Written by Carol Nolan
Edited by Julie Williams

The beginning of the decade witnessed the end of World War I.  Men returning from the war faced closets full of clothes from the teens, which they wore into the early 1920s.

During this time, the sacque suit, which had been popular since the mid eighteen-hundreds, constituted appropriate "day" dress for gentlemen. (Edwardian etiquette commanded successive changes of clothing for gentlemen during the day.)  With the suits, colored shirts of putty, peach, blue-gray and cedar were worn.  Shaped silk ties in small geometric patterns or diagonal stripes were secured with tie pins.  Black bowler hats completed the ensemble.

The tail coat was considered appropriate formal evening wear, accompanied by a top hat. Starched white shirts with pleated yokes were expected with the tail coat, although bow ties and shirts with white wing collars were also seen. Tuxedos were increasing in popularity but were not yet completely acceptable.

Black patent-leather shoes were popular during this era and often appeared with formal evening wear.  Casual clothing demanded two-tone shoes in white and tan, or white and black.  Fringed tongues on Oxfords and brogues were seen frequently.  Lace-up style shoes were most in demand.

Knickerbockers, later shortened to "knickers", were popular casual wear for the well-dressed gentleman.  Variations of knickers included plus-fours, plus- sixes, plus-eights and plus-tens.  The "plus" in the term referred to how many inches below the knee they hung.  Norfolk coats as well as golf coats were worn with knickers.  The coats sported large patch pockets, a belt, usually one button and often a shoulder yoke.  Gentlemanís shoes or boots were the appropriate footwear to coordinate with knickers.

In 1925 the era of the baggy pants dawned.  This fashion would influence mens wear for three decades.  Oxford bags were first worn by Oxford undergraduates, eager to circumvent the Universityís prohibition on knickers.  The style originated when knickers were banned in the classroom.  As the bags measured anywhere from twenty-two inches to forty inches around the bottoms, they could easily be slipped on over the forbidden knickers.

John Wanamaker introduced Oxford bags to the American public in the spring of 1925, although Ivy League students visiting Oxford in 1924 had already adopted the style.  The trousers were originally made of flannel and appeared in shades of biscuit, silver gray, fawn, lovat, blue gray, and pearl gray.

Jazz clothing passed quickly in and out of fashion during the twenties.  These tightly-fitting suits were considered an expression of passion for jazz music. Jackets were long and tight-waisted with long back vents.  The buttons were placed close together whether the jackets were double or single breasted. Trousers were tight and stove-pipe skinny.

Tweed cloth became popular at this time.  The word "tweed" is an English variant of the Scottish word "tweel", itself a variation of "twill".  Tweel refers to hand-woven wool fabric from the Scottish highlands and islands. Historians differ on whether tweed originated in the highlands or the south of Scotland.  The name became associated with the Tweed River which forms part of the boundary between England and Scotland.  Tweed eventually became the general term for all carded "homespun" wool, whether it was Scotch tweed, Irish tweed, Donegal tweed, Cheviot tweed or Harris tweed.

Flannel was the other popular fabric of the era.  The word flannel may be derived from the Welsh word "gwalnen", meaning woolen cloth.  Flannel was originally made as a heavy, comfortable, soft and slightly napped wool cloth. Gray was the most popular color, and thus gray flannel trousers became known as "grayers".  Other popular colors were white, beige and stripes.  Flannel trousers were traditionally worn in warm weather.

While Paris was unmistakably the world seat of womenís fashion, for men, it was London.  Tailors in France werenít quick to admit the fact, however, all menís fashion magazines featured styles and trends from London.  During the decade of the twenties, students at Oxford and Cambridge violated - for the first time ever - the Edwardian practice of different types of dress for different times of the day.  The students wore flannel trousers and soft collars all day.  When the English empire stood intact, it was easy for London to dictate menís fashion.

The crash of the American stock market on October 24, 1929, marked a change in the worldwide economic situation that had a drastic effect on menís clothing.

