T-Shirts with prints or slogans have been popular for almost 100 years. Photo / Thinkstock
The T-shirt, one of fashion's most basic yet most versatile staples, is marking its 100th birthday this year.
Want to brush up on your T-shirt trivia in honour of the occasion? CustomInk, which allows people to customise their own T-shirts online, has created a birthday website, complete with photos of
the most popular tees and a timeline of key moments from the shirt's life.
According to tshirtbirthday.com, the T-shirt had humble beginnings as an undershirt. In 1913, the US Navy issued crewneck tees to be worn under uniforms. The Merriam-Webster dictionary first recognised the term in 1920, defining it as "a collarless short-sleeved or sleeveless usually cotton undershirt (or) an outer shirt of similar design".
In the decades to come, T-shirts turned more stylish with prints and slogans. They got political in the 1940s, when New York Governor Thomas E Dewey's campaign designed ones with the phrase "Dew it with Dewey" printed on them when he ran for president.
Even Hollywood contributed to the T-shirt's popularity when Marlon Brando sported one in the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire.
