DRESS

Within the general prosperity of the times, a man’s home was his castle, no matter how modest, and he was king, no matter what. Yet his clothing proclaimed his station in life. The poor laborer wore sturdy, dark clothes that seldom got washed (forget ironed!) because he had to work in them at least six days a week. Protection from the cold, from the dirt, from nakedness were genuine needs. The man without at least a Sunday-go-to-meetin’ suit, one decent dress shirt, and a collar was surely a poor man. Or he lived so far away from a church or other civilizing institutions, he didn’t need it. He was still poor, in another sense. The leisured gentleman could afford to care about cut, fit, color, and fine fabrics. Dandies and swells could obsess over the perfect knot of a tie, the freshness of a linen collar. There were rules for appropriate dress for every occasion. Gentlemen still dressed differently for dinner or evening than for morning or afternoon. In between, men worked for a living at various economic levels. Tradesmen - the iceman, the farmer, the factory hand - dressed properly on Sunday and as well as their work permitted on weekdays. Professionals - teachers, barbers, clerks - and college men wore suits, starched shirts, white collars, and ties every day to show they worked with their minds, if also with their hands. Nonetheless, the sewing machine was fast eroding the age-old class distinctions in clothing. Ready-made clothes of quite serviceable quality were available in haberdasheries, department stores and mail order catalogues. The only way one could distinguish the average gent from his superior was by the finer quality of the latter’s garments. Average gents could not afford silk, except in ties, nor custom tailoring. They probably had to wear the same suit every day to work and would be lucky to have a second Sunday suit. Successful gents would have a summer weight suit and perhaps a blazer and white pants for summer holiday use. Meanwhile, as wide-spread prosperity provided more men with spare time and money, interest in casual activities and sports burgeoned, which in turn led to the demand for more comfortable clothes. Neither man nor boy went out in public without a hat or cap. He might be in shirt sleeves, an unbuttoned vest, or wearing a butcher’s apron over his suit, but he still wore his hat. Western movies do not exaggerate when a man goes out to face an enemy wearing only his long underwear, boots, gun belt, and HAT. For this decade we will dress: A regular gent, the worker who is comfortably situated. He’s a professional working in an office or as a store clerk, a barber, a bank teller, a teacher. He needs to be presentable in public and wears a suit and white collar to work. College men dress like regular gents but with bit of flair. A swell, the gentleman who wears only the best with no concern about its cost. Be he a banker, a politician, or a factory owner, he has a position to uphold. Or he could simply be one of the privileged class, the idle rich. A workin’ man, the laborer who does physical work. Factory worker, tradesman, delivery man, farmer, rancher, cowboy - what he does determines what he wears. A sportsman who actively engages in athletics, competitive sports, hunting, and driving one of those new-fangled automobiles.

He might have a separate full-length bath robe in similar fabric, if not Turkish toweling, as terry was called. It had an attached hood and a cord belt.
The older the man, the more mustache he might wear, reminiscent of his own youth, up to the handlebar (with lengthened tips waxed to curl up like a bicycle handlebar), or walrus (full and long enough to cover the upper lip if not the whole mouth), along with the muttonchops (sideburns that covered the sides of the face down to the jaw, shaped like a chop).
Half hose could be entirely woven lace or stripes (horizontal or vertical), or in an allover pattern of tiny figures. Some were only clocked, meaning they were solid color with a single design woven or embroidered on the sides. Older, more dignified gentlemen eschewed the brighter colors and patterns but succumbed to discreet stripes, allover patterns and clocks. Wool half hose were a necessity in cold weather. Despite their elastic knit tops, half hose needed help to stay up smoothly. Hence the man’s garter or suspender, a loop of half-inch wide elastic woven in rich colored stripes that hooked around the leg just below the knee. The hose supporter suspended from a ring in front. This device consisted of a button which one placed behind the hose, and a shaped loop that hooked around the neck of the button from the front, locking the hose between.
Bow ties continued to be acceptable for street wear. Both street and formal versions were available as band bows, pre-tied on a narrow band and hooked in the back. Bow ties offered greater option in fabric choices. For summer they could be cottons such as Chelsea cloth, percale or Madras. Plaids and stripes could run straight or on the bias (diagonal). Old-fashioned gentlemen could choose narrow string ties still called plantation or planter’s ties, which were tied in a bow with long tails. They usually preferred to tie their own, but a bow tie with dumbbell shaped ends reduced bulk at the knot.
