Shtusim: for your entertainment

Monday, June 26, 2006

T-Shirts

So there I was, innocently minding my own business, when I was visually assaulted by a woman wearing a bright pink T-shirt with the words "Party Girl" on the back, spelled out in shiny sequins.

Now that summer has come around again (at least for those of us in the northern hemishphere), I have begun to pay attention to the T-shirts people wear.

It's World Cup soccer time and, quite understandably, one would want to show support for his team by sporting the team's T-shirt. That way the police can identify you easily when they arrest you for overturning cars, burning tyres and other soccer-fan related mischief. But why would a taxi driver wear a white T-shirt with black sleeves and the word "RECONSTRUCTION" emblazoned on the front? What does it mean?

I used to have a white T-shirt with "Coca Cola" printed on it in Hebrew. I thought that was pretty cool. I wonder what happened to that shirt. I have a T with the names of all of the participants in my kibbutz-ulpan program from about 11 years ago. Now there's a good example of a T-shirt that only I (and a limited number of others) will understand.

I took this picture from Wikipedia's page about t-shirts. It is a classic example of a bold design that means nothing to anybody. Who is Frankie and why does he say to relax? Am I supposed to go up to the wearer and ask him? If Frankie said to jump off a cliff, should I print that on my T-shirt as well? And it's not just that Frankie says relax, it's that Frankie SAYS relax. Is that different to FRANKIE says relax or Frankie says RELAX? What is the hidden meaning behind "SAYS" in larger font? One could really get a headache thinking about this.

I liked the concept of the heat-sensitive T-shirts that were in vogue years ago (Global Hypercolor). The T-shirt would change colour in the areas where your body gave off heat. This is great if you want everyone to know that right now your armpits are rather warm.

Most T-shirt designs don't seem to make any sense whatsoever. Often, they include a word or a design that only the wearer of the T-shirt understands. Everyone else just thinks you are strange. Perhaps the T-shirt designer just opened a dictionary, picked a long word and stuck it on to the front of the T. It doesn't actually take much effort, except that you have to know how to read.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who is Frankie?

Tuesday, 27 June, 2006

 
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Monday, 08 February, 2010

 

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