The shirt.
In the last few years the "classic chemise" wasn't much popular anymore among the street people. Of course skaters liked the wide checkered short sleeve shirts and we could also see the "Hawaii-Shirts" around the beaches. But the chemise had to step back because the t-shirt became popular as outer-garment due to the Americans in the 40s and 50s. And it is the best seller ever since. It has become a medium for self-expression and advertising, with imaginable combination of words, art and even photographs on display. In contrast to the chemise, it became an item of elegance and business.
But about a year or two ago I was positively surprised to see that young urban people started wearing the chemise also for going out. They combine it in a creative way and not just with a tie and business suit but with t-shirts, jeans, gilets, slim pants...
I’ll show you some examples later. First I would like to go back and analyse how the shirt was worn in the past.
The chemise seems to have been developed from the Roman tunic and first became popular in the European Middle Ages.
It was first dressed as an underwear item. In the 18th century (and long before) in Germany and France, and probably other European countries and also in America, men and women wore a long shirt form the shoulders to the calves next to their skin. In these days underwear was not common yet and therefore they wore the chemise day and night. The rich and upper classes wore more fancy versions, the rest simple ones. Men wore chemises with their trousers or "braies" and covered the chemises with garments such as doublets, robes etc.
When the chemises eventually became dressed as upper-wear, they had a ruff and matching wrist ruffs. Later the ruff was replaced by a collar and matching cuffs. In that period of 1550-1700 the Western European clothing was characterized by an increasing opulence as we can see on the picture below.
A group portrait of British middle-class men by Johann Zoffany from 1796. Their outfits indicate how 18th-century British men's fashion could be customized by using different colours, collar details, neckties, and waistcoats.
It has been said that the "war of the Rebellion" and the death of Prince Albert (1861) in England had such a sobering effect on the world that men's clothing became much less flamboyant than it had been. We could see in the middle of the 19th century a more conservative fashion. Colours used for suits were limited to black, grey, blue and brown. For suits they used stripes, plaids as well as plain textiles.
Bright coloured waistcoats, which had formerly been common, now became the province to Dandies and gamblers. Brightness and colour for the most part belonged to the ladies.
1832: The ultra-fashionable men known as "dandies" spread no expense in care and attention to their dress. Illustration from Costume Parisian
1886: The lager 1886 Parisian fashion plate from Les Modes Françaises - "Journal des Tailleurs" shows how sober and serious male costume had become.
1927: Gentlemen Style, a picture of Prince of Wales on tour in America. Of course the suit was from the Savile Row in London.
2007: Comme des Garçon for fall 2007.
After the late Victorian Era (1870-1901) there weren't big changes in the men's fashion. Men's fashion changes at snail's pace compared with the rapidity of ladies' style. But finally the strong manner that a man who is wearing only trousers and a shirt was considered to be "undressed" became to an end in the 20th century also because of the influence of the rise of subcultures. And for the first time in the 40s, young people were setting the fashion trends while the older people followed and it as been downhill ever since.
A short run trough the young fashion tribes, of curse focused on these who wore shirts!
Teddy Boys in Trafalgar Square, 1953. Teds wore long "fingertip" draped jackets with velvet collars and cuffs, narrow ties, peg trousers or drainpipe jeans and brothel creepers. Thinking of Georg Cox!
Mods was a distinctive movement in opposition to Rockers, who adapted an American style in the 60's. They represented a shift of an American to a European styling, seen in the cult of coffee bars and Italian fashion. Mods exuded streamlined, minimalist cool wear, with their stylish shirts and ties, short haircuts, Clarks suede desert boots, and Italian Vespa scooters. The green cotton parka is originally derived from American army uniform. The Mods introduced stylish clothes for men.
The Beatles (1967) are wearing black lightweight wool suits and pointed Chelsea boots. A narrow profile, broad shoulders, tight trousers and shirt or polo neck shirts.
Punk. John Lydon was the articulate spokesman of the British punk band the Sex Pistols in the 70's. The band was famously managed by Malcolm McLaren from his King's Road shop SEX and dressed by Vivienne Westwood in clothes that used ripped and torn fabrics, safety pins, and political slogans. The Sex pistols' music, attitude, and style kick-started a revolution in British music, design, and fashion that still has an impact on attitudes today.
John Lydon is wearing a smart Mod shirt with the kind of formal jacket that suggest old-style working class values but with his ironic addition of a war medal pinned to the lapel.
2007
Style-tribes like we have seen before (Mods, Teddy's, Punks...) have reasserted the role of appearance style as a marker of group membership. All these style messages were very simple:" I am working class", "I am an aristocrat"...
The difference today is the complexity of the messages.
To this a summary of the book "style surfing by Ted Polhemus":
"With one presentation of self - for example, a young woman with a shaved head, a nose piercing, black mascara and false eyelashes, a worn denim jacket, a Mod-style "target" T-shirt, tight, black leggings, DMs, a Prada rucksack - one discerns signifying references to (amongst other things): in-your face, Tank Girl feminism, Indian ethnicity, Swinging London, 60s futurism, sexual liberation, women of ill-repute, 70s glam, cowboys, rebels without cause, on the road bohemians, Mods, Punks, Hippies and students, as well as high-fashion elitism signalling wealth."
Well, the façade of today’s self presentation is rich and we are all breaking the rules and mixing sportswear with working-wear, classics with glam, the old and the new.
Therefore some pictures of urban people with their shirt-styles.
Above the favourite shirt of our sales staff.
They prefer white shirts, also with stripes or check pattern. The shirt should be simple and casual, in order to have the possibility to mix it with other elements.
(A white shirt like the Teddy Boys, the Moods and the Beatles - not a big change!)
More street pictures- just little details which make the difference.
