TShirt Culture

"She wears short skirts, I wear tshirts" sings Taylor Swift.


My first personalized tshirt was yellow with a bird sticker glued on the front and my nickname YAYA, a name my nephew still calls me to this day, plastered on the back. I still have today, another personalized tshirt that my mother saved for me, with my name on the back. Even my sons have accepted to wear it for sentimental reasons.

As a teenager, I selected the imprint of a lipstick mouth on a white tshirt with a small Georgetown inscribed on it as a favorite that I wore in the 80s. I have not grown up, still wear tshirts to this day, while women my age prefer blouses.

Ofcourse I have a collection of preppy collared t-shirts, mandatory for golf, but also worn off the golf course. I have inherited the vintage Lacostes of my dad, from the eighties. There is something French, perhaps sentimental, about wearing the crocodile tshirt.

T-shirts are statements. I sport Madonna tshirts in allegiance, wear the flag of France during World Cup. I think its fun to wear Ed Hardy because Madonna wears them and he is a French designer after all. I have a preferred blinged geisha my husband gifted me.

I love the (Red) collection by the Gap because its for a cause and it has a poetic message, frequently an adjective: my favorite one is CULTU(RED), a goal I strive for daily. Not to mention the more "snobby" tshirts by Zadig and Voltaire claiming that ART IS A WORD or ART IS TRUTH.

My favorite tshirt remains a Norma Kamali gray with the effigy sticker of a large black winter tree. I wear it as a lucky charm.

And finally, there are the Petit Bateau, in their simple cotton bold colors, their recognizable round collars. I wear them with sentimentality, a reminder of the striped pink Petit Bateau undershirts of my childhood.