T-shirt tyranny

By The Associated Press - 10/12/2007

shown is the september issue of T-post.

Subscribing to T-post is a lot like having a subscription to a news magazine but instead of receiving magazines in your mailbox you receive T-shirts.

Below is the September issue — also the premise for the T-shirt shown at right: The necktie is officially an endangered fashion accessory. Italy’s health secretary is recommending that all government offices ban the tie for sake of the environment.

The thought being that the absence of a tie will allow for a lower body temperature and therefore, lower energy consumption by reducing air conditioning dependency. The folks at Google have also expressed some dislike for the tie.

Google’s global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, wants employees to abandon the necktie for the T-shirt. Google wants to be perceived as a progressive, casual and cool company. And the T-shirt is apparently the perfect garment for the job.

But Fleischer’s addi-tional comments reveal a more peculiar argument that contradicts his desired brand-image.

“The tie acts as decorative camouflage for the business suit, designed to shield the middle-aged male physique, with its shrinking shoulders and protruding paunch, from feeling sufficiently self-conscious to hit the gym. Wouldn’t you like to know whether your business partners are fit? Why should you trust a man in business if he abuses his own body?’’ The September issue of T-post titled “T-shirt Tyranny’’ is designed by the British gentleman Ian Stevenson. His works have made themselves at home on a wide variety of objects ranging from discarded washing machines to take-away coffee cups and the restroom walls of London advertising agency Mother.

Recently he worked with Paul Smith on an exhibition in Tokyo. Check out more of Ian’s work at his Web site: ilikedrawing.co.uk, and make sure you don’t miss his “rubbish drawings.’’

Every six weeks T-post designs a T-shirt based on a current news item. The graphics are created by select designers and the news story is printed on the inside of the T-shirt. The T-shirts can be delivered anywhere in the world.

“The interaction is what’s special about T-post, it gets people talking. Nobody asks you about the article you just read in the bathroom.

But if you’re wearing an issue of T-post, people tend to ask what it’s about. The next thing you know, you’re talking about the ethical treatment of robots or some bank robbers in Brazil who got away with $45 million bucks, you’re forming your own opinion, getting someone else to think about the topic, and it just keeps going. That’s what’s magic about this media, it gives everyone a chance to interpret a news story and communicate it in their own way.” said Peter Lundgren Publisher at T-Post.

Find out more www.t-post.se