The supposedly stuffy tank top has a remarkable place in German history books. In his yellow tank top, the FDP politician Hans-Dietrich Genscher played a key role in shaping German unity as Foreign Minister. The sleeveless garment that the Saxon comedian Olaf Schubert likes to wear with a rhombus pattern or comedian Karl Dall once in his stage show “Der Opa” is said to be back in fashion. Because it serves the preppy style. And because grandma/grandpa style is trendy. If you don’t understand all of this, you should read on.
“What basically sounds stuffy and old-fashioned will experience a lot of hype in 2023 and is anything but boring,” wrote the lifestyle magazine “Gala” recently. The so-called Granny Style already reveals in the name that it is “about our grandmothers and their wardrobe”. “Sometimes it also includes grandpa’s wardrobe – after all, we have long since left gender stereotypes behind us.”
Daniela Uhrich from the Lady Blog explains that the trend actually works for both women and men. “There is increasing awareness of gender fluidity and unisex fashion in the fashion industry. As a versatile piece of clothing, the sweater vest fits well into this trend towards gender neutrality. And in another point it corresponds to the spirit of the times: In home office times, we love looks that who are comfortable and well dressed at the same time.”
From bourgeois part to must-have
Uhrich explains: “The sweater vest has been experiencing a renaissance for about three years.” The fact that the slipover has blossomed from a bourgeois part to a fashion must-have and so-called it-piece is due to two trends: the grandpa and the preppy style. Grandfather’s wardrobe is now a source of inspiration. For a look with corduroy trousers and a knitted cardigan, a woolly sweater vest should not be missing.
The preppy style, derived from the fancy private schools called preparatory schools, is experiencing a renewed revival. “Elite boarding school chic includes fashion for tennis, sailing, polo and the library, such as polo shirts, knit sweaters, loafers and boat shoes, pearl beads and V-neck slipovers.”
Both trends speak for a return to tradition and retro looks, as the journalist and author Uhrich (“lady-blog.de”) says. “In a fast-moving and technology-driven world, the tank top is reminiscent of times gone by.” British pop star Harry Styles is one of the great advocates of the nostalgic (and quite ironic) piece of clothing.
A revised version of the slipover, so to speak, can also be worn by women over a dress, as an oversize variant (i.e. as a slipover dress) over a blouse or as a top with shorts.
Commercially launched?
The clothing historian Julia Burde is more cautious in her assessment of retro fashion and trendy items such as the tank top: “On the question of to what extent the return of retro elements such as the tank top was actually brought about by socio-cultural means or rather by the mechanisms of the commercial fashion market launched, I tend towards the latter,” she says.
“The tank top is sportswear. Its origins date back to the late 19th century, when knitted and tricot clothing became the epitome of modern clothing,” says author Burde (“The Straightening of the Waistline in Men’s Fashion”). This emanated from the sports teams of Anglo-American elite universities – basically the nucleus of leisure clothing (leisure wear), which is globalized today “and has largely overturned bourgeois dress codes”.
According to Burde, who teaches cultural history of clothing in the costume design course at Berlin University of the Arts, the slipover became an element of men’s wardrobes from the 1920s onwards. And in all social classes, for example as a substitute for the waistcoat.
The fashion of the 1970s was itself retro fashion. She “picked up the sweater vest of the 20s and 30s: as a sporty, casual genre beyond traditional dress codes,” says Burde. Short, rapid fashion booms do not always have a background that can be interpreted in terms of cultural theory, as Burde emphasizes. “I consider this and all other “trends” to be a construction of commercialism, media communication and retro fashions. I may be wrong.”
