You Can Look Ageless in Graphic Tees over 50

This post covers how to wear a graphic Tee at a certain age.

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post.

Graphic Tees must have a purpose

As a kid, my mom forbid to wear Tees outside the house and yard. She considered T-shirts of any kind as American underwear. Even when it was a graphic Tee. The only T-shirt that was allowed to be worn in public was the ugly uniform top of the sports club we were members in. This piece was ok for her, as it was part of a uniform, i.e. it had a purpose. It served to identify the wearer to belong to a certain club or group. In other words, it goes back to the history of graphic T-shirts.

Now you could say concert Tees, meant to be funny Tees, advertisement Tees, and even tie-dyed  or self-painted Tees have a purpose.  We didn’t have the money to go to concerts, thus, a concert Tee wouldn’t be in order as we weren’t there. Wearing it to identify  us as a fan of a particular group, was a no-no.

“You don’t give them free advertisement for them.”

For the same reason freebie shirts with advertisement were a no-no too.

Meant to be funny T-shirts wouldn’t come near her except when my late father wore them around the house. Remember, they were American underwear in her mind due to the history of the T-shirt. Running around in underwear in the house was ok, sort off.

When one day, my sister and I learned tie-dying at our church girls group, we weren’t allowed to wear them as they were not only underwear, but also Hippie outfits. We were even taken out of the group because we shouldn’t be influenced to become Flower Power Hippies gals. The crocheted bags, our group leader had taught us to make, were already at the edge. Now she had showed her real confession and political face!

A late start at 38

I didn’t start to wear graphic Tees before I immigrated to America. I came on a green card, which legally means an immigrant visa. Administratively, you are treated like an American except for those right and duties, for which you have to have citizenship (e.g. voting, jury duty, government positions, …). Hey, an American can wear American underwear, right? Guess, everyone wears them outside the house. So I started wearing them at 38.

Cultural leftovers determine the choice of the graphic

I still agree the graphic has to have a purpose, but it should not be insulting or have some (un)intended subconscious meaning. Just an example for subconscious, underlain meaning: At many Alaska souvenir stores, fairs, and farmers markets, you can buy a T-shirt with a big round circle in which the contours of the State of Alaska are printed. There is the logo imprinted Alaska grown. When a woman with full breast wears this piece, the logo is exact on top of her boobs. Thus, for the shirt is a style challenge when top-heavy.

 Honi soit qui mal y pense – may he be shamed who thinks badly of it. – King Edward III

An example for an insulting logo would be

“Some days I wake up grumpy, sometimes I let her sleep.”

Styling Ideas for Graphic T-shirt I love to dance

The four graphic Tees are examples of the six graphic Tees I own. I wear the left one only for dance practice.

Teal rocket mission Tee

The teal one is a souvenir Tee of a rocket mission to measure turbulence in the upper mesosphere. The rocket was launched from Poker Flat one of Alaska’s two spaceports. Typically, the mesosphere’s  lower boundary is in about 31 miles (50 km) height above the Earth’s surface. The upper boundary of the mesosphere, called mesopause, is in about 62 miles (100 km). The altitudes of these boundaries depend on season and latitude. In mid latitude summer, for instance, the mesopause is in about 53 miles (85 km). Like in the troposphere, temperature decreases with height, which due to the absorption of radiation in the ozone layer is not the case in the stratosphere, i.e. the layer between the troposphere and mesosphere. Like in the troposphere, temperature inversions, i.e. layers where temperature increases with height over several 109 yards (100 m), may occur in the mesosphere. The yellow line shows the temperature profile, the column with antennas is the instrument, the long numbers give the day as counted in space science.

T-shirt with Caribou antlers print

The light blue Tee displays the names of all departments of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics as antlers of a caribou. The department of biology and wildlife performs a lot of research on caribous and reindeer.

Graphic of a 3D low pressure system

I wrote about this top before. It displays the air movement in a low pressure system.

Cool Ways  How to Wear a Graphic Tee

Below are some examples of how I wore my graphic tees street style in the past.

When you like these looks, please pin them to your Pinterest board so your friends can see them too.

When you liked the post, you may also want to get my style recipe book How to Dress for Success in Midlife. Buy it now.

Do you wear graphic tops? What kind of graphics do you like? How do you choose them? What are your challenges with wearing them? Let me know by email, I love to hear from you.

Ageless Style Linkup on How to Wear a Graphic Tee

Welcome to the Ageless Style Linkup party. Let’s see your ageless style outfits wearing pastels.

Please visit some of the linked up blogs and spread the word about the party for more Ageless style inspirations. Please follow us on at least one of our platforms each. Thank you.

Ana ~ Mrs. American Made blog

Daenel ~ Living outside the stacks blog

Debbie ~ Fashion Fairy Dust

Jennie ~ A Pocketful of Polka Dots

Jill ~ Doused in Pink instagram

Jodie ~ Jodie’s Touch of Style blog

Paula ~ Dimples on my What blog

Shelly ~ The Queen in Between blog

Yvonne ~ Funky Forty blog

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Photos of me: G. Kramm

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