What does your T-shirt say about you?

Our clothes say a lot more about us than might appear at first glance. When we walk around the house, especially on autumn evenings, we can afford to be careless, not to say “casual” in our choice of clothes, as long as we stay warm. On the other hand, when we go out to work, to a meeting or on a date, we want to dress neatly and pleasantly to the eye of those watching us from outside. We present ourselves in yet another way when we go to a concert, cinema or convention, showing our devotion to our favourite music group or membership of a particular fandom.

Clothes betray character traits

Printed T-shirts can often be seen as a bit of a throwback, like ‘Best Uncle at the Party’ or ‘I’m a Princess, Stay Out of My Way’. Fortunately, I see fewer and fewer people with such “flowers” on their T-shirts, and more often than not, we see designs that are meant to represent something more, through which we can make a positive first impression of someone.

The fashion for clothes with logos or quotations from famous youtubers is still going strong, and patriotic clothing continues to be popular (although there is a lot of controversy surrounding it). Walking the streets in summer, I saw a lot of people who dream of receiving a letter from Hogwarts, who want to become a Jedi like Luke Skywalker or a Marvel superhero. It may sound funny, but it seems to me that supporting specific characters like Superman, Batman, Spider, Hulk or Thor by wearing their symbols on one’s chest can give a vague, but nevertheless, insight into the character traits of the ‘wearer’.

Depending on what values we value in life we identify with such heroes and thus, in a sense, say “I am brave”, “I am responsible”, “I am strong”, etc. And above all, we prove to those around us that, regardless of our age, we are not killing the inner child within us.

You don’t grow out of T-shirts

Our inner child won’t let us part with wearing T-shirts with funny prints or images of well-loved fictional or real characters. I’ve heard it said many times that one grows out of such things and that it is a sign of extravagance to wear various slogans or logos beyond, say, the age of forty. If you give up a kind of manifestation of your personality in favour of being completely ordinary, it’s a sign that something has clearly died in you.

Of course, some T-shirt prints are temporarily fashionable, our language (with the emphasis on that of the Internet) is constantly evolving, and memetic designs in particular quickly become outdated and start to fall under the heading of “something dorky”. At one time, one would see various ‘trollfaces’, ‘foreveralones’ or other ‘challengeaccepteds’, but these have been superseded by more ironic slogans, or simply more mature and universal ones. On the other hand, commonly used catchphrases, which are old, such as “Shit Happens” or “I don’t give a fuck”, which may not be very fancy, but still sound great today, and they are “American”, which we as customers have a weakness for.

T-shirts that refer to the days of the week and the attitude to having to work are also an interesting phenomenon. “I hate mondays” or other “Thursday is a little Friday” shirts are nothing more than an ironic attitude to the hardships of everyday life. Or, from another angle, that in just a moment, in just a moment, you will be able to party, to relax. And I have to admit that when I see people in such outfits, somewhere inside I share their depression and frustration or the feeling that it will soon be Friday, Friday, Friday. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it does affect the mood to some extent.

Something like an underground circle

What does your T-shirt say about you? - 186861

Club shirts are yet another case of a personality manifesto. By definition, a club is a hermetic community with its own rules. And even though clubs can be huge and morph into fandoms, they still remain somewhat elitist. We live in an age where we can be interested in a whole host of phenomena. The word ‘pop culture’ now has a much more global meaning than it once did, and the eclecticism of the 21st century has meant that no one is surprised anymore by a Lord of the Rings fan listening to hip-hop or a metalhead watching anime.

When the internet became widely available in almost every household, we started looking for new ways to communicate and tell other people what we were interested in. Observing various forums dedicated to pop culture, I increasingly notice those dedicated to belonging to a kind of elite, a group where we instinctively look for people similar to us. So the first impression is made by our avatar and what we look like on it. How many times have I read comments from which long online, but also real-life friendships could be born: “but you have a cool T-shirt”, “great band”, “I watch that show too”, all because of the right print.

Extrovert, introvert, extravagant

In addition to the content itself, the T-shirt is also worth noting for its… colour. I myself am most fond of plain black clothes with the logos of my favourite bands, but when attending conventions or simply embracing people on the streets, I can see who wants to draw attention to themselves at first glance. Brightness, multicolour, intensity of colour I usually associate with open-minded people with colourful lives, flamboyant character. Drowning in black or grey tends to make me superficially judge people as secretive, withdrawn, not keen to shine in their surroundings. Of course, these are clichés, hackneyed platitudes and stereotypes, for it is not the clothes that adorn a man, but, as they say, “there is something in it”.

Don’t throw away your memories!

I know that I will wear printed T-shirts until I look so grotesque in them that even my inner child will not help me. And you wear them too, because it’s nice to pick out a potential soulmate in a crowd somewhere, with whom you can strike up a conversation and exchange a few words, if only for a moment. Ah! I would forget the most important thing! T-shirts have an extremely high sentimental value and even if you no longer wear them, don’t throw them away, just hide them wherever you can. Finding a T-shirt from years ago with some memories attached to it? An absolutely priceless experience!