Figure 1.--Striped T-shirts appeared in the 1930s, butbecame very popular in the 1940s. Rebellious teenagers after school might wear white T-shirts and rolled up slleves with jeans. This photobooth photo shows two boy, probably in the 1950s.

There were many different types of shirt-like garments. Boys wore blouses, shirts, and shirt waists with different collars. Shirts often taken on the names of their collars as they are the most prominant shirt feature. There are, however, other features, such as the front and buttons, sleeves, and bottom features (such as tails or blouse string). Some of these features are not often visible to the camera. We do not have much information on the early 19th centurty. Boys in the mid-19th century tended to have had very small collars. The collars in many instances were so small that they are difficult to identify. Often boys were wearing jackets so it is difficult to see the rest of the shirt. A popular style for younger boys were button-on shirts. A range of casual shirts became popular in the 20th century. Some were made with and others without collars. Sports shirts with partial-button fronts were very popular. Collarless shirts which came to be called "T"-shirts became very popular for boys and eventually for girls as well. After World War II, "T"-shirts became a standard for American boys.

Blouses

The blouse was a shirt-like garment which did not have shirt tails and did not tuck into the boy's trousers. Rather they bloused at waist with a draw string closure. Blouses had a wide range of collars. Most wwee button-up garments, but the sailirstyle middy blouse was often a pull-over garment. Some blouse collars were quite large, especially in the late-19th abd earky 20th centurues. More modern blouses for younger boys did not blouse at the waist. Rather they were worn with suspender pants. As this held up the boys pants, long tails were not needed to tuck in to the pants. The collars were also somewhat smaller. They became more of a dressy style wirn with suits or casual dressy styles. Eton and Peter Pan collar styles were especially popular. We are not yet enirely sure about the chronology of blouses.

Casual Collarless Shirts

A range of casual shirts became popular in the mid-20th century. Some were made with and others without collars. Collarless shirts which came to be called "T"-shirts became very popular for boys and eventually for girls as well. After World War II, "T"-shirts became a standard for American boys. A factor here was the fact that "T"-shirts were commonly worn in the military during the War. Striped "T"-shirts in bright colors were very popular in the 1950s anfd 60s. We see T-shirts with sports and other logos becoming popular in the 1970s. Another collarless shirt was the tank type, especially for hot summer weather. The "T"-shirt is, however, has vecome standard casual style for boys and also very popular with girls. .

Collared Shirt

The standard boy's garment in the 20th century was a collared shirt. School-age boys after World War I in the 19o0s no longer wanted to wear blouses whicg they began to see as a little boys or girls garment. The standard boy's shirt buttoned at the collar. At first boys buttoned the collar even when not wearing neckwear or when wearing the shirt casually. Gradually leaving the collar unbuttoned became more common. An exception to the collar buttoning shirt was the open-neck sports collar popular in the 1920s-30s. The collar had pointed tips, although the size varies substantially over time. Button-downs appeared in the 1950s and were adopted as part of the preppy look. The standard shirt was made with tails which tucked into the pants. After Workd War I, short-sleeved styles appeared in the 1920s.

Collared Shirts without Tails

The most common shirt-like garment made with out tails was the blouse. There were, however, two shirts made for boys without tails. One was the the button-on shirts made for younger boys. The other was the casual shirt worn by school-age boys and teenagers. These almost always were colored shirts with pointed collars. They were very popular schoolwear items. They were seen as a more casual style than a shirt with tails. They could be wirn without ticking them into the waist band of the pants, but many boys did anyway.

Rugby/Polo Shirts

Sports shirts with partial-button fronts were very popular. The proper name for this was Rygby shirts. Regukar shirts were made with Rugby styling, meaning it was a pullover shirt which only buttoned half way down the front. Britisjh boys wore this style as a proper shirt. It was most common as a grey school shirt. In America it was more common as a sport shirt like the striped Rugby shirt or Polo shirt. The polo shirt was a popular style, but more expensive than the standard "T"-shirt. The Rugby shirt in Bruitain was wrn for sports. In America it was a casual shirt style worn like the Polo shirt.

Shirt Waist

Shirt waists were popular in the second half of the 19th century and very early 20th century. They were essentially shirts without collars. They had tails like modern shirts, but no collars. They were popular because the part of the shirt that got dirty quickest was the collar. And laundry was an enormous undertaking for the 19th century housewife who did not have modern laundry detergents, washing machines, or dtryers. Thus laundry could be substantially reduced by simply changing the collar rather than washibg the ebtire shirt every day. The detachable collar was invented in the mid-19th century. Quite a range of collar styles were worn. One if the most enduring style for boys was the Eton collar.

T-shirts

"T"-shirts and jeans are some of the most commonly worn clothes worn by modern boys. Girls also wear them. In is interesting to note that neither were commonly worn by American boys until after World War II (1945). We see them in the early 1940s and they sreadily grow in importance. Until the 1940s boys almost always wore shirts with collars, although collar styles had changed greatly over the years. These clothes did not reach Europe and Engand until the 1960s-70s. T-shirts became popular in America during the 1940s. I think they may have been worn to some extent in the 1930s. The inital ones had bright horizontal stripes. White T-shirts were fashionable in the 1950s with teenagers, especially somewhat rebelious teenagers. There were both short and long sleeved styles. There popularity gradually spread overseas. During the 1970s it became stylish to put logos on T-shirts. At first sport logos were popular. This is another trend that begn in Americ. Corporate logo followed as did logos with social or a variety of other messages.

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Created: 3:03 AM 4/27/2008
Last updated: 9:37 PM 12/17/2014