If you’re like me, you have a closet full of T-shirts (my favorite is my Spice Girls tour T-shirt). Now that T-shirts have become a true fashion staple, it’s not unusual to see the majority of people donning T-shirts as part of their everyday wardrobes. Because of this recent popularity, I started to wonder about the backstory of T-shirts, and decided to do some fact-digging.
After much research, I picked out my 10 favorite facts about T-shirts, and decided to share them with you.
1. The oldest printed shirt in the Smithsonian institute was part of New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s 1948 presidential campaign, and reads “Dew-It with Dewey.” – Blue Cotton
2. The first promotional shirt was produced in 1939, for “The Wizard of Oz.” – Blue Cotton
3. The ’70s also marked the birth of the “I Love New York” campaign, a T-shirt campaign started by the Commerce department to shift the city’s image to a tourist destination. – Blue Cotton
4. The world’s most expensive T-shirt costs $400,000, thanks to the 16 diamonds sewn into the fabric. – Blue Cotton
5. The T-shirt is named for its T shape, and first appeared in the dictionary in the ’20s. – ClassB
6. The Guinness World Record for the most T-shirts worn at once is 257. – The T-shirt Factory
7. F. Scott Fitzgerald first coined the word T-shirt in his 1920 novel, “This Side of Paradise.” – Quora
8. More than 2 billion T-shirts are sold worldwide every year. – ApparelInBags Blog
9. From 2009 to 2014, the T-shirt industry grew more than 24.2 percent. – Blue Cotton
10. June 21 is International T-shirt Day.
