Shirt origin
China rises
There were shirts in the Zhou Dynasty in China, which were called Zhongyi, and later called Middan. In the Han Dynasty, the close-fitting shirt was called the toilet min. The name shirt has been used in Song Dynasty. It is now called a Chinese shirt.
The shirt originally refers to the short-sleeved shirt used to line the dress, that is, the shirt with the sleeves removed. In the Song Dynasty, there were tops without sleeves. There were short and small shirts lined on the inside, and some longer shirts were worn on the outside. In ancient times, women wore short tops called “shirts” and “half clothes”.
At the time of the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, due to the growing European style, people began to wear suits and put their shirts inside their suits. As a shirt, the tie was opened in the middle, usually with five buttons.
European history
In the 16th century BC, the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt had shirts, which were collarless and sleeveless tunics. The shirts worn by Normans in the 14th century had collars and sleeves. In the 16th century, it was popular in Europe to embroider on the collar and chest of shirts, or to decorate lace on the neckline, cuffs, and chest. At the end of the 18th century, the British wore hard high-collar shirts. In the Victorian period, high-collar shirts were eliminated, forming modern Western-style shirts with stand-up collars. In the 1840s, Western-style shirts were introduced to China. Initially, shirts were mostly for men, but they were gradually adopted by women in the 1950s and have now become one of the most commonly used clothing.
