From Clothing for Sport to Sportswear and the American Style: The Movies Carried the Message, 1912–1940

Abstract

When I hear the words ‘fashion’ and ‘sport’ together, what immediately comes to mind is sportswear — that casual collection of menswear-styled separates that the world now lives in. The history of its development as the essence of American Style covered some thirty to forty years. These were the same years that American movies were taking over the imagination of the world. In my opinion, this was not a coincidence. The movies are unique in the twentieth century for being both an unparalleled reflection of and influence on who we are at any given moment. Sportswear, as the foundation of American Style, developed hand in hand with the growing influence of American movies. Movies, in fact, carried this new look almost instantaneously to the rest of the world, creating a demand that few acknowledged or even realized at the time. As we will see, many influences came together to create this twentieth- century phenomenon. It all began with women's enthusiasm for sport in the mid-nineteenth century.