Garibaldi shirt
red wool shirt, as worn by the followers of Giuseppe Garibaldi, or a woman's blouse or jacket inspired by these shirts
A Garibaldi shirt, also called Garibaldi jacket or Camicia rossa, was an article of women's, a red wool shirt named after the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi first popularized in 1860. It was the direct ancestor of the modern women's blouse.
Garibaldi's Redshirts
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882) was an Italian folk hero, a nationalist in favor of Italian independence from Austria. Garibaldi's "total sincerity and honesty, and exceptional physical courage gave him the kind of personal magnetism which made women of all classes love him, and men of all classes follow him in circumstances of acute danger." During the Expedition of the Thousand campaign in 1860, his volunteer followers were known as Redshirts (Camicie Rosse in Italian) for their uniforms (or rather shirts, as they could not afford full uniforms), and it is these who inspired the fashion.
Garibaldi shirt
According to a brief history of the shirt waist written in 1902, the fashion for the Garibaldi shirt was initiated by Empress Eugénie of France. Its first mention is in 1860, and clothing historian C. Willett Cunnington says of it: "The Garibaldi jacket, of scarlet cashmere with military trimmings of gold braid, was hailed as 'the gem of the season'." It was extremely popular during the first half of the 1860s. Versions in white and lighter fabrics also appeared, and children frequently wore it.
Camicia rossa
The century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Volume 74 explains that the "Camicia rossa" or red shirt was "...worn by Garibaldi at [a] siege". A Cultural History of the Modern Age: The Crisis of the European Soul says that "For a considerable time Garibaldi was the most famous man in Europe, and the red shirt, la camicia rossa, became the fashion for ladies, even outside Italy"
Italians during the American Civil War
During the American Civil War, the Garibaldi Guard, composed of European immigrants, from New York City, served in the Union Army, wearing red Garibaldi shirts as a part of their uniforms. Their Confederate counterpart, the mainly Italian Garibaldi Legion, were also known for wearing red Garibaldi shirts and cocked hats with plumes in the Italian national colors as a part of their uniforms.
The public source identifies “Garibaldi shirt” as red wool shirt, as worn by the followers of Giuseppe Garibaldi, or a woman's blouse or jacket inspired by these shirts. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Garibaldi, shirt and wool.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5523301. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1860, 1807, 1882 and 1902.
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This entry incorporates text from “Garibaldi shirt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.