References (for 1920's)

Chenoune, Farid.  A History of Menís Fashion    Paris:  Flammarion, 1993

Horsham, Michael.  20s & 30s Style    London:  Quintet Publishing Limited, 1989

Lenius, Oscar.  A Well Dressed Gentlemanís Pocket Guide    London.  Prion Books Limited, 1998

Burns, Leslie Davis, Nancy C. Bryant.  The Business of Fashion    New York: Fairchild Publications, 1997

Blum, Stella, ed.  Everyday Fashions of the Twenties    New York:  Dover Publications, Inc., 1981

Unknown.  "Fads and Foibles."    Magazine article unknown

For more references on the fashion from this time period, see Margie's List of Lindy Hop Books -- there are links there that allow you to purchase the books directly on line.

Written by  Carol Nolan
Edited by  Julie Williams

 The decade of the 1930s saw dramatic changes in men's fashion.  It began with the great Wall Street Crash of October 24, 1929.  By 1931, eight million people were out of work in the United States.  Less or no work meant little or no money to spend on clothing.  The garment industry witnessed shrinking budgets, and going-out-of-business sales were prevalent.  The Edwardian tradition of successive clothing changes throughout the day finally died. Tailors responded to the change in consumer circumstances by offering more moderately priced styles.

In the early part of the decade, men's suits were modified to create the image of a large torso.  Shoulders were squared using wadding or shoulder pads and sleeves were tapered to the wrist.  Peaked lapels framed the v-shaped chest and added additional breadth to the wide shoulders.

This period also was a rise in the popularity of the double-breasted suit, the precursor of the modern business suit.  Masculine elegance demanded jackets with long, broad lapels, two, four, six or even eight buttons, square shoulders and ventless tails.  Generous-cut, long trousers completed the look. These suits appeared in charcoal, steel or speckled gray, slate, navy and midnight blue.

Dark fabrics were enhanced by herringbone and stippled vertical and diagonal stripes.  In winter, brown cheviot was popular.  In spring, accents of white, red or blue silk fibers were woven into soft wool.  The striped suit became a standard element in a man's wardrobe at this time.  Single, double, chalk, wide and narrow stripes were all in demand.

Plaids of various kinds became popular around this time as well.  Glen plaid checks, originally known as Glen Urquhart checks from their Scottish origin, were one of the more stylish plaids.  Glen plaid designs are sometimes referred to as "Prince of Wales" checks.  Initially the design was woven in saxony wool and later was found in tweed, cheviot, plied and worsted cloth. (See glossary for definitions of these terms.)

In 1935, as a result of President Roosevelt's New Deal, signs of prosperity returned.  The rebounding economy demanded a redesign of the business suit, to signal the successful status of the man who wore it.  This new look was designed by the London tailor, Frederick Scholte and was known as the "London cut".  It featured sleeves tapering slightly from shoulder to wrist, high pockets and buttons, wide, pointed lapels flaring from the top rather than the middle buttons and roll, rather than flat lapels.  Shoulder pads brought the tip of the shoulder in line with the triceps and additional fabric filled out the armhole, creating drape in the shoulder area.  As a result of this last detail, the suit was also known as the "London drape" or "drape cut" suit.

Other versions of the new suit included four instead of six buttons, lapels sloping down to the bottom buttons, and a longer hem.  This version was known as the Windsor double-breasted (D.B.) and the Kent double-breasted (D.B.), named after the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Kent respectively.  Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Fred Astaire and Cary Grant were a few of the Hollywood stars who lent their endorsement to this style by wearing the suits in their movies.  From there it became popular in mainstream America.

The famous "Palm Beach" suit was designed during the 1930s.  It was styled with a Kent double or single-breasted jacket, and was made from cotton seersucker, silk shantung or linen.  (See glossary for definitions.) Gabardine was also used to make this suit.  It quickly became the American summer suit par excellence and was touted as the Wall Street businessman's uniform for hot days.

