The Not-So-Humble T-Shirt: Why I Decided to Make My Own
I always know spring has arrived when our workshop fills up with orders for our Lourdes t-shirt. After a month of primarily making these, it felt like a good idea to write about why a small independent made-to-order brand would choose to create an item so widely available that the market should be completely saturated. That item is the humble t-shirt. And if you've ever found yourself searching for women's t-shirts in South Africa that are actually designed for a woman's body, you might find this post interesting.
But before I get into the why, I want to talk a bit about the history of this iconic piece — and how it evolved from underwear to the most widely worn casual outerwear item in the modern wardrobe.
Let's start with a little history lesson
There is a reason the t-shirt is called humble. It started as underwear, issued by the US Navy to be worn beneath uniforms. For decades it remained useful yet hidden and entirely unremarkable. The shift came in the 1950s, when Marlon Brando wore a fitted white t-shirt as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. What he was wearing was still technically underwear — yet here he was, in public and on the screen, making a statement with it. James Dean followed in Rebel Without a Cause, and young people across the world took note. What had been hidden for fifty years under uniforms became an iconic item in fashion, and from there it never went into hiding again. By the 1990s, Chanel had put its logo on one, and the garment that began as military underwear had completed the full journey to high fashion in under a century.
Why it looks the way it does
Lay a t-shirt flat and you will discover the origin of its name. A t-shirt is literally the shape of a capital T. The shape wasn't really a design choice — it came from manufacturing logic. Fabric was expensive and cutting was done by hand, so rectangular panels and straight seams meant maximum material with minimum waste. Straight seams were also significantly faster to sew than curved ones, making the t-shirt one of the most affordable garments to produce at scale. The earliest versions were knitted on circular machines that produced seamless tubes of jersey — no side seams, just a continuous tube that became the body of the shirt. Most mass-produced t-shirts today are cut-and-sew: flat fabric cut into panels and sewn together with side seams, which is faster and cheaper at scale. The basic T-shape has barely changed in over a hundred years, reflecting minor adjustments as fashion trends have changed.
Which raises a question worth asking...
Why would a small independent brand enter one of the most saturated markets in fashion?
It's a fair question. The t-shirt is not just widely available — it is one of the most widely available items of clothing on earth. Entire brands exist to make nothing else. Just about every retailer carries one. So when I started developing what would become the Maya Prass core collection, introducing a t-shirt into that landscape required some genuine justification.
And this was my thinking...
Before the pivot that reshaped this brand, my work was known for a very particular aesthetic — custom prints, bold colour, a distinct handwriting applied to everything including knit tops. I was already making my version of t-shirt shapes, but the print and colour were doing most of the work. When that aesthetic was no longer available to me, I had to ask a harder question: what is my product without its most recognisable feature? Is there something underneath the print worth offering?
The answer was yes. A point of view on silhouette, on fit, on what I thought I could offer to a woman's wardrobe. And so when I sat down to develop the core collection, I asked myself: what are the most iconic pieces in a woman's wardrobe, and what would my take on them look like?
Starting with the t-shirt felt like the most obvious and the most interesting place to begin. Not because I wanted to compete in a saturated market — but because I had something specific to say about it. I wasn't going to take the existing silhouette and put my name on it. I was going to make my version of it, which meant beginning with a list of everything I personally wanted in the ideal everyday t-shirt and working from there.
And here is the thing about that list: the classic t-shirt silhouette did not appear on it. What appeared on it were solutions to my frustrations with the way the classic t-shirt has always been designed. Because the original t-shirt was not designed with a woman's body in mind. It was designed for a male body — flat chest, no hips, straight up and down. That shape has its place and can look genuinely great. But I wanted to make something built for a female body from the start — flattering t-shirts for women that weren't adapted from a men's garment, but designed for the woman wearing it from the very first pattern.
That became our Lourdes t-shirt.
