S af e t y
ga r m e n t
The Evolution of Garment Printing
The beginning of today’s merchandising industry took shape
when children’s garments were printed with Davy Crocket
and Roy Rogers characters in the 1950s.
Ed Branigan, Print Products Applications Manager, International Coatings Company
Visit SGIA at SGIA.org
j_v14q2_final.indd 23
SGIA Journal ■ Second Quarter 2010 | 23
5/6/10 2:55 PM
The birth of plastics, first
synthesized in the mid 1800s,
was critical in manufacturers’
ability to print directly on
garments on a mass scale.
The T-shirt’s journey from underwear to
outerwear to a vehicle of personal artistic
expression took almost 60 years and is
still evolving. When and where the first
imprinted T-shirts appeared in mass
produced form is not easily definable. Key
dates indicating changes in technology
helped spur its development along with
key personalities. For example, when the
T-shirt made its first foray to the outside
world, Clark Gable sent it back to the
bedroom. It was then rescued by Marlon
Brando and cemented into place by Andy
Warhol.
Rise of the T-Shirt
Andy Warhol is credited for popularizing
screen printing in the US. His first oneman show as a fine artist in 1962 included
the famous portrait of Marilyn Monroe
printed with loud, bright colors and were
not “perfect prints.” The registration was
slightly off and ink splotches on some
were not removed. Screen printing, or
serigraphy, had been used by fine artists
for many years before Warhol’s show.
What made the difference was Warhol’s
attitude and subject matter. He
opened the door and
gave permission to
the regular
guy to
24 | SGIA Journal ■ Second Quarter 2010
j_v14q2_final.indd 24
make his own art and showed him a
way to do it. Warhol’s ascent in the art
world and popular culture was prescient
because popular culture was on the cusp
of momentous change and the T-shirt’s
place in that culture was solidifying. Both
arrived at the crossroads at the same time.
Until World War I, the T-shirt did not
exist in America as we know it today. It
was an undershirt that never saw the light
of day. Most people wore undergarments
made from a heavier, woolen fabric. No
one knows when the first T-shirt was
actually made, but sailors returning from
France after World War I left behind their
heavy, long-sleeved woolen undershirts
and brought back the lightweight knit
cotton undershirts favored by Europeans.
These shirts did not necessarily resemble
the T-shirt we know today; they were still
underwear, most commonly sleeveless and
primarily worn for comfort.
The appearance of central heating
coincided with this new movement, and by
the late 1920s and early 1930s, people began
wearing lighter two-piece undergarments
instead of long johns. During the 1930s,
many working men wore these sleeveless
cotton shirts as undergarments, and during
this time, the T-shirt made its first forays
into the outside world. In the 1930s, Fruit
of the Loom, Hanes and Sears began
marketing T-shirts. However, when Clark
Gable took off his shirt in the 1934 movie
“It Happened One Night” to reveal his
bare chest, men discarded their undershirts
in droves. The T-shirt all but disappeared.
Some time later, the US Army and
Marines issued standard T-shirts with
arms that were more popular due to their
appearance and greater comfort. But, it
Visit SGIA at SGIA.org
5/6/10 2:55 PM
was Marlon Brando as the undershirtwearing Stanley Kowalski in the 1951
movie “A Streetcar Named Desire” and the
T-shirt and jeans-wearing Johnny Strabler
in the 1953 movie “The Wild One” that
brought attention back to the T-shirt and
set the stage for its comeback.
At that time, the most common cut of
the T-shirt was tight fitting. The transition
to outerwear wasn’t complete, and there
was no versatility. Movie industry lore
reveals that Brando needed his T-shirt
practically sewn onto his body in “The
Wild One.” Since all available sizes were
too small, side seams were cut into the
shirts and stretched across his chest and
sewn back up. His leather jacket covered
the resourceful costume designer’s
handiwork.
Roots of Garment Decoration
While T-shirts were embellished as far
back as the 1930s, the market was small
and the technology was primitive. Military
camps and college campuses were the
main vehicles, along with some sporting
organizations. Some argue that it was
imprinted sportswear that appeared long
before anyone thought of using a T-shirt
to print on. There are records of baseball
teams embellishing their jerseys and hats
with numbers dating back to the 1860s
and continuing into the early 20th century.
The favored techniques were stitchedon fabric or f locking and some waterba sed printing, a lt houg h ma rkets
were small when compared to today’s
standard. Even so, the beginning of today’s
merchandising industry took shape when
children’s garments were printed with
Davy Crocket and Roy Rogers characters
Visit SGIA at SGIA.org
j_v14q2_final.indd 25
in the 1950s. Companies were figuring
out the advertising potential of garment
decoration. Still, the transition from
underwear to outerwear was in its infancy
and most adults wore their T-shirts blank.
Technology Developments
At the same time that the T-shirt made its
way into popular culture, the application
medium it would marry was gaining
technological momentum of its own. The
oldest surviving examples of printed textiles
were found in China between 2,000–2,500
years ago using the woodblock printing
technique. Because textiles degrade more
rapidly than materials like wood or metal,
it is hard to know when people began
decorating the garments they wore. In the
absence of physical evidence, we need to
look elsewhere.
