Trad in the movies.

[Fading Fast]

The film noir movie "To Deep for Tears" from '49 (comments on movie here #372 ) has a lot of "big" late '40s clothes. It was clearly made just before Ivy started to take off. That said, this jacket popped up and I was wondering if anyone knows what kind of pattern it is:

If you enlarge the pic, you'll see that it's got one "stripe" of boxes with a vertical (twill) pattern inside and another "stripe" with (what I think is) nailhead. So some combining and "breaking" of the patterns.

That said, I'm just guessing but thought someone like our very knowledgable @Matt S might know?

Thank you.

Some other clothing pics from the movie:

 

[Matt S]

The film noir movie "To Deep for Tears" from '49 (comments on movie here #372 ) has a lot of "big" late '40s clothes. It was clearly made just before Ivy started to take off. That said, this jacket popped up and I was wondering if anyone knows what kind of pattern it is:
View attachment 45184
If you enlarge the pic, you'll see that it's got one "stripe" of boxes with a vertical (twill) pattern inside and another "stripe" with (what I think is) nailhead. So some combining and "breaking" of the patterns.

That said, I'm just guessing but thought someone like our very knowledgable @Matt S might know?

Thank you.

Some other clothing pics from the movie:
View attachment 45186 View attachment 45189 View attachment 45187

That pattern is a combination of a barleycorn weave and a broken diamond twill weave. That must be one complicated weave to set up! It's rather busy for my tastes to wear, but it would make for nice drapes.

 

[Fading Fast]

That pattern is a combination of a barleycorn weave and a broken diamond twill weave. That must be one complicated weave to set up! It's rather busy for my tastes to wear, but it would make for nice drapes.

Thank you sir. I always forget about barleycorn.

 

[Fading Fast]

If I can impose on @Matt S again, I'd love to know the pattern in this outstanding sport coat worn by Leslie Howard in 1936's "The Petrified Forest"

And a rare quote from Mr. Howard, "Matt, what pattern is this in my sport coat" Thank you, LH"

 

[Matt S]

If I can impose on @Matt S again, I'd love to know the pattern in this outstanding sport coat worn by Leslie Howard in 1936's "The Petrified Forest"
View attachment 45285 View attachment 45291 View attachment 45293

And a rare quote from Mr. Howard, "Matt, what pattern is this in my sport coat" Thank you, LH"
View attachment 45294

You've stumped me! I've never seen this pattern before, but it's some type of birdseye. It's not the standard birdseye suiting that you see all the time, but it looks like a more complex variation on that. It's a fascinating pattern up close.

I also like how he's folding back his shirt cuffs. It was a popular thing to do in movies. I used to do that before I got button cuffs that were designed to fold back!

 

[Flanderian]

If I can impose on @Matt S again, I'd love to know the pattern in this outstanding sport coat worn by Leslie Howard in 1936's "The Petrified Forest"
View attachment 45285 View attachment 45291 View attachment 45293

And a rare quote from Mr. Howard, "Matt, what pattern is this in my sport coat" Thank you, LH"
View attachment 45294

To me, it looks as if it might be a version of what I know as a pheasant's eye tweed. I came by that nomenclature via Paul Stuart who from time to time has had tweeds made up in that pattern.

https://askandyaboutclothes.com/community/threads/the-pheasants-eye-tweed.231925/

 

[Fading Fast]

You've stumped me! I've never seen this pattern before, but it's some type of birdseye. It's not the standard birdseye suiting that you see all the time, but it looks like a more complex variation on that. It's a fascinating pattern up close.

I also like how he's folding back his shirt cuffs. It was a popular thing to do in movies. I used to do that before I got button cuffs that were designed to fold back!

To me, it looks as if it might be a version of what I know as a pheasant's eye tweed. I came by that nomenclature via Paul Stuart who from time to time has had tweeds made up in that pattern.


View attachment 45307

https://askandyaboutclothes.com/community/threads/the-pheasants-eye-tweed.231925/

Thank you guys. It seems like Pheasant Eye Tweed is the answer (awesome pic of Coleman too). It looks like a beautiful pattern, I'd love to see one IRL.

