MEN'S FASHION

Youth Prevails

During the 1920s men's fashion, like women's, was markedly more youthful, more casual than it had been during preceding decades. The boom in business and the general prosperity in the United States caused a huge increase in the numbers of young men attending colleges and universities throughout the country. And these institutions, whether Ivy League or Big Ten, developed codes of male fashion that only the most independent or misguided students ignored. Collegiate fashions were widely covered in the popular press and in such fashion journals as Men's Wear and Gentlemen's Quarterly, the latter founded as a haberdashery trade catalogue in December 1926.

Heroes

For collegians, as well as for their elders, the 1920s were an age of hero worship, and many of these heroes substantially influenced men's fashion of the day. Such sports figures as golf's Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, tennis's Bill Tilden, and swimming's Johnny Weissmuller not only set records in their fields but also provided sartorial models for their admirers, who were engaging in athletics—golf, tennis, and swimming, especially—in record numbers. The gridiron heroics of the University of Illinois's Red Grange or of Notre Dame's Four Horsemen provided a background for spectator fashion shows of raccoon coats, camel-hair polo coats, blue blazers, or Norfolk jackets. In 1927 aviation hero Charles Lindbergh inspired a craze among young American men for leather driving jackets or coats. And, perhaps above all, Edward, Prince of Wales, strengthened England's claim as the men's fashion capital of the world. The dashing prince, with his easy charm and taste for casual but natty attire, became an icon of style. Covering his fall 1924 visit to the United States, Vanity Fair facetiously reported that the prince had endured 2,754,911 snapshots, had kissed 2,329 blondes, had drunk 19,218 quarts of champagne, and had appeared in 1,819 uniforms and 3,601 different hats. He was, in short, a model for young men of his time.

Suits

Throughout the decade most men's suits for business or the campus had a "tubular" look produced by the combination of narrow-shouldered jackets and quite wide, loose-fitting pants. The broad-shouldered, broadchested suit coat characteristic of the prewar years was replaced by the more boyish-looking, unpadded, natural-shoulder jacket, which generally hung straight to the hips, though some versions were slightly tapered at the waist. Vented in the back, these suit jackets came in single- and double-breasted versions, with the single-breasted proving most popular among younger men. During the 1920s suit pants underwent two particularly notable style changes: sharp front and back creases replaced side creases, and cuffs replaced flat hems. Pants were fastened by buttons or hooks (zippers were not commonly used for this purpose until the mid 1930s) and were supported either by suspenders or belts, the latter just beginning to achieve popularity. Wool was the most common suit fabric; mature men favored wearing it in navy blue, medium gray, or brown, while younger men adopted paler colors, often in tweeds, during the late 1920s. Although Brooks Brothers was the retailer and label of choice in men's fashions at this time, less expensive men's stores offered serviceable three-piece suits for as little as $29.50.

Vests, Shirts, Ties

Men's single-breasted suits often included double-breasted vests or waistcoats, which, as the decade progressed, tended to be replaced by sleeveless V-neck pullover sweaters for comfort's sake. Until the mid 1920s shirts featured detached collars made of starched fabric, celluloid, or, most frequently, the softer three-ply cotton introduced by John Manning Van Heusen in 1920. Detached collars were often white, but when the attached-collar shirt became prevalent in 1925, shirts and collars normally matched in fabric and color. Common attached-collar styles included the button-down, the plain-pointed, and the pin-pointed (the points of the collar pinned under the tie). Though white shirts in broadcloth, oxford cloth, basket weave, and silk remained a staple of men's fashion, solid colors—particularly blue, tan, and yellow—and stripes became popular as the decade progressed. Ties, too, were becoming increasingly colorful; the traditional four-in-hand might appear in regimental or club stripes, plaids, or polka dots and be made of woven or crocheted silk or linen fabrics.

