Hyper-colour t-shirts - the return.

I knew it was only a matter of time until hyper-colour t shirts returned. I mean with the 90's far enough behind us to now be officially considered "retro" and the current return of key wardrobe items from the 90's, it was only a matter of time. And so it was that I was browsing a site and one of those American Apparel ads popped up in the side bar - this time advertising the new 'thermochromatic" tee. Upon closer inspection, this was no new innovation. It appeared very much to be a hyper-colour tee shirt - with a (somewhat fancier) new name.

I recently bought a cute acid wash t shirt from American Apparel; it was slightly safer step in my opinion away from the full blown stonewash denim currently resurfacing.

They say you should never embrace a trend if you were around the first time it appeared, and I have to admit that even though I was a tween I embraced the early 90’s denim phenomenon like an absolute fanatic. If the waistline was high, if the fit was baggy, or if the jeans were washed with pebbles at the Levi’s factory (in which case I was majorly impressed by this new “manufacturing technology”)- I wanted them. Badly.

Anyway, the purchase of the acid wash tee was, in my mind, a ”gentle nod”, to the 90’s look. There is another reason, however, that I was drawn to said shirt. It totally reminds me of several (yes, several) hyper-color t shirts I owned circa 1993. I loved my hyper color tees. I had one that had 2 hand prints on the chest, and the actual handprints were hyper-color, so when you pressed them they changed from hot pink to fluro blue (NB – Hyper-color and fluro trends went hand in hand). Now I actually think about it that shirt was totally inappropriate for a 12 year old. Target, really, I’m surprised. I thought you were a family orientated store, with morals.

Anyway, I can’t see myself walking down this particular trend path again (and not just because I was there for round one). Reason being – why would I want the general public to see where my, er, warm bits were? Perhaps it wasn’t such an issue at 12, but imagine rushing from the subway to work, hot and bothered, with a tee shirt pointing out to everyone a visual representation of your body temperature at that point in time?! Cool, calm and collected? I don’t think so!

So, back to the acid wash tee - I’m wearing it today in fact, and it’s cute, comfy and kind of goes with anything. I’m glad I bought it. But as for the hyper-color tees, I might leave that to those who REALLY want the world to know how hot they are.


store.americanapparel.net/rsa6407tc.html