T-Shirts on Women?

[KittyAnneMalloo]

Hello all,

Please forgive me if this has been covered before. I have tried the search feature but i can't find anything?

When did women start to wear T-Shirts as we know them today? and does anyone have any early pics?

please add this to an appropriate thread if one exists?

 

[Amie]

Jean Seberg in Breathless comes to mind if you're thinking of really modern looking T shirts:

 

[Lauren]

I'm not actually sure. I know I've seen pictures of women wearing t-shirt like tops in the 30s (especially striped) but I think they're more like thin knitwear than t-shirts. I know jersey was a popular fabric and I've seen dresses and tops made from it starting in the late 40s, but most were dressier and the fabric was almost shiny and often times printed in a pattern.
I would guess that the t shirt as we know it had it's origins for women in the late 60s, but I'm not certain. [huh]

 

[Land-O-LakesGal]

I'm not actually sure. I know I've seen pictures of women wearing t-shirt like tops in the 30s (especially striped) but I think they're more like thin knitwear than t-shirts. I know jersey was a popular fabric and I've seen dresses and tops made from it starting in the late 40s, but most were dressier and the fabric was almost shiny and often times printed in a pattern.
I would guess that the t shirt as we know it had it's origins for women in the late 60s, but I'm not certain. [huh]

Lauren I think I would agree I don't think men started wearing tshirts regularly until after WWII as they were issued then and brought back from the war.

 

[Lady Day]

Men wore t-shirts all the time, but as a base for an oxford or for lounging. When things got more casual, t-shirts became outer wear.

I would bank the mid 40s for that time, when women were factory workers. I'd think it might have started as something like how men's started, then post war it migrated to fashion?

LD

 

[Lauren]

Oops! I meant to say late 30s for jersey, not late 40s! Haha.
Interesting thoughts. I know I've seen lots of pictures of my grandpa wearing white t shirts with slacks in the 1940s and later. Seems to sort of been his "look", but I don't have photos of women wearing t shirts that I'm aware of. I'd love to see some if anyone has them

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were a lot of thin, short-sleeved t-shirt style pullover sweaters beginning around the mid-forties, intended to be worn under playsuits or overalls, and by the late forties there were decorated novelty t-shirts being sold for children -- so the ingredients for the modern t-shirt were definitely there, at least as ultra-casual playsuit-type clothing. You wouldn't have commonly seen a grown woman wearing such a thing on the street, though, until quite a bit later -- I don't remember ever seeing a woman wearing a t-shirt in public until well into the seventies. Certainly none of the girls I went to school with wore them outside of gym class.

As far as men go, you'd see neighborhood dads mowing the lawn in a t-shirt, or sitting on the doorstep on a hot day having a cigarette, but if he had to go into town for anything -- unless he was an utter oaf -- he would put a proper shirt on first.

 

[Tourbillion]

Coco Chanel started using jersey knit to make women's clothes in 1916. At first they weren't really T-shirts, but she did have lots of knit tops and real T-shirts by the 1920's. The earliest T-shirts were probably boat neck versions in the 1920's or late teens, these would be for sport/beach wear. A few photos:

1928 Chanel (college women wore plainer versions of this kind of knitwear too in the 1920's)

1920's Chanel (long sleeve t-shirt and she's in pants too!)

Here is one of my grandmother c.1935 also in a T-shirt and slacks.

By tourbillion at 2010-12-28

 

[Lauren]

Thanks for posting those, Tourbillion! The second image is exactly the one I was thinking of but couldn't remember who it was or where I had seen it. Thanks!

 

[LolitaHaze]

What about Teddy girls? Would they have worn them?

 

[KittyAnneMalloo]

thanks so much ladies this info is great!!!

 

[Amy Jeanne]

T-shirt type shirts for women (as we know them today!) begin to appear in Sears catalogs during WW2. This is from 1945:

 

[Gracie Lee]

I have a picture of my grandmother (not handy, of course ) on her honeymoon in 1948 wearing a very modern looking tshirt and shorts. They were in Atlantic City, I believe, on the beach, but she's wearing a boxy tshirt with a sunscreen advert on it tucked into her shorts. She was always very stylish, so I think it must not have been too out of place.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Lauren I think I would agree I don't think men started wearing tshirts regularly until after WWII as they were issued then and brought back from the war.

That may hold for wearing them as outerwear, but they were worn long before that. In fact, Tshirt sales nose-dived after It Happened One Night when Clark Gable took off his shirt and there was no T-shirt underneath. If sales plummeted based on that, it also says sales were healthy before the movie came out.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Athletic" or sleeveless undershirts were much more common for men than sleeved T-shirts in the prewar era. (I refuse to use the contemptible modern name for A-shirts.)

As far as printed novelty T-shirts go, there was a fad for them as a summer beach/playtime garment around 1948 -- there's actually one in a Sears catalog from around that era with licensed Coca-Cola logos. They weren't mainstream daywear you'd see on any street, but they did exist.

 

[Widebrim]

"Athletic" or sleeveless undershirts were much more common for men than sleeved T-shirts in the prewar era. (I refuse to use the contemptible modern name for A-shirts.)

It is a contemptible name for them, and I always use the term "athletic." And you're right about T-shirts being worn less than A-shirts before WWII. (Oh, man, I just realized that I posted in the Powder Room. Sorry ladies...)

 

[rene_writer]

"Athletic" or sleeveless undershirts were much more common for men than sleeved T-shirts in the prewar era. (I refuse to use the contemptible modern name for A-shirts.)

.

Is the phrase that we refuse to say "muscle shirt" because if it is I think it's a great name for them. As in, if you don't look like Tripple H you probably shouldn't wear one as outerwear.

 

[Lauren]

T-shirt type shirts for women (as we know them today!) begin to appear in Sears catalogs during WW2. This is from 1945:

Thanks for this, Amy Jeanne! Was this marketed in a particular way? Like with pants or anything? Just curious (and I want an excuse to wear t shirts more and say it's period correct).

 

[Amy Jeanne]

The first t-shirt-style shirts for women appeared in the Sears catalog in 1944 as "Polo Shirts":

They appear to mostly be paired with slacks:

Or playsuits/shorts:

Here are some t-shirts in a 1947 catalog, still called a "Polo Shirt" and to be worn with Top Skirts, Pedal Pushers, or Slacks!:

Advertised with JEANS (THE HORROR):

And the earliest PRINTED t-shirts I came across were in the 1948 catalogs. This one is called the "Disc Jockey" Polo Shirt and it is indeed paired with jeans. Oh, the humanity:

 

[shopgirl61]

Amy Jeanne - I just LOVE your catalog pictures!
TY for sharing