How the White T-Shirt Became the Uniform
How the White T-Shirt Became the Uniform
It cost 24 cents in the Sears catalog and it took two films to make it famous.
There is a good chance you own five of them. There is a better chance you have never wondered where the shape came from. It is a great story and most of it happened inside seventy years.
The Navy Wrote It Down
The modern short sleeve pullover appeared around 1900. In 1913 the United States Navy put it into the uniform regulations and gave it a spec. The undershirt was to be the lightest weight cotton consistent with durability, with sleeves only long enough to cover the armpit.
That sentence is the birth certificate. Light, white, crew neck, short sleeve. It has barely moved in more than a century.
Fitzgerald Named It
The word arrived through a novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald used t-shirt in print in This Side of Paradise in 1920, and Merriam-Webster picked it up the same year.
A writer gave it the name. The Navy gave it the shape. Neither of them was trying to make a fashion item.
Twenty Four Cents
By 1938 it was in the Sears catalog at 24 cents. Cheap, washable, and comfortable in heat, so it went everywhere hot and physical work was done.
Then the Second World War put millions of men in one. When they came home they kept wearing them, and a garment that had been strictly an undershirt started appearing in daylight.
Two Films
In 1951 Marlon Brando wore one as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. In 1955 James Dean wore one in Rebel Without a Cause. Between those two films the plain white tee stopped being underwear and became a statement, and sales went through the roof.
That is a rare thing to be able to date. Most garments drift into meaning. This one was handed its meaning by two actors inside four years.
What Makes One Great
Everything about a white tee is visible. There is no pattern to hide behind and no hardware to admire. The cotton, the weight, the neck and the shoulder are the entire garment.
Weight is the first decision. A light tee moves and a heavy one hangs, holds its line, and reads as substantial across a room.
The neck is the second. A ribbed collar with proper recovery stays round for years. Self tape running shoulder to shoulder takes the load off the neck seam so the shoulders keep their shape.
Shrinkage is the third, and it gets decided before anything is cut.
Ours
The Ultimate Tee is 12oz cotton, custom milled for us in a natural un-dyed state, and made in the USA.
The cloth is rolled washed before it is cut and sewn, which takes the shrinkage out at the front end so the shirt you order is the shirt you keep. The neckline is a 1x1 rib with shoulder to shoulder self tape reinforcement.
Twelve ounces is a lot of shirt. That is the whole idea. A white tee is the most looked at thing in a wardrobe, so it should be the one that lasts.
A Way Of Life.
Shop the Story
the Ultimate Tee in AIR FORCE Blue
the Ultimate Tee with A Love For America artwork
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