The least important aspect of the Versailles Treaty is discussed in this article. Many scholars have looked far and wide to find such a trivial concern, but the crack team of post-debutante archivists at OldMagazineArticles.com have succeeded where the learned have failed.
These images, as well as the headline, were from a paid avertisement for a fashionable fifth avenue shop that had originally appeared in a chic Conde Nast magazine.
Here is a perfectly charming fashion illustration of a young man wearing a raccoon coat while abusing a tobacco product; this class of man was also prone to sitting on top of flag poles, concealing flasks and dancing the Charleston.
Click here to read about the 1956 college revival of the raccoon coat.
This is a fun read covering the all too short reign of the dandy. It touches upon those who were the great practitioners of the art (Beau Brummell, Sir Phillip Dormer Chesterfield, "Beau" Nash, Sir Robert Fielding, Count Alfred d'Orsay) and those who came later, but deserving of honorable mention (King Alphonso XIII and Oscar Wilde), as well as the "wannabe" bucks who wished they were dandies but simply came away "well-tailored" (George IV and Edward VII).
This is a well-illustrated article in which the fashion journalist recalled a dinner party where the men in attendance were knowledgeable on which forks to use but cared little about the proper etiquette tailoring, shoes and jewelry required as dinner guests
A printable selection of the detachable shirt collars
(of both the cotton and rubber varieties) available to both men and boys from the 1919 Sears & Roebuck catalog, no. 138.
The miracle that was "Volcanized Rubber" allowed the well-dressed man to maintain his dashing profile even when called to compete in athletics. Two of the oldest surviving examples of a sport shoe that uses this particular style of rubber and has been in continuous production since the twenties and thirties are both made by Converse: one is the Jack Purcell tennis shoe and the other is the black canvas, high-top Chuck Taylor Basketball shoe.
This article is very broad in it's appeal; the fashion journalist did not simply cover the summer suit options available to the Well-Dressed Man of 1921 but also the tennis apparel, equestrian attire and the apropriate togs for slacking off at your favorite homo-phobic, sexist, anti-semetic and racist club.
A glance at the 1921 wardrobe enjoyed by those fashionable fellows who were part and parcel of that Wall Street clique who might today be called "the one percent".
The reviewer also devoted some column space to classic fox hunting attire and Chesterfield overcoats,hunting tweeds,wing collars and men's suit from the early Twenties.
When the smoke cleared following the close of that dreadful unpleasantness that spanned the years 1914 to 1918, there remained much work to do; bodies to be buried, cities to be rebuilt. Men and nations prepared to face the new realities that came with the new social structure; many weighty subjects had to be addressed that had been ignored for so long a time. The most pressing of these topics was deciding which was the proper combination of white waistcoat and dinner jacket? In an age of industrial slaughter, which was more suitable: double-breasted or single-breasted? and what of ties, shoes and overcoats?
The "Side-Seam" suit style had it's appeal in the early Twenties and could be found in many a magazine in the form of vests and overcoats, however the look did not survive the era and is now numbered among the Zoot Suit and Leisure Suit as one of the forgotten fads of Twentieth Century mode.
For all too few it is understood that fashion need not end in the wilderness: for it is more than likely that that was where the need for fashion was first recognized and it was there, among the toads and the dung, that the Well-Dressed man first crawled out of the muck and civilization was born. With all this in mind, Robert Lloyd Trevor reviewed the fashions for the enjoyment of camp-life in this 1917 Vanity Fair review. Another vital concern touched upon by the journalist was the clothing available to the yachtsmen at that time:
"Yachting is one of the things that begin at the bottom. That is to say, at the shoes. They are the foundation, as it were, for the rest of life on the rolling deep."
The following must have been some sort of creative writing project for one of the many bored World War One Doughboys, however it clearly spells out how the necessities of modern war demanded that the wrist watch no longer be thought of as a piece of jewelry adorned only by fops and fems and evolved into a useful tool for soldiers on the field and men with masculine responsibilities. The column makes it quite clear that prior to the Great War, a good many wrist watch enthusiasts would have had their noses broken if they had worn the 'gimmick' into certain neighborhoods.
