Heyy readers!

Last year I visited the T-shirt: Cult, Culture, Subversion exhibition at the Fashion and Textile museum in London. It was between the 9th February and 6th May 2018. I visited the exhibition with a group of my friends from the FRA (Fashion Retail Academy) and luckily, our visual merchandising tutor was able to get us in free of charge as we were fashion students!

The Fashion Textile Museum has described the exhibition as the milestones of the history of the t-shirt, rather than the history and culture of the garment. There was many contexts and sections of this exhibition, but I am going to focus on the unisex section as this is my bailiwick.

The t-shirt has always been well-known to be regarded as a unisex garment in popular culture. The cotton jersey has the description to cling to the body, therefore having the connotations of male and female eroticism, as it has the origins as an intimate undergarment also.

The section in the exhibition there are a variety of examples where the T-shirt is seen as unisex. The T-shirt design has been used to emphasise but also hide gender difference.

“Sometimes blatantly displaying what clothing usually intends to conceal, here T-shirt design is perhaps at its most irreverently subversive.” – Fashion Textile Museum, T-shirt Cult, Culture, Subversion.

Transgender issues were and are popular when this exhibition was open to the public therefore there is references which is interesting to unisex and gender fluidity incorporated into the exhibition. Visual and social culture are heavy on fashion and gender fluidity.

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The exhibition was greatly informative and I am really glad I went! It gave me information which I wouldn’t have gained if I wasn’t to go. If anyone has any questions regarding this exhibition feel free to contact me! I know the Fashion Textile Museum regularly changes their exhibitions, so I urge you to do some research and go down and visit!

I have more pictures, quotes and an exhibition guide with information based on other sections of the exhibition which I would love to share with you as it works as a brilliant resource!

I hope you enjoyed reading this article on the information and culture of the unisex t-shirt.

I’ll be writing soon!

Mitch x