The blouse, as an item of clothing, had been with us for a long time, in more or less the same form as we see it today. Originally worn by both men and women, the blouse was simply a usually loose fitting garment covering the upper part of the body.

Although still worn by men and women, the men’s garment is now usually called a shirt, although it is really just a man’s blouse. The only significant difference, apart from minor styling of cuffs, etc, is the fact than men’s shirts always button to the right, whereas women’s blouses usually button to the left. There have been many theories for this, the most likely being that women’s blouses were often done up by a maid, with the buttons often on the back of the garment, and it was easier to do them up on another person if the buttons were at the opposite side.

The blouse is still the same basic garment as it has always been, with many variations in style having come and gone over the years. There are two main styles of blouse, one being the loose fitting type, sometimes called the peasant style, generally falling just below the waist and often worn outside the skirt or trousers, and the tailored style, fitted to the contours of the upper body and usually worn tucked into the skirt or trousers.

The loose fitting blouse is generally used for casual wear and the tailored style is very popular for business wear in the office, very often with a business suit of jacket and skirt or jacket and trousers.