T-shirt slogans maketh a man

Voicing opinion

The youth today are literally wearing their attitude on their sleeve. The popularity of T-shirts with slogans is rising by the day and they are selling like the latest fashion accessories.

Popular markets like Janpath and Sarojini Nagar are flooded with these expressive garments and online stores are promoting them too.

Having slogans printed across T-shirts has become a form of expressing oneself. The canvas of a T-Shirt provides a lot of space for things unsaid, and if it’s funny, you could get away without offending anyone. It could be a political statement, your all-time favourite movie dialogue, the lines of a song, your relationship status, a funny one-liner or something sarcastic--your point will not be lost if it’s on your tee.

The current favourite slogans are, ‘I am Anna’, ‘India Against Corruption’ and their many Hindi versions. Anna has taken over the traditional Che Guevara when it comes to featuring on the tees of ‘revolutionary’ young men and women. Sanjay Pathak, a banker, says, “I bought this T-shirt which says ‘Being Anna’ to express my solidarity with his cause. I am waiting for the next Anna rally to wear it.” Sanjay adds that he has a ‘Long live Wikileaks’ and a ‘Save the Tigers’ T-shirt too.

Other youngsters are sporting latest chartbusters like ‘Sadda Haq’ and ‘Why this Kolaveri di?’ The popularly featured song on T-shirts till sometime back ‘All is Well’ seems to have taken a backseat. Rajat Chowdhary, a software engineer says, “I got my ‘Kolaveri di’ T-shirt from Inkfruit online store. The song is so catchy, I couldn’t resist buying this one.”

Online stores like Myntra.com, Inkfruit and Xtees are cashing in on this fad and not only selling T-shirts with unique and interesting slogans, but also allowing youngsters to write their own slogans and make their own tees. These sites allow a buyer to write your own slogan, choose its font, size and colour, as well as the style and brand of the T-shirt you want it printed on. All this is done online in the comfort of your home and your T-shirt is delivered at your doorstep in the next few weeks.

Of course, the mood of the youth determines the slogans they put on display. Both ‘Facebook- it’s my Day Job’ and ‘Not on Facebook’ are common. Others being ‘Six Pack Coming Soon’ and ‘Caution: Overworked employee’. The witty or playful one-liners like ‘You Look Like my Next Girlfriend’ and ‘Wanted: A Meaningful Overnight Relationship’ remain evergreen.

Most of these T-shirts are abundantly available in the flea markets of Delhi for just Rs 100 to 175. It only requires a bit of searching to find the slogan that matches your attitude the best. Priyam Gupta, a student of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, flaunts her T-shirt that says, ‘And your point is…’