T-shirt

Physical description

Red silk outsize T-shirt with a bold black slogan screen-printed on the front reading 'STAY ALIVE IN 85'.

Place of Origin

Great Britain, UK (made)

Date

1984 (made)

Artist/maker

Katherine Hamnett (designer)

Materials and Techniques

Screen-printed silk

Marks and inscriptions

'STAY
ALIVE
IN 85'
KATHARINE HAMNETT

Object history note

Registered File number 1992/1245.

Displayed in the 20th century Galleries, 1980s room, from 1992.

Descriptive line

Silk T-shirt, designed by Katherine Hamnett, Great Britain, 1984

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Ribeiro, Aileen. Dress And Morality. London: Batsford, 1986, illustration no 106, page 171
Photograph of Katherine Hamnett in 1985 wearing the shirt. This designer's personal commitment to certain causes - political, social and ecological - made her slogan T shirts a success story of the mid 1980s. It is debatable, however, if all of them did so because they sympathised with the causes or if they were high fashion. This shirt, which could be interpreted as a plea against nuclear annhilation, (a cause which Hamnett had espoused) is in fact an anti-drugs comment.

Labels and date

Katharine Hamnett is one of Britain's top fashion designers. She has used her position to help promote peace and ecological issues, most notably through her use of environmentally friendly fabrics and her much copied, printed slogan T-shirts, introduced in 1983.

Materials

Silk (textile)

Techniques

Screen printed

Categories

Clothing; Fashion; Informal wear; Politics

Production Type

Ready to wear

Collection code

T&F