While a lot of high-end fashion designers and brands draw in famous celebrities and models to display their newest lines to entice buyers, for many, finding unique pieces is the preferred way to go. After all, if everyone wore the same thing, the world would be quite a boring place. For outfit choices, some distinct driving forces make the selection experience so diverse.
For women, it tends to come down to personal emotional drivers, with data indicating that 58 percent of women – per a UK study – pick clothes based on confidence, 40 percent select clothes that make them feel happy, and 16 percent pick for empowerment. The study also found that 64 percent of people can be put in a better mood based on how they dress. Naturally, everyone who likes the alt or goth style knows this very well. The attire works as a reflection, and these styles are all about personalization – even if black is often a common theme.
All of this leads to the point that outfit choices are very important to most individuals, can make a big difference to one’s day, and that many lean on personal preferences to make choices. While there are millions of items of clothing around, you can’t always rely on a clothes manufacturer to get you and your style exactly right. This is why more and more are turning to designing and making their own centerpiece items with custom t-shirt designs.
Designing shirts that fit, suit, and look rad
At the time of writing, white t-shirts were picking up steam again. They’re a great piece that can go with almost anything, and there are enough of them to suit any fit. Even Vogue was running a piece on the best white t-shirts, from the Leset Margo cotton jersey t-shirt for $68 to the Everlane organic cotton box cut tee for $30. Here, we’re going down a very different route of taking a regular shirt with a dark color – you can’t go wrong with black – of your preferred fit and cut and making it your own.
Perhaps the best place to start is with your design. What you put on the t-shirt is the whole point of the exercise, regardless of whether you’re aiming to create your own loungewear, casual wear, or a shirt for another occasion. For this, Adobe Express offers a tremendous free suite to get you going. You can draw from samples from professional designers and customize them at will, or just start from scratch can create one that’s entirely your own.
You don’t need any previous design experience be it graphical design or through other artistic mediums. The Adobe suite offers a simple layout and enough tools to be a very accessible way to design your t-shirts. Of course, with it being its own app, you don’t have to commit to the designs going on a shirt until you’re absolutely ready. Maybe try out a bunch of ideas, get some experience, and then pick your favorite.
Next up, it’s picking your perfect shirt. Naturally, price is an important factor, just as much as fit and cut, so one of the best ways to get shirts for women is to target volume discounts without minimal orders. Wordans is designed for individuals or wholesalers to buy as many or as few t-shirts from a whole range of brands and styles as they want. Almost all of the most popular t-shirts listed at the time of writing were, at most, $10.
With v-neck, raglan, tri-blend, short sleeve, scoop neck, performance, long sleeve, and more available to filter through, and 50 brands on the platform, anyone can find their ideal fit and brand. Once you’ve got your design program and t-shirts, it’s time to print. This is the part where it can get a bit more expensive if you go for a high-end heat press machine, but something like the Cricut EasyPress 2 for just $150.
Fuelling your alt shirt design
Plenty of people turn to designing their own shirts after spotting one they like, but don’t see as perfect for them just yet. For example, you could see a black baseball top with dark purple shoulders and arms and a silver slogan on it knowing that it’d look better with dark red shoulders and arms with a matching colored slogan. So, there’s that route, as well as looking to mimic a t-shirt design that you really like but on a shirt style and fit that you prefer.
This year, some distinct trends have risen to the fore in the world of t-shirts. Continuing the cycle of retro shirts from around 30 years ago coming back around – just as 80s gear did in the 10s – 90s and some Y2K styles have come back around. For the goth look, this is great news. In 1994, one of the all-time great gothic films was released. The Crow remains a black-clad icon, and shirts featuring or linking to the film will very much offer 90s retro appeal and may even give a more modern twist, too. In 2024, the remake will hit cinemas.
One of the best places to go for popular designs that you can work from, though, might just be Red Bubble. If you search “goth” and use the filters for women and t-shirts and then sort by best-selling, you can see the kinds of designs and themes that are appealing right now. Invariably, these will include designs based on the latest hit movie, TV show, or game, as well as others with slogans or odd artistic takes. At the time of writing, The Crow by the broken window was one of the top designs, as was a craft design of stylized wolf heads and random eyes swirling out of pinkened smoke.
Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa or different takes on the iconic piece of art is invariably in the mix – but there’s notably not a distinctly goth one. The wave coming out of a skull coming closest. Of course, rather than using existing t-shirt designs as inspiration for your own, go all-out on your own original ideas and style. You could do anything, from an assortment of doodles that you’ve amassed to a crazy, colorful burst of art.
By making your own designs and printing them onto the exact shirts that you want to wear, you can fully express your personalized style and feel even better knowing that it’s an entirely unique piece just for you.
