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Clothing Illustrations From or Inspired by the 20s to the 60s

385K views 5K replies 79 participants last post by  Oviatt 
#1 · (Edited)
I stumbled across this illustration - a Coke ad from 1957 - and thought it would be neat to attempt to get a thread going on illustrations of Ivy clothes (kinda like what Flanderian is doing with Vintage Esquire illustrations over on the other side of the house).

And, if not, this one with its OCBD, ski and V-neck sweaters, khakis, argyle socks and Weejuns is fun just by itself. Also, clearly, Coke wanted to position itself as cool, so this is more evidence that the cool kids of the '50s were dressing in Ivy.

Many years ago, I dated a blonde who said a black turtleneck is a blonde's best friend - no argument from me.

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#2,732 · (Edited)
Perhaps it was simply a re-location from Shorewood to the current Water Street location? Also, while the website lists a Green Bay location, I have never seen it.

By the way, there was a lovely men's shop called Roger Stevens Menswear, inside the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. I used to have conversations about clothes with Mr Stevens, a gracious chap who owned the business. Good memories of staying in the hotel with friends and going out to dinner and a show.
 
#2,734 ·
In 2017, the owner announced a big retirement sale (up to 70% off) and had indicated he hoped to sell the store. At the time, there wasn't a done deal although he was looking at a couple of potential buyers. Apparently a deal was made although I can't find any big announcement of the sale and relocation.

Roger Stevens was a very fine store. I worked in downtown Milwaukee for a number of years and always enjoyed my lunch time walks past the Pfister. They always had to best window displays.
 
#2,735 ·
Yes, the window displays at Stevens' were great.

I haven't been to the Pfister in ages. I hope they have not been hit too hard with the pandemic and the general economic downturn this year. It was a hotel in the grand old tradition, a nice lobby, a fine restaurant, and places to sit and listen to the piano over drinks or coffee. The antique furniture in the hotel's rooms were also a pleasure.
 
#2,743 ·
Based on ads like this, movies and books from the period and a few other things I've read or seen over the years, it appears college kids did wear suits in the '30s - '60s (pre-1967 anyway) or sport coats and ties as part of their regular rotation of outfits.

I've also seen plenty of kids, from that time period, wearing ties with cardigans or other sweaters only (meaning not with a suit or sport coat) and, also, college kids without a tie and just an open-collar shirt with a sport coat or sweater (or, especially by the '50s, no tie and an open-collar shirt without a sport coat or suit).

Finally, in the '50s, you also start to see jeans sneaking into their wardrobes, but mainly for not-going-to-class wear.
 
#2,744 · (Edited)
A related observation I have often mulled over in my mind, especially as a film buff: In most American (and perhaps European) movies, we find that the principal characters are in suits and ties, or sport coats with or without ties. Now this may have reflected the way the public dressed in the thirties through the fifties, but by the time the seventies and eighties rolled around, the majority of people one saw on the streets (with the exception of big cities perhaps where there were many businessmen and government officials) were dressed casually -- sweaters, windcheaters, casual jackets and such, and folks with ties were rather thin on the ground.

Nevertheless, the makers of movies have continued to put their major characters in sports jackets and ties, and often in suits. Even some of the action films have their characters dressed in suits and ties, the classic example being the Bond films as they have evolved over the past fifty years or so. A suit and tie ought to be very restricting when one is involved in a fight, but everyone from Connery to Craig (and their opponents), appears to engage in fighting while wearing their suits!

So films don't seem to reflect the trends in clothing seen among people. Of course, I am aware that there are many exceptions, especially where the dress or costumes have to reflect a particular period in time or a specific segment of society, but this seems to be one area where, generally speaking, production values have ossified.
 
#2,745 ·
⇧ I've noticed this too and think it's because suits, ties, sport coats, etc. look better and help tell the story (for example, the business guy - especially since Hollywood makes most of them evil - looks more the part in a suit and tie than jeans, an open-collared shirt and fleece vest) and TV and movies are a very visual medium. As you note, there are many, many exceptions, but overall, characters on TV and in movies dress much nicer today than the general public.

It's very noticeable at TV and movie funerals. At them, usually (exceptions exist, of course), the male characters are dressed in traditional dark-colored suits and ties (with the women equally attired). For a funeral to have the right visual effect - to reflect the emotion and somberness of the event - this is all but necessary. TV/movie directors/stylist get this and do what they do despite the fact that no one has dressed that way at funerals (some individuals do, but not the entire procession as on TV) for almost two decades.
 
#2,747 · (Edited)
Great minds think alike, Faders. Two days ago, I picked up a soft, unstructured Pendleton jacket identical to the one in the picture above, except for the buttons (mine has small leather "football" buttons) and the pattern (mine is a dark brown and black check). It is 100% wool, and I paid $10 for it, less than the price in the advert, LOL. Super comfortable.
 
#2,753 · (Edited)
Is that Dad sleeping it off after New Year's Eve revelries?

Anyway, what really caught my attention was the new Raffles Story, an extract titled "Stamps are my fortune". As a stamp collector, I am quite curious and will have to research this one!

AJ Raffles, was an amateur sleuth created by EW Hornung, the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle. Raffles was a kind of inversion of Sherlock Holmes, a detective with a dark side. There's a copy of a story collection by Hornung called The Amateur Cracksman in my university's library, so I'll have to check it out and see how these stories are.
 
#2,756 ·
Those lapels are identical to the ones on a brown glen check DB sports jacket I acquired a couple of weeks ago! Wide and big, with the notch very narrow and horizontal. I wonder if there is a name for that style of lapel, other than simply peaked lapel.

The entire ensemble looks very well coordinated, especially the hat and the cane. The only person whom I know who wears a hat and a cane is my downstairs neighbour Bruce, a great Anglophile and a natty dresser. He goes out for a mid-afternoon walk in a nice overcoat, a black felt hat, and a cane.

Thank you for this great image, Faders. And a very healthy and happy New Year to you!
 
#2,757 ·
Thank you and the same to you for a wonderful New Year.

My guess, from everything in the pic, it's the late '20s to '30s. It's just another example of how long the basic suit-shirt-tie construct for men held as it's still kinda sorta in place, at least for those who wear a suit, almost a hundred years later.
 
#2,759 ·
Boy, the sixties (and I'm assuming this one is from that period) must have been the decade of polyester. So many combinations of artificial fibres, with or without natural ones, in the garments of those years. While thrifting I find that there are so many US made neckties that are 100% polyester, dating back to the sixties -- judging by the styles and labels.
 
#2,766 ·
My last trip on a Greyhound Bus was back in the mid 1960's when the Air Force sent me from Lock Haven, PA to McGuire AFB, NJ, for a flight physical and a physical aptitude test, as part of the screening process for admittance to the USAF Academy. Can you believe that , a two day bus ride for a wannabe pilot? I'll bet the Air Force saved a lot on that one! LOL. ;)
 
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