The study was focused on surveying the cultural identity and the origin of T-shirts, and examining their functions. Six cities were selected to categorize the design motifs of cultural identity appearing in the design of contemporary T-shirts. These cities include a city in France, United Kingdom, Italy, United States and Japan where collections are currently presented at, and also a city in China that has shown a high economic growth as one of the most popular sightseeing cities. Cultural identity was presented in the T-shirts that were examined in this study through diversified design motifs. Motifs used in T-shirt designs to reflect cultural identity included national flags, notable places, letters, names of geographic places, and individuals. A national flag is a motif that signifies national identity and it was used in the front of T-shirts as it is or was just partially used. Also, many world-renowned structures or architectural buildings were applied to T-shirt design. Noted places such as the White House, the Statue of Liberty in the U.S., Tienanmen Square in China and the Eiffel Tower in France were used. The unique characters of language, such as Hangeul in Korea were used as design elements to reflect the structural characteristics of letters. Names of geographic places were used as design elements through the disclosure of the name of a symbolic city or a tourist site in each country. In terms of figures, not only the historical figures or celebrities from each country were used, but the image of bodies and faces that represent each culture were used as well. In addition, this study was used to develop T-shirt designs that reveal the cultural identity of Korea.