Why We Wear Statement Shirts

We’ve come to know how comfortable it is to wear T-shirts, and somehow we define our personalities by the shirts we wear. If we’re not in a good mood, we let our shirts tell other people that. If we’re happy, the color of our shirt will express our joy. Nowadays, our statement shirts are seemingly our new version of tattoos because our mantras and philosophies can be seen printed on our chests through our shirts. If we want to accessorize, we can have our shirts do that for us, too. Not to mention that these are very versatile, since they can be paired with almost anything. Yes, we are what we wear, and every time we go out we tell the world what we want to say through statement shirts.

You might ask: why do we wear statement shirts? Lifestyle and entertainment website lifestyle.iloveindia.com tells us that historically, the purpose of statement shirts is “to advertise merchandise, promote peace and protest racism”, which were later on used for “election campaigns, strikes, and the promotion of international organizations”. At present, for us, the purposes are not so profound nor socially relevant. We wear them because we want to, just like how we sometimes play online games over at Cheekybingo.com or crave for strawberry ice cream for no apparent reason.

News website The Guardian – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/16/gap-manifest-destiny-t-shirt described creating slogans for shirts as “delicate”, stating that the “most difficult to imagine must be the phrase that doesn’t aim to sloganeer or make its readers laugh, but rather to make the wearer look deep, the very embodiment of hipster cool.” Precisely, our purposes for wearing statement shirts range from getting noticed to being redundant; that is, making a statement. We also wear them to convey our mood or show our personality. We also put them on to showcase our clothing style. Mainly though, we believe that these shirts are worn for the comfort they bring.

The next time we’re about to head out and we’re thinking of which shirt to pick, we should stop for a moment to contemplate on what our shirt will imply to those who’ll see it. So long as it’s not discriminating or offensive, our shirt is safe. Remember, our shirts speak for us, so just wear what you want to say.

Image: A Bowl Full of Lemons