![]() In addition to knitted cellular cottons, new manmade fibres such as rayon (developed in 1905) offered a lighter-weight and more comfortable alternative to the traditional heavier fabrics and were promoted in quasi-scientific terms. In 1937 the British clothes manufacturer Sunspel developed and patented a lightweight, breathable, woven, open (mesh-like) fabric, known as Quality 14 (Q14), and other companies also produced garments in similar fabrics. Alongside this demand for comfort, leading companies saw the benefit of patenting their innovations and promoting their brands through advertising. against male sexual display".īy the early 20th century, opinions about the health properties of fabrics were changing to reflect general ideas about health and fitness. Fashion historian Valerie Steele described the T-shirt as, "the most significant and pervasive example of underwear as outerwear", which "flaunted rules about hidden clothing" and challenged "taboos. Enhanced by popular cinema-screen portrayals by Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and The Wild One (1953), and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), the T-shirt became part of the uniform of a rebellious teenager, and was transformed into outerwear. In the years after the Second World War, most men still wore their T-shirts underneath their shirts. Such undershirts were also worn by sailors, and their transformation to the T-shirt has been attributed to naval adoption and adaption. Knitted or flannel undershirts were worn by labouring men because, as well as keeping them warm in winter, they absorbed sweat and were easily washable. ![]() Even though this 'undershirt' was worn next to the skin and under the shirt, it retained the name given to flannel under-waistcoats that had previously been worn for extra warmth. The 1840s saw the introduction of the woollen vest or 'under-vest', which was "generally made of fine calico" ( The Workwoman's Guide, 1840). By the early 20th century, with a change to a less formal outerwear, the shirt had lost its status as underwear to become a key component of a man's outerwear wardrobe. The high buttoning of waistcoats and coats continued throughout the 19th century for formal day wear, leaving just the collar and cuffs showing. By the 1840s the daywear shirt front had become increasingly plain and, with the combination of a high-cut waistcoat and cravat, was practically hidden. During the 1820s these frill-fronted shirts began to lose their popularity for daywear and were replaced by a front panel with vertical pleats or tucks. At the beginning of the 19th century, ruffle-fronted shirts had become the general fashion for both day and evening, and indicated that a man was not a manual worker. From the mid-16th century, clean white linen had increasingly been seen as the marker of the courtier and changing the shirt daily became normal for men in court circles. ![]() Until the early 20th century, shirts were regarded as undergarments, serving the purposes of protection and modesty, and as indicators of wealth or social status.
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