A tee party with 50 shades of sass

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With the mercury on a steady rise, it is the season for colourful T-shirts. For bold and experimental GenY, tees don’t just need to look good but read well too — with wacky and catchy quotes and slogans that reflect who they are. But recently an Australian T-shirt company had to issue an apology for tops with slogans such as “Keep Calm and Rape A Lot” and “Keep Calm and Kill Her”. While this might be an extreme case, how ‘cool’ is it to sport tees with bold quotes for city youngsters and where should one draw the line?
“Wearing T-shirts with wacky quotes has always been a booster for me because it reflects my attitude. For me, it’s not about feeling ‘cool’ but about the guts which push you to wear such fashion,” puts forth Mehak Awtarmani, a young city professional. She loves to pick up tees with out-of-the-box comments and quotes. Her favourite one says, “Grown ups should learn to chill out like we do”, with a skeleton printed below that sticks out a tongue!
Sharing similar views, DU student Ashima Tandon says, “At times, I have seen people staring at them and even trying to strike conversations with me as they feel I am absolutely ‘chilled out’. As long as I am confident of what statement I wish to make, I do not care what others think. But yes, it should not be blasphemous or provocative.”
Designers in the city also feel that T-shirts sported by youngsters are a reflection of their personality. “Young people who sport controversial statements on personalised items like T-shirts want to show strong affiliation or opinion for a particular cause to the point that at times, it might reduce their sensitivity to abysmal levels. It is imperative to understand the situation around you, act responsibly and sport statements which are sassy, fun but not disgusting,” says designer Astha Narang.
Do the creators of the tees share a similar opinion? “We have tees with funny quotes like “Karlo jo karna assi nahi sudharna” or “99% shareef”. But yes, we restrain from anything that is provocative or demeaning to society. Humour should remain intact yet it should not be offensive,” says Harinder Singh and Kirandeep Kaur of 1469, a shop that specialises in T-shirts with slogans.
“I have seen youngsters sporting T-shirts that have double meaning statements. For instance, I saw somebody sporting a tee that says, ‘I need grass’ with an image of a cow underneath. It may lead to instant gratification and attention among peers. However, the public space has elements from different sections of society. Look before you leap,” cautions T-shirt designer Nilesh Kumar.