80s tee shirts

Saucy T-shirt slogans a hit-or-miss affair

It's tough being a teen – you have to study fulltime, you don't get paid for your industry, your parents tell you what to do – and the hormones are coursing through your veins like concubines.

You perhaps love your parents very much, after all they are always there when you need them, they feed you, fix you up when you're hurt, and … clothe you in yesterday's fashion! Yuck.

So you want to be an individual, but you haven't the means. You're an independent person, but you live at home. You're a rebel without a cause. So what do you do? You skimp and you save, and ultimately, well ask your parents for a few dong, more so you can buy a T-shirt that allows you express your individuality … and your parents sigh.

No, I'm not of the 60s mum, the 70s are passe, the 80s are dead. I want to be original, I want to stand out, be noticed, by her or him.

Sadly, it has become a trend to buy T-shirts that bear slogans with some witty little ditty; something like – "I am less… I love girls!",… Others opt for so-called brand names worn by celebs that don't even try to be funny or clever or appropriate.

Bored with hip hop, some teens opt for grunge or the tom boy look – trousers not skirts please. But I'm a woman I tell you! But the thing is, when these clothes are bought in the same high street stores, you end up looking like "L'Enfant Terrible" of fashion, and like just about everyone else in the same financial predicament. And worse, you could look ridiculous, or stupid, and your peers will laugh at you – a fate worse than death.

Nguyen Dinh Hien, a student at the Centre for Talents Training at Ha Noi University of Technology, says he's heavily into hip hop – for the time being at least. "I like these boys or girls who wear hip hop or tomboy clothes. They have personality; they are clear and powerful, suitable for a teenager of the 9x [90s] generation in Viet Nam.

Western shirts, a classic American fashion

Totally awesome 80s

The 80s, a look back at the tumultuous decade, 1980-1989

80s, a topology

The '80s, Melody Line, Chords and Lyrics for Keyboard, Guitar, Vocals