Men's Fashions: Gray Flannel Suits

MEN'S FASHIONS: GRAY FLANNEL SUITS

A CALL TO BARE ARMS

Despite Manhattan's unbearably hot and steamy summertime weather, city fashion czars, claimed the New York Daily News in July 1951, continued to insist that men endure the dog days with their shirtsleeves covered. Hot as hell and not wanting to take it anymore, a Daily News columnist urged "outright rebellion against any and all social edicts which say a guy has to pull a hot jacket over a carcass which already, probably, is steaming like a 1908 Maxwell. Down with any heartless females and etiquette fanatics who'd still like to see us looking like boiled lobsters and feeling like steamed clams." According to a July Gallup poll, however, jacketless men already had the sympathies of seven out of ten women surveyed. Yet Time magazine reported that the Daily News crusade was having little impact in revising lunchtime couture for the hot and hungry businessman. Snooty maître d's in Manhattan's posh restaurants continued to accost their shirtsleeved male patrons, demanding they put on a jacket and tie.

Source:

Time (23 July 1951): 13.

Conform—Or Else

In the 1950s conformity was the password of men's fashions. And as long as "conformity was the order of the day, there was a uniform to go with it," according to author Richard Horn: "a three-button, single-breasted, charcoal gray flannel suit, with narrow shoulders, narrow, small-notched lapels, flaps on the pockets, and pleatless, tapering trousers. A white or pale blue cotton broadcloth shirt with a button-down collar and button cuffs, trim ties with regimental stripes and small knots, and trim black leather shoes that rose at the ankle and the toe.… A drip-dry beige raincoat, a Chesterfield with black velvet collar, or a single-breasted, straight-lined tweed overcoat with raglan sleeves was donned upon stepping out of corporate headquaters and

onto the street. Any hat would have been narrow-brimmed and worn brim up or brim down, sometimes with a pinched crown. Hair was worn in a crew—or semi-crew—cut. Jewelry was minimal—no more than a wrisr watch and, if the man was married, a wedding band."

Alternatives

Not every man wore gray flannel suits, of course. Corporate types sometimes wore dark blue suits. And blue-collar laborers did not wear suits. By the mid 1950s, suits made of "miracle" synthetic fabrics such as Dacron blends that were lightweight and spot and wrinkle-resistant were gaining popularity in colors such as beige, blue, and brown. Nonetheless, men's formal fashions in the 1950s were generally somber.

Sports Clothes

Men's clothes for leisure time, on the other hand, were more fun than work outfits. Bermuda shorts made a big splash in the 1950s, with some men even wearing them to parties and the country club with sports jackets and knee-length socks. Though tweed jackets with gray flannel slacks were standard among conservative dressers, sports jackets came in a variety of casually festive styles for more adventuresome men. They boasted colorful madras plaids, large bright checks, or smaller houndstooth checks. Continental jackets had lightly padded shoulders and hung straight in the back. Slim-cut slacks were sometimes worn cuffless and with a trim belt often in a bright color. Long or short-sleeved sport shirts came in lightweight, washable synthetics such as Dacron; as a bonus they were wrinkle-free. Gaudy Hawaiian "aloha" shirts were popular during the 1950s, too, particularly at the ubiquitous backyard barbecues.

Outerwear

Heavy duffel coats held together by wooden toggles and hemp loops rather than zippers or buttons came into fashion in the 1950s. So did the thigh-length car coat. But the best-known outerwear of this era was the Eisenhower jacket, named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower: it was "jaunty, blousy, and waist-length."

Who Cares?

Perhaps because their range of fashion choices was so limited, men in the 1950s did not care as much about clothes as women did. As an article in Newsweek in 1957 put it, "men prefer to spend the extra money they're earning on things other than clothes," that is, on their homes and growing families. Probably because of the relative disinterest from men, styles did not change measurably from year to year in the 1950s as they did for women.

Source:

Richard Horn, Fifties Style, Then and Now (New York: Beech Tree, 1985), pp. 146-149.