Men's Shirts
Very popular at one time were loops on the back of men’s shirts. It began sailors in the Navy. They didn’t have closets to hang their shirts in, so they had their clothing fitted with loops so they could just slide it onto a hook on a wall. This was apparently a regular household thing to do as well, including hanging them from their loop on wireline to dry them after a wash.
They first appeared on shirts by the menswear brand GANT in the 1960s and were named “locker loops,” because they were fashioned to keep student’s shirts wrinkle-free in Ivy League locker rooms. These ‘Locker Loops’ later, however, began to be called fairy loop, fag tag and fruit loop.
They grew however into a major fashion statement, all men’s shirts had them. They grew into relationship status. Men would take the loop off of their shirts to show that they were taken. The loop is kept by the girlfriend.
The loops on the back of men’s shirts would also give way to a lot of tearing during its relationship status era. Typically, girls would hang onto the loops on the shirts of men to who they took a liking. Those loops would then eventually tear and the shirts would pretty much be unwearable at that point.
So check the shirts of any men in the family, again they are dress shirts, button-down shirts, not pullovers, t-shirts or sweatshirts.
Photo: Example of a ‘locker loop’ on a man’s shirt.
Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:
< Return To Blog I never knew! Thanks!Sara N Martin 1/01/22
Did you ever notice? I added this loop when I sewed my younger brothers' shirts in the late 1960s.
Leave a Reply