On page one of this three page guide, you will find some essential notes and illustrations from the editors of Vanity Fair regarding the good taste of 1918 (as well as the simply awful).
Tom Wolf and Mark Twain have not been the only men to have lamented the drab hues so prevalent in manly attire: now you may add to that list a new name: H. Dennis Bradley. The late Mr. Bradley was a tailor in London's Old Bond Street some time back, and he was quite vocal concerning the issue of men's fashions. Being a true "man of the cloth", Mr. Bradley was certain that, prior to the unpleasantness of 1914, men's fashions were headed in a healthy and aesthetically sound direction, but when the boys came home, the promise was not kept.
"We may not go back to the rainbow shades and wonderful stuffs of the bucks and the dandies of olden times--do what we will, we live in utilitarian days--but whatever comes do not let us revert to the hideous hues and shapelessness of the Victorian era..."
Click here to read a 1929 article about the Dress-Reform Movement.
This 1922 men's fashion article is illustrated with seven images and riddled with wise words for all those seeking information regarding 1920s backless vests, patent leather dancing shoes, madras dress shirts and kid suede gloves for semi-dress wear.
In our era, we don't think it terribly odd to see someone in an art museum dressed as though they were going to go poll-vaulting standing next to someone else who is clothed as if they were intending to rope a steer. This sort of untraditional-tradition began in the twenties. The attached link will show you a magazine advertisement for men's knickers which appeared at a time when this sort of thinking began to evolve and "knickerbockers" began a new life as an in-town and on-campus fashion choice. Previously, knickers were worn by young boys or strictly for men who enjoyed country sports; other examples of similar active-ware abuse in the Twenties involved the clothing of yachtsmen, hunters and tennis players. This era saw the rise of the sportswear industry.
The attached men's fashion article concerns the a "brief autumn visit to the country"; recalled by an anonymous fashion scribe whose charming prose allowed us to envision a leisured life in the late Gilded Age.
Attached is an illustrated magazine advertisement from a polite, middle class American periodical which depicts two trim bucks in the full flower of youth wearing their under-lovelies so that all the internet gawkers can get a sense of how wildly uncomfortable men's underwear used to be.
Click here to read about the introduction of the T shirt to the world of fashion.
There is no doubt about the fact that in the 1920s, there lived a great number of men who left the world a far richer place for their having walked the earth when they did; fellows like Pablo Picasso and Bertrand Russel, to name only two. The shallow editors at OldMagazineArticles.com think that is all just ducky, but what we really want to know is how did these men keep their shirts tucked in? How could such fellows as these look so presentable when so many men before them have failed?
We did some digging around and this is what we discovered...
Illustrated herein are the five necessary steps needed to tie the perfect ascot knot.
Up until 1974, it was believed by many of the old salts in fashion history circles that the earliest surviving example of men wearing "neck-cloths" could be found on Trajan's column (113 A.D.); but then the "Terracotta Army" (221 B.C.) was unearthed in China which altered much of the thinking as to how old tied neck cloths actually are. Our era is one in which the future of the tie is unknown, but the attached file dates from 1906 which serve to illustrate for the average Joe, how best to tie an ascot.
A smartly illustrated review of the the equestrian fashions for the year 1918. Various illustrated equestrian profiles are provided and brief attention is paid to the newest boots available at that time.
If you would like to read another article about men's equestrian attire, please click here.
1916 was a poor year if you happened to be a German sailor off the coast of Denmark; it was a terrible year if you were in the infantry on the Somme or near Verdun but if you were an American man fond of horseback riding and you happened to have been shopping for the perfect riding suit on Madison Avenue, then OldMagazineArticles.com is quite certain that 1916 was a great year for you!
If you would like to read another article about men's equestrian attire, please click here.
