The tank top, that sleeveless staple of summer wardrobes, seems like it could be named after anything. Maybe because it looks like a sleeveless undershirt holding a gallon of milk (flex for the strong tank top wearers out there). But the truth, like many fashion items, has a surprising historical twist.
Get this: tank tops are named after…swimming pools! Specifically, the swimming pools of the 1920s. Back then, pools weren’t the sparkling oases we know today, but rather large concrete reservoirs often called “tanks.”
The swimwear of that era reflected this terminology. Swimsuits were known as “tank suits,” and the tops of these tank suits, with their shoulder straps and sleeveless design, looked an awful lot like what we call tank tops today. So, the name just stuck!
Who knew, right? The next time you throw on a tank top, you can picture those fashionable flappers rocking their tank suits in the, well, tanks of the roaring twenties.
