Spirit Day is coming up on Thursday, October 20th; which I mention now, more than 10 days in advance, in case you are going to suddenly realize you don’t have purple shirts for one or more people in your household who would like to wear a purple shirt.
This is definitely easier for women’s/girls’ clothing than men’s/boys’: one year Old Navy had men’s t-shirts in TWO shades of purple, and I bought a ton of them for all the men’s-clothing-wearing members of my household, which I’m particularly glad of because this year I’m not seeing much available. They do have a t-shirt in plum. Target has a purple Hanes men’s t-shirt that seems good.
I keep realizing each year at the last minute that my only purple shirt is a disappointingly wishy-washy pale purple, which is FINE, but now it has a little hole in it; and also I now wear more shirts with pictures on them, so I went looking for something new. I know I know I know but I bought myself one from Amazon: it’s this peony one, if you want to be Spirit Day twins with me.
(This zinnia one in purple was a close second, and now that I look at it again, I wonder if it would have been better: the pink of the peony sort of sways the color impression of the peony one. Well, but I liked the big peony better, and I do plan to wear this shirt all year.)
In case it helps with sizing, I wear an XL Tall in Old Navy t-shirts, and I can wear a women’s XL or 2XL in this brand, depending on whether I want it Fairly Fitted (like, I tuck my knees up under the hem to stretch it a little before going out in public) or Looser and Less Bust-Enhancing (the size I usually buy for my work t-shirts).
Another idea for emergency coloured shirts is to cut a small t shirt out of some paper and pit it to your regular clothing (think of the way British people wear poppies). I’ve also drawn a T-shirt on the back of my hand with a marker.
I wear this shirt! 🥰 https://www.mysecretstash.com/products/up-north-pride-all-love-needs-tee-purple
I have never heard of spirit day before – thank you for illuminating us!
I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of this version of Spirit Day, but did have to say that when I saw the headline, my mind jumped with its usual horror to the umpteen Spirit Days my kid’s elementary school had last year. Apparently I can no longer see those two words together neutrally. I immediately think, “oh, no, what don’t we already own now?”
For last minute spirit days, your local Michael’s craft store usually has a whole aisle of Gildan colored T-shirts in many sizes. On sale you can get them as cheap as 3/$10, but there’s always some type of coupon, and for that price you can do cute stuff you might have wanted to try, like fringing/beading the hem, or cutting the neckline or sleeves.
Both my purple t-shirts are from NARAL. One is from NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, the other is from NARAL Pro-Choice America. https://shop.naral.org/collections/apparel
My daughter still wears as a pajama shirt a purple shirt that I bought for my son for a purple shirt day. It has a bulldog on it. I can’t remember why – must be a fake team.