate Prom fashion reality series. She performed at a high school prom in New York City in June 2009, but first she led three students in a competition to design the dress that singer Kat DeLuna, the headliner, wore at the Ultimate Prom concert.^[7]

As of 2012, Shontelligence has sold 50,000 copies in the US.

[edit] No Gravity (2009–2010)

Shontelle's second album, No Gravity, was released in the US on 21 September 2010.^[8] Shontelle stated that the album would be experimental and that she wanted to change her original sound for the record.^[9] While the title 'No Gravity' symbolises a mantra, Shontelle states she has adapted to her life and to her career, to motivate herself to keep climbing higher and to have nothing hold her down or hold her back.^[10] Shontelle collaborated with Bruno Mars, Tony Kanal and Darkchild among others for the record.^[11] In the first week of release, No Gravity placed at number 81 on the Billboard 200, selling 7,000 copies.^[12] Later that year Shontelle would co-write Rihanna's song "Man Down" from her fifth studio album, Loud.^[13]

The lead single from the album, "Impossible", was released in February 2010 for digital download, but failed to garner success until May 2010, when it debuted on the Billboard Hot 100. It has since become her most successful single to date, reaching number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100.^[14] The second single from the album, "Perfect Nightmare", was released in August 2010. Say Hello to Goodbye was released to pop radio on 15 March 2011, as the third single.^[15] Both failed to chart on the hot 100,however both managed to chart on the pop songs chart. No Gravity has sold an estimated 150,000 copies in the US as of 2012.

Change of label (2011–present)[link]

Shontelle played at GUMBO @ The Canal Room in New York City on 15 July 2011, where she revealed news about an upcoming single and third studio album. It was also revealed that she had departed from Universal Motown and had joined Republic. The lead single from the upcoming album is called "Reflection" and was premiered on SoundCloud in September 2011. Songs from the album are expected to be previewed at Shontelle's birthday bash.^[16]

On 24 July, a two-minute preview of a new song, "Ready to Go", was uploaded online. According to some websites, it is not to appear on Shontelle's third studio album but will be played in clubs.

Rockwilder, Tony Kanal, and The Runners are confirmed to be working with her.^[17]

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• 2008: Shontelligence
• 2010: No Gravity

Tours[link]

• 2009: I Am... Tour (supporting act)
• 2010: To The Sky Tour by Kevin Rudolf (supporting act)
• 2010/11: Jason Derülo World Tour (supporting act)

On 27 February, Shontelle played a headlining gig at 90 Degrees Pub in Southampton.

On 3 July, Shontelle performed in Altamonte Springs, Florida at Red, Hot and Boom.

Charity involvement[link]

The singer is also known for her involvement in some charity work. She has lent her talent in raising funds for patients with Alzheimer's in the Together for Care concert,^[18] girl's education for She's the First,^[19] VH1 Save the Music Foundation,^[20] and breast cancer research charities.^[21] She performed at the 2012 Healthcorps Gala at the Waldorf Astoria

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shontelle

• Official website
• Shontelle at Allmusic
• Shontelle at the Internet Movie Database