What Makes a Piece of Clothing a Genuine T-shirt?

There is a particular online retailer of extraordinary size – which will remain nameless for this post – that carries tens of thousands of t-shirts in its inventory. The strange thing is this: they don't all look like t-shirts. Browsing their inventory raises the question of what actually constitutes a t-shirt. What makes a piece of clothing a genuine t-shirt as opposed to something else?

The LatinX t-shirts we sell on our website a pretty straightforward. They all look like the t-shirts we have come to know and love over the last 50 years. The big thing that makes our t-shirts unique is the messaging. At Plurawl, we are all about genuine authenticity within the LatinX community.

It Doesn't Look Right

You can shop online for all sorts of clothing items marketed as t-shirts. But every now and again, you might run across something that just doesn't look right. Take the t-shirt dress, for example. It looks like a dress from top to bottom. It fits like a dress, too. Most people would not confuse it for a shirt. And yet it is advertised as a t-shirt dress. What's the deal?

We have also seen articles of clothing long enough to be dresses but styled to look more like blouses. They are marketed as t-shirts even though they look nothing like the traditional t-shirt. Do they qualify? There doesn't seem to be an answer to the question. Designers use the t-shirt term indiscriminately.

Maybe It's the Fabric

For the record, we are not taking a stand on what constitutes a genuine t-shirt one way or the other. We are merely curious about how people define t-shirts. Maybe it's the fabric. In hopes of discovering if that is the case, we did a little research in to what t-shirt fabric actually is.

From what we can tell, t-shirt fabric is often made from cotton. But it doesn't have to be. It can be Rayon, polyester, or any combination of the three. The real key is how the fabric is manufactured. Rather than being woven, t-shirt fabric is knitted. This is what makes it so soft and pliable.

If fabric is what makes a piece of clothing a t-shirt, you could absolutely make the case for the t-shirt dress. But then you could make a winter coat out of the same fabric and call it a t-shirt coat. So maybe fabric isn't the main factor.

Maybe Its a Style

Another possibility is that t-shirts are defined by style. That makes sense, given the origin of this particular piece of clothing. The first t-shirts were actually derived from men's one-piece long johns cut in half. From their earliest days, t-shirts were designed to be worn as under garments. As such, they were short sleeved and loose fitting. They could be either crew or V-neck garments.

Modern t-shirts have a certain style we are all familiar with. They lay across the upper body in a distinct way. That being the case, you could design a dress that fits in much the same way. It looks like a really long t-shirt but wears like a dress. Make it from t-shirt fabric and you have a slam-dunk case.

It doesn't really matter what makes a piece of clothing a genuine t-shirt. In the end, what matters is the fact that you are comfortable in the clothes you wear. Who cares what people call them? Here at Plurawl, we are all about comfort. Check out our t-shirts and hoodies for yourself. You may find that ours are the most comfortable you have ever worn.