The 3,000-year history of the hoodie | Small Thing Big Idea, a TED series

348,449 views ・ 2018-11-03

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Translator: Camille Martínez Reviewer: Krystian Aparta
0
0
7000
00:12
The hoodie is an amazing object.
1
12389
2350
00:14
It's one of those timeless objects that we hardly think of,
2
14764
4904
00:19
because they work so well that they're part of our lives.
3
19693
2655
00:22
We call them "humble masterpieces."
4
22373
1970
00:24
[Small thing.]
5
24368
1220
00:25
[Big idea.]
6
25623
1282
00:28
[Paola Antonelli on the Hoodie]
7
28070
2531
00:30
The hoodie has been -- even if it was not called so --
8
30722
3254
00:34
it's been an icon throughout history for good and for bad reasons.
9
34000
3842
00:38
The earliest ones that we can trace
10
38286
2795
00:41
are from ancient Greece and ancient Rome.
11
41105
2579
00:43
The Middle Ages, you see a lot of monks
12
43708
2012
00:45
that were wearing garments that were cape-like, with hoods attached,
13
45744
3956
00:49
so therefore, "hoodies."
14
49724
1293
00:51
Ladies in the 17th century would wear hoodies
15
51041
2910
00:53
to kind of hide themselves when they were going to meet their lovers.
16
53975
3861
00:57
And then, of course, there's the legend, there's fantasy.
17
57860
3178
01:01
There's the image of the hoodie connected to the grim reaper.
18
61062
2971
01:04
There's the image of the hoodie connected to the executioner.
19
64057
3063
01:07
So there's the dark side of the hoodie.
20
67144
2728
01:10
The modern incarnation of the hoodie --
21
70491
2936
01:13
a garment that's made usually of cotton jersey,
22
73451
2946
01:16
that has a hood attached with a drawstring;
23
76421
3020
01:19
sometimes it has a marsupial pocket --
24
79465
2557
01:22
was introduced in the 1930s by Knickerbocker Knitting Company.
25
82046
4279
01:26
Now it's called Champion.
26
86349
1894
01:28
It was meant to keep athletes warm.
27
88267
2168
01:31
Of course, though, it was such a functional, comfortable garment
28
91448
4096
01:35
that it was very rapidly adopted by workmen everywhere.
29
95568
4062
01:39
And then, around the 1980s, it also gets adopted
30
99654
4069
01:43
by hip-hop and B-boys, skateboarders,
31
103747
3338
01:47
and it takes on this kind of youth street culture.
32
107109
3113
01:50
It was, at the same time, super-comfortable,
33
110246
2144
01:52
perfect for the streets
34
112414
1151
01:53
and also had that added value of anonymity
35
113589
3528
01:57
when you needed it.
36
117141
1243
01:58
And then we have Mark Zuckerberg,
37
118408
1654
02:00
who defies convention of respectable attire for businesspeople.
38
120086
4852
02:04
But interestingly, it's also a way to show how power has changed.
39
124962
4400
02:09
If you're wearing a two-piece suit, you might be the bodyguard.
40
129386
2629
02:12
The real powerful person is wearing a hoodie with a T-shirt and jeans.
41
132040
4697
02:17
It's easy to think of the physical aspects of the hoodie.
42
137531
3462
02:21
You can immediately think of wearing the hood up,
43
141017
2801
02:23
and you feel this warmth and this protection,
44
143842
2685
02:26
but at the same time,
45
146551
1399
02:27
you can also feel the psychological aspects of it.
46
147974
2869
02:30
I mean, think of donning a hoodie,
47
150867
1641
02:32
all of a sudden, you feel more protected,
48
152532
2423
02:34
you feel that you are in your own shell.
49
154979
4748
02:41
We know very well what the hoodie has come to signify
50
161298
3713
02:45
in the past few years in the United States.
51
165035
2589
02:47
When Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American kid,
52
167648
4543
02:52
was shot by a neighborhood vigilante,
53
172215
3672
02:55
and Million Hoodie Marches happened all over the United States,
54
175911
4149
03:00
in which people wore hoodies with the hood up
55
180084
3088
03:03
and marched in the streets against this kind of prejudice.
56
183196
3149
03:07
It doesn't happen that often
57
187081
1905
03:09
for a garment to have so much symbolism and history
58
189010
4801
03:13
and that encompasses so many different universes
59
193835
3201
03:17
as the hoodie.
60
197060
1572
03:18
So, like all garments,
61
198656
1531
03:20
especially all truly utilitarian garments,
62
200211
2998
03:23
it is very basic in its design.
63
203233
2393
03:25
But at the same time,
64
205650
1296
03:26
it has a whole universe of possibilities attached.
65
206970
3650
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7