The history around stripes in clothing has a long and winding past. When we think about stripes with our modern mind we tend to romanticise them with images of whimsical circus performers, or mysterious French mimes. However, stripes started out with a much darker past and were originally regarded as shameful, degrading and diabolical.
The first known documentations of stripes in clothing dates back to medieval times where anyone who wore stripes were considered outcasts and associated with disorder and difference. These people tended to be circus performers, prostitutes, non-Christians and disloyal knights. People in the medieval ages found any surface in which they could not distinguish the foreground from the background disturbing. Stripes were associated with the devil and wearing them could actually get you killed as documented in 1310 when a French clergyman was condemned to DEATH for wearing them.
No one really knows where the condemnation of wearing stripes originates but there are several theories regarding the origins. The first being a free interpretation of a quote from the Bible:
“You will not wear upon yourself a garment made of two different kinds of textiles.”
The second theory is that wearing stripes conceals the silhouette acting like a type of camouflage.
In the middle ages, zoologists even thought that Zebras were evil because of their black and white stripes, despite never actually seeing them.
One could also argue that the contrast between the light and dark colours could reflect good and evil, but that is open to interpretation.
During the 18th century stripes started to develop a good name for themselves. During the American revolution wearing stripes became a political at that showed you adhered to enlightened thinking. This also carried across to the France and the rest of Europe during the French revolution.
Fast forward to 19th century America, and stripes started to become a sign of outcasts again with the famous prisoners black and white striped uniform symbolising jail bars and making them easy to distinguish. Most jails ended up abolishing the stripe uniforms as stripes were seen as a “Badge of Disgrace”. The last known state to abolish the striped prisons uniform was North Carolina in 1958.
In 1917 Coco Chanel introduced stripes into her fashion line making the striped top a staple for people of all social standing, ages, and gender.
Today as normal as it is to wear stripes, we still associate them with the mysterious, strange, and curious and often these are re-affirmed in our minds by television and films where the odd characters ae usually dressed in stripes.
Whether it’s the light or the dark side of stripes, they have either enlightening or horrible history around them.