The famous cave paintings in Lascaux,
France, are about 16,000 years old. The
cave walls are covered with images of
animals and birds and many patterns
that show clear evidence that they knew
how to make pigments. Some images
were created by simple brushing, by
blowing pigmented colors onto the walls
and some by using stencils. If someone
can make a stencil from an animal hide
and use it to put an image on a cave wall,
they may have used the same stencils to
decorate their garments.
Screen printing first appeared in China
and was later refined in Japan where silk
was used to make screen threads and was
used in conjunction with block printing
and hand painting. Screen printing was
introduced to Europe in the late 18th
century, at the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution.
A Slight Delay
In 1934, the Motion Picture
Association of America began
enforcing a production code
(written in 1930) of general
principles that outlined
what was acceptable and
unacceptable content for
viewing in movies made for
the public in the US.
One of these principles was a
ban on nudity. Gable’s movie,
“It Happened One Night,”
was pre-code. Had the code
been implemented right away,
audiences never would have
seen Gable’s chest — only his
undershirt.
Who knows, if it wasn’t for
this, the T-shirt might have
become mainstream earlier.
SGIA Journal ■ Second Quarter 2010 | 25
5/6/10 2:55 PM
It was fashion and popular
culture that rescued the T-shirt
and gave it mass audience
appeal.
Large scale garment printing was a
long way away, but some of the industries
and inventions spawned by the Industrial
Revolution proved to be portentous. The
invention of photography and its processes,
as well as the development of synthetic
pigments and dyes, helped advance the
future of screen printing. The birth of
plastics, first synthesized in the mid 1800s,
was critical in manufacturers’ ability to
print directly on garments on a mass scale.
T-shirts are thought of first when
asked about garment printing — even
though they are a relatively new
phenomenon. The ascent of
the T-shirt in importance
in the apparel industry
in the la st ha lf of the
20 t h century helped fuel
significant advances in textile
printing technology. Two major
milestones related to apparel print
production occurred right after Brando
gave the T-shirt its street credibility and
Andy Warhol was giving screen printing
its own name.
In 1959, plastisol ink was f irst
developed. A year later, the first rotary
screen printing machine for garments
was patented. Plastisol did not dry in
the screen, was easy to print with and
was much more durable than waterbased ink. The ability to print garments
using an automated system speaks for
itself. What is important is that these
two technologies were brought
together at a time when youth
popular culture exploded.
Ea rlier pla stisols were
primitive, but the apparel
printing industry would not
be what it is today without
them.
Andy Warhol neither invented
nor innovated screen printing; he
brought it to the masses and gave it
respectability. Advances in industrial
screen printing processes, starting
with photo reactive emulsions in the
1920s and 1930s, coupled with screen
printing’s versatility, meant that it
had a wide range of applicability.
Artists such as Warhol and Robert
Rauschenberg used the medium as
a vehicle of expression while large
apparel manufacturers used it to print
merchandise on a mass scale.
Garment Decoration Today
Today, the garment decoration
industr y is ma ssive.
Major players in apparel
printing are comprised
of huge manufacturing
j_v14q2_final.indd 26
facilities containing twenty to thirty
automatic rotary screen printing machines.
Fourteen to twenty print heads is the norm,
and in-line applications such as flock or foil
are applied with precision. Since plastisol
and the first rotary machine appeared,
the technology that developed with it has
been astonishing. Plastisol inks alone offer
everything from inks that can barely be
felt to textured inks that allow printing in
3-D, gloss and metallics. Other plastisol
adhesives bond trimmings to T-shirts, such
as foil or flock, paper or plastic or fabric.
Embroidery also has become as common
as inkjet printing.
Art, fashion and popular culture fuel
each other. It was fashion and popular
culture that rescued the T-shirt and gave
it mass audience appeal. Today, movie
stars and other celebrities, including sports
celebrities, continue Marlon Brando’s
legacy in fashion iconography.
In the early part of the 20th century, some
fine artists attempted to differentiate their
work and methods from those of industrial
processes by calling their work “serigraphy.”
Ironically, T-shirts are often decorated with
prints designed and executed by fine artists,
or by renderings of Warhol’s or someone
else’s originals.
T-shirts have made the transition from
underwear to possibly the most commonly
worn casual garment. The T-shirt can
be a night shirt, a day shirt, a casual or
dress shirt, a work shirt, a billboard, a
canvas or even a f lag. Politicians wear
them, rock stars wear them, members of
the world’s royalty wear them, models and
musicians wear them and so do bricklayers
and plumbers, farmers and teachers,
grown ups and children. Driven by the
merchandising and advertising engine of
sports and entertainment and directed by
fashion, T-shirt manufacturing has reached
a point at the nexus of western popular
culture and exported all over the world.
A far cry from its humble beginnings, the
T-shirt commands attention and earned its
spot in the history of garment decoration.
E d B r a niga n i s Pr in t Pr od u c t s
Applications Manager for International
Coatings Company where he is responsible for
product development, client and marketing
support and training workshops and seminars.
Branigan’s more than 20 years in the industry
spans several high-profile printing operations
where he served in senior positions, including
R&D Manager and production supervisor.
Mr. Branigan holds a Bachelor of Arts
degree from the National Institute of Higher
Education in Dublin, Ireland.
5/6/10 2:55 PM