2018CLL003 / 04 – ERGONOMIC SHIRT, FABRIC: KG DENIM # PD6733HW History of the Workwear shirt

Shirts have been around for millennia. The humble workshirts as we know them are documented to have been made around early 1900s. but the evolution of the shirt is very fascinating. A garment which you can tell by the wearer which class your from, from the type of collar shape. But shirts have changed a lot over the years.

“Religion is not changed as easily as a shirt,” King Henry IV of France observes, ruling during a time of period in France.

The shirt has remained mostly unchanged over the past half-century or more - but that hasn’t always been the case. Detachable sleeves for flirting? Shirttails as underwear? Over the years, this core garment has evolved (and devolved) in fascinating and sometimes funny ways.

The shirt goes way, way back. In fact, this date marks the oldest preserved garment in the world - a linen shirt from ancient Egypt

These are the cloudy origins of a shirt convention that we still live with today: women’s shirts buttoning on the left and men’s on the right. Allegedly, women of status tended to be buttoned up by a servant, more easily done from the left for a right-handed person, whereas men dressed themselves.

16th - 18th Centuries The Origins of the Crop-Top

The “half shirt” or “sham” was a popular men’s garment at this time. A decorative layer, it only covered the top portion of the chest and was worn over a shirt that was either deemed too plain for the occasion, or needed washing

Early 18th Century Top and Tails

The shirt extends beyond the torso for men of this era, its long tails doing double duty as underwear.

1771 Enlightenment Expressions

The first documented appearance of the expression “To give the shirt off one’s back,” an idiom that indicates extreme desperation or generosity and is still in common usage.

1827 On the Cutting-Edge

Hannah Montague, a housewife in upstate New York, invents the detachable collar. Tired of constantly washing her husband’s entire shirt when only the collar needed it, she cut off his collars and devised a way of attaching them to the neckband after washing.

1845 Swashbuckling Style

The French cuff makes its first important appearance in literature — in The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. In actual fact, the English invented the style.

1871 Button Up

The clothier Brown, Davis & Co. patents a shirt that buttons all the way down to the waist. The upwardly mobile masses are putting their initials on everything, including shirts—and not just to claim ownership of items sent out to be washed, the original (and practical) reason for monogramming clothing.

Turn of the 20th Century - High Fashion

The high collar seen in portraits dating from this era is, in fact, a holdover from Victorian times. Though it is out of fashion today, a higher, stiffer collar does still convey formality.

The 1900s -1910s

The turn of the century is an interesting time for workwear; along with the 1910s, there’s actually a great deal we don’t know about it. That’s because unlike the 1940s, 1930s, and even 1920s, there of what we know from this time period is thanks to catalogues, or photographs. work shirts from this era were pullovers, featured, and were single-needle or double-needle stitched. Labels were almost always cotton and printed, back yokes tended to be very high and thin.

1920s To The Point

The pointed collar starts overtaking the rounded collar as the men’s style most typical for business wear.

1924 Feeling Blue

First recorded use of the term “blue-collar worker.” The color of one’s shirt is at this point an important class indicator. The “whitecollar”—so called because those in more elevated positions are less likely to get their shirts dirty, and are thus able to wear white - is already a phenomenon.

Its around this period where ventilated yoke shirt design that was filed in 1928-29 by John W. Champion – which become the standard to workwear shirts.

References

https://the-rite-stuff.com/blogs/news/the-evolution-of-thework-shirt https://www.gant.co.uk/shirtguide/shirt-history