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Is Thoughtful Design on Customized T-Shirts Here to Stay?

Is Thoughtful Design on Customized T-Shirts Here to Stay?

Over the past decades, what have we learned from design on clothing? Better yet, what do we have to learn from a customized design on clothing? The simple answer is – a lot. Have we ever stopped to wonder where our clothes come from originally, or the various processes involved in getting them from just a piece of material to that dress or customized t-shirt you’ve been wearing for a few days now and the people involved from the designer up to the maker?

The fashion trend has been changing nearly every year since we were born some 30 years ago. We remember what the clothes were like back when we were younger through photographs or the media and to say that it has changed vastly would be an understatement. Nowadays people who wear torn jeans or t-shirts, think it normal. If you had to wear those jeans that were torn from your thigh to your ankles in public, back in the 60s, people would think you were mad! But alas, we are willing to pay money for that now.

Effective and practical clothing design is the product of various designers coming together to agree with various traditional, cultural and historical aspects and ideologies related to the consumer or activity. Apparel design has become clever. It has become personalized and people are much preferring this direction than choosing something from the shop window mannequin. 

Ever Changing Trends

As mentioned earlier the trends have changed and with it, the design has too. It is now also being influenced by particular lifestyle propensities which affect the style and mood of the clothing dramatically. The perception of ‘funky’ clothing especially in the youth market, has become completely different from that of the older simple generations. Nowadays it’s all about customized and personalized apparel. It’s a DIY generation, comprised of personal statements that reflect the wearer, things like ‘my-lifestyle-brand’ of clothing or ‘clothing that reflects who I am and what my beliefs are’ and it seems anyone can do this. You don’t need to go into a clothing store to find what you’re looking for; you can design it yourself. For instance, this online store offers you the choice of customized ink t-shirts to match your personality, that you can order online and it is shipped straight to your doorstep customizedinktshirts.com/.

Influences of Design on Clothing

Clothing designs are not just bold and beautiful anymore, and neither do they lack thought; they are ingrained in a mix of certain elements to reflect the wearers’ beliefs. Things such as historic context, social and cultural issues, tradition, work culture, corporate culture, participation, standing and their body shape to name a few, impose on the design of these types of ‘smart clothes’. In the past, it used to be fashion over comfort, but nowadays it’s both, smart clothing has taken over our world, with a combination of both sustainable designs and aesthetic concepts. They now have a function beyond just to make you look good. There are various case studies implemented by the design and clothing industry in discussing such topics and the functionality of clothing within society and how this concept of customization fits into the whole picture. One of which can be read on an online source here.

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What’s Next?

It seems like this trend is here to stay – people have become their own brand. Both personalized and customized clothing and apparel design has come too far now to turn back and it’s looking good for the future too. There are tons of online stores that cater to this need. And for retail stores to introduce this concept will lead them to a loss more than a profit. They will need to have two separate factories, one to manufacture everyday wear, and the other to provide its consumers with what ‘they actually’ want. Not to mention it’s a lot cheaper to manufacture in bulk than it is to make them individually.

So, to say there is no competition with this trend of smart wearing clothing is about the right statement to wear. The process is simple, you choose your garment of preference, either a t-shirt or a jersey, perhaps a pair of socks. You then go to the gallery of designs provided to the buyer, choose the design you like the best, and some online stores even offer you the ability to create the design yourself if you don’t like any of their ink. You then place it on top of the garment, choose your size, and throw it in the cart, onto the next item, and voila! You will have your item of clothing shipped to you within no time!

In terms of costs, it’s not even that expensive and you may just be doing the world a favour. The reason this idea started in the first place was, as we have heard from the grapevine, that one online customized store t-shirt creator started using surplus stock from other retailers and thus started the idea of sustainable and recycled shirts. Whether that’s true or not, we think it’s a pretty cool concept – there would be no waste and all the clothing would come to good use. Who doesn’t love a good recycling idea?

The Jury Is Out

From what once was influences by film and television, has now moved onto new and slightly more adventurous exteriors. With the advent of online stores and adding one’s personal touch to what they wear, we think there will come a time where we will be our designers and manufacturers when it comes to the type of clothing we wear. Even the typical famous brands such as Coco Chanel i.e. Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel who was a huge believer in comfort over fashion, or Vera Wang, have moved from the traditional to the modern, not because they wanted to but we think because they needed to get with the changing times. What once was a process involving doing sketches on paper and turning them into dresses on mannequins, has now been replaced by design programs such as Auto CAD or Computer-Assisted Design.

This is what we think the trend is turning to, others may say otherwise. Whatever the consensus, all we know is that customized clothing is here to stay – we have now become our own brands.

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