ARROW COLLAR MAN

If John Held Jr.'s caricatures of flappers and sheiks provided vivid portraits of America's "flaming youth" during the 1920s, illustrator J. C. Leyendecker's "Arrow Collar Man" conveyed a distinctly different image. Appearing in advertisements for the Cluett, Peabody product from 1905 to 1930, the "Arrow Collar Man" was clearly well-to-do, well-bred, educated, sophisticated, aloof, and, of course, handsome. He became an ideal for young people of both sexes, as this passage from F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Last of the Belles" (1929) suggests: "… she told me about her brother who had died in his senior year at Yale. She showed me his picture—it was a handsome, earnest face with a Leyendecker forelock—and told me that when she met someone who measured up to him she'd marry."

Sources:

F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Last of the Belles," in The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli (New York: Scribners, 1989), pp. 451;

Michael Schau, / C. Leyendeckcr (New York: Watson-Guptill, 1974), pp. 43, 81.

Cake Eaters

During the early 1920s many Ivy Leaguers attended tea dances in New York City hotels, where they socialized with young actresses, debutantes, and coeds. Since these dances usually served slivers of cake as refreshments and since the accepted male costume at these affairs was the narrow-shouldered, widetrousered suit, this particular uniform became known as the "cake-eater's suit." By about 1923 the term was adopted—and the style adapted—by certain non-college youth, "snappy" dressers of the sort that would have worn the jazz suit during the 1910s or the zoot suit during the 1940s. This version of the cake-eater's suit featured a slope-shouldered jacket that was rather snugly fitted at the waist and that had narrow, sharply notched lapels. It was worn with trousers that were quite narrow to the calves but then flared into wide bell bottoms. Accessories for this suit included soft high collars, narrow dark ties, and flat caps. Regarded as a flamboyant expression of lower-class, noncollegiate taste, this new version of the cake-eater's suit was emphatically rejected by college men, who may have turned to Oxford bags in part to escape the old "cake-eater" label.

Collegiate Styles

Whatever the stimulus, in 1925 many American college men adopted extraordinary pants originating at England's Oxford University, where students had developed them to cover knickers banned by university officials. Oxford bags, as they were called, were voluminous trousers measuring about twenty-five inches around the knees and twenty-two inches around the cuffs. Made usually of light-colored flannel and worn with short, natural-shouldered jackets or pullover turtle-neck sweaters, Oxford bags retained some degree of popularity into the early 1930s. More generally accepted, especially on Ivy League campuses, were less voluminous but still loose flannel slacks worn with sports jackets and often with brightly colored cravats. Two styles of sports jackets were particularly popular: the blazer with a crest, or badgelike decoration, at the pocket and the modified Norfolk jacket with box pleats down each side and a belt at the back. College men also adopted the best-selling overcoats of the decade—the belted gabardine Burberry trench coat modeled on the waterproof garment worn by British officers during World War I; the camel-hair polo coat; the knee-length, velvet-collared chesterfield; and the raccoon coat.

Fashion for the Links, Courts, and Shore

No doubt the popularity of men's sportswear on campus during the 1920s reflected the growing interest of most Americans in both watching and participating in athletics. Properly dressed tennis players wore white flannel slacks with the white or cream-colored cable-knit sweater favored by American superstar Bill Tilden or with the short-sleeved knit tennis, or polo, shirt—complete with crocodile emblem on the chest—introduced in 1926 by French player René Lacoste, "the Crocodile." Golf, perhaps the most popular participant sport of the decade, was generally played in knickers—also known as plus fours—loose pants ending just below the knees and worn with brightly patterned long socks. Made in almost every fabric and color, knickers often had pleats at the waist and sharp creases in front and back. By 1925 they had evolved into four-piece knickerbocker suits—knickers, jacket, vest, and traditional trousers—for wear on the links, at resorts, or on the campus. In 1922 the Prince of Wales had worn a brightly colored pullover Fair Isles sweater with plus fours while playing golf at St. Andrews, Scotland, and this combination became another favorite in golfing attire. Men's bathing suits during the 1920s were one- or two-piece garments featuring sleeveless, scoop-necked tunics over—or attached to—trunks extending several inches down the thighs. Made of dark knits, these suits often featured horizontal stripes at the chest, hips, and thigh.

