Mens Hoodies
Mens hoodies, sometimes spelled hoody, is a jacket with a hood. The basic hoodie jacket design includes a large frontal pockets, a hood, and a drawstring to adjust the hood opening. The history of the specific design goes back to the 1930’s in New York its initial design purpose was for workers working in warehouses in the cold needed a simple and practical clothing to do work in. From there its popularity spread and when major fashion design houses took up the design there was no looking back for mens hoodies.
The hoodie became very popular in the 1970s, many reasons contributed to its success. Hip hop culture started in New York around this time, and many hip hop artists were seen wearing mens hoodies. As said before, high fashion also contributed to its growth, as Norma Kamali and other high-profile designers embraced and glamorized the new clothing. But one of the biggest exposures the humble mens hoodies got was its appearance in the block buster movie “Rocky”.
By the 1990’s mens hoodies came to represent anything from rebellion, to academic or college affiliation or loyalty. In the western U.S mens hoodies were made popular by the surfing and skateboard culture. It was at this time hoodies began to appear with college logos. In Canada mens hoodies are known as a “bunny hug”.
Mens hoodies are worn for casual settings because of its warmth and protection against the cold. They can be worn for outdoor exercising such as walking or jogging. Wearing a hoodie can mean different things at different times or settings. If you cover your head too tightly in them, it can be perceived to be a little strange in certain situations, like going into the gas station store at night time. It can also be seen as being too casual compared to wearing a t-shirt for example. That is why the perception that people have towards hoodies is different from place to place and environment, at least in the U.S. In some European countries like England and Greece there has been some bad press regarding the wearing of mens hoodies.
Some places will require you not to wear the hooded part of the jacket when going into certain buildings. But these are minor things that happened to the popularity of mens hoodies. By and large hoodies have enjoyed tremendous success and has gone from being just an obscure piece of clothing to mainstream fashion.
As mentioned, before hip hop was a main force in making mens hoodies a force in fashion design. But ultimately it was not just the fashion statement that made mens hoodies popular; it is because at the end of the day mens hoodies are a comfortable and practical piece of clothing that can be worn by all people and both genders.