The September Eleventh attacks shocked the nation, but no one could have predicted one of the most significant results of the attacks: for the first time in decades, Americans overcame their cynicism and turned bravery -- physical bravery in the face of danger, and moral bravery in the face of evil -- into a virtue to be praised, rather than an anachronism to be avoided.
One of the most direct manifestations of this was the rise of FDNY T-Shirts.
It's interesting to analyze FDNY T-Shirts as a trend.
Unlike many other fashion items, they don't distinguish people based on wealth -- they were never an expensive item, except as a collectible that wasn't meant to be worn.
And FDNY T-shirts didn't get much attention from the top designers, whether this was discomfort with the bravery-as-fashion-statement or the lack of any available contributions to their design.
So FDNY t-shirts were a very egalitarian trend, which certainly befits their role as a way to commemorate practictioners of a very working-class profession.
If fashion designers felt some discomfort with FDNY t-shirts, consumers were just the opposite: they snapped the shirts up in droves shortly after the attacks.
Surprisingly, the trend didn't whither away.
While people aren't buying as many FDNY t-shirts as they were in, say, October of 2001, they're still wearing them and still buying them.
FDNY t-shirts have turned into a symbol of the best of New York at a time when New York became the symbol of the best of America -- a no-nonsense, tough-under-pressure insistence on getting the job done regardless of the risk.
Of course, there have been other examples of heroism since 9/11.
However, most of these examples are either on a smaller scale (a single act of bravery to stop a single bad event) or have been too politically charged to become a universal symbol (the two main parties would probably like either the American soldier or the lone antiwar protestor to be acknowledged with something similar to FDNY t-shirts, but as long as the FDNY is universally approved and the country is split on everything else, that's not going to happen).
What's unique and heartening about this is that the FDNY t-shirts represent a form of cultural unity that has been absent before or since.
Nearly everyone who watched the firefighters on 9/11 saw someone whom they admired at a deep level, and many of these people chose to share their admiration in a highly visible, public fashion.
The FDNY t-shirts trend probably won't happen again, but the fact that it did happen is a great sign.
One of the most direct manifestations of this was the rise of FDNY T-Shirts.
It's interesting to analyze FDNY T-Shirts as a trend.
Unlike many other fashion items, they don't distinguish people based on wealth -- they were never an expensive item, except as a collectible that wasn't meant to be worn.
And FDNY T-shirts didn't get much attention from the top designers, whether this was discomfort with the bravery-as-fashion-statement or the lack of any available contributions to their design.
So FDNY t-shirts were a very egalitarian trend, which certainly befits their role as a way to commemorate practictioners of a very working-class profession.
If fashion designers felt some discomfort with FDNY t-shirts, consumers were just the opposite: they snapped the shirts up in droves shortly after the attacks.
Surprisingly, the trend didn't whither away.
While people aren't buying as many FDNY t-shirts as they were in, say, October of 2001, they're still wearing them and still buying them.
FDNY t-shirts have turned into a symbol of the best of New York at a time when New York became the symbol of the best of America -- a no-nonsense, tough-under-pressure insistence on getting the job done regardless of the risk.
Of course, there have been other examples of heroism since 9/11.
However, most of these examples are either on a smaller scale (a single act of bravery to stop a single bad event) or have been too politically charged to become a universal symbol (the two main parties would probably like either the American soldier or the lone antiwar protestor to be acknowledged with something similar to FDNY t-shirts, but as long as the FDNY is universally approved and the country is split on everything else, that's not going to happen).
What's unique and heartening about this is that the FDNY t-shirts represent a form of cultural unity that has been absent before or since.
Nearly everyone who watched the firefighters on 9/11 saw someone whom they admired at a deep level, and many of these people chose to share their admiration in a highly visible, public fashion.
The FDNY t-shirts trend probably won't happen again, but the fact that it did happen is a great sign.
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