Shirts vs. Blouses

[dr_mabeuse]

Am I out of it? I love the things women wear, but my ignorance of terms and styles is profound.

Is there a difference between a bouse and shirt? And if so, what is it?

---Zoor

 

[Guest]

IMO
blouse seems like something my grandmother/mother/older generation wore.
shirt...ever so much more within the grasp of something "now a days"

edited: blouse should be loose fitting..
shirt more form fitting? thats the way i see it

 

[tolyk]

a blouse is a button up shirt, generally loose and long sleeved. Sometimes worn as part of a suit/proffessional attire..

As far as I know.. But I've always been somewhat out of the fashion loop.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

A blouse is a type of shirt Doc. technically, it has to be loosely fitting and long, i.e. hanging down past the waistline. In common parlayance, most women's button down shirts are called blouses.

Interestingly, despite the assossiaction with women's clothing, the shirt members of the u.s. military wear are also called blouses.

-Colly

 

[SensualCealy]

I agree with Vella, Id think of it as a blouse being ruffled or billowy. (Seinfeld - the puffy shirt episode!) Or something silky in a gaudy print only your granny would wear! lol

A shirt would be tailored like a mans shirt, darts in the front, to follow a womans curves.

In my years of sewing it has only been explained by amounts of yardage. Blouses take more fabric to make!
C

 

[neonlyte]

IMHO a woman who declares she is wearing a shirt, is making a statement. Shirt generally being the male equivalent of a blouse.

I think this would apply to women of a certain generation, over mid thirties possibly, younger women don't see the distinction - marketing being what it is.

For what it's worth, a woman would buy a shirt, or a blouse, a man...

Add don't forget the buttons right thro' left for a man, left thro' right for a woman.

 

[oggbashan]

This is a woman wearing a blouse. Wouldn't be confused with a shirt.

Og

 

[dr_mabeuse]

This is a woman wearing a blouse. Wouldn't be confused with a shirt.

Og

I'm not going to even ask what you were doing at that site, Og, but that's one of those Indian thingies. A tit-shirt.

I don't know. I like the word blouse. It makes me think of something silky and clingy and intentionally feminine.

"Shirt" makes me think of something made out of whatever that men's shirt stuff is: Oxford cloth? Broadcloth? Maybe even flannel.

So you mean that if I have my heroine taking off her "blouse", everyone sees her as an 80 year-old grandmother? Yech!

---dr.M.

 

[SensualCealy]

Og, Id say that would be a blouse, but one worn with a sari. It has billowy sleaves.

Shirts 'usually' have collars, blouses 'usually' are out of silky fabrics.

The reason behind shirts or blouses being buttoned on the opposite sides relates back to the time when a man was to ONLY walk on one side of a woman. That way he couldnt see into her shirt if it gaped.

How times have changed! lol
C

 

[impressive]

I think you'll find that interpretations vary a great deal. I see "blouse" as predominantly business-like yet feminine. Button down the front most of the time. Made of a softer/silkier fabric.

"Shirt" is not necessarily masculine to me ... but definitely not distinctly feminine.

 

[SensualCealy]

Doc,

I agree, but , when the curvasious woman, wearing the clingy silk blouse taunts said man with her delicious siloette. Turning away as she undresses, pulling the hem from under her tailored skirt ,worn only infront of the judge as she prosicutes. Slowly revealing the soft supple skin below as she slowly unbuttons her blouse....

see what I mean? lol
C

 

[Green_Gem]

Blouses are shirts with a more feminine look and feel. I have some silk blouses, they caress my body with a smoothness that makes me feel sexy and terribly feminine, and they drape and cling to my body in a way that a shirt never could.

I wear shirts as well, but they are more functional, more practical and usually of a crisper fabric like cotton. They go well with jeans or, worn unbuttoned down to the top of the thigh, with nothing underneath...

Green_Gem

 

[Green_Gem]

If you're talking 'old' blouses, like grandma used to wear, those are the frilly, lacy, floral ones. But I hardly think Lit readers think those when they read 'blouse'. I don't anyway.

G_G

 

[dr_mabeuse]

God, I love women!

---dr.M.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm not going to even ask what you were doing at that site, Og, but that's one of those Indian thingies. A tit-shirt.

...

---dr.M.

The word 'research' covers a multitude of misdemeanors, including another 'blouse'.

Og

 

[English Lady]

To me a blouse is something feminine and girly. Basically to me a blouse is a female shirt. I don't really associate the word "shirt"with something a woman wears unless it is just like a shirt a man would wear (starchy, collar, pin striped even*L*)

A blouse to me is anything that a woman wears that buttons up the middle that is made of a light fabric (cotton,satin,silk etc) and I definitely don't automatically associate it with something my Nanna would wear *L*



(oh and PS Dr M - this woman is fond of you too )

 

[Guest]

Generally, men wear shirts but not blouses; women can wear shirts and blouses. Think of a shirt as the top a man wears, if it varies more than a bit in its details (collar, luxurious fabric, odd buttons, frills, embroidery, clinginess, etc.), then it's a blouse.

