The French sailor shirtLa Marinière

The striped Breton shirt as we know it today came into being shortly following the 27th March, 1858 Act of France which introduced the navy and white striped knitted shirt as the uniform for all French navy seaman in Brittany. The shirt was originally known as marinière or matelott.

So the first Marinières belonged to sailors, and old paintings show seamen wearing them as early as the 17th century.

Until 1858, only officers of the French Navy had to wear a specific uniform. Everyday clothes were the ordinary seaman's attire on board. That year, a decree defined the sailor's official uniform in minute detail (color, number and length of stripes, etc.) 

The official striped navy and white shirt became more generally a working mariner garment as it was picked up by men of the sea and sailors across the region of Northern France. The distinctive block pattern of stripes on the French striped shirt made them easier to spot in the waves. The garment usually had a boat neckline.

The Saint James Binic II sweater was released by Saint James in 1889 in lower Normandy. In the 1950s and 60s the shirt was again popularized by the Beatnik community and alternative culture.

Inspired by sailors, after a visit to the French coast, Coco Chanel introduced the design to the fashion world through her nautical collection in 1917.

The Breton top became a symbol of haute-bourgeois loveliness during the pre-war Riviera years.

FASHION

The introduction of this garment from the traditional working class to female fashion, was a breakaway from the heavily corseted belle epoque fashion of the time.

There was no stopping the French sailor shirt, on its way to worldwide domination - or at the very least, to French icon status - once Coco Chanel declared it "à la mode" (trendy.)

In the 1950s, artists and intellectuals adopted la Marinière. Voilà Pablo Picasso, immortalized in his Breton shirt by Robert Doisneau (1952.)

French actress Brigitte Bardot invented an iconic look: la Marinière with flat ballet shoes and cropped jeans. 

James Dean wore the Breton striped top in the movie Rebel Without a Cause (1955).

In the 1956 film Funny Face, Audrey Hepburn was seen wearing a black turtleneck sweater, ski pants and a Breton top[. The scene was a recreation of the typical Paris cellar clubs from the 1950s.

Following in Chanel's footsteps, famed designers re-invented the Breton shirt. In the 1960s, Yves Saint Laurent launched elegant collections inspired by the nautical style.

One generation later, Jean-Paul Gaultier adopted the nautical stripe as his trademark.

Chanel made the Breton shirt famous among the French upper classes, but the striped nautical style had been around for a while in the trendy European coastal resort towns. At the turn of the century, stripes were everywhere: on towels, on beach tents, and even on the long, conservative-looking bathing suits.

http://wikifashion.com/wiki/Breton_stripes

We loved Breton shirts

http://frenchgirlinseattle.blogspot.de/2011/10/la-mariniere-french-sailor-shirt.html

Resources :

Best wishes from TURKEYTHANK YOU !