#20.1 Menswear

Clarissa requested more information about menswear so here is a quick pictorial summary:

1800- 1815

As you can see it was the basic shape of long trousers, shirt, cravat, waistcoat, and dress coat (what we might call a tail coat) with high collar and large lapels.   The last painting shows a dude in a redingote, which was the French version of the great coat.  The first and third show men who are very probably wearing corsets as well.

1820-1829

Cravats got a lot less puffy and exuberant.  The lapels of the coats calmed down, too, becoming shawl collars.   The dress coats became a lot less cut-away and the sleeves got puffy.  Also, the waist was really emphasized so corseting became more prevalent.

1830's

Cut-away coats were totally not the thing.  It's all frock coats and great coats with tight waistcoats and contrasting cravats.

1840's

So, still frock coats and waistcoats/vests with small collars.  Trousers now have fly fronts instead of drop fronts. (Basically, they look like we wear them now.) Different patterns and colors of cravats/neckcloths are worn and are tied into neat new shapes as demonstrated by Edgar Allen Poe and Alexandre Cabanel above.   Also, Queen Victoria's husband set the trends for the tight waisted corseted look, making it even more extreme and pigeon chested.

Wait.

Oh.  I hate them.

This is from 1848.

This is the idealized shape of men in the late 1840's/early 1850's.   Now look at this idealized shape in the late 1890's (fifty years later) for women.

IT'S THE SAME SHAPE!!!

::Sigh::  How did I miss this?  In an age of bloomers and women riding bicycles and asking to vote, of COURSE they would appropriate a male silhouette from 50 years prior and just add extra feminine /sexy elements to it.  THIS was the reason I was looking for and I wrote the last lecture before I found it.

I'm sorry everyone.  I will amend the previous posting.

Anyway,

1850's

Collars get MUCH shorter on shirts because detachable collars were invented. The precursor to bow ties begins, men wear morning coats for formal stuff in the morning and frock coats for the afternoon and tail coats with white cravats for evening formal occasions.  Thus begins the white-tie-and-tails tradition for men's formal wear which continues to this day.  Also around this time the sack coat is invented which is something that will eventually become the suit coat we know today.  Facial hair also becomes a cool thing.

1860's

More of the same stuff but with the sack coat gaining in popularity.  Frock coats were most common.  Oh, and almost no one wore pants and coat the same color/fabric.  That was weird/fashion forward and called a "ditto suit."  Stovepipe hats and top hats were worn along with whatever other hat you fancied.  Bowlers came out around this time as well, though they tended to be worn by lower classes.  Also Stetson began making hats which quickly became THE hat of the American West.

1870's

Behold, the birth of the lounge suit. (Previously mentioned as a ditto suit.) This is a three-piece suit which has coat, trousers, and vest made from the same fabric, the coat being a sack coat or a modified/shortened frock coat.  The tips of upstanding collars began to be pressed out into "wings" and ties become more like ties men wear today.  Levi Strauss began to make jeans with riveted pockets.  Straw boater hats were worn for outdoor leisure activities.  Also celluloid, the highly flammable plastic which movies are filmed on is turned into collars and cuffs and shirt fronts for daily wear.  They look like this:

They are so stiff that men would bruise their jaws if they turned their heads too quickly at the wrong angle.  Celluloid dickies are the reason this man's shirt rolls up after his collar pops off.  Obviously this cartoon is not from the 1870's but the style remained the same for men's formal wear for 100ish years.

1880's

Though a frock coat was worn for formal occasions, usually the sack coat or ditto suit was worn every day and as often as possible by everyone.  A popular style involved cutting it away so that only the top button could be buttoned.  For running around and doing active stuff the Norfolk jacket happened.

Formal wear, though, didn't remain exclusively formal.  The tuxedo was invented as a casual alternative.  However for big parties the white tie was required.

1890's

By the end of the century men wanted to look lean and cool, with a suit now being a sack coat and a frock coat being formal.  Celluloid collars and cuffs are still attached to shirts and that's the way men looked at the turn of the century.