By Gayantha Perera

I love how a crisply ironed white shirt just elevates any outfit, even if it’s just a layer. I also love a thick cotton button-down for a meeting. In our dreary, oversaturated world, it catches the eye of everyone in the room, and if you are meeting a corporate, there is a sense of camaraderie that’s immediately built; everyone owns a white shirt. 

From ancient temples to TikTok feeds, the white shirt has endured as a symbol of elegance, discipline, and reinvention. Its story spans continents and centuries, evolving from sacred textile to fashion staple, and finally to viral icon in the age of streaming. I thought a look back and a look forward would be a nice refresher on one of fashion’s most iconic staple items.

Origins: Linen, Status, and Sacredness

The white shirt’s earliest iterations emerged in ancient Egypt, where linen garments signified purity and elite status. Greeks and Romans adopted similar white tunics, associating the colour with virtue and nobility. In medieval Europe, white shirts became undergarments, practical layers to absorb sweat and protect outerwear, often made from linen and worn by both peasants and aristocrats.

In South Asia, white garments held spiritual and ceremonial significance. In Sri Lanka and India, white cotton or muslin was worn during religious rituals and mourning, symbolising humility and detachment. The colonial era introduced Western-style white shirts to the region, merging local textile traditions with British tailoring. The muslin and cotton shirt during Mughal rule and its impact on the European region during the industrial age is a separate topic on its own, but it's worth mentioning that South Asia had a large part to play in it.

Discipline and Uniformity: Why Schools Choose White

The white shirt’s dominance in school uniforms — especially across South Asia — is no accident. White signals cleanliness, the discipline necessary to keep said item clean, and neutrality, aligning with institutional values. It’s also cost-effective and easy to pair with other uniform elements. In postcolonial contexts, white uniforms subtly echo British educational legacies while adapting to local climates and textile industries.

Fashion’s Canvas: From Chanel to Corporate Cool

By the Renaissance, white shirts became fashion statements among European elites, adorned with lace and embroidery. In the early 19th century, the white shirt emerged as a potent symbol of social status. Its pristine appearance signalled wealth and refinement, as only the upper classes could afford frequent laundering and avoid the grime of manual labour. Even when worn beneath outer garments, with just the collar and cuffs peeking through, the white shirt became a subtle yet powerful marker of class distinction, its visibility alone enough to assert one’s elevated position in society even today.

Then the Industrial Revolution democratised the garment, making it a staple of men’s formalwear as well as for women. In the early 20th century, Coco Chanel famously reimagined the white button-down shirt for women — pairing it with trousers and pearls to challenge gender norms and redefine elegance. The white shirt became a symbol of professionalism, worn by bankers, lawyers, and bureaucrats. Yet it also retained its rebellious edge: think James Dean’s crisp button-downs, or Audrey Hepburn’s iconic white shirt in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, which fused simplicity with sophistication.

The White T-Shirt: The future of the white shirt

The white T-shirt began as a military underlayer, mass-produced by brands like Hanes for the US Navy in the early 1900s. Hollywood rebels like Marlon Brando and James Dean transformed it into a symbol of youthful defiance. In the 1970s, it became a canvas for protest, emblazoned with slogans and peace signs.

By the 1990s, designers like Calvin Klein and Helmut Lang embraced its minimalism. Today, the white tee is a genderless wardrobe essential, worn by everyone from BTS to Brooklyn skaters. In 2025, FX’s The Bear catapulted the white T-shirt back into the spotlight. Jeremy Allen White’s character, Carmy, wore a fitted tee from German brand Merz b. Schwanen, sparking a frenzy among menswear fans. The “Carmy T-shirt” became a viral sensation, proof that even the simplest garment can carry emotional weight, character depth, and cultural cachet.

From sacred linen to streaming-era icon, the white t-shirt remains a blank canvas for identity, rebellion, and reinvention. I truly believe it is the future of the white shirt as formality is slowly giving way to prioritised comfort. Collars are definitely becoming a thing of the past, or maybe a fad in the future.

Whether worn by schoolchildren in Colombo or chefs in Chicago, white shirts and t-shirts continue to reflect the wearer’s story — clean, crisp, and timeless. I’ve seen each item rise and fall in popularity over the decades, and I believe it will continue to do so for generations to come.

Scientifically, while the colour white is an achromatic colour made up of an equal balance between all colours on the spectrum, it is also the symbol of balance, wholeness and completion. White has also been linked to purity, innocence, equality and new beginnings and will continue to be a symbol people rely on for self-expression, or simply to visually detox even unconsciously.