While it could very well be that somehow Italian men originated the look, it seems far more likely that wearing a tank top outside of one’s collared shirt was more a survival and comfort mechanism, especially for those in humid, unpleasant climates. There is some strain of elitist, anti-immigrant sentiment in many of the tank top histories that (however unintentionally) conflates the idea of domestic violence and poverty/chasing the American Dream, etc. Usually by adding a boorish, monstrous husband to the mix. This stereotyping seems especially evident when you consider the wholly inappropriate other name for tank tops, “wife beaters.”Ĭonsider the fact that some of the greatest portrayals of tank tops in film are about immigrant and working-class communities (often starring Marlon Brando) like On The Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire, then take this a step further and remember that Tennessee Williams wrote Streetcar and most of his other works parodying traditional heterosexual relationships. But to me, this seems like a way of perpetuating age-old stereotypes about immigrant men.
These same sources allege that Italian men had some kind of affinity for wearing tank tops outside of their nicer shirts and brought this aesthetic choice with them to the U.S., especially New York, where they were able to stay cool in the sweltering summer humidity. Some sources insist that the tradition of wearing a tank top as anything more than an undergarment can be traced to Italian immigrants. The historical thread gets twisted around this time. Marlon Brando in “A Streetcar Named Desire”.
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