Hoodies, history

[regius]

When was the hooded sweatshirt created? When did people start to wear a hoodie under a leather jacket?

 

[Peacoat]

Can't answer your question, but I think it was one of the worst "fashion" looks ever devised. I know a lot of you like the look, but it just rubs me the wrong way. While not nearly as bad as the jeans hanging down past the butt, it is still difficult for me to look at. If you want warmth, go with wool; cotton isn't a particularly warm fabric. Just my 2 cents worth. YMMV

 

[belfastboy]

When was the hooded sweatshirt created? When did people start to wear a hoodie under a leather jacket?

I couldn't afford leather but in the early 70's I wore one under my jean jacket.

 

[redlinerobert]

Hoodies have their place. Not under a jacket. Maybe I'm just old.

 

[Seb Lucas]

I've never owned a hoodie. I've always found the look kind of ugly and wannabe thuggish - whether under a jacket or just on it's own.

 

[nick123]

Very common on fishing boats today.

 

[zebedee]

Hoodies seem to have been dock worker wear at some much earlier point (there are various wikipedia-type speculations on this; it seems likely that a hooded one-piece garment was in use much earlier than the later criminal association [which might have been prompted by a reaction to increased surveillance culture]). I find them to be cheap and convenient, especially good for working from home or travelling in. They're also not really age-pegged: I have buddies in their late 50s (and a fair bit older than that) who wear them and it doesn't look unusual. Provided the hoodie isn't branded with a huge logo I think that they're not unduly noticeable. Under a leather jacket they work well as a layer and (and this may well sound odd) are great for sleeping in during long haul travel (a goatskin jacket over a hoodie and Hanes t-shirt is a great option for really long flights and then long road journeys, particularly if it's going to be cold). I don't own any crazy ones- just one in dark grey, one in light grey and one in navy with a fleece liner that my daughter has 'acquired'. They're great things. And they keep the rain off.

 

[Mich486]

They have been around since the 1950s based on LVC repros. I think Warehouse Co make the nicest looking repro sweatshirts, often based on Champion vintage samples.

 

[Mich486]

Not sure when they started being worn under a jacket, probably after the 1950s. I like a nice sweatshirt and I think a quick way of smartening it up is to add a shirt underneath. I do it with hoodies too.

 

[Mich486]

Nice link for those who care about the story behind one of the sportswear pioneers:

https://www.championstore.com/en/champion/our-heritage#

 

[belfastboy]

I've never owned a hoodie. I've always found the look kind of ugly and wannabe thuggish - whether under a jacket or just on it's own.

I go back far enough when the 'look' was not thuggish....that look is a much more modern phenom. In my day leather jackets were the thug look.

 

[Bebop]

Hoodies do serve a purpose and not everyone is into being fashionable. They keep you warm and if your leather jacket isn't enough, throw a hoodie under it?
I think a lot of people like having a "hood" over their head and since hats are not a "thing" today, hoodies do their part to pretend they are a hat. When I see someone wearing a hoodie I wonder why they are hiding their face but I'm sure that's me doing my thing in my head.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Speaking from my own 65-year-old experience...

Hooded sweatshirts go back as far as I recall - here are my parents wearing them on a Cape Cod vacation in 1965. I vaguely remember that we'd all gotten sweatshirts in Provincetown... though they don't say CAPE COD or have any silk screened seashells, lobsters, or sailboats like today's coast-town souvenir sweatshirts.



But zippered hooded sweatshirts didn't appear in NY area clothing stores until the very late seventies. And they were a big hit, an instant must-have. It immediately seemed very weird that nobody had thought of putting in a zipper before.

 

[handymike]

Here’s fashion photographer Bill King wearing the combo in the ‘80s

 

[tropicalbob]

Speaking from my own 65-year-old experience...

Hooded sweatshirts go back as far as I recall - here are my parents wearing them on a Cape Cod vacation in 1965. I vaguely remember that we'd all gotten sweatshirts in Provincetown... though they don't say CAPE COD or have any silk screened seashells, lobsters, or sailboats like today's coast-town souvenir sweatshirts.

View attachment 228372 View attachment 228373

But zippered hooded sweatshirts didn't appear in NY area clothing stores until the very late seventies. And they were a big hit, an instant must-have. It immediately seemed very weird that nobody had thought of putting in a zipper before.

Yes, I remember them as primarily athletic wear back in the '50s and '60s, and I distinctly remember them on the Princeton athletic field during a football practice session when I was in the boy scouts. You often saw them with college names printed on the front. No way they would have been worn under a sport jacket, though. Just wasn't done.

 

[Bushman]

As to their history, I pondered this myself, and found a few different places saying that they were invented in the '40s in NYC for warehouse stockers and loading dock workers to keep warm in the warehouses without having to wear coats and hats. They were quickly added to the sweatshirt/sweatpants athletic wear arena.

As for "thug wear", warehouse stockers and dock workers have always had a working class association, and although fashion changes, the people who are of lower economic status typically do not. I believe it was sometime in the 80s with the advent of hip hop and rap musicians, musicians who typically came out of lower income neighborhoods, that the idea of hoodies (worn by people of lower economic status) began being associated with the "thug life", so to speak. You still see it today, with these very same people still wearing work boots and hoodies as a symbol to say, "We're poor, but that's who we are."

I myself recall fondly a time in my early teens when "skater wear" was popular, that is skater shoes like Vans and Adidas, skintight jeans, and hoodies were all the rage among my friends and myself. Back in January of this year, out of a sense of nostalgia, I went looking for some of the hoodies I remembered back then only to come up empty. Skaterwear is gone and forgotten. I blame Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and the creation of the "fashionable hoodie". That is, designer hoodies that popped up after the "cool CEOs" started wearing hoodies around the office, making them fashionable, yet homogenized and boring.

Hoodies have their place. Not under a jacket. Maybe I'm just old.

I'll admit I sometimes layer a plain grey hoodie under my A-2, and I don't mind the look at all.

 

[Bfd70]

I find something about the weight of the hood comforting to wear. I usually have 1 hoody somewhere in the closet though i never wear it with the hood up. Probably because if it’s even a little cold out i wear a hat. In this vicinity it’s almost all teens wear. @Bushman my 13 yo olds group pairs them with dickies and checkerboard vans to skate.

Completely separate but re sweatshirts I’ve found that makers adhereing to 50’s 60’s patterns keep them cut short enough that they pair well with leather jackets that also trend short.

 

[Mich486]

Few vintage hooded sweatshirts

 

[handymike]

I have one with a deep hood that is great for wearing on long flights. I can pop it up, put my headphones on, and sleep without disturbance. Airplanes are always a bit cold for me.

 

[rocketeer]

I don't think they look that good with the 'Classic' designed leather jacket but sometimes wear an event hoodie over the top of my Power Ranger style leathers when riding my Hayabusa. I find it can be an attention grabber to some asking what the event was like, in this case Faro bike Fest in Portugal. Then all sorts of information can be garnered such as other meetings etc.
For so called Classic events it is usually just a shirt style or lancer jacket but not with a hoodie.