Blouse
A blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that was formerly worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women, and children. It is typically gathered at the waist or hips so that it hangs loosely over the wearer's body. Today, the word most commonly refers to a girl's or woman's dress shirt. It can also refer to a man's shirt if it is a loose-fitting style, though it rarely is. Traditionally, the term has been used to refer to a shirt which blouses out or has an unmistakably feminine appearance.
The term is also used for some men's military uniform jackets.
Etymology
Blouse is a loanword from French to English. Originally referring to the blue blouse worn by French workmen, the term "blouse" began to be applied to the various smocks and tunics worn by English farm labourers. In 1870, blouse was first referenced as being "for a young lady." It is suggested that the French form of the word comes from the Latin pelusia, from the Egyptian town of Pelusium, a manufacturing center in the Middle Ages.Description and history
Blouses are historically a cask style, mostly mail-like garment, that were rarely part of the fashionable woman's wardrobe until the 1890s. Before that time, they were occasionally popular for informal wear in styles that echoed peasant or traditional clothing, such as the Garibaldi shirt of the 1860s.Blouses usually consist of light fabrics such as silk or thin cotton fabrics, until the early 1990s are often made of softly falling synthetic fibers. Sometimes they are decorated with frills, embroidery or loops. The classic of the ladies' blouses is the white shirt blouse. Here the combination possibilities are particularly diverse. The open spade, peter pan, reverse and revere collar is another common type of classic ladies' blouse.
- 1913 wrote The week about the ladies' blouse in the Reitsport:
The high collar in blouses was pushed out during this time by the halsferne variant. Specialist shops also offered "ladies' cloaks". KdW in Berlin applied in his illustrated main catalog: 1913 among other things a backfisch-confection, with eight blouses between 2.75 and 9.50 Marks. The simplest model was a "wash blouse, navy, white spotted", the most expensive one "blouse, white, wash, with tip and stick". One of the novelties of the season was the pointed "Charmeuse blouse, very elegant form, pure silk, with very fluffy crepe and lace gown"
During the later Victorian period blouses became common for informal, practical wear. A simple blouse with a plain skirt was the standard dress for the newly expanded female workforce of the 1890s, especially for those employed in office work. In the 1900s and 1910s, elaborate blouses, such as the "lingerie blouse" and the "Gibson Girl blouse" with tucks and pleating, became immensely popular for daywear and even some informal evening wear. Since then, blouses have remained a wardrobe staple, so by now blouses have not ceased to be fixed in the "popular cloakroom" style.
Blouses are often made of cotton or silk cloth and may or may not include a collar and sleeves. They are generally more tailored than simple knit tops, and may contain feminine details such as ruffles, a tie or a soft bow at the neck, or embroidered decorations.
Tailoring provides a closer fit to the wearer's shape. This is achieved with sewing of features such as princess seams or darting in the waist and/or bust.
Blouses usually have buttons reversed from that of men's shirts. That is, the buttons are normally on the wearer's left-hand and the buttonholes are on the right. The reasons for this are unclear, and several theories exist without have conclusive evidence. Some suggest this custom was introduced by launderers so they could distinguish between women's and men's shirts. One theory purports that the tradition arose in the Middle Ages when one manner of manifesting wealth was by the number of buttons one wore. Another that the original design was based on armour which was designed so that a right-handed opponent would not catch their weapon in the seam and tear through, and that a person could draw a weapon with their right-hand without catching it in a loose seam of their own clothes.
Female servants were in charge of buttoning their mistress's gowns. They tired of attempting to deal with buttons that were, from their point of view, backwards and, as such they started reversing the placement when making or repairing them. Another possible reason is so that men can easily undo blouses as, from the front, buttons are on the same side as a man's shirt. One other theory is that women were normally dressed by their maids, while men dressed themselves. As such, women's blouses were designed so it could be easily buttoned by the maid but that of men were designed so it could be easily buttoned by the person wearing it.
Although in all the cases proposed the reasons for the distinction no longer exist, it continues out of custom or tradition.
While most women prefer to have the top button open for better comfort, some blouses made for women have looser necklines so the top button can be fastened without compromising comfort, but giving the same stylish appearance.
Some women attach various pins and ornaments to their blouses over a fastened top button for style. Some of these attach directly to the button itself, others to the collars.
Some blouses do not have a top button at all, and collars are intentionally styled to be open. They also form part of some nations' traditional folk costume.
Styles since World War Two
Various new and different forms of collar emerged in the 1920s. They diminished in sizes by the 1950s, but were huge in the 1930s. At the beginning of the 1970s, popular styles included the rounded collar, sausage dog collar, then extra wide collar and double cuffs from shirts, that fell on them often from fashions relating to synthetic fabrics like usually polyester. At the beginning of the 1960s bubic bangs came back, then later wide collars. The fashion of standing collar and federal collar, loops, rounded collars, revere collar and the smallest collar, sometimes with concealed button fly on a "smoking blouse", attached folds and stressed set-in-followed in the 1980s. Again, thin and often shining synthetic fibres were very popular. Towards the end of the 20th Century, they were of an extra-long blouses of pants style and worn over trousers or skirt worn, optionally combined with a rather wide belt around the waist in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, the UK, Ireland, South Africa and the USA.The sleeves had been shortened during the early 1950s to the and length in Europe. They were reduced again in the mid-1990s and are now regularly at the,, and length around the world. As the eye will be drawn to the naked flesh below the sleeve, designers often use sleeve length to focus the minds eye on the slimmer parts of the arm, particularly short sleeve blouses below the elbow to give the illusion of a slimmer arm. Sleeveless tops were fashionable and a topical item in Western Europe and North America during the mid-2000s.
Many fashionable styles of both the 1970s and 1980s were on the go again after the millennium in the blouse fashion: double cuffs, extra wide pointed collar, belt around the waist, synthetic fibre and the like. Often the blouses also embroidery or "crystal stocking", have especially on collar and string. The blouses with the so-called three-quarter arm were a striking phenomenon of the 1990s. Blouses can be combined well and easily with a blazer, tank top, bolero or sweater, with or without some colourful silks or bead chain necklaces.