I started high school in 1991 and began vintage shopping in 94′. I attended nearly 100 concerts during the decade and collected t-shirts the entire time. So I’m a bit of a 90s expert Let’s have look at that era, and what made the shirts unique.
90s vintage t-shirts are different than other decades for the following reasons.
- Fabric
- Stitching
- Sizing
- Brands/Manufacturers
- Decoration
FABRIC
During the decade of the 1980s, the most popular fabric was 50/50. Nearly every single shirt was made from a poly/cotton blend. They were cheap, abundant, lightweight and breathable. One of the only drawbacks is it can cause an allergic reaction. It’s rare but it happens.
I was a screen printer for years. I had a professional set up in my garage. Whenever someone would make an order, if they didn’t specify the shirt fabric, I would automatically default to 50/50. It’s less expensive, easier to print and doesn’t quickly shrink or fade in the wash. I wanted happy customers. Plus it’s my personal preference.
On one occasion, I received a phone call from an angry customer who had broken out in a rash. He was upset and wanted to know why? I told him I used 50/50 shirts. Then he revealed he was allergic to polyester. I found it odd that he hadn’t mentioned it before ordering 100 shirts. Afterward, I made sure to ask customers about fabric preferences before printing anything.
THE GREAT SWITCH OVER!
Sometime in the early 90s the tide began to shift. 100% cotton tees began popping up everywhere. The heavyweight variety. The kind that fade, shrink and warp unless you properly care for them. 50/50 was always more appealing because it had zero maintenance. You could wash it and toss it in the tumble dryer for 20 mins and that was it. The synthetic content of the garment would never shrink. It was there for you when you needed it most!
You could easily ruin a 100% cotton shirt in under 10 washes if you weren’t careful. In order to preserve the shape of the tee, you’d have to hang it dry (which took ages) or remove it prematurely from the dryer while it was damp and flatten it into shape. This worked but was a major inconvenience.
In high school, my buddy had a large collection of concert tees that he’d wear all the time. Ministry, Smashing Pumpkins, The Cult, Soundgarden. After repeated washings, all the tees turned into capped sleeve belly shirts! Not a great look on a 200 lb man. He claimed his mom ruined them. LOL. Maybe. Most likely it was just because they were 100% cotton.
Modern ringspun cotton tees have drastically improved from the 90s behemoths. Now they’re thin, soft, light and tight. They resemble 50/50 so much that I have trouble distinguishing. Some even feel like spandex! The future is bright for cotton. Unfortunately, millions of tees still circulate that were made during the dark ages of cotton fabric.
STITCHING
We’ve covered this topic in a longer blog about t-shirt styles. You can read it here. But we’ll quickly review.
Before the mid-90s, single stitching on the hem and cuffs was king. Single stitch meaning you only see one line of stitching on the outer side of the shirt. The inside was usually a lock stitch as you can see in the pics.
Then it shifted to double stitch. Nearly all manufacturers followed suit. The cotton they used was much heavier and dense than the lightweight 50/50. They had to reinforce the perimeter of the garment with a more substantial stitch.
The problem they didn’t foresee is that cotton shrinks so the hem and cuff would warp, buckle and pucker. But, if they continued to use a single stitch, the thread would easily break and the hem would come loose. I’ve seen this on hundreds of cheaply made cotton shirts. It’s terrible.
SIZING
In this section, I’ll discuss at least one benefit of 100% cotton tees. Sizing. If you ever bought an 80s t-shirt, you’ll know that the sizing favored smaller, thinner people. An 80s XL fit like a snug modern large. I know because I’ve sold thousands of 1980s t-shirts online. In almost every listing I have to mention that the tag size says one thing, but the actual measurement suggests another. Luckily most vintage buyers understand this.
In the 90s when fabric transitioned to 100% cotton, the shirts fit true to size. Large meant large and XL was an XL. At least until you washed them a few times. LOL.
One of the pet peeves involved concert tees. For some reason around 1992, merchandise booths at nearly every show only offered XL t-shirts. One size fits all. The shirts were HUGE! I was only 5’8″ 130lbs at the time so XL wasn’t exactly my size. When I’d wear them to school, it looked like a dress. I was forced to tuck it in which is a horrible look.
BRANDS & MANUFACTURING
All the major brands of the 1980s started to disappear in the 90s. They either went out of business, were bought out or absorbed by other entities.
The most popular 80s tee brands like Screen Stars, Logo 7, Trench, Velva Sheen, started to vanish or transition into 100% cotton. Jerzees is a perfect example. They went from making millions of soft comfy 50/50 shirts to 100% cotton tees during the 90s.
Brockum, Giant, Gem, Oneita, Wilds Oats and Liquid Blue are recognizable brands. All of which we’re licensed to print rock tees although they were printed on Hanes and Fruit of the Loom shirts and just switched the tags to their own.
Another transition happened as well. If you’re interested in knowing the age of a garment look at the tag. If it says made in the USA that generally means it was made before 1997 (unless its American Apparel or a couple of other modern brands). There are obviously other ways to determine age that we discussed in another blog but this quick technique.
If the tag says “assembled in a foreign country with US fabric” that often means, it’s from the late 90s/2000s. And when it says made in an Asian country it’s usually a modern shirt. BUT considering the transition to foreign manufacturers happened over 20 years ago. There are bonafide vintage tees made outside of the USA.
DECORATION.
Let’s talk about prints. Screen printing had been the most common form of garment decoration until that point, and it continued. Other creative forms of decoration began to appear as well. Full-sized front prints, all-over prints, wrap around and tie-dye became very popular again.
You have to use 100% cotton fabric for Tie-dye. If you use a 50/50 tee, the dye doesn’t stick to the polyester and you get a faded or pastel looking color.
Discharge prints became popular. It’s a process involving special ink that basically bleaches (removes) the current fabric color and replaces it with another.
Ex. Wayne’s World shirt. The original shirt was black. Instead of printing the red and white areas with plastisol ink. Discharge ink was used and it bleached the black areas white (faces and logo), and the brick background turned red because there was a pigment added to the ink. It looks like screen-printing but if you touch it, you’ll only feel fabric. The term is “no hand”.
Comparing to other decades and concluding our discussion.
As we conclude this blog, you’ll notice my biased is towards lighter weight 50/50 t-shirts as opposed to 100% cotton..and it is. However, I wanted to be factual in my approach, so it wasn’t just an opinion piece about what I prefer.
I could write an entire section about this but instead, I’ll let you look for yourself. Click below and it will take you to my eBay shop. You can see firsthand the transition between 70s, 80s, and 90s shirts.
70s shirts. You’ll notice the early part of the decade is mainly all cotton. The middle transitions to %100 polyester (disco shirts) and finally 50/50 garments.
80s shirts. Dominated by cotton-polyester 50/50 blends. Almost exclusively. Not just t-shirts either. It also included sweatshirts, hoodies etc.
90s shirts. Nearly all 100% heavy cotton.
