• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.91-100
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of T-shirt as a movie costume on the modem mass fashion. The way of study is to analyze the changes of men's image with T-shirt as Hollywood actors costume in 50's and 60's. The costumes create the characters with meanings and symbols moreover they lead fashion as well as promoting artistic value of films. At the end of the 19th century, this shirt learnt the ropes in the U.S. Navy well before it won the hearts of sportsmen and workers alike, with its twin virtues of comforts and hygiene. When American soldiers returned home after World War II showing their T-shirts in the sweltering heat of the Tropics, their shirts were as heroic as they were. Furthermore the new stars of Hollywood, going by such names as Marlon Brando and James Dean, gave the T-shirt its rebel cachet and showed the whole world. Be it tom open on Marlon Brando's torso in Elia Kazan's 'A Streetcar Named Desire', or peeping out dazzlingly white from under James Dean's red jacket in 'Rebel Without a Cause', the T-shirt flaunted its sexuality and emanated the sweet smell or revolt. It would be the banner of rebellion for a whole generation. The T-shirt had finally found its way into the history of fashion and was there to stay.d was there to stay.