Question…What is the most popular piece of summer clothing that appeals to all ages, all sexes & can send a message to the world by wearing it or equally it can blend in to the background.

Answer…A T-shirt. The first manufactured T-shirt was invented between the Mexican-American War in 1898 & 1913 when the U.S Navy began issuing them as standard undershirts. From World War II, it was commonplace for sailors and marines to remove their uniform jacket during their leisure time, so they only made their undershirt (T-shirt) dirty. As far back as 1939 when ‘The Wizard of Oz’ was released, the graphic T-shirt was seen on the workers in Emerald City, who wore T-shirts with the word OZ emblazoned across the. It wasn’t until the 1950s, the plain T-shirt really took off in popularity in the US, after Marlon Brando appeared wearing one in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. Disneyland also opened in the mid 50’s & a company called Tropix Togs, could see how big the graphic tee would become, so obtained the rights to print the official Disney T-shirts & the graphic T-shirt was born. Britain was much slower to catch on…the T-shirt was seen as too casual & socially unacceptable. It wasn’t until Barbara Hulanicki, the designer & founder of Biba, started selling them through mail order in about 1964, they were predominantly aimed at young people & the T-shirt became a large part of Biba’s success.

And fun fact for you…back in the day, I designed & sold my own T-shirts at Camden & Spitalfields markets. Some were my own designs, some were old retro photos I had found & some terrible 1970’s birthday cards, (It did not take off), Ian Beale won’t be offering me a pitch any time soon (does he even run the market anymore)? But my daughter recently found one & is wearing it, so that’s high praise.

The misconception about T-shirts is that they are casual wear & can only really be worn with jeans, which is not true of course, in menswear for the last 10 years the T-shirt has become the perfect partner to mens suits. Also in womenswear (anything goes now) think Carrie Bradshaw in a T-shirt, tulle skirt & heels. There is a wide variety of T-shirts out there, you have the classic Breton stripe, slogan, vintage, sport, band t-shirts, tees with a twist, cropped, boxy or oversized. It is an extremely versatile piece. Below are some outfit ideas for how I styled my T-shirts & also some of my favourite T-shirts currently available on the high street & online.

I bought my Choose Love Tee from Choose Love (100% of the profits go to supporting refugees) They have some great T-shirts with lots of different designs… please check their page out, they also have other merchandise available, like baby clothes & tote bags.