Here's the OED's first definition: 1. a. A light loose upper garment of linen or cotton, resembling a shirt or smock-frock; properly applied (as an alien term) to the well-known blue blouse of the French workman, but in England sometimes used loosely to designate more or less similar garments. (first usage: 1828)

I knew it had a French derivation, couldn't recall it til I read the above. The second definition is "a French workman".

3. A loosely-fitting bodice worn by women and girls, usually tucked inside the skirt at the waist. Also, formerly called blouse-bodice (cf. BLOUSÉE, shirt-blouse).

Perdita

 

[Guest]

p.s.

Ogg, those are not blouses. No coutourier would label them such. I'm sure the Indians have a proper name for them.

Perdita

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Doc,

I agree, but , when the curvasious woman, wearing the clingy silk blouse taunts said man with her delicious siloette. Turning away as she undresses, pulling the hem from under her tailored skirt ,worn only infront of the judge as she prosicutes. Slowly revealing the soft supple skin below as she slowly unbuttons her blouse....

see what I mean? lol
C

Blouses are shirts with a more feminine look and feel. I have some silk blouses, they caress my body with a smoothness that makes me feel sexy and terribly feminine, and they drape and cling to my body in a way that a shirt never could.

I wear shirts as well, but they are more functional, more practical and usually of a crisper fabric like cotton. They go well with jeans or, worn unbuttoned down to the top of the thigh, with nothing underneath...

Green_Gem

See? It just knocks me out that women know so much about their clothes: what they're called, what they're made from, and--most importantly--what they mean and how to use them. That's just so sexy!

You know: men, what do we know? Shirts, pants, sweaters, suits. Oh yeah: shoes. That's about it. (Wait: sox and underwear too.)

Women just have this huge palette to choose from, and they know how to use clothes and talk about them.

I think I may have a fetish here. Maybe I need to get someone to read clothing catalogues to me in a low, sultry voice.
"Print jacquard wraparound calf-length virgin wool..." All those words are just sexual poetry to me and I don't even know what half of them mean.

--Zoot

 

[Guest]

I like your attitude, Zoot. You'll expand your vocabulary too. P.

Edited to add - Start with these:

arrasene - embroidery fabric of wool and silk
balzarine - light cotton dress material
cambric - fine thin white cotton or linen fabric
duvetyn - smooth lustrous velvety fabric
farandine - silk and wool cloth
jaspe - cotton or rayon cloth with shaded effect
marcella - cotton or linen in twill weave
mousseline - fine sheer fabric
pellicule - thin diaphanous fabric
satara - ribbed lustred wool
tricolette - silk or rayon knitted fabric
zibeline - soft piled wool

source

 

[gauchecritic]

When I was a lad a blouse was a shirt made from softer material, cut for a feminine figure and without tails.

This co-incided with the military "battle dress jacket" that I could never afford from The Army and Navy Stores. Those very short (just below the waist) rough material 'bomber' type jackets, or blouson. From Dictionary dot comA garment, such as a dress or shirt, with a fitted waistband over which material blouses

So there you go.

I eventually bought a fur-lined flying jacket. V.Stylish.

Gauche

 

[CharleyH]

Being from a generation neither here nor there on this great debate, I imagined a shirt is casual, and a blouse is formal, but interchangeable since a casual blouse is indeed a shirt, and a formal shirt can be considered a blouse. Blouse has generally meant to me, an article of clothing worn by women only. If a man's shirt is made of silk, is that not a blouse? What if he is wearing his wife's silk blouse? Does it then become a shirt?

I had been curious about this since a boyfriend once pointed out to me in my writing:

"You had her wearing a blouse, and now she's wearing a shirt in the next sentence."

"It's all white, it has buttons, a collar - it doesn't make a difference."

"Yes, it does - they are different."

"Well, I can't use blouse twice in the same vicinity."

So to Websters we went:

Blouse: A light, loose overgarment. A kind of shirtwaist. A military jacket.
Hm, latter not being too femininely.

Rogets Thesaurus: bodice, middy, shirt.

From that point forward, I use blouse if I want the initial impression to be formal, and I will use shirt as well, when it does not matter anymore, to refer to a blouse, or if I want to avoid blouse twice in the same vicinity. Like Dr.M, I love the sound.

Just my op

 

[Guest]

... Those very short (just below the waist) rough material 'bomber' type jackets, or blouson...

Gauche, women's fashion has always 'borrowed' from the masculine. Jackie Kennedy (pre-O) made blousons popular in the early 60's, I had two (knock-offs of course).

Perdita

p.s. Do you have a photo of the young Gauche in that flying jacket?

 

[Guest]

If a man's shirt is made of silk, is that not a blouse?
No, it's the style/construct that makes it a shirt or blouse (a blouse can be made of Oxford cloth).

What if he is wearing his wife's silk blouse? Does it then become a shirt?
No, he then becomes a cross-dresser. But if she wears his shirt she does not.

Perdita

 

[Liar]

No, he then becomes a cross-dresser. But if she wears his shirt she does not.

Which raises an entirely different question. What traditionally male piece of clothing must a woman wear to become a cross-dresser. It's not legged pants, it's not a shirt. Hell, it's not even a tie.

Just wondering...

#L