Plain white T-shirts are a celebrated facet of American style. Marlon Brando and James Dean made them iconic in the 1950s. Alexander Wang built an empire on them. Hell, a pop band even borrowed the moniker. No outfit could be besmirched by a white T-Shirt.
But then there are graphic-printed tees, and their kissing cousins — the dreaded STATEMENT TEE. Oooh boy. Those are easy to get wrong.
In my 30+ years, I’ve bought enough bad T-shirts to write a book on the subject, including an obnoxious Abercrombie baseball tee printed with the word “Perfect” on the front and the number “10” on the back. (I am still cringing, 13 years later.)
Over the years, I have outgrown my predilection for tees and slowly whittled away at my enormous collection. (I think I had an undiagnosed addiction.) Even with this vigorous editing, I usually refuse to wear T-shirts outside my apartment for fear of looking sloppy or too-casual.
I wondered: Was it possible to reimagine graphic shirts? And moreover, could they be transformed into something sophisticated?
Here are three recent attempts to up-sell the slacker uniform:
Cartoon-inspired tees should be paired with tailored items. Past the age of 22, super-graphic tees can stop looking ironic and start looking like Comic Book Guy. By treating this Medusa shirt like a thin sweater (and pairing it with luxurious leather items), I breathed fresh life into something that was surely destined to the donation bin.
Keep it simple when you’re making a big statement. This shirt is printed with a skeletal version of Tupac Shakur. Trust me, any other accessory would be insane.
Keep the statements short and punchy. T-shirts aren’t the place for long-winded witticisms. This tee only has two words, but it manages to reference Riccardo Tisci AND the Feminist Ryan Gosling meme. To make it even more meta, this shirt was created by Internet superstar Molls, a staff writer on “2 Broke Girls.” (Read the creation story here.)
So, you tell me: Do you still wear statement T-shirts? How did you reinvent them for a more modern look?