The 3,000-year history of the hoodie

The hoodie is a lot more than just a comfy sweatshirt. Design curator Paola Antonelli takes us through its history.

The hoodie is an amazing object.

It's one of those timeless objects
that we hardly think of,

because they work so well
that they're part of our lives.

We call them "humble masterpieces."

[Small thing.]

[Big idea.]

[Paola Antonelli on
the Hoodie]

The hoodie has been --
even if it was not called so --

it's been an icon throughout history
for good and for bad reasons.

The earliest ones that we can trace

are from ancient Greece and ancient Rome.

The Middle Ages, you see a lot of monks

that were wearing garments
that were cape-like, with hoods attached,

so therefore, "hoodies."

Ladies in the 17th century
would wear hoodies

to kind of hide themselves
when they were going to meet their lovers.

And then, of course,
there's the legend, there's fantasy.

There's the image of the hoodie
connected to the grim reaper.

There's the image of the hoodie
connected to the executioner.

So there's the dark side of the hoodie.

The modern incarnation of the hoodie --

a garment that's made
usually of cotton jersey,

that has a hood attached
with a drawstring;

sometimes it has a marsupial pocket --

was introduced in the 1930s
by Knickerbocker Knitting Company.

Now it's called Champion.

It was meant to keep athletes warm.

Of course, though, it was
such a functional, comfortable garment

that it was very rapidly adopted
by workmen everywhere.

And then, around the 1980s,
it also gets adopted

by hip-hop and B-boys, skateboarders,

and it takes on this kind of
youth street culture.

It was, at the same time,
super-comfortable,

perfect for the streets

and also had that added value of anonymity

when you needed it.

And then we have Mark Zuckerberg,

who defies convention
of respectable attire for businesspeople.

But interestingly, it's also a way to show
how power has changed.

If you're wearing a two-piece suit,
you might be the bodyguard.

The real powerful person is wearing
a hoodie with a T-shirt and jeans.

It's easy to think of
the physical aspects of the hoodie.

You can immediately think
of wearing the hood up,

and you feel this warmth
and this protection,

but at the same time,

you can also feel
the psychological aspects of it.

I mean, think of donning a hoodie,

all of a sudden, you feel more protected,

you feel that you are in your own shell.

We know very well what the hoodie
has come to signify

in the past few years
in the United States.

When Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old
African-American kid,

was shot by a neighborhood vigilante,

and Million Hoodie Marches happened
all over the United States,

in which people wore hoodies
with the hood up

and marched in the streets
against this kind of prejudice.

It doesn't happen that often

for a garment to have
so much symbolism and history

and that encompasses
so many different universes

as the hoodie.

So, like all garments,

especially all truly utilitarian garments,

it is very basic in its design.

But at the same time,

it has a whole universe
of possibilities attached.