Formal Wear

Men's formal evening wear during the 1920s included black or deep blue single-breasted tail-coats (worn with white tie) or dinner jackets (known as tuxedos and worn with black tie) and narrow, sharply creased, uncuffed pants. Coat and pants were worn with a white starched shirt normally having a wing collar (a stiff, standup band that bent down at the top edges), a black bow tie, and a white or black double-breasted waistcoat. Formal day wear included the dark suit jacket or the tailed cutaway coat (also called a "morning coat"), which was closed by a single button and exposed the lower waist area. Either could be worn with gray, striped pants, a waistcoat, and a bow tie, four-in-hand, or ascot. Formal wear required black patent leather shoes or pumps, a top hat or collapsible opera hat, gloves, spats, and, often, a straight or crooked-neck cane of rosewood, bamboo, or malacca. Though an excellent cane could be purchased for five dollars in 1926, a full-bark malacca generally cost fifty dollars or more.

SWIMWEAR

In the 1920s Jantzen, Catalina, and Cole became the "Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors of the swimwear trade." Sales figures for Jantzen, the largest of these companies, clearly reflect the explosion of interest in swimming and in beach fashion during the decade. In 1919 the company sold about 4,100 bathing suits; in 1930 it sold 1,587,388 suits. Charging an average of $2.99 per suit, Jantzen grossed $4,753,203 during the first full year of the Depression.

Source:

Lena Lençek and Gideon Boskcr, Making Waves: Swimsuits and the Undressing of America (San Francisco: Chronicle, 1989).

Hair, Hats, Shoes, Underwear

During the decade most men were clean-shaven and wore their hair slicked back and parted in the middle. For daytime wear the soft felt snap-brim fedora with a creased crown shared popularity with the stiffer, round-topped derby bowler, which had a narrow brim turned up at the sides; stiff, low-crowned straw hats were often adopted for casual summer wear, and short-billed caps for golfing. Shoes for everyday wear on campus or in town included broad-toed, low-cut oxfords, usually wing tip or saddle shoe in design. White or brown buckskin shoes, the latter popularized by the Prince of Wales during his fall 1924 visit to the United States, generally were reserved for resort or other casual wear. By 1921 wristwatches, introduced during the war, were beginning to replace pocket watches, especially among younger men. Underwear evolved from the longsleeved, long-legged, one-piece union suit in the early 1920s to the sleeveless, short-legged, rayon one-piece with drop seat in the late 1920s. The latter coexisted with a quite modern-looking two-piece combination of sleeveless undershirt and loose-fitting shorts adjustable at the waist. During the 1920s men's nightshirts were replaced almost entirely by pajamas, and, according to one contemporary source, the best-selling models were white with blue or lavender stripes.

WHAT MEN WERE WEARING PALM BEACH IN 1924

Source:

New York Daily News Record, 10 March 1924, pp. 12, 14.

Sources:

John S. Capper, "Men Are Not Vain—They Want to Be Comfortable," American Magazine, 89 (May 1920): 32-33, 100, 102;

Diana de Marly, Fashion for Men: An Illustrated History (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1985);

Paul Gallico, The Golden People (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965);

"H. R. H., Edward Albert, Prince of Wales," Vanity Fair, 29 (October 1927): 81;

Jacqueline Herald, Fashions of a Decade: The 1920s (New York: Facts On File, 1991);

Alan Jenkins, The Twenties (New York: Universe, 1974);

Lena Lençek and Gideon Bosker, Making Waves: Swimsuits and the Undressing of America (San Francisco: Chronicle, 1989);

O. E. Schoeffler and William Gale, Esquire's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Mens Fashion (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973);

Marion Sichel, History of Men's Costume (London: Batsford Academic and Educational, 1984).

