10       photos: agnés b., gsus, rsb, 667, retrofame t-mail t-shirts with messages are a fashion phenomenon of the last couple of decades. no matter if they are political, ironic or sportive: t-mails go down well. “naomi hit me” is printed in huge letters on the front of a t-shirt. the ironic allusion to a court case that a former assistant filed against the super model blows over with the back of the shirt saying “and i liked it.” on the occasion of this year’s new york fashion week, the fashion twins chip and pepper forster pulled off a huge pr coup for their label chip & pepper by handing out said t-shirt to the crowd. especially when naomi campbell used the joke to her own favour and wore the shirt when she appeared at the new york fashion week. and this is definitely not the last example of a successful t-mail, a message communicated through a t-shirt. the term was coined by the numerous start-ups of the last couple of years that owe their success to the meaningful word prints. it’s quite common that topical political or social occasions initiate the success story of a certain t-shirt. dolce & gabbana’s confession “i love ny” after the terrorist attacks on the world trade center or john galliano’s appeal “dior, not war” during the war on iraq seamlessly tie in with the great tradition of political shirts of the 1960s. back then, t-shirts were used to communicate all kinds of political messages. this tradition of “political shirts” resulted in the revival of many labels such as retrofame. four years ago, the viennese design company started to import vintage shirts from the usa, recycled them and randomly marketed them at trendy shops. overwhelmed by the extraordinary success, the company has recently started to include unique print designs into an archive in order to revive them in larger scale in so-called “re-issues”. the extensive retrofame archive of vintage t-shirt prints shows that there basically is no message that hasn’t been promoted through clothes and above all through t-shirts. the london-based label worn by follows a similar company philosophy re-launching t-shirts that were once worn by famous music stars. if that makes you think of ac/dc-shirts, you’ve got another think coming. mick jagger, tom jones, frank zappa and co are the kind of role models that worn by is interested in. but it’s not only the stars from the past that have the potential to set trends. another london based company called “bored of” pulled off a huge sales success in shops like selfridges with altogether recent celebrities. “bored of the beckhams“ was the unequivocal message of their shirts that were sold out in london within a couple of days. whether david and victoria beckham enjoyed the popular t-shirts is another question. when the 81hours brand thinks about t-shirts, it usually results in exclusive jersey items that perfectly do without any kind of message. however, their biggest sales success and accordingly good press was achieved with their cute 7-days-a-week shirts: monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday and sunday in one package. after all, t-shirts with an invitation to communicate don’t leave anybody cold. most people still remember the famous advertising campaign of the music channel mtv where they assigned bold messages to portraits of archetypes. “bitch”, “mummy’s boy” and “stay-at-home” have developed a life of their own and are supported by many different t-shirt brands. the latest thing: word prints with local colour like the products of the swiss brand sterne5 - pronounced “sterneföifi“. it is interesting to see the growing popularity of t-shirt messages that slightly step out of line: adults with teddy bear or paul frank monkey prints find themselves facing kids wearing t-shirts saying “master of disaster“ or “mothers nightmare“, a special field of clothing that the company 667 baby of the beast has focused on. baby bodies, shirts and toddler tracksuits adorned with cheeky word prints do not only put a smile on the parents’ faces. therefore, it is not much of a surprise that the collection is not sold at children’s fashion stores but at trend stores across europe. an idea that also seems to appeal to celebrities: john bon jovi and rico torres have their own fashion line called rock star baby. rocker and tattoo prints adorn ribbed shirts in xxxs. and if mummy and daddy discover their love for painless tattoos too, they can always turn to the los angeles based ed hardy brand selling vintage shirts with prints designed by the former von dutch designer and skin artist don ed hardy. martina müllner