文字难度：★★★☆
The triumphant minimalism of the 1990s veiled people’s personalities in 1)beige, grey and black basics. Now, the T-shirt has found its tongue again, and become the reflection of the person wearing it. Basic white for 2)Bruce Springsteen, striped for 3)Jean Paul Gaultier. T-shirts were promoted to fetish status by celebrities, identifying particular personalities, and putting their signature to styles and looks.
20世纪90年代盛行的简约主义将人们的个性都裹进了淡棕色或灰色或黑色的日常服装中。如今，T恤衫得以再度扬眉吐气，成为其穿着者的一面镜子。白色T恤是布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀的至爱，条纹T恤属于让·保罗·高提耶，在名人的提携下，T恤晋升为人们顶礼膜拜的偶像，标榜个人特色，在品味和装扮上烙上个人的标签。
Well removed from political messages, advertising slogans and anonymous 4)logomania, the T-shirt is still the ideal mouthpiece of a contemporary mood. Since the 1980s, it has allowed a new generation of men to give a different kind of expression to their professional image. Nowadays, one often comes across people wearing suits and T-shirts in the worlds of fashion, communications and new technologies. The T-shirt is replacing the traditional shirt with a more casual, sexier, yet still elegant version. The T-shirt has become everyone’s personal medium. Because it is universal and adaptable, it straightforwardly expresses moods, commemorates events in people’s private lives, and fuels the “me” cult. The film of our life now 5)files past in a T-shirt. Once a symbol of mass consumerism, this item of clothing is associated nowadays with things exceptional and unique.
撇开那些政治信息、广告标语和不知名且无处不在的LOGO，T恤仍然是当代人们情绪的理想传声筒。从上世纪80年代以来，它让新一代可以用一种不同的方式展现他们的职场形象。现在，你经常看到时尚界、通信以及新科技领域的从业人员用T恤来和套装搭配穿着。T恤正在以一种更休闲、更性感，然而却依然优雅的姿态取代传统衬衫。T恤已经成为每个人的独有表达媒介。因为T恤十分普及、花样百变，便可以直截了当地反映不同的情绪，缅怀个人生活中有纪念价值的事，也为自我崇拜摇旗呐喊。如今，我们的生活就浓缩在一件T恤上。尽管T恤一度被视为大众消费的象征，眼下它却与不同寻常、独一无二划上了等号。
T-shirt fans scour stores in search of an old classic at the ends of the earth. Now produced in limited editions, sometimes even numbered like works of art, the T-shirt tends at times to forget its democratic origins to satisfy the whims of a handful of people forever seeking out something to give them a special 6)cachet. At a time when the craze for 7)vintage things has the ghosts of bygone fashion parading past us, for better or for worse, T-shirts are exhuming the dozing figures of 8)kitsch and pop culture and elevating them to iconic status. Whether tattered and torn, 9)bedecked with zippers and 10)imitation jewelry, or scribbled on with graffiti and slogans, the customized T-shirt now mixes ancient and modern, old and new, transforming it into that special, one-off article, sanctioned by fashion.
T恤的追捧者在店铺之间奔走穿行，只为了最终能找到一件经典款式的旧版T恤。现在，T恤有时更倾向于背离其大众化的初衷，限量生产，甚至像艺术品一样编上号码，以满足一小撮人无休止地追寻能成为他们独特标记的东西的欲望。昔日的时尚潮流从我们身旁鱼贯而过，人们却对有着以往时尚影子的东西疯狂不已，就在这样一个也许是升华、也许是堕落的时代，T恤正在唤醒那些沉沉睡去的庸俗并带有流行文化色彩的潮流，并将其捧上万人崇拜的高台。如今，个人定做的T恤款式或是破旧褴褛，或是以拉链和人造珠宝装饰得花里胡哨，又或是印着潦草的涂鸦和口号，但它们将古典与现代、新与旧融为一体。就这样，在时尚业的首肯之下，T恤成为了独具一格的一次性衣物。
In the worlds of fashion and music, the T-shirt has managed to find 11)high-profile ambassadors who have helped earn it its fame and fortune. The fashion designer 12)Giorgio Armani has beautifully illustrated the elegance of this garment by turning it into his official attire. “A dark blue or white T-shirt has long become part of my working uniform. I literally live in T-shirts, because I appreciate the comfort, enjoy the luxurious materials they are made of, and feel confident wearing them in any situation, whether it be for work, sport, relaxation, or an evening out,” explains the 13)maestro of Milan.
在时尚和音乐界，T恤成功地找到了其高调的代言人，辅助其名利双收。时装设计大师乔治·阿玛尼将它作为自己的工作服，美妙地展现了T恤的雅致。“长久以来，我的工作服中有一部分都是深蓝或白色的T恤。毫不夸张地说，我活在T恤里。我很欣赏它带来的舒适感，享受它们的奢华衣料，在任何场合，无论是在工作、运动、休闲还是晚上外出，穿着T恤都让我备感自信。”这位米兰的艺术大师如此解释说。
In music, likewise, it has immortalized certain looks. In the pared-down vein, Bruce Springsteen has immortalized the T-shirt in the “working-class hero” style. On the cover of his Born in the USA 14)LP, the singer poses with his back toward us, wearing a white T-shirt, jeans and biker boots with a red 15)bandanna in his pocket. Madonna, the provocative singer has managed to personalize the T-shirt by having her son’s name—“Rocco”—written on it, and asking 16)Dolce&Gabbana to 17)customize especially for her a Britney Spears fan-club T-shirt with 18)safety pins.
同样，在音乐领域，T恤使一些装扮风格成为永恒的潮流。布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀衣着低调，但他却以“工薪阶层的英雄”这样的风格赋予了T恤恒久的特色。在他《生于美国》这张密纹唱片的封面中，这位歌手背对着镜头，穿着一件白色的T恤、牛仔裤和骑士靴，口袋中还插着一条红色的大手帕。麦当娜，这位极具煽动性的歌手将她儿子的名字“Rocco”印在T恤上，为T恤烙上了自己的印记。她还让杜嘉班纳为她特别设计了一件用别针制成的T恤作为小甜甜歌迷会会服。
The personalization process has championed a crucial yardstick—the criterion of personal achievement. However, something else is 19)at stake: the desire for self-expression, whatever the nature of the message might be, and the 20)narcissistic right and pleasure to express oneself for no particular reason, but 21)relayed and magnified by a medium. The T-shirt is probably the ideal medium for giving public vent to one’s ego.
T恤个性化的过程凸现了一条至关重要的准绳——个人成就的标准。然而，另外有样东西却同样起了关键作用，那就是表现自我的欲望。不管它的本意如何，表达自我而不需要任何理由的自恋权利和乐趣都被一种媒介传播并放大了。T恤大概是个人向大众展现自我的最理想载体。