Creating a brand signature: the Lourdes t-shirt
The brief I set myself was simple: what would my version of the ultimate everyday t-shirt look like? I wanted an easy, relaxed fit — but with enough shape that it wasn't just a boxy basic. A slightly more open neckline. A sleeve long enough to give coverage without looking covered up. And details that took it beyond the ordinary.
The list came down to 4 focal points- the fabric, the silhouette, the sleeve shape, and a set of details that together make our Lourdes t-shirt something very special you reach for every day and still feel like you chose intentionally.
The fabric is viscose spandex, a soft, cool, lightweight and breathable textile made of processed tree bark. Viscose t-shirts drape differently to cotton, the fabric moves with the body rather than sitting on it, which makes a meaningful difference to how a knit top looks and feels. The silhouette is an easy fit with room in it, but shaped, with side slits for movement and hem panels that curve down slightly at front and back for coverage where it matters. The sleeve sits at the elbow with a drop shoulder, and a tab and button let you roll it up and fasten it when you want to adjust the length. And the details — a narrow self-fabric neckband, exposed serger seams down the center front, center back and along the hem panel — take a functional garment and make it a unique one.
Our Lourdes t-shirt was the first piece I developed for the core collection and it remains one of our best-selling items, now in sixteen colours. It also happens to be the piece that proved the premise — that you can enter a saturated market with a genuinely different point of view and find your customer. Because at the end of the day, I wasn't actually making a t-shirt. I was making our version of a knit top that could be chosen instead of the humble T-shirt.
Expanding on the concept: the Blake Easy Fit t-shirt
Once our Lourdes t-shirt existed, the question became: what else would I want in a t-shirt that it doesn't give me?
I've always loved what I think of as the "it girl" t-shirt — the one you see in photographs of stylish women walking through cities, wearing something slouchy and white that looks easy, chic and a little bit sexy without trying. I wanted my version of that, so I started a new list.
Our Blake t-shirt needed a deep scooped V-neck which I think is flattering because it cradles the collarbone and gives a hint of neckline without being revealing. I wanted a shorter sleeve for a lighter, more summery feel, with a small turn-up detail that makes a garment feel modern. And then a collection of design details to take this from ordinary to extraordinary- little patch pocket, side slits for movement, a front hem that curves down slightly for coverage and room for a French tuck. And finally, our signature exposed serger seam at the back, as a nod to what makes our pieces ours.
Our Blake t-shirt is the Lourdes t-shirt's sister — a different attitude with the same comfort. Made in viscose spandex, and today available in five colours and counting.
Creating a piece inspired by feeling: the Layla t-shirt
With our Layla t-shirt, I started with a feeling rather than a list. I wanted a t-shirt that had the ease and ethereal quality of a caftan — that wispy, barely-there drape where fabric floats rather than sits — but with enough shape to keep it from feeling like a rectangle of fabric.
I started by building a silhouette with dolmen sleeves and a gentle curve towards the body that gives it just enough structure. The neckline is a V-shape at both front and back — open enough to show the collarbone without being revealing. Made in viscose spandex, the soft light drape of the fabric is what makes the silhouette everything it is. The fit is intentionally roomy, so that when tucked in, there is enough fabric to blouson softly over a waistband rather than pull tight. Minimal in detail, considered in fit, Layla takes you from day to evening with nothing more than a change of accessories.
Three t-shirts. One intention.
Lourdes, Blake and Layla are three different pieces that answer to the same question: what does a t-shirt look like when it's designed for a woman's body, with a woman's wardrobe in mind, by a designer who wears everything she makes?
Instead of taking a classic silhouette and simply rebranding it, I wanted to make something new — built from scratch, in fabric that feels good, in colours that aren't always easy to find elsewhere. Like with all of my pieces, I wanted to make considered items where a lot of thought went into answering three questions: why should this exist, why should she buy it from me, and how will my customer feel when she wears it.
Based on the flood of t-shirt orders that arrive every spring and summer, I'm really glad to see that — in some way at least — that mission was accomplished.
All three are made to order in Cape Town, in sizes 32 to 46, at mayaprass.com.
