T-Shirt Cult Culture Subversion exhibition
Hi guys,
After my visit last week to the Super Sharp exhibition we discussed with our Visual Merchandising tutor about going to the T-shirt Cult Culture Subversion exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. Our tutor contacted us at the beginning of the week saying she managed to get us free tickets as we had shown our interest and it would be a good addition to our final project for our primary research!
The exhibition is only available to see from the 9th February until the 6th May 2018, so if you are interested in garment history and contextual fashion it is so worth heading down there! I think we rushed the exhibition a bit because we hate having to travel hours on the train to get home standing up! That's commuting for you! It was enjoyable, and if I didn't have time to read a passage I took a photograph so I could read it on the train home.
The exhibition included a private collection of Vivienne Westwood t-shirts in which some were merchandised on mannequins. Other brands included Biba, Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. There were many styles of t-shirts in the exhibitions, all showing different aspects of the purpose of a t-shirt.
T-shirts came around as early as 500 AD and have been with us ever since, both in and out of fashion.
Agriprop originated in Soviet Russia, this describes the subversive strategy of punk. Early punk t-shirts used transgressive and bold images and slogans like those designed by Vivienne Westwood. Most t-shirts were hand printed but were also destroyed to make them look like they had deteriorated - other t-shirts were turned inside out to make them look distressed. These self-inflicted techniques shifted the production and reproduction of fashion.
Personal and political events also changed the way in which t-shirts were worn and the meaning of that. Campaign, charity fundraising and protest t-shirts show us how they were used to communicate messages as either a group or individual. This can include feminism, LGBT rights or global campaigns.
The t-shirt is one of the simplest items of clothing to make unisex. Cotton jersey clings to the body therefore conforming to the idea of male and female eroticism.
The t-shirt has now been made into a fashion statement. High end designers started including t-shirts in their collections in the 1970s due to the rise of visual branding (this is the helpful bit for my final project of course). The 20th Century also saw the rise of high-street fashion, with the market ensuring that everyone would see the t-shirt as a fashionable addition to their clothing collection. Customers can relate to a brand or designer with particular t-shirts, inexpensively and stylishly.
At the end of the exhibition there was a gallery called Susan Barnett T: A Typology of T-shirts. The images were of people who wanted to label themselves based on the t-shirts they was wearing, telling us who they are.
Obviously this isn't as in depth as the actual exhibition, but these are the main points that I picked up from this exhibition, but I knew what I was looking for for my project so I filed through everything till I got to what I needed, perhaps not taking notice on parts that you possibly would! I highly recommend, student tickets are only £7!
After my visit last week to the Super Sharp exhibition we discussed with our Visual Merchandising tutor about going to the T-shirt Cult Culture Subversion exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. Our tutor contacted us at the beginning of the week saying she managed to get us free tickets as we had shown our interest and it would be a good addition to our final project for our primary research!
The exhibition is only available to see from the 9th February until the 6th May 2018, so if you are interested in garment history and contextual fashion it is so worth heading down there! I think we rushed the exhibition a bit because we hate having to travel hours on the train to get home standing up! That's commuting for you! It was enjoyable, and if I didn't have time to read a passage I took a photograph so I could read it on the train home.
The exhibition included a private collection of Vivienne Westwood t-shirts in which some were merchandised on mannequins. Other brands included Biba, Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. There were many styles of t-shirts in the exhibitions, all showing different aspects of the purpose of a t-shirt.
T-shirts came around as early as 500 AD and have been with us ever since, both in and out of fashion.
Agriprop originated in Soviet Russia, this describes the subversive strategy of punk. Early punk t-shirts used transgressive and bold images and slogans like those designed by Vivienne Westwood. Most t-shirts were hand printed but were also destroyed to make them look like they had deteriorated - other t-shirts were turned inside out to make them look distressed. These self-inflicted techniques shifted the production and reproduction of fashion.
Personal and political events also changed the way in which t-shirts were worn and the meaning of that. Campaign, charity fundraising and protest t-shirts show us how they were used to communicate messages as either a group or individual. This can include feminism, LGBT rights or global campaigns.
The t-shirt is one of the simplest items of clothing to make unisex. Cotton jersey clings to the body therefore conforming to the idea of male and female eroticism.
The t-shirt has now been made into a fashion statement. High end designers started including t-shirts in their collections in the 1970s due to the rise of visual branding (this is the helpful bit for my final project of course). The 20th Century also saw the rise of high-street fashion, with the market ensuring that everyone would see the t-shirt as a fashionable addition to their clothing collection. Customers can relate to a brand or designer with particular t-shirts, inexpensively and stylishly.
At the end of the exhibition there was a gallery called Susan Barnett T: A Typology of T-shirts. The images were of people who wanted to label themselves based on the t-shirts they was wearing, telling us who they are.
Obviously this isn't as in depth as the actual exhibition, but these are the main points that I picked up from this exhibition, but I knew what I was looking for for my project so I filed through everything till I got to what I needed, perhaps not taking notice on parts that you possibly would! I highly recommend, student tickets are only £7!
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