1913 The First T-Shirt Models

White cotton, crewneck T-shirts became regulation underwear for the U.S. Navy. Two decades later,
at the University of Southern California, football players don similar shirts to prevent chafing from
heavy shoulder pads. The tees became so fashionable that students start pilfering them for casual
wear. In response, the school began stenciling "Property of USC" on its T-shirts as a crime-prevention
tactic, not a statement of pride.

1951 An Undershirt Named Desire




Hollywood rebel Marlon Brando exudes animal magnetism in A Streetcar Named Desire when he wears
a thin, white T-shirt. Teens dig the look, and by year's end, T-shirt sales total $180 million. But for
Brando, the style is only a means to an end. A graduate of The Actors' Studio, he'd learned to use his
body to show his character's inner turmoil. The T-shirt is only a thin veil, meant to cover not only his
rippling physique, but also his character's bestial urges.

1969 Tie-Dyed Shirts Become Groovy


For decades, the only people using Rit dye were old women who wanted to color their drapes and
linens. But in the mid-60s, advertising whiz Don Price markets the dye to hippies, who use it to tie-
dye their tees. But Price's real stroke of genius comes in 1969, when he produces hundreds of the
shirts and gives them away to performers at Woodstock. The multicolored tops are quickly adopted as
part of the counterculture uniform.

1977 I NY

Throughout the 1970s, New York City gains a reputation as a tourists'
nightmare -dirty, decadent, and crime-ridden. To revitalize the city's image, the Commerce
Department hires designer Milton Glaser to fashion an eye-catching logo for the city. Over lunch one
day, Glaser sketches "I NY" on a napkin. The logo spearheads a resurgence in New York tourism and
becomes the most imitated T-shirt design in history. Glaser claims that the shirt's appeal comes from
decoding the symbols: "You feel smart when you figure it out."

1984 Frankie Learns to Talk







BBC Radio bans song "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, claiming the lyrics are too explicitly
sexual. Naturally, sales of the single skyrocket, and the song goes to No. 1. To flaunt the band's
triumph over censorship, record label owner Paul Morley puts the song's words in big capital letters on
T-shirts.

The "FRANKIE SAYS RELAX" tee turn millions of music fans into human billboards. Soon, Frankie
knock-offs are everywhere. Although the band's popularity quickly dies, the T-shirt lives on, appearing
on the torso of everyone from Jennifer Anniston to Homer Simpson.