Fun Fad Facts: Stripes

Welcome to the second week of Fun Fad Facts! Today I'm going to be writing about a very fab and fantastic pattern, the stripe. It seems like wherever I go these days, I see someone with at least one article of clothing peppered with horizontal stripes, and frankly, I'm on board. In fact, as I write this very column I am seated next to someone wearing, you guessed it, stripes. I can’t help but admit that I myself have collected quite a few stripy numbers. Aesthetically, the pattern creates a repetition situated tastefully between a plain solid and a busy, more chaotic pattern (which is sometimes visually intimidating). Stripes have emerged as one of the most popular patterns on Reed campus due to said palatable middle ground, but there may be a deeper history that has informed the adoption of stripes as a wardrobe staple.

In the Middle Ages, stripes were seen as morally corrupt, based on just one line from the Bible: “Thou shalt not wear clothes made of two,” which was interpreted to refer to stripes, due to the layering of solid colors mimicking the repeated fabrication of pieces of different cloth. Fun fact: this mindset actually led to the demonization of zebras, whose stripes were associated with sinfulness. However, stripes were not outlawed, instead becoming utilized as a way to visually represent the enforced segregation between those on the fringes of European society and those not. Historically marginalized communities such as Jewish people, Muslims, jesters, lepers, convicts, and prostitutes were visually labeled as devilish through the stripe. The stripe provided an ideal tool for classifying “others,” due to the combination of its biblical context and the visually striking nature of the pattern. The repeated contrast between colors, like the then-typical black and white, was very eye-catching, allowing visual ostracization to be very pronounced. This connotation of stripes made its way to North America in the 18th-century, leading to the striped design of convicts’ uniforms. Just like in the Middle Ages, the striped pattern functioned as a loud visual symbol–practical for making prisoners visible in order to limit escapes. While the stripes served a practical purpose, they also doubled down on negative associations. To don the stripe was to be an outcast.

Stripes transitioned from a tool for othering into a fashionable garment by way of the naval industry and French designer Coco Chanel. Stripes began percolating into navy uniform design for a similar reason as with convict uniforms: they were eye-catching. If a sailor was in peril or lost at sea, the stripes made them more visible, making rescue more likely. Through Chanel's marketing of the pattern in the 1900s, it metamorphosed from a practical tool to a staple of stylish leisure wear. Chanel designed comfortable knit garments with stripes that became a form of athleisure–melding their sailing connotation with lounge wear through her high status brand. Despite Chanel’s elevation of the stripe, its history as an implement of separation and disenfranchisement was rebirthed and rebranded as a tool for resistance in the 1950s’ postwar anti-conformity movement. This youth-driven movement rose in opposition to the presentation of the commercialized idea of the perfect American family and life, which ignored the injustice persisting after the war. The stripes worn by members of the movement aligned those involved with those who had been alienated by the stripe previously. To reclaim the stripe in this context was to find pride in being against the norm. Stripes continued to resurface through the 60s’ beatnik movement and, eventually, in the 90s’ grunge aesthetic, embodying a subtle nod to the pattern’s rebellious past.

What does this history mean today? Stripes have become highly popularized as they have resurfaced as a trend. In their prevalence, they have become normalized as simply another style percolating all over our highly stimulating and dense world. The history of stripes as a tool for scapegoating certain groups via visibility has become somewhat irrelevant today due to the variety of vibrant colors, textures, and patterns that fill our daily life. Today, stripes largely represent two fairly opposite aesthetics: the chic, vintage-praising tradition, and the grunge aesthetic, embodying anti-capitalism counter-culture. The newfound popularity of stripes largely stems from trend cycles sensationalized by social media that associate personal aesthetics with identity and values, allowing two histories to exist simultaneously.