Cool
T shirts |
a
philosophical explanation of cool |
The essence of cool is
hard to pin down and harder to assimulate. Cool can be seen as a
real, but ultimately unknowable property that can be held by almost
any item - including of course the cool T shirt! Therefore cool
most definitely exits, but can rarely be actually reached. Cool
is a journey, not a destination. In this definition cool can have
elements of the following memes. Often the very act of discovering
what is cool is in itself what causes cool to move on! Cool cannot
be manufactured, only observed. And finally, and most relevant to
people looking for cool T shirts - is it possible that cool can
only be observed by those who are themselves cool?
The cool T shirt is an
overwhelming part of the structure of coolness. Whilst other clothing
items pass in and out of coolness over the years and decades, the
cool T shirt has always remained exactly that - the cool
T shirt! Wearers and viewers of T shirts immediately recognise
the beauty (and therefore some say coolness) of a cool T shirt,
in a way that no other piece of apparel has ever generated. Whilst
cool T shirts are in themselves that which is cool, the corollary
is that the T shirt - whatever its pastiche or world view
- will embody several of the properties of the cool T shirt.
What this means in practice is that without even trying, the humble
T shirt - of whatever leaning - is embued by the viewer with a level
of cool that has little or nothing to do with the cool inherent
in the T shirt and/or design. Without doubt cultural society has
programmed a cool factor into T shirts that is not seen in other
items of clothing. This coolness allows the cool t shirt to fly
higher, and with more cultural awareness than would otherwise be
allowed it - owing to the inherent cool that - in a North American
and Western European sense - is presented to the viewer at the same
time as the T shirt itself. Rather than emotional baggage the T
shirt comes with a preternaturally certain yet unestablished per
se coolness. A particular T shirt may not have been seen before
- it may never have been taken out of its wrapper - but it shares
in the coolness of all T shirts, of the uber T shirt, the one great
cool T shirt the essence of which all other T shirts partake.
extract from
'I love T shirts' by Jonathan Powell
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