Political messaging, fashion mix on T-shirts
This spring, the term “fashion statement” has become literal. From the catwalks of New York and Europe to the sidewalks of cities like San Francisco, T-shirts bearing declarative messages are everywhere, reflecting life following the polarizing 2016 election and the reaction to the new Trump administration.
As ubiquitous in the modern wardrobe as blue jeans, T-shirts have long been a trendy tribal identifier, from rock concert tees to shirts emblazoned with logos. But the latest shirts go beyond merely endorsing a band, brand or even a candidate, and speak to the wearer’s personal ethos as much as their style. Simple and bold, they boast relaxed fits and plain-lettered slogans on simple black or white tees.
The fashion industry kicked off the trend in February when prominent designers emblazoned pro-women and
pro-diversity sentiments on T-shirts worn on the runways and designated a percentage of sales to support nonprofit organizations. With phrases like “Resist,” “Immigrant” and “Go Rogue,” San Francisco T-shirt company Road TwentyTwo’s latest offerings mirror the left-leaning shirts sold by designers. Online marketplace Etsy and other small vendors are producing hundreds of their own considerably lowerpriced versions.
“The T-shirt is such an integral piece of the wardrobe,” said Roseanne Morrison, fashion director at New York retail and fashion industry strategy firm the Doneger Group. “With what’s going on globally, people want to express their values, and that’s the perfect medium for it.”
Christian Dior may have planted the seeds with its “We should all be feminists” Tshirts, shown in Paris last fall, referencing a title by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. A $710 version of the shirt is being sold to benefit singer Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation.
“We are all immigrants,” was one of 19 messages on shirts on Nepalese American fashion designer Prabal Gurung’s runway show in New York. A portion of proceeds from the $195 shirts benefit the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the Shikshya Foundation Nepal.
Vogue, Allure and Harper’s Bazaar have all deemed slogan shirts a significant trend. Retail data company Edited reports that in the first three months of 2017, sales of “statement tops” have already climbed 46 percent compared with a year ago.
“The last time we really saw something like this was the 1980s with Katharine Hamnett’s T-shirts,” said fashion expert and H Halston Fashion Director Cameron Silver. The British designer’s slogan tees, such as the antisuicide message “Choose Life,” were most famously worn by the late pop singer George Michael in a music video. “But this time,” says Silver, “politics are blatantly everywhere.”
Closer to home, Road Twenty-Two, founded by Fif Ghobadian and Alice Larkin Cahan in 2014, is embracing the trend, as is the customizable local T-shirt app Levatee. Road Twenty-Two’s mission emphasizes sustainable, American production and employing previously incarcerated and homeless women, a socially conscious ethos that makes it well suited for stepping into politics.
“Messaging is core to who we are,” Ghobadian said. “We also knew this messaging could alienate some people, but we wanted to do something we believe in.”
The “Go Rogue” and “Resist” shirts are “absolutely a rebuke to Trump, who is doing so much we disagree with,” she says. The “Immigrant” shirt refers to the brand’s personal history as well as the idea that in the United States, “we are all immigrants and contributors.” Ghobadian’s family emigrated from Iran when she was 15, and Larkin Cahan grew up in London.
“Go Rogue” and “Immigrant” shirts both sold out their small-production batches of 30 to 50 within two weeks. Additional shirts are being printed to fulfill demand. The shirts are priced at $76, reflecting the fact that they are manufactured domestically, and are sold at several Bay Area boutiques and via the company’s website.
The idea of a T-shirt telegraphing one’s beliefs has a history in the Bay Area. In the 1970s, “Anita Sucks” shirts protesting orange juice ambassador Anita Bryant’s antigay activism sprang up, as did shirts supporting the United Farm Workers movement. ACT UP, a direct action group working to end AIDS, took the pink triangle and “Silence = Death,” slogan off one of their posters and emblazoned it on T-shirts that populated protests in the ’80s and ’90s.
“In general in the U.S., there is a deep desire to express yourself and make it clear where you stand,” Ghobadian said.
Being based in the Bay Area makes selling these particular messages “100 times easier,” she said. “It’s the norm to be more liberal here. It’s not as though I get many people that ask why I’d make an ‘Immigrant’ T-shirt in the Bay Area.”
It’s not just progressive messages on T-shirts making news. In the fall, a photo tweeted by Reuters of a man wearing a shirt that read “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required,” created enough outcry that online T-shirt design shops Zazzle and Teespring pulled them from their website. In January, mall retailer Spencer’s Gifts pulled four pro-Trump message shirts from brick and mortar locations and online that read, “Team Trump,” “Trump ’16: Finally Someone With Balls,” “Deal With It” and “Grab America By the P—” after a social media backlash. Musician Kid Rock is also selling three pro-Trump shirts on his website, including a shirt that labels blue states “Dumbf—-istan.”
Amazon and other sites carry graphic T-shirts ranging from presidential portraits (including Trump portrayed as Rambo), to plays on Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rallying cry. While these novelty shirts are abundant, they haven’t become part of the cultural current the same way as these text-driven T-shirts.
But do message shirts run the risk of potentially alienating customers in an already uncertain retail climate? It depends on the message, said Neiman Marcus Fashion Director Ken Downing. “It’s not a retailer’s place to push their opinion on the customer. We sell messaged merchandise now, but it’s not pro- or antipolitical statements or curse words. If it’s a positive, empowering statement, it’s appropriate for our stores.”
Fashion strategist Morrison anticipates message T-shirts continuing to trend “at least for the next four years (of the Trump administration) unless we have something happen in the interim,” she said. “As things happen in the political arena, there’s only going to be more fodder for the information we’re going to see on the T-shirts.”