T-Shirt Billboards

By Rachel Sokol/Greenwich Village Gazette

-shirts are back.

Okay, so Urban Outfitters, Old Navy and a bunch of other chain stores are selling billboard T-shirts this season: plain T-shirts with a vintage look that say something on them. I have to admit, some of these little T’s are trendy and cute. I have a billboard T that reads, "Free To Be." Except when I wear it I worry that people are staring at my chest and wondering exactly WHAT is meant by, "Free To Be." (I bought it because I was once in a school production of the whimsical, "Free to be a Family" musical. Represent!)

I noticed some T’s at Urban that said, "Brunette’s Have More Fun," "Bob’s Grocery" "Getting Lucky in Kentucky" and "Have you Hugged My Shirt Today?" And just when you thought the 80’s were over, I noticed some T’s had an iron-on (remember iron-on’s?!) look to them, with a Fat Albert character, Ziggy face or Kool-Aid logo on the front. Urban’s even sporting religion and race with their new T-shirts. Some of the shirts, in a variety of colors, say, "Everyone loves an Italian Girl" or a ‘Jewish Girl," "Catholic Girl" or a "German Girl," so people can sport their race and religion. It’s cute, a little ‘out there,’ but there have been worse fashion trends. (Do leg warmers ring a bell???)

I don’t like T-shirts. I find them to be bulky and ugly and I’d rather wear something more fitted. The only T-shirt I love is the one from my college, which has been washed so many times it feels like plastic. And I love borrowing a big T-shirt from a guy that doesn’t smell like body odor and sweat. But now that summer’s on, I don’t have a dress code at work and I think SOME of billboard T-shirts are cute, I have found myself buying trendy T’s once again. This got me thinking about the history of my T-shirts…

Recently, my teenaged brother Dave went digging through my old clothes and found my old T’s. I tossed out old, bleach-stained and stretched out T-shirts from camp a long, long time ago. But my mom made me save some concert and vacation T-shirts, so I left them in my closest back on Long Island and just forgot about them--leaving them to collect dust over the years. Dave likes to dress stylishly, which I think is a great trend for a teenage boy to adapt. I mean, clothes are important and no one wants to look like a slob. He has some billboard T-shirts from Abercrombie and Fitch, which, we all know, Abercrombie clothes = Instant ‘cool’ if you are below the age of 20. But he wanted some ‘vintage’ shirts, he says.

"Vintage T’s are cool," Dave told me the last time I was visiting the fam. "Do you have any old T-shirts I can wear?"

I’m thinking two things when he asks me this. Here I am in my mid-twenties, and suddenly clothes I wore thirteen years ago are now considered ‘vintage’ by today’s middle school students? That’s sad. The second thing I wondered was…*did* I still have any of my old billboard T-shirts? I hoped not.

Dave went digging through my closet and back with…eeek! A handful of 80’s and 90’s T-shirts I never thought I would see again. Thankfully, my magenta HYPERCOLOR t-shirt was axed years ago (If you missed out on the HYPERCOLOR trend, you didn’t miss much) but my concert T-shirts and various others were not. Apparently, after thirteen years, I still had my faded New Kids on the Block concert T-shirt along with Tiffany, Debbie Gibson and Cyndi Lauper. Even worse, Dave found a stupid "California Raisins" T-shirt I used to love, a "Wax On, Wax Off" T-shirt and my old "Pepsi—The Choice of a New Generation," oversized T. Talk about Billboard shirts. And where the heck did I get a "Bazooka Joe" T-shirt and did I actually wear that thing in public??? That’s the funny thing about old, wrinkled T-shirts. You can’t even recall how you got them in the first place.

"Ooooh, I’ll sell those on eBay," I said to Dave, after I got over the initial shock that I still had these shirts in my childhood bedroom. But Dave wouldn’t let me because he wanted to wear them. Apparently, they are ‘so cool.’ I was half expecting him to search the basement for my old "Pocket Rocker," "Battlestar Galactica" pajamas and neon fanny pack.

I remember when Bell-Bottoms made a brief comeback my freshman year of college and YESSSS I wore a pair of them. Frequently. I had asked my mother why she didn’t save any of her 70’s clothes from her college days in Manhattan and she winced and said, "Ugh! They were so ugly! I never thought 70’s clothes would come back in style." I was totally convinced my mom was not cool because she didn’t save any of her fringed vests or bell-bottomed Jordache jeans for her daughters. I guess Dave feels the same way I did about my old T-shirts -- and I feel the same way NOW that my mom did about her old clothes. I never thought ugly, big stretched out T-shirts would find a new life.

So, Dave cut the sleeves off my old Tiffany and Debbie Gibson t-shirt’s and wore them to school -- and apparently, they were a hit. Now he’s convinced he started a new trend because all his friends want 80’s and 90’s T-shirts now. He’s mad I didn’t save my Hypercolor T-shirt and my ‘Gizmo’ from Gremlin’s backpack.

As for the next generation of vintage billboard shirts being sold all over Manhattan—they are cute but come on…they’ll be out of style soon and some are ridiculously overpriced. You’re better off silk-screaming your own T-shirts or wearing old concert T’s. And girls, really, do we need a silly T-shirt slogan to draw any more attention to our chests? Granted, those T-shirts are indeed conversation starters and bring up thousands of childhood memories, but they can be a bit silly. Even sillier? I’m GLAD I listened to my mom and saved some of my old T-shirts. They’re classic. Plain and simple. Too bad my mom never saved her original ‘Monkees’ and ‘Partridge Family’ T’s….

Also…did you know that this April was the twentieth anniversary of the movie, "Ghostbusters?" I had a "Ghostbusters!" t-shirt as a kid that I wore constantly.

Anyway, I’ll leave you with these nostalgic thoughts while I head off to find my old Glow-in-the-Dark Keds and E.T. backpack in my parent’s basement….

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