The Power of the T-Shirt

Written by Renato Palmi

The ReDress Consultancy, South Africa

The Power of the T-Shirt

In various ways, the simple T-shirt has been used as a commercial medium or as a means of representing and articulating power through fashionable commodification of popular cultural and political symbolism. Rarely does the wearer understand the full extent of the intertextuality of the messages or signs portrayed on the T-shirt.

However, some are fully aware of the constructed meaning and purposely created indexical imagery represented on this garment.  Wearing a slogan, symbolic image or logo on T-shirts within specific locations or at particular events makes a statement, rendering the wearer either as an agent provocateur or as one who identifies with a community or defined social context.

Garibaldi: The new Che Guevara. Design by The ReDress Consultancy

The Power and Influence of the Brand. Nazi symbols for prisoners

A T-shirt for girls aged 7 to 8

In Kenya, images of Mau Mau heroes emblazoned on T-shirts present the wearer as taking an anti-colonial and proudly nationalistic stand.  Yet, the ubiquitous fascination with “Communist chic”, such as T-Shirts bearing Chinese, Soviet or Cuban cultural revolutionary imagery, tends to proliferate with very little understanding of the historical meaning of these symbols.  A more prominent example of the mindlessness of mass fashion consumerism arises in the commercialisation of the iconic image of Che Guevara, who (ironically, in the contemporary context of rampant materialism) fought against capitalism.

Why is it that the majority of such consumers are oblivious to the contradictions they perpetuate in this fashion, so to speak? 

Wearing their highly styled “Che” T-shirts whilst driving luxury cars and frequenting expensive restaurants, are they consciously trying to signify that they are in solidarity with the marginalisation and hunger of the poor?  Have they any inkling at all that their garment was probably made under sweatshop conditions?  Do they realise that, as such, they are, in effect, participants in the global exploitation of millions of low-paid workers making up the complex value-chain of the worldwide apparel sector?  

Or do they merely wear the T-shirt because it is “on trend”?

21st century revolutionaries proudly wear the iconic Che portrait as a symbol of their ideological righteousness. However, the truth behind the distorted decorative application of this image is that Che-as-icon has become currency for trading to ignorant fashion zombies and so-called contemporary revolutionaries, whose understanding of Che’s power stems from scant biography and its associative meanings, purveyed under the influence of popular media.

The camouflage T-shirt, annotated with military symbols, is another example of the power of the fashion media and global marketing strategies. Camouflage fabric was first used by the French during World War I. In 1927, this aesthetic was used by Louis Weinberg in contemporary fashion to create the illusion of the wearer’s height.

However, it is incongruent that now, in a time when global peace and non-violence is promulgated by most governments and civil society, adults and children wear “camo-chic” T-shirts without any sensitivity to the violent origins of the fabric.  Moreover, this styling contradicts the fundamental purpose of wearing camouflage, which is to blend into the surrounding environment as a means of averting attention from the enemy; instead, the consumer’s sole intention for sporting this look is to be seen.

The T-shirt itself was used for the first time in 1939 for an advertising campaign by the film company Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer (MGM) to launch one of the first colour films, The Wizard of Oz. Since then, nearly every company, large or small the world over, has used the T-shirt as an affordable marketing and messaging platform.

The T-shirt has been interwoven with politics and social advocacy for decades, used by anti-apartheid activists, anti-war groups, environmental champions, charities and other civil society campaigns, to promote ideological and humanitarian agendas.

The T-shirt has enormous potential as an economic driver. For example, the 121 political parties and 748 independent candidates who took part in South Africa’s 2011 municipal elections could have achieved a massively positive economic impact on country’s beleaguered clothing and textile sector, had their campaign T-shirts been designed and made locally.  Sadly, one of the most prominent parties imported their T-shirts from India, and a few years ago, the dominant party imported their T-shirt stock from China.

Just two of these larger parties, each producing 25,000 T-shirts, could have covered the salary of one qualified clothing machine operator for 10 years, while over R2 million of much-needed revenue could have been injected into the clothing sector if each of the 121 parties produced only 2,000 T-shirts at a cost of R10 per shirt.

The T-shirt, imprinted with sexually suggestive imagery and messaging, has commodified children as a target market.  These products are blindly bought by parents who perceive such messages as cute and endearingly cheeky for kids as young as seven, with little conception or excavation of the harmful gender roles and behaviour promoted on this ostensibly “cool” garment.

The T-shirt is a powerful medium that literally provides a blank canvas to express, disseminate and mobilise highly visible constructed messages, cultural codes and political choices, by establishing a recognisable identity within the wearer’s social context.  How the T-shirt consumer consciously or unconsciously subscribes to becoming either a walking billboard or a heraldic figure can only be determined with profound perspicacity in relation to this garment as a social tool in the global economy.

Palmi is currently reading for a PhD at CCMS, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

July 2011

@ The ReDress Consultancy