The History of Hoodies

These days, the word ‘hoodie’ usually conjures up an image of either a slightly scruffy college-type in worn jeans, scuffed shoes and a mildly dodgy hairstyle or a bona-fide hooligan, hiding behind the baseball cap and pulled-up hood that you would cross the street to avoid at all costs.

However, there’s no denying that it’s an incredibly comfortable garment that can be worn under coats on a cold day or on its own when the weather is a little milder. Some of them can even look quite nice.

Believe it or not, hoodies began as part of the uniform for catholic priests as both a complement to the more traditional tunic. Their formal outfits were the tunic and cowl, or long hood, to ensure their modesty.

In slightly more modern times, the 1930s saw the design being adopted and adapted by Champion Sportswear for those who worked in cold warehouses of America. From there, given a helping hand by various fashion designers who incorporated it into their collections, it filtered into the fashion world as an alternative to the sweatshirt.

Forty years later, the rise of the hip-hop movement saw the hoodie really take off as the quintessential item that every self-respecting follower had in their wardrobe – one for every occasion.

By the 1990s, the hoodie was being worn by other sub-cultures such as surfers and skaters and the mainstream fashion followers weren’t far behind. Household names like Armani and Ralph Lauren made it the essential casual item for everyone.

Nowadays, it’s common for everyone from teenagers (who seem to wear them with shorts and Ugg boots for some reason) in printed slogans to mums on the school run to sporty types out for the morning jog to sport a hoodie – not just for the ASBO crowd anymore…