Blouse

A  blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that was formerly worn by  peasants, artists,  and women.  It is typically gathered at the waist (by a waistband or belt) so that it hangs loosely ("blouses" ) over the wearer's body. Today, the word most commonly refers to a woman's shirt but can also refer to a man's shirt if it is a loose-fitting style (e.g.  poet shirts and Cossack shirts).  Traditionally, the term has been used to refer to a shirt which blouses out or has an unmistakably feminine appearance.

Word meaning
Blouse is a loanword to English from French: blouse means "dust coat". It possibly was brought back from their travels by French Crusaders. They moved on their armor a so-called "p(e)lusisian shirt", a blue-colored gowns to the dust, which had its name from the Egyptian town of Pelusium.The derivation may also be from "wool", blouso "short wool" and blos, blouse "deprived, naked" taken off (Provençal dialect). It is first officially noted in 1828, from French blouse ("a workman's or peasant's smock"), of obscure Occitan route.

Description and history
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.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 (non-domestic) workforce of the 1890s, especially for those employed in office work. In the 1900s and 1910s, elaborate blouses, such as the "lingerie blouse" (so-called because they were heavily decorated with lace and embroidery in a style formerly restricted to underwear) 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 and since then, so by now blouses have not ceased to be fixed in the "popular cloakroom" style.

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 (and many women's shirts with buttons) usually have buttons reversed from that of men's shirts (except in the case of male military fatigues). 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 while several theories exist none 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 also 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 (since the buttons were usually in the back). 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 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 styled to be open. They also form part of some nations' traditional folk costume.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The "good blouse" concept is part of the nightlife's clothes and a status symbol of the so-called "elegant woman" who was wearing it at least on Sundays in the Church formerly. Today is the blouse, important other than its use as a formal office wardrobe, and is often used as a colorful garment among many that also is likely to put openly is worn over a T-shirt or a knitted top.

[edit] Post–WW2 styles
<p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">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 was 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. The fashion of standing and federal collar, loops, rounded collars,haemoglobin collars<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[vague]  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 the Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, the UK, Ireland, South Africa and the USA.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The sleeves had been shortened during the early 1950s to the ½ and ¼ length in Europe. They were reduced again in the mid-1990s and are now regularly at the ⅞, ½, ⅓ and ¼ length around the world. Sleeveless tops were fashionable and a topical item in Western Europe and America during the mid-2000s.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">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, boleroor sweater, with or without some colourful silks or bead chain necklaces.

[edit] Eco movement
<p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">There was also the women who felt the then growing Eco movement's part, far cut 'also folk blouses' from rough and natural materials such as flax, linen and cotton men also use these "Frisian blouses" on occasion.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The fishing blouse (clothing) is today the term "(purse) blouse" is still in the area of military clothing is worn for a part of the uniform with epaulets—of the trousers, also for working clothes (milker’s blouse, Mariniere, Frisian blouse). It is known but the term in the above classical clothing.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">A body blouse (or blouse body) is a blouse, which, as a body, the front step range through associated with the back piece. So, can slip the blouse from the skirt or pants cut figure and is always perfect.