In the early parts of the 20th Century serious attention had been paid in some quarters to what was called "dress reform". An article from the August 14, 1929 magazine The Nation pointed out that
"The Life Extension Institute weighed the street clothing of the women in New York City last June. The clothing of the women...averaged two pounds, ten ounces, while that of the men was was eight pounds, six ounces."
The Italian Futurist Ernesto Thayaht offered his remedy for the fashion maladies of the day with the design of a one piece garment that many Americans chose to see simply as pajamas. Needless to say, it didn't catch on.
A Parisienne with a good many thoughts regarding menswear goes to some length to impart that men are dressing worse, not better, and the substitution of the dinner jacket (read: "Tuxedo") for the tail-coat is an example of the slovenliness to come.
"You are entirely wrong in imagining that we pay no attention to the way men dress...The truth is that while we may say nothing, we do not in the least consent, and we find, messieurs, that for some time now you have been very much changed, and for the worse."
Fads like ukulele strumming and flagpole sitting have not been seen on college campi since the 1920s - but the undergraduates in 1956 did adopt one fashion element from the Twenties - their father's raccoon coats.
Click here to read about the Ivy League look for 1953.
During the early days of 1953 some of the young men of the World War Two generation looked into their grandfather's wardrobes and came away with a new friend - the Norfolk jacket:
"There has been some talk concerning the possible revival of certain Edwardian fashions. In the renewed acceptance of the Norfolk jacket, which takes its name from the 15th Duke of Norfolk, we have the revival of a style which is even older, having first come into being during the Victorian era....In 1910 it was so well accepted that few small lads of that era were content unless they had a Norfolk coat just like their fathers'."
Widely remembered as the best dressed man of the Nineteenth Century, Beau Brummell, (né George Bryan Brummell 1778 - 1840), set the standard for male sartorial splendor and as a result, his name
liveth ever more.
The attached men's fashion article was written at a time when American leisure wear was going through it's birth pangs and slovenly attire was on the rise all over the fruited plain; it was thoroughly appropriate for the editors of GENTRY MAGAZINE to print this article which not only examined the clothing philosophy of the Beau but also paid heed as to which actors portrayed him on screen (oddly, there was no mention made whatever as to who the various costume designers were).
"He dressed simply, without ornamentation. What was it then that set him apart so ostentatiously from the crowd? What made him the best dressed man of the century? The answer lies not, as history has decided, in his clothes. It lay entirely in the way he wore them."
In merely nine paragraphs the attached men's fashion magazine article from 1950 outlines the style and fabric that was put to use in the manufacturing of men's underwear between 1890 through the Forties (wool to nylon).
"The pajama is ascending to glorified heights. Long the black sheep of polite private life, this garment has been elevated to the four hundred...Men are drugging their senses with batik designs in sleeping apparel and inhaling the stimulation of contrasting shades in underclothes."
"What the well-dressed man will wear when going to bed is one of the burning topics of the immediate future...By and large, the thirst for color permeates the accessory field from linen to lingerie. The picture might be said to be complete. Man has achieved his zenith."
A few short paragraphs from a late-Twenties issue of Literary Digest recalled the terribly unproductive plans of the short-lived dress-reform movement and the frustrating nature of the human male in most matters sartorial:
"The male is a shy creature, and has always been particularly fearful of appearing conspicuous..."
Click here to read an editorial about the need for reform in men's attire.
Click here to get a sense of men's slow and subtle slide from appropriate business attire in the office to slovenly sportswear.
Men's Wear Magazine printed a few paragraphs on the heavy hand that the Duke of Windsor had in the world of manly attire:
"No one completely personified English qualities in attire than the Prince of Wales...Whatever he chose to wear was considered correct and in good taste and was accepted by millions of others in America and elsewhere. Following are a few of the styles that can be traced right back to the Duke of Windsor, either because he wore them first or was responsible for their spread..."
