A blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that was formerly worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women and children. It is typically gathered at the waist (by a waistband or belt) so that it hangs loosely ("blouses") over the wearer's body. Today, the word most commonly refers to a woman's shirt but can also refer to a man's shirt if it is a loose-fitting style (e.g. poet shirts and Cossack shirts). Traditionally, the term has been used to refer to a shirt which blouses out or has an unmistakably feminine appearance.

The term is also used for some men's military uniform jackets.

Blouse is a loanword to English from French: blouse means "hydraulically carrier coat".^{[clarification needed]} It should be a small present French Crusaders.^{[clarification needed]} They moved on their armor a so-called "p(e)lusisches style", a blue-colored gowns to the dust, which had its name from the Egyptian town of Pelusium.^{[clarification needed]} The derivation may also be from "wool", blouso "short wool" and blos, blouse "deprived, naked" taken off. It's first officially noted in 1828, from French blouse ("a workman's or peasant's smock"), of obscure Occitan route.^{[clarification needed]}

Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati(Telugu: విజయలక్ష్మి వడ్లపతి), known popularly as Silk Smitha was an Indian film artiste who worked predominantly in the South Indian languages. She entered the film industry as an extra actress, and first got noticed for her role as "Silk" in the 1979 Tamil film Vandichakkaram. She became a sought-after 'erotic actress' in the 1980s and in a career spanning 17 years, she appeared in over 450 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages. On September 23, 1996, she was found dead in her apartment in Chennai, apparently having committed suicide.

Vadlapati Vijayalakshmi was born in a poor family in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh. She left school after her fourth standard (in India, at about 8 years of age) due to the family's financial constraints. Her striking looks burdened her with uninvited attention, and her family married her off at a very young age. When she was ill-treated by her husband and in-laws, she ran away to Madras (now known as Chennai) and started living with an aunt.