Archive for the ‘MENSWEAR’ Category
Entrenched
According to Flusser, the trench coat was created by Burberry at the request of the British government. The water repellent fabric helped keep WWI soldiers dry while they fought in the trenches. This pattern of coat was said to have been dubbed “trench coat” by soldiers on the front lines. According to Aquascutum, they had developed the trench coat design design for the Crimean War- beating Burberry by a number of years. According to Hoyle- it’s better to stay out of the trenches for this one.
Image credit: www.barbour.com
Fact credit: Dressing The Man, Alan Flusser, p. 302; Wikipedia
The Duke’s Fair Isle bail out
The Fair Isle design is named after a small Scottish Island- located near ‘Shetland’ island. Fair Isle sweaters are usually colorful, patterned, and were first made by farmers. In 1922, The Duke of Windsor heard a particular group of Fair Isle farmers were in financial trouble, so he wore one of their sweaters out and about. As planned, Fair Isle sweater sales boosted, and the Fair Isle design became a classic.
Adam Christopher’s post on Fair Isle and other seaside knits here
Chloe Sevigny’s take on Fair Isle here
Fact Credit: Dressing The Man, Alan Flusser, p. 286-287
Image Credit: Burberry sweater featured on prestige-mag.com
Canadian Tuxedo, eh?
Image Credit: Amongst Friends via freshnessmag.com
Canadian Tuxedo. Definition= Denim on Denim. A denim jacket with a pair of jeans.
Fact credit: Urbandictionary.com
Tom Ford – the man, the brand, the movie
Image Credit: A Single Man movie still from gymclassmagazine.com
The Man, Tom Ford: Studied architecture at Parsons. CFDA Menswear designer of the year 2008
The Brand, Tom Ford: Menswear. Beauty. Eyewear.
The Movie, Directed by Tom Ford: Tom Ford’s debut as a director in: A Single Man
Cotton and Commerce
After the American civil war, England and France resumed buying inexpensive American cotton exports- abandoning the pricey and high quality Egyptian cotton. This caused Egypt extreme economic hardship that lead to Egypt’s 1876 bankruptcy. Egypt’s fragile economic state enabled England to Annex Egypt six years later.
The U.S. and Africa are currently the largest exporters of raw cotton. The cotton industry took a hit in the sixties with the advent of polyester, but still remains a billion dollar industry.
Fact Credit: Wikipedia
Image Credit: Gitman Brothers shirt from openingceremony.us
Tuxedo New York
As many outsiders have done before him, the American James Brown Potter asked a local British friend what was appropriate dress for a British Party. His friend, the fashion forward Prince of Wales, gave creative advice. The Prince described a short jacket used in place of a tailcoat. When Potter returned to his New York based Tuxedo Park club, he adopted this new look and other members soon followed suit.
One night the Tuxedo Club group went to Delmonico’s wearing their new outfits. (The group may have decided on Delmonico’s because it was the only restaurant that would let them in without coat-tails).
Observers soon started calling the new garments “tuxedos” after the men who first wore them in the U.S. – the men from Tuxedo Park.
Fact Credit: Dressing The Man, Alan Flusser, p. 303
Image Credit: jlindeberg.com
“hunting pink” is more red than you think
Image Credit: stevenalan.com
“Hunting Pink” is a term given to a light shade of red, as featured in the red stripes on the Steven Alan’s hunting jacket featured above. English hunting law once granted hunting rights only to royalty- this law was strictly and morbidly enforced. According to one site, a penalty for unofficial hunting may have included death.
Wearing ‘hunting pink’ marked the king and his comrades as they hunted common land. The red was originally made from cactus beetles- their color extracted with acid.
Fact Credit: Hunting Pink facts from Dressing The Man, Alan Flusser, p. 290; English hunting right facts from elizabethan-era.org.uk
Sunglasses: reflecting on the past
In the early 1900s, the first silent film stars wore sunglasses to conceal incessantly irritated eyes- red from harsh lighting necessary to produce low speed film stock. It was only later that movie stars began wearing sunglasses to create or conceal an identity.
Fact Credit: Wikipedia
Image Credit: silverliningopticians.com
Russian Military Uniform 1908
Image Credit: Military Fashion, John Mollo, 1972