Hoods became popular in Britain a lot earlier than most people would think, stretching all the way back to the middle ages where many outdoor workers wore hooded capes in order to protect themselves from harsh weather conditions, these were often called ‘chaperones’. They were also frequent in early Christian Monasticism, the greater majority of the devotees to the Christian faith at this time sported robes that had large hoods attached to them. These are different examples of how far back we have been attaching hoods to our clothing for varied reasons, it is clear however that before the 20th century the main reasons for wearing a hood were associated with the weather; e.g. peasantry working outdoors. The trend of hoods acting as a worker’s …show more content…
As the genre grew in popularity and became a global, the ‘hoodie’ was also becoming more and more popular as a result. The fashion eventually spread to Europe also; ‘In addition to Puma and other brands like Nike and Adidas, Dresden graffiti artist Simo explains, ‘”the hoodie, baseball cap, and leather sneakers were the three most important things” in hip-hop fashion’. The link between ‘hoodies’ and hip-hop predominantly arose in the US due to several artists wearing hoodies in their music videos. It is clear that hip-hop culture contributed to the rise in the popularity of hoodies during the 80’s and 90’s, after its early beginnings in the 70s. The following quote summarises hip-hop’s influence on the popularity of hoodies and why they became more frequent as a result; ‘As hip-hop culture spread in the 1980s, the hoodie became part of the look associated with street style. When hip-hop went mainstream, penetrating homes in white middle-class suburbia and beyond, hoodies remained a key part of hip-hop's global commercialized look, with rapper Eminem memorializing the hoodie's oversize style in the 2002 film "8 Mile."’ It is clear that hip-hop culture’s use of hoodies in mainstream fashion brought the items of clothing away from the ‘workers utility’ label, although hoodies are still used as a means of warmth outdoors, this was not the only way in which they were