At the start of the 20^th century, all men’s shoes had sharply pointed toes which softened over the first decade to a rounded toe. They were black except for very special exceptions. High-top, lace-up shoes continued to be worn in winter. Available in an assortment of leathers - patent kid with a kangaroo top, box calf which had a pebbly surface and was nearly waterproof, or all vici kid. Shoes were also made of beaver felt. Most men’s shoes had a row of perforations across the toe. Some had perforations along the vamp seam and alongside the grommets. Lacing grommets were limited to five or six pairs covering the instep. From there to the top, the lacing wrapped on four pairs of hooks, or three pairs of hooks and a final pair of grommets.
The main character of men’s coats in this first decade was loose and longish with padded shoulders. Except for formal occasions, the sack coat, already worn by workers and children for at least a hundred and fifty years, finally became standard for all menswear, as it has remained ever since. All men’s suit and sport coats through the rest of the 20^th century are sack coats. The most common sack coat had modest lapels buttoned quite high. The four-button, round-cut sack could button completely or curve apart just above the waist like a one-button cutaway. The slightly longer, square-cut, single breasted sack with square bottom corners could suggest a more conservative personality. The double breasted version of both styles had three pairs of buttons.
Derbies, or stiff hats, also called bowlers, had hard, bowl-round crowns and hard, curled up brims approximately two inches wide. Usually black, they could be brown or gray.
Daytime formal occasions like weddings, fetes, opening day at Ascot, required a "morning" ensemble already hidebound in a tradition that is still with us a hundred years later. A wing collar and grey-striped puff scarf finished a largely hidden, stiff, boiled shirt. The vest, usually grey broadcloth, could be more decorative, in pale colored pique, corded silk, striped or checked cashmere. A truly traditional gentleman might wear a double breasted vest with rolled collars. Trousers were dark grey-striped although some slight variation was acceptable with solid grey pants. The front edges of the three button, black broadcloth cutaway coat curved back below the waist seam, to above knee-length at the sides and back, still center split. Black Oxford shoes and grey spats, a grey or black top hat and grey gloves completed morning dress.
Complete fur coats were popular in bitter climates with men who could afford them. Types of fur ran from smooth, dense, and glossy like brown or black calfskin, black seal, otter, or imitation otter (actually beaver or muskrat) to long haired black bear, black Russian buffalo, raccoon, to curly astrakhan. Their large shawl collars were often a contrasting fur like otter. Other variations included otter cuffs or a hood. Fur coats usually had slanted ulster pockets, quilted linings, and waterproof duck interlining. Incidentally, the English preferred their fur as a lining inside an ordinary ulster of Scottish tweed or Irish frieze, while the French and Americans wore fur lavishly on the outside. Possibly the most extravagant of all was the Club, a beaver coat lined with mink. All that pelt could make a coat weigh more than twelve pounds!
Carpenter apron overalls, precursor to bib overalls, rose like a shop apron in front and were held up with straps over the shoulders. They buttoned at both sides and had pockets front and back plus a tool pocket or two. They were denim in blue or stripes of grey and black. Painters and paper-hangers wore apron or regular overalls in white duck. Working men’s jackets were usually denim or corduroy sack coats, cut boxier than suit coats and sturdily stitched. They could be buttoned all the way to the collar like a shirt. Surprise! Not all cowboys wore Levis. Most actually wore hard-wearing, heavy wool pants in stripes or checks, which they called California pants. Work pants required strong suspenders, which provided one opportunity for bright color in an otherwise dull wardrobe.
Men in the west who worked cattle wore leather chaps to protect their legs on horseback. Angoras or woolies, more popular in the colder northwest, were made from sheepskin with the wool left on. Shotgun chaps were straight- legged like mountain men’s leggings. Wing chaps extended in a flap at the sides and were often worn loose from the knee down. Chaps were made as two separate legs which buckled together in back and tied with leather strips in front. They wrapped around the inner leg to the back. Straps continued around to snap hook to rings behind the front.
Standard winter and rain coat styles needed some wind-proofing modification for motoring. Motoring coats were double breasted to brave the frontal attack and long enough to cover knees and more while seated. Cuffs were closed down by straps. Collars, deep enough to turn up over the ears, were often fur on heavier coats. There was still that piercing wind; leather was the answer. It was windproof and cleanable, and not nearly so heavy and bulky. All-leather coats appeared in far less voluminous cut with storm collars and cuffs. Leather also made excellent detachable linings for cloth coats, soft and light chamois being preferred. Unfortunately, all that windproofing worked both ways. With no ventilation, one’s body moisture soon rendered one’s clothing damp and disgusting inside one’s fine windproof leather coat.