05 Jul 10 A History of Shirts

It is amazing how far back in history shirts can be traced with the current oldest preserved shirt thought to be dated at around 3,000 BC. Since then, the style of shirts have changed dramatically to include shirts for all occasions from undergarments through to smart dress tops used for business or special ceremonies.

Men’s shirts have a long history as explorers, rulers, noblemen and workers all used various types of shirts for everyday work. Women’s shirts however took longer to be fashionably acceptable and it wasn’t until the 19th century that wearing shirts as a woman was a normal occurrence.

Men, women and children today all wear shirts and they can be worn for a variety of occasions. They can be found in all types of shops from designer boutiques through to supermarkets and they vary in style and their fit as much as they do price.

Evolution of Men’s Shirts

The earliest preserved shirt was discovered by Flinders Petrie; an English archaeologist specialising in Egyptology. It was taken from the First Dynasty Egyptian tomb in the cemetery in Tarkan. It is very advanced for its age as it boasts pleats that give the wearer a fitted look without restricting movement.

For the best part of history, men’s shirts were worn as an undergarment and up until the 17th century it was still considered indecent for a shirt to be on show in public. Shirts were often used for sleeping in by men in the 18th century and in many cases; underpants were forgone in favour of long shirts that would hide their modesty.

For hundreds of years men’s shirts were only available in white. It was not until the early 1800s that men would be seen in shirts of colour. Over the years more colours would make their way onto men’s torsos and the short started to take different forms.

Today, a shirt comes in many different styles. The traditional dress shirt has buttons up the front, cuffs and collars; polo shirts made popular by brands like Lacoste and Ralph Lauren with just three buttons at the top and a collar; and the ever popular t-shirt that comes in a variety of different shapes, colours and sizes.

Women and Shirts

Garibaldi women’s shirts were the first real type of shirts to hit the ladies fashion markets in the 1800s. Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian nationalist trying to gain independence for Italy. Garibaldi and his followers used to wear red woollen shirts; women fell for his courage and personality while men tried to emulate him.

From this point, women’s shirts evolved into blouses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and women who worked away from the home would wear these to blend in with a male dominated workforce.

As well as having their own distinct styling, women have a variety of shirts available to them from tight fitting blouses and football tops through to lose fitting men’s shirts and throw-overs suitable for holidays.

Although men’s and women’s shirts are much the same in design and material choices there is one huge difference that is noticeable when dressing; a shirt for a woman will button up the opposite side to a man. There are a few theories behind this and one of the major thoughts is that women would always have a maid dress them while men would dress themselves. Whatever the reason, it has become a tradition for female shirts to button up the other way as well as other upper body clothes like jackets.

Tags: Fashion, men's shirts, mens clothing, shirts, women's clothing, women's shirts