-they include such fashion innovations as the Panama hat, the spread collar and brown buckskin shoes among others.
Click here to read more articles about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor...
The attached piece was written in the shadows of W.W. II - a time when Levi Strauss' famous blue jean fabric was not simply being woven for the 12,000,000 souls in the U.S. military, but also the civilian war-workers who donned jean overalls and found them ideal for the heavy, industrial labor that they faced each day.
As if this wasn't enough to keep the factories of Levi Strauss & Co. humming happily, the American teenagers also discovered blue jeans in the around the same time and have been devoted to them ever since. The author of this article could never have known that the social revolution that made the name "Levi" a household word all across the globe was only nine years away.
Attached herein, you will find the fashionable coats, suits, shoes and cufflinks for men from the harsh winter of 1919 that had been approved by the Fifth Avenue swells of the VANITY FAIR editorial department.
There is only one retail establishment in the world that is able to boast that they had retained the patronage of both Thomas Jefferson and Andy Warhol, and that would be Brooks Brothers.
"Diplomats and prize fighters, dukes and bankers, Cabinet members and theatrical luminaries stroll every day through the ten-story building on Madison Avenue. The sight of Secretary of State Dean Acheson trying on a new overcoat, or Clark Gable testing a new pair of shoes, or the Duke of Windsor undecided between a red or green dressing gown causes scarcely a flurry. The reason is simply that the store itself is a national legend, as noted in its own right as any of its patrons."
The attached five page article lays out the first 132 years of Brooks Brothers. It is printable.
"Twelvemonth ago, the war had sobered 'le monde ou l'on s'amuse' like an icy douche. Europe rang with the clump of tramping feet. Forked lightening seemed to lurk in the sky. In club cars of limited trains and smoke rooms of trans-Atlantic liners heads were put together and the air was as tense as a fiddle string... Fashion tipsters, with long ears and short sight, said that the world would put on black, and style was knocked in the head, and look for the deluge, and so on 'ad nauseum'"."
This illustrated column points out a number of interesting historic facts about ties in America; most notably that up until 1865 the preferred form of neck wear in the U.S. was a pre-tied bow that fastened in the back. In the 1920s the United States became the premiere manufacturer of men's neckties - a record that was comfortably held for some time afterword.
Some call it "the Mad Men Look", others may simply label it that "late 50s/early 60s look" - but either way high praise should be dolled out to costume designer Katherine Jane Bryant who so skillfully brought these fashions to the attention of millions of men through her work on the T.V. show Mad Men (AMC).
For those lads pursuing an advanced degree in pulling-off that look in their daily attire, we recommend this handy list of fashion's "Do's & Don'ts" from 1960.
Written in a prose style reminiscent of an owner's manual, these pages spell out the 1923 tailoring rules for men's formalwear:
"Essentially traditionalist in matter of men's clothes, London is never more
conservative than in dress clothes, and the changes from year to year are of the slightest... However, one still sees far more dinner jackets (ie. "tuxedos") in restaurants than of yore, when black tie and short coat were for the home circle and the club alone, but in society, whether for small dance, ball, dinner or theatre party, the white tie is the rule."
"With the double-breasted coat, the single-breasted waistcoat is the rule and to repeat the crossing of lines twice in one suit is an entirely unreasonable exaggeration."
. It touches upon those who were the great practitioners of the art (Beau Brummell, Sir Phillip Dormer Chesterfield, "Beau" Nash, Sir Robert Fielding, Count Alfred d'Orsay) and those who came later, but deserving of honorable mention (King Alphonso XIII and Oscar Wilde), as well as the "wannabe" bucks who wished they were dandies but simply came away "well-tailored" (George IV and Edward VII).
tailoring, shoes and jewelry required as dinner guests
was born. With all this in mind, Robert Lloyd Trevor reviewed the fashions for the enjoyment of camp-life in this 1917 Vanity Fair review. Another vital concern touched upon by the journalist was the clothing available to the yachtsmen at that time:
