For me, nothing says “summer” like slipping on a freshly laundered, cool cotton T-shirt. The ease and comfort factor is undeniable. There is also something egalitarian about a T-shirt: everyone has at least one, no matter if they are young, old, rich, or poor.

And we all have our favourites. Some of them are plain, and simply fashion staples. While others are decorated, with a graphic or text, communicating the personal statement you want to make on any particular day. The T-shirt is wearable art, and the street is your gallery.

Imagine if there was an occasion where you could display your favourite printed tee with a group of like-minded people? Once, our city did have such an event, thanks to photo-based artist, Michael de Courcy. From 1978-1982, the annual Vancouver T-shirt Open celebrated the T-shirt as not just an everyday item of clothing, but as a “personal forum of political statement and creative expression.” It was Vancouver’s first T-shirt based art scene. Pretty cool, eh?

But before we get into it, I think a brief history of the T-shirt is in order. The T-shirt, as we know it (unisex and all-purpose), dates back to the early decades of the 20th Century. The T-shirt began its life as a men’s undergarment originally made from wool and later made of cotton. “T-shirt” became an official word in the 1920s, when it was first included in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. It is named in reference to its “T” shape when laid out.

In the 1930s, retailers started to promote T-shirts as both underwear and outerwear, namely for sports and leisure. The T-shirt’s popularity as outerwear exploded in the early 1950s when it was worn by such movie icons as James Dean and Marlon Brando in films like Rebel Without A Cause and A Streetcar Named Desire.

Technological advances in screen printing in the early 1960s made it easy, fast and inexpensive to print designs onto shirts. As the T-shirt made its move from underwear to outerwear, the garment became a blank canvas for marketing messages – whether political, advertorial, graphic, or humorous.

By the 1970s, personalized, custom-made T-shirts were accessible to consumers. In Vancouver, if you weren’t arty and able to silkscreen your own design, you went to The Dog’s Ear. The brainchild of former professional football player, wrestler and four-time World Bellyflop & Cannonball champion, Butts Giraud, The Dog’s Ear T-Shirt boutique, opened his first retail outlet in Gastown in 1974. The business soon became a shopping mall staple.(Fun Random Fact: It was Butts Giraud who first put white towels in the hands of fans during the Vancouver Canuck’s 1982 playoff run.)

The first Vancouver T-shirt Open, held August 20th, 1978 at Hastings Mill Park, began as “a community event and public artwork” in which 65 of de Courcy’s friends, family and fellow artists “were photographed against a magnificent backdrop of the North Shore Mountains”. The concept was simple: put on a T-shirt and be part of a group portrait. de Courcy said “wearing [a T-shirt] is a creative act and so is looking at it.” On his website, he described that first event:

“This group portrait doubles as a portrait of the city: its people standing on a beach on a day of leisure, proclaiming their values, their sensibilities, and their relationships to each other: friends and strangers united in celebrating this everyday exchange brought about as a result of wearing t-shirts.”

In 1979, the 2nd annual T-shirt open, dubbed “The $19.79 Vancouver T-Shirt Open”, was held at Jericho Beach. Once again the “art” was not only the T-shirts themselves, but also the act of people gathering together and displaying their own personal beliefs (on T-shirts) at a particular moment of time… and then the subsequent documentation of that event.

By the 1980s, the event evolved into more than a T-shirt meet-up and photo shoot, becoming a full-blown arts event. As part of the 1980 Vancouver Sea Festival and with the support of a number of art galleries, “T-Shirt Day ’80” was a performance/exhibition taking place throughout Greater Vancouver “anywhere people wear decorated T-shirts”. de Courcy invited people to turn up at Kits Beach between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. in their favourite T-shirt to “open your eyes and be looked at” and have their personal statement “immortalized” with photographs. de Courcy believed that “a printed T-shirt reflects the individual concerns of the wearer; wearing it is a creative act and so is looking at it.”

In a July 13th, 1980 edition of the Province newspaper, writer Renee Doruyter commented on de Courcy’s exploration of the T-shirt, saying that “it’s all part of [his] belief that art should be accessible to everyone.” She wrote that de Courcy believed “that the printed t-shirt is folk art at its most popular level.” It is the opposite of “high” art and appeals to the masses in an individualistic way.

In a 1982 newspaper column about de Courcy and his exploration of the T-shirt, Vancouver writer and cultural commentator Max Wyman said, “The T-shirt, as [de Courcy] sees it, is pure folk art, and the city is the gallery in which it is shown. De Courcy was fascinated by [the T-shirt’s] quality as an open canvas — you can put anything on it and show it to anyone. It’s a very liberal, open thing.”

The penultimate T-shirt Open, the “Vancouver International T-Shirt Festival”, was held on Sunday, August 9th, 1981 at Vanier Park and the Vancouver Museum. Described as “upfront apparel art and politics”, the one-day-only event also featured music by The Pulse and flutist Don Druick, as well as poetry by Gerry Gilbert.

The final T-Shirt Open, dubbed “Michael de Courcy’s Vancouver T-Shirt Open”, was held at Reflections Gallery (170 Powell Street) in Vancouver. The group photo was taken at Crab Park. It was the closing event for his exhibit of a series of hand-pulled prints of T-shirts. The multi-coloured prints all used the same T-shirt shape as the base.

On his website, de Courcy observes that “the imagery on the T-shirts” for each T-shirt Open “changed from year to year, documenting evolving political, social, and cultural values.” He therefore believed that the “photographs and memorabilia associated with the Vancouver T-shirt Opens are not only artworks, but also historical documents.” You can check out that fascinating documentation on de Courcy’s website and Facebook page.

Epilogue

In honour of the 46th anniversary of the first T-shirt Open, I thought I’d try my hand at my own version. Over the BC Day long-weekend I invited some family and friends to don their favourite Tees and pose for a group photo. It was revealing to see the different T-shirts they chose and to hear what they meant to the wearer! The results of that experiment can be seen in the photo below.