MENSWEAR

A Quiet Revolution

Like women, men in the 1970s benefited from the same spirit of choice and experimentation unleashed by the 1960s. The two most important innovations in the 1970s were the increase in men's lei-sure wear and the use of new colors and fabrics. The white shirt fell into a fashion abyss, while double-knit and stretch-knit suits became popular. Rose, purple, orange, and green became acceptable colors for men's leisure wear and regularly appeared in bright patterns on the synthetic shirts worn by men in urban centers. Wide ties in big floral prints could be seen under light-colored, wide-lapeled jackets and slightly belled and pleated pants on a typical evening out in any city in the United States. By 1977 menswear came out of its "peacock period," as one critic commented and returned to classic traditional fabrics, tailoring, and styling that would come to epitomize the look of the 1980s.

Casual Trend

Men had more choices for leisure wear in the 1970s. Throughout the decade more and more men unbuttoned their shirts and went without ties and often without jackets. Advertisers no longer showed men just at work as slave to the dollar but in holiday or weekend scenes enjoying the company of friends. This new ethic of leisure and individuality emphasized lifestyle over work, and the lifestyle of choice was fun and relaxation. In terms of fashion the most important innovation to come out of the casual trend was the unstructured jacket. Modeled after the cardigan sweater, the goal of unstructured garments was to make suits and jackets lighter and more comfortable. Sloping shoulders, low buttons, and no tapered waists gave unstructured jackets a relaxed look and fit. Sweaters and vests were popular and were often worn under loose-fitting jackets.

Leisure Spawns Fashion

By the mid 1970s the number of single men doubled in the United States from its low in the 1950s. The delaying of marriage by many men and the increase in the number of divorces created a singles culture focused around leisure activities. Increasingly, the gay liberation movement emboldened many gay designers to come out and to make their presence felt in fashion. The combination of more single men and a more visible gay subculture greatly enhanced men's fashion options. Disco dance clubs were perhaps the decade's most famous leisure image. Made popular by the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever, the disco club scene spawned an entirely new leisure look for men. The disco look typically included a colorful patterned polyester shirt worn with light-colored, form-fitting, bell-bottomed pants and matching jacket. No ties were worn.

Weekend Jocks

Weekend athletics also inspired fashion. The look of the outdoor sportsman gained notoriety in such items as sturdy khaki pants, plaid hunting jackets, and flannel shirts. In 1975 the Coty American Fashion Critics awarded outdoor clothes producers L. L. Bean of Freeport, Maine; Gokey's of Saint Paul, Minnesota; and Eddie Bauer of Seattle, Washington, special citations for their contribution to menswear. Jogging suits were also a favorite weekend choice for men, whether or not they partook in the sport. Throughout the 1970s advertising images of men relaxing with friends or a special friend outnumbered those of men hard at work.

HOT PANTS

"I think this hotpants craze just had to come," said Bloomingdale's veteran fashion coordinator Katie Murphy. Hot pants, she concluded, are not only about showing more of women's legs. They are about a revolution in women's clothes design. Murphy explained that not since London's Mary Quant launched the miniskirt in 1960 has the fashion world been caught so off guard. Women as well as fashion experts see hot pants as the "final crushing rebuke" to the midi and to the fashion cartel of designers that tried to drape long skirts over a resisting female population. In contrast to the designer-contrived midi, hot pants, she stated, are a "street creation." Much of the fashion establishment disliked the new fad. "We prefer not to sell hotpants but we don't have any choice," complained a New York garment maker. "We don't control ladies, they control us now."

Source:

Newsweek (29 March 1971).

Sources:

Farid Chenoune, A History of Men's Fashion (Paris: Flammarion, 1993);

Annalee Gold, 90 Years of Fashion (New York: Fairchild Fashion Group, 1991);

Caroline Rennolds Milbank, Couture: The Great Designers (New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1985).

mens·wear / ˈmenzˌwe(ə)r/ (also men's wear) • n. clothes for men.

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