During this time, blazers became popular for summer wear.  Blazers are descendants of the jackets worn by English university students on cricket, tennis and rowing teams during the late nineteenth century.  The name may derive from the "blazing" colors the original jackets were made in, which distinguished the different sports teams.  The American versions were popular in blue, bottle green, tobacco brown, cream and buff.  Metallic buttons traditionally adorned the center front of the jackets, and they were worn with cotton or linen slacks and shorts

A discussion of men's fashion during the thirties would be incomplete without recognizing the gangster influence.  Gangsters, while despised as thieves, paradoxically projected an image of "businessman" because of the suits they wore.  However, they didn't choose typical business colors and styles, but took every detail to the extreme.  Their suits featured  wider stripes, bolder glen plaids, more colorful ties, pronounced shoulders, narrower waists, and wider trouser bottoms.  In France, mobsters actually had their initials embroidered on the breast of their shirts, towards the waist.  They topped their extreme look with felt hats in a wide variety of colors:  almond green, dove, lilac, petrol blue, brown and dark gray.  High-fashion New York designers were mortified by demands to imitate the gangster style, but obliged by creating the "Broadway" suit.

In 1931, "Apparel Arts" was founded as a men's fashion magazine for the trade. Its purpose was to bring an awareness of men's fashion to middle-class male consumers by educating sales people in men's stores, who in turn would make recommendations to the consumers.  It became the fashion bible for middle- class American men.

Over the next three decades, American garment makers rose to a new level of sophistication, successfully competing with the long-established English and French tailors.  However, the eruption of war at the end of the decade brought an abrupt halt to the development of fashion all over the world.

On September 3, 1939, England and France declared war on Germany for invading Poland, and refusing to withdraw troops.  Once again, men's fashion would change as a result of historic events.

1930s Glossary of Terms

 Cheviot:  A British breed of sheep known for its heavy fleece.  Cloth produced from this wool is a heavy twill weave.

Gabardine:  A firm, tightly woven fabric of worsted, cotton, wool or other fiber with a twill weave.

Glen plaid:  Vertical and horizontal stripes intersecting at regular intervals to form a houndstooth check.

Herringbone:  A pattern consisting of adjoining vertical rows of slanting lines suggesting a "V" or an inverted "V".  Also known as chevron.

Houndstooth check:  A pattern of broken or jagged checks.

Saxony:  A fine three-ply yarn.  Cloth produced from the yarn is a soft-finish compact fabric.

Seersucker:  Originally from India and named after a Persian expression, "shirushakar", meaning milk and sugar.  It is a rippled or puckered cloth resulting from the vertical alternation of two layers of yarn, one taut and one slack, which also creates the characteristic stripe.

Shantung:  A plain weave silk cloth made from yarns with irregular or uneven texture.

Tweed:  A coarse wool cloth in a variety of weaves and colors originally from Scotland.  (Many tweeds are multi-color and textured.)

Twill weave:  One of three basic weave structures in which the filling threads (woof threads) are woven over and under two or more warp yarns producing a characteristic diagonal pattern.

Worsted:  Firmly twisted yarn or thread spun from combed, stapled wool fibers of the same length.  Cloth produced from this yarn has a hard, smooth surface and no nap (like corduroy or velvet).

References (for 1930's)

Burns, Leslie Davis, Nancy C. Bryant.  The Business of Fashion.    New York: Fairchild Publications, 1997.

Blum, Stella, ed.  Everyday Fashions of the Twenties.    New York:  Dover Publications, Inc., 1981. Chenoune, Farid.  A History of Men's Fashion.    Paris:  Flammarion, 1993.

Costello, Robert B., ed  Webster's College Dictionary.    New York:  Random House, 1995.

Horsham, Michael.  20s & 30s Style.    London:  Quintet Publishing Limited, 1989.

Lenius, Oscar.  A Well Dressed Gentleman's Pocket Guide.    London.  Prion Books Limited, 1998.

Unknown.  "Fads and Foibles."    Magazine article unknown

For more references on the fashion from this time period, see Margie's List of Lindy Hop Books -- there are links there that allow you to purchase the books directly on line.