Matt, I, too, noticed the folded back shirt cuffs. For the day, 1936, Howard's outfit - the clothes themselves, how he wears them (tie down, for example) and carries himself (hands casually tucked into side pockets, for example) - is a study in indifferent nonchalance that perfectly fits his character.

 

[Flanderian]

Thank you guys. It seems like Pheasant Eye Tweed is the answer (awesome pic of Coleman too). It looks like a beautiful pattern, I'd love to see one IRL.

Matt, I, too, noticed the folded back shirt cuffs. For the day, 1936, Howard's outfit - the clothes themselves, how he wears them (tie down, for example) and carries himself (hands casually tucked into side pockets, for example) - is a study in indifferent nonchalance that perfectly fits his character.

Presumably, that may be a correct term, though the weave pattern of Howard's jacket appears to be smaller. If my failing memory serves, I was informed of its name via the description for a photo in a Paul Stuart catalog. And I think that pattern was larger yet. Should I come across it, I will see if I can scan it, and post it here.

 

[Fading Fast]

Presumably, that may be a correct term, though the weave pattern of Howard's jacket appears to be smaller. If my failing memory serves, I was informed of its name via the description for a photo in a Paul Stuart catalog. And I think that pattern was larger yet. Should I come across it, I will see if I can scan it, and post it here.

Good stuff and thank you. I would think a pattern could come in different sizes/scale - think herringbone. I Googled the term and it seems to be a real not just Paul Stuart pattern name.

 

[Fading Fast]

I have "King Kong" from '33 on in the background and it's amazing how many Trad clothes are in it.

Check out the man's and woman's Polo coats, plus the pea coat (sorry, these were the best pics I could find):

And this awesome very '30s Tweed suit:

Lastly, note actress Fay Wray wearing an all white dress on a filthy tramp steamer. She, oddly, isn't worried about getting her nice dress dirty, but was concerned enough about her clothes getting mess up that she decided to not wear a bra:

 

[eagle2250]

I have "King Kong" from '33 on in the background and it's amazing how many Trad clothes are in it.

Check out the man's and woman's Polo coats, plus the pea coat (sorry, these were the best pics I could find):
View attachment 46042 View attachment 46043


Lastly, note actress Fay Wray wearing an all white dress on a filthy tramp steamer. She, oddly, isn't worried about getting her nice dress dirty, but was concerned enough about her clothes getting mess up that she decided to not wear a bra:
View attachment 46049

She may be not wearing a bra, but she does appear to be wearing the latest in women's fashion(s) "Stemmed Teacups!" Rather appealing, I think.

 

[Fading Fast]

She may be not wearing a bra, but she does appear to be wearing the latest in women's fashion(s) "Stemmed Teacups!" Rather appealing, I think.

Pretty brazen for 1933.

 

[Fading Fast]

From the movie "The Gentlemen" (comments here #402 ). While only some of the clothes are Trad, many have echoes or elements or Trad.

And for starters, check out this looks-like-it-came-from-Ben-Silver getup:

And some more fun ones from the movie (1st pic, overcoat left - very '30s Apparel Arts):

Pretty classic-looking Macintosh ⇩

 

[Fading Fast]

On TCM now - and on in the backroom as I work - is the 1927 silent "Spring Fever," which seems to be all about young rich people playing golf and flirting heavily (a guess from the little I've seen).

But here's the thing, the movie looks like a Ralph Lauren advertisement forty years before there was a Ralph Lauren company.

The clothes are "Ralph" country club and golf perfect. I had a friend who worked for Ralph Lauren for years and she said they went back to the books, magazines, movies, etc., of the '20s ad '30s for "inspiration" all the time. I'd bet this movie was part of that inspiration.

These pics from the movie all but look like Ralph Lauren ads.

Oh, and that is a ridiculously young (24 years old) Joan Crawford.

 

[Fading Fast]

Cross post with the Tweed thread.

On mute in the background on TCM right now is the outstanding 1945 British film "Brief Encounter."

There are a lot of cool clothes in it (note the overcoats in the pics below) including several neat Tweeds back when Tweeds were just regular-people clothing.

So far, these are the best pics I could find. Her suit is outstanding and looks better on screen than in the pics.

 

[Fading Fast]

Despite the movie being filmed in 1969, when the Hippie '60s was in full flower, Rock Hudson's wardrobe in "A Fine Pair" is very '60s Ivy.

