Friday, July 17, 2015

New post: Friday Video: 100 Years of Men's Fashion in Three Minutes

Friday, July 17, 2015


Isabella reporting,

Because of how dramatically women's fashion has changed in the last hundred years, it's easy to overlook the transformation in menswear over the same time period. While this video can't cover everything - it's only three minutes long - it does hit the most dramatic styles. The handsome male model helps, too.

A side note: I'm willing to bet that most of you will accept the older looks, but question the more recent ones. I know that's something I do myself - remembering (or better yet, wearing) a fashion before it became "vintage" gives us a different perception and perspective, doesn't it?

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10 comments:

Lauriana said...

Actually, I don't mind the recent looks so much. It's the earliest ones which I think are wrong: The rise of those trousers should have been higher.

I had seen the women's version of this video before and that stood out by not changing the undergarments so the silhouette of earlier styles was never quite right. Something similar, but more subtle, seems to be going on here.

Drayton Bird said...

As usual, fascinating. But having lived through 78 of those years I am puzzled by the idea that throughout the entire period men were wearing their trousers half way up their calves. Not how I recall it,

katy said...

Thanks for a great start to my morning. The model looked like he was having great fun.

GSGreatEscaper said...

Drayton Bird, you are correct - it's because the clothes are not really vintage, they are modern clothes accessorized to look 'vintage.' The seersucker jacket is way too short because it's not the real thing. The early looks are basically khakis and a white shirt plus blazer, and they forgot that the pants should have touched the instep of the shoes to be properly fitted in days gone by.

Mr. 1955 should have wrapped his ciggies up in those sleeves!

I found all the looks attractive up until 1995 - I got married in 1989 and stopped looking - wonder if that has something to do with it?

Regencyresearcher said...

I think the underwear is wrong for much of the period. Also, these were young men's informal fashions and not the suit. I do remember seeing some of the fashions in TV shows. For much of the time the business suit was the weekly wear of adult men.

Kathleen said...

Hilarious!

Isabella Bradford/Susan Holloway Scott said...

Yes, I think you're all exactly right - these are clearly costumes, not historic pieces, or even accurate reproductions. I think the video's goal was more to create the "feeling" of the different eras than to be exact (at least I hope so!) I'm always amused when people rave on about the fantastic "historic clothing" in period movies or tv shows - if you're even moderately interested in the history of clothing, you'll spot inaccuracies all over the place. But it's entertainment, not museum-fare, so I'm fine with it.

And yes, Lauriana, it's always the underwear (or lack of it) that throws off modern people wearing old-style clothing. If you don't have the proper "shape" underneath, things don't fit the way they should.

RegencyResearcher, agree about the modern clothes. But I think it's nearly impossible to choose one style to represent any era, because clothing is such a personal statement of age, income, status, and taste. I'm betting it was a very tiny minority of men wearing black leather jackets in the 1950s. OTOH, how many generalized costume books have you seen showing the 1770s represented by a full-blown French court dress complete with a ship in the hair?

Karen Anne said...

My first thought in watching the follow on women's version was, where's the girdle?

Anonymous said...

Very interesting how men's fashions really hadn't changed as much as women's, especially in suits. I did notice the length of the jacket was higher on some decades than others. I also noticed that the model was cute no matter what they put on him!

Anonymous said...

I'm 86 years old and was a fashion artist the men's fashions illustrated so I've seen and sketched 90% of the styles shown. I love the roaring 20s look and sexy movements of the model, vividly remember the "Madmen" narrow lapels and skinny ties that my husband wore. Thumbs down on the unshaven Brad Pitt look, yuk! I agree that the underwear, like boxer shorts, were neglected and did influence outerwear fashions which were not skin tight. Great concept, thank you. Marguerite

 
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