Blue Jeans and Neckties?

[funneman]

I am interested in the perception of blue jeans in the golden era.

Were they considered work pants only?

How about when they faded? Were people horrified to be caught in a pair of jeans with a hole in them?

I like to wear a pair of really faded out jeans with a very nice dress shirt, cap-toes and a nice fedora. I like the contrast of the dressy with the causual.

My biggest question is this. Would wearing a tie along with the dress shirt and jeans have been something you might have seen on the street during this era.

Was it a regional thing.? Perhaps a more common site in a farming town as opposed to a cosmopolitan city.

Any thoughts or knowledge on the subject would be wonderful, thanks.

 

[Martinis at 8]

I think I have seen Jethro Bodine wear jeans with a necktie.

M8

 

[J. M. Stovall]

And don't forget the rope belt.

 

[Senator Jack]

You mean like this? Done well and no rope belt.

 

[WideBrimm]

I would expect that the acceptance, or not, of blue jeans in the golden era would have varied from place to place.

As a kid in the 1950s in a small town in the Rocky Mountain west, blue jeans were quite acceptable for dressing up for both school and church. However, jeans with holes, or looking faded and worn were generally not acceptable. The newer the better. New jeans were dark blue in those days. I'm sure ties would have been acceptable (with a white shirt) with jeans. After all, the west is cowboy country