He wears a sack suit with a white OCBD and nondescript tie for a chunk of it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good pic of it and, while I know it doesn't quite look like it here, on screen, the suit looks flannel.

Over that suit, he wears a very sixties narrow-lapel raglan-sleeved Tweed overcoat:

Later on, he also sports a polo coat nicely accessorized with Claudia Cardinali:

Finally, he wears this classic Shearling:

And, Claudia herself wears this neat raglan-sleeved herringbone tweed overcoat

 

[drpeter]

Cross post with the Tweed thread.

On mute in the background on TCM right now is the outstanding 1945 British film "Brief Encounter."

There are a lot of cool clothes in it (note the overcoats in the pics below) including several neat Tweeds back when Tweeds were just regular-people clothing.

So far, these are the best pics I could find. Her suit is outstanding and looks better on screen than in the pics.

View attachment 47521
View attachment 47522 View attachment 47523 View attachment 47524 View attachment 47525

It's a beautiful film. It's a study of two people who relate in a quiet but unconventional way within the strictures of a society that is strongly bound up with class and tradition. Quite unlike the large-scale dramas of David Lean's later years. And for once, Trevor Howard isn't swaggering the way he does when playing a lot of his later characters (from Major Calloway in The Third Man to Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty). Nice stills, @Fading Fast!

 

[Fading Fast]

It's a beautiful film. It's a study of two people who relate in a quiet but unconventional way within the strictures of a society that is strongly bound up with class and tradition. Quite unlike the large-scale dramas of David Lean's later years. And for once, Trevor Howard isn't swaggering the way he does when playing a lot of his later characters (from Major Calloway in The Third Man to Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty). Nice stills, @Fading Fast!

I agree, it's a wonderful movie, very real to life.

Have you seen David Lean's "Madeliene" or "The Passionate Friends?" (Comments on "Madeliene" here #26641 and "The Passionate Friends" here #26694.)

Both are outstanding efforts and closer to "Brief Encounter" in style than Lean's later efforts like "Dr. Zhivoago" or "Lawrence of Arabia."

 

[drpeter]

I agree, it's a wonderful movie, very real to life.

Have you seen David Lean's "Madeliene" or "The Passionate Friends?" (Comments on "Madeliene" here #26641 and "The Passionate Friends" here #26694.)

Both are outstanding efforts and closer to "Brief Encounter" in style than Lean's later efforts like "Dr. Zhivoago" or "Lawrence of Arabia."

Yes, I've heard of both of those films, but no, I have not seen either. Thank you for pointing them out to me, I'll look for them on TCM and other sources. The way you describe them, they are certainly more like Brief Encounter. Like many an auteur director, Lean seems to have assembled a set of actors whom he used in multiple films, like Ann Todd and Trevor Howard.

The early David Lean reminds me of another great director whose films I absolutely love: Yasujiro Ozu, the pre-eminent Japanese director of the last century -- in my opinion, even more powerful than Akira Kurosawa. Ozu is a director who works on a small scale and explores intimate human relationships. A meticulous artist who understands how to use subtext, he is a master at evoking emotion and at artful elision. Tokyo Story is consistently on my list of top ten films of all time. Early Spring, and his last venture, An Autumn Afternoon, are both very fine films. Ozu's films don't play as well to mainstream Western audiences as Kurosawa's because they are seen as slow -- this is mainly because they are used to the faster pace and more dramatic tone of Hollywood films.

Side note: A large number of Ozu's films, mostly silent films from the early twentieth century, were destroyed during the Allied bombing raids of Tokyo in WWII. A sad case of collateral damage, and a loss to those of us who love his films. I keep hoping someone will discover a trove of prints that somehow survived the bombing!

 

[Fading Fast]

I've never seen 1982's "Best Friends" but I had it on, on mute, in the background this morning (looks like a typical schmaltzy early '80s couples-love-each-other-but-fight-a-lot movie).

Burt Reynolds' character wears a bunch of Trad clothes in it.

Despite the late '60s and '70s style broadside, classic attire was still quite common in the '80s (and '90s and, even, the '00s).

A grey herringbone sport coat, OCBD and conservative tie (sorry, best pic of it I could find).

A '50s-style college scarf.

And a trenchcoat.