What’ s the history of tank top?

The men's undershirt has a long history, especially the tank shirt.

 

From Marlon Brando to a storefront in Chicago to the Stockholm Olympics, from subcultures to staple clothing, vests have come a long way since their early days. To understand how vests fit into your style, it helps to understand where they come from and the role they play in modern style.

 

The origin of the undershirt

The undershirt was originally a completely different type of clothing from what we know today. In fact, the clothes are so different that you might not recognize them as the forerunners of your modern wardrobe.

 

To understand how the running men vest as you know it was born, it's important to understand where it came from. To that end, we have to look back at the history of union uniforms.

 

The Union Suit

The union suit  is the beginning of our story, and union suit will evolve into underwear.

 

Union suits began as an alternative undergarment for women. As with many fashion trends, men stole the idea in the name of utilitarianism.

 

It caught on as such a popular and practical undergarment that men often wore it underneath their clothes to stay warm in the winter. Plus, the design made it easy to go to the bathroom.

 

Briefs

This is when briefs entered the scene. Before briefs, men’s underwear consisted of union suits, long johns, and one-piece singlets.Then, a man named Arthur Kneibler had an idea. A friend of Kneibler’s sent him a postcard from his visit to the French Riviera. The postcard showed a man in a short, tight, bikini-style bathing suit. Fortunately for history, Kneibler was a designer and executive for Coopers Inc., which sold undergarments, hosiery, and socks.

 

Kneibler designed a brand of legless men’s underwear with a Y-front, nearly as supportive as a jockstrap. In February 1935, they patented the now ubiquitous underwear brief.

 

The A-Shirt and Factory Workers

With the runaway success of briefs, people needed a corresponding shirt. So, they designed the “athletic shirt”, or A-shirt for short.

 

At the same time, workers in factories were pushing toward a similar premise. In those days, factory workers wore jumpsuits to work to keep themselves safe.

 

Unfortunately, these suits were unbearably hot in the summer. So, workers began cutting them in half to stay cool in the summertime.

 

The U.S navy

But the popularity of vests and T-shirts as we know them today owes much to the U.S. military, especially the U.S. Navy.

 

In the early 1800s, companies began selling "bachelor underwear," the top half of a jumpsuit, as their own personal underwear.

 

The popularity of the T-shirt was further cemented in 1905 when the Navy introduced it as part of its official uniform (just in time for World War I). At the time, all U.S. servicemen were required to wear T-shirts under their uniforms.

 

For many soldiers, it's a habit that persists once they get home.

 

Desire and Resistance

However, the T-shirt as we know it today did not become an item of clothing until two major names in Hollywood redefined the way it was worn.

 

First, Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire." In this film, Brando was iconic, amoral, loud, and full of energy ——a dramatic redefinition of the quintessential American male. In "Streamcar," Brando wears a T-shirt and rides a motorcycle, recreating the American man as a bad boy.

 

The accountant is no longer the one who gets the girl. Now the American was a swaggering rebel, loud and insensitive to social convention.

 

Remember, before that, T-shirts were only worn as underwear. Going out wearing nothing but a T-shirt is no better than going out wearing nothing but underwear —— especially if it's a heat-shrinkable shirt like Brando's that looks like it was painted on.

 

So Brando wearing a T-shirt throughout the movie was a strong political statement.

 

Then there was James Dean, whose clothes encapsulated the 1950s, the first decade in which young people dressed in stark contrast to their parents.

 

James Dean's reckless striding around in a T-shirt in "Rebel Without a Cause" is more political than Brando's. It wasn't just that the American was a rebel who wore an undergarment like a regular one.

 

Not only that, wearing a T-shirt is also considered a sign of youthful rebellion. Young people are more exposed than ever before, defying parents and social mores.

 

What about the vest?

But what about the T-shirt's cousin, the vest?

 

The vest as underwear first appeared as a swimsuit at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. In that event, 27 women wore short-sleeved swimsuits suited for fast free movement.

 

They weren’t all that different from men’s swimsuits of the time, actually. But because they were worn by women, the suits were viewed as shocking and immodest.

 

Nonetheless, the freedom of movement provided by sleeveless shirts caught on with men and women alike.

 

It was fine to wear a “tank top” while swimming with your family or performing hard physical labor.