Written by  Carol Nolan
Edited by Julie Williams

 The beginning of the decade saw extreme social and economic conditions. According to the 1940 US census, one out of five Americans owned a car, one in seven had a telephone and only fifteen percent of the college-age population attended college.  Other statistics revealed that only 75% of American households had a refrigerator or ice box, 60% lacked central heat and three out of four farmhouses were lit with kerosene lamps.

On September 3, 1939, England and France declared war on Germany for invading Poland, and refusing to withdraw troops.  On September 3, 1940, the United States transferred destroyers to Great Britain.  The United States officially entered World War II on December 8, 1941.

On March 8, 1942, the US Government War Production Board issued regulation L - 85, which regulated every aspect of clothing and restricted the use of natural fibers.  In particular, wool supplies for civilian use were cut from 204,000 to 136,000 tons in order to meet military requirements.  All countries turned to the production of artificial fibers.  Viscose and rayon (derived from wood pulp) were the most common.  Unfortunately, however, they weren't a good substitute because they weren't very warm and had a tendency to shrink.

Stanley Marcus, the apparel consultant to the War Production Board, took the stand that it was the designer's patriotic duty to design fashions which would remain stylish through multiple seasons and use a minimum of fabric. Therefore, men's suits were made minus vests and pocket flaps and trousers lost their multiple pleats and cuffs.  McCalls produced patterns for transforming men's suits into ladies suits, since the men were at war and not wearing the garments.

There was one exception to the strict rationing of the early forties - the zoot suit.  By no means was it sanctioned by the War Production Board - as a matter of fact, the zoot suits were thought of as contraband and illicit items during the War.  The fashion was born during the early thirties in Harlem's nightclubs.  It was an exaggerated look comprised of an oversized jacket, wide lapels and shoulders, with baggy low-crotched trousers that narrowed dramatically at the ankle.  The zoot influence remained through the 1940s and men's coats were noticeably roomier as a result of it.  Higher-waisted trousers were also due to the influence of the zoot suit.

The end of the war and rationing brought a dramatic change in fashion.  Men's style after the War favored full-cut, long clothing.  Part of the reason for this change was a reaction to wartime shortages.  Long coats and full-cut trousers were a sign of opulence and luxury, coming in a full spectrum of colors from garish to delicate hues.  Hand-painted ties were also popular featuring skyscrapers, exotic foliage, limousines, rodeos, Tahitian sunsets and even pin-up girls.

One of the most extreme changes in postwar men's fashion was the adoption of the casual shirt.  In 1946 and 1947, Hawaiian or Carisca shirts were first worn on the beaches in California and Florida.  Made in bright colors, the shirts sported fruit, flowers, flames, women or marine flora.  About this time, a man walking the streets of New York without a jacket and shirt tails flapping, became a common sight.

In 1949, Esquire promoted a new look by labeling it "the bold look".  Its characteristics were a loose fitting jacket with pronounced shoulders.  Other style changes included single-breasted jackets with notched lapels and three buttons.  Henceforth, peaked lapels were reserved for double-breasted jackets. These jackets also included a center vent.

The end of the decade saw American men home from the war and craving a new look, tired of uniforms.  American designers left their mark on the world with sportswear.  Europe now looked to the United States for trends in sportswear. For the first time in history, young people were setting fashion trends and older people were following.

References (for 1940's):

Chenoune, Farid.  A History of Men's Fashions.    Paris:  Flammarion, 1993.

Burns, Leslie Davis, Nancy C. Bryant.  The Business of Fashion.    New York: Fairchild Publications, 1997.

Olian, JoAnne ed.  Everyday Fashions of the Forties.    New York, Dover Publications, Inc., 1992.

Le Bourhis, Katell.  "Vive la Difference."  Connoisseur  January 1991:  74-78

Unknown.  "Fads and Foibles."    Magazine article unknown

For more references on the fashion from this time period, see Margie's List of Lindy Hop Books -- there are links there that allow you to purchase the books directly on line.

Questions regarding men's clothing may be directed to Carol Nolan at: carolnolan@aol.com.  You may visit her web site to see re-creations of men's vintage clothing.  The web site address is: http://www.murrayontravel.com/carolnolan