Figure 2.--These French school children in Algiers during 1952-53 are in the CM2 year, the older boys in a primary school. They would have been about 10-11 years old. Notice that none of the boys with oopen collars are wearing "T"-shirts underneath.

The two principal styles of modern undershirts are singlets (sleevelass) and "t"-shirts with a varikety of neck styles. The most common are crew-neck t-shirts, but there are also "V"-neck styles. We note that some boys always wore t-shirts under collared shirts and other boys rarely did so. At this time we do not have information on the national, regional, chromolgical, and soicial class factors involved.

America

As a boy in the 50s, I always wore a T-shirt under my shirt. I'm not sure when this first became common in America. I am not sure why I did. My dad wore those singlet style undershirts. As a result, I always associated this style with older people. My brother and I wotr T-shirts. So it must have been by mother's decession. I think most other boys did as well. I grew up in Washington DC. Not all American boys did, but I am not sure as to the regional, class, or other factors. An American reader writes, "I recall in the early 1960s that wearing a white crew neck tee shirt under a collared shirt was the only way to dress for school. I wonder if it was a regional thing. I notice HBC makes little mention of undershirts. As a boy of that era I always put a crew neck undershirt on everyday for school with a collared shirt on top. Parents encouraged and peer pressure did the rest. It was an unwritten rule to wear underwear and underwear was white briefs AND a tee shirt. All of us wore one everyday because in the locker room getting ready for gym class everyone got a look at what everyone was wearing and white tee shirts and briefs were the only acceptable thing. I don't think anyone would have dare to wear boxers or a tank type undershirt. To not wear anything would have been unacceptable. Out of school most guys wore them underneath most of the time but sometimes in the summer we wore our white tees as outerwear. I think about 1968 the idea of wearing the tee shirt without the >collared shirt as a regular thing took hold and tee shirts of a color other than white began to be available. I remember my first tee shirt other than a white undershirt was navy bluet. By 1972 most of us were wearing colored tee shirts as outerwear and not bothering with white undershirts. I notice that some young guys now are wearing white crew neck tee shirts under their outer tee shirts so I guess it has come full circle." [Blackwell] A reader writes, " If JC Penney Company kept sales records of what was ordered for what region and how much sales there were from year to year I think it would be interesting to read those sales reports. I think JC Penney sold a lot of white tee shirts in 1950s and 60s. I also read somewhere that Jockey has a museum of all the styles they created over the years. I think the museum is in New York City but do not have any specifics."

England

It is difficult to tell from photographs if British boys wear "t"-shirts under their collared shirts because so many English boys vutton their collars and wear ties. Some schools let the bous wear open collars during the summer. Rarely do we see t-shirts underneath. Some schools had rules about this. Most did not need to because British boys did not normally wear collared shirts with their indershirts showing. A HBC reader writes, "As an American undergraduate at Oxford in the early 1950s I usually wore a white tee shirt under my dress shirt, which of course didn't show if I wore a tie. But the tee shirt was visible if I took off the tie and to be more informal just wore a V-necked sweater with the collar open. I recall that my British fellow students thought it was improper for the tee shirt (which they called a "vest" and considered strictly underwear) to show. If they dressed informally with their collars open, they either wore a singlet (the sleeveless undershirt with a low neck line) or else no undershirt at all so that no underwear would show at the neck. This was a significant difference between British and American style in the 1950s--at least among university students. The Brits would never have worn a tee shirt as outerwear, which they considered to be very "working class" and therefore improper for a "gentleman." For them it was a question of sophistication-- somewhat like the preference for "braces" (suspenders) over belts which they thought made trousers look better. But I think this attitude had changed by the 1960s when tee shirts had become more acceptable as outerwear in Great Britain." Certainly "T" shirts became common in Britin, but I do not think their attitude about wearing them with collared shirts have chsanged.

France

We note that French boys do not appear to have worn "T"-shirts under their collared shirts. This appears to have been the case in the 1950s (figure 1). The attitude seems to be similar to that in Britain. We are not sure yet how this changed over time.

Germany

Our German readers havev not yet commented on this topic. We note from our German image archieve, however, that German boys did not commonly wear "T"-shirts with collared shirts. Here it is easier to tell than in Britain because so few German boys wore ties to school, at least after World war II. Some Germsan boys did button their collars, but most did not and it was clearly not common to wear a "T"-shirt so it showed with an unbuttoned collar.

Sources

Blackwell, Lee. E-mail message, May 8, 2004.

Created: January 7, 2003
Last updated: May 17, 2004