A Brief History of Slogan T-Shirts

Printed and slogan t-shirts are well known for being ironic, quirky, weird and often controversial or political. They come in an abundance of styles offering a wild array of messages and for decades have been largely fashionable.

Katharine Hamnett pioneered some of the most popular slogan t-shirts during the 1980s. Many of these had political messages, but during the early 2000s, t-shirts with more humorous, comedic and ironic slogans became much more popular, aided by the vast number of celebrities happy to sport them.

Slogan t-shirts tend to make a statement and can sometimes be offensive or even pornographic to some. Many of the most famous slogan t-shirts created by Hamnett were adopted by famous pop bands including Wham! One particularly popular slogan was ‘Choose life’ which appeared on a t-shirt worn in the music video to Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. This was also worn by Roger Taylor in the Queen video Hammer To Fall and was intended to convey peace and harmony in the face of times of war and violence.

Paul Morley is the man accredited to designing the astoundingly popular “Frankie Say” t-shirts that were used as promotional tools for the group Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Morley and Hamnett are both responsible for causing some controversy with their t-shirts which have had strong, political messages. “58% don’t want Pershing” and “No War, Blair Out” are just two of the slogans they used to make a statement about the government’s actions during both Margaret Thatcher’s and Tony Blair’s time as Prime Minister.

Though on the surface, many slogan t-shirts that present a political message may seem to be offering something important and implying support for whatever the cause, sceptics would insist there is no evidence to suggest slogan t-shirts help to encourage action. Harnett herself has said that wearing such t-shirts only offers a substitute for real action.

T-Shirts. Slogan t-shirts, however, don’t always have to have something important to say. The majority of them available on the market today have nothing more to convey than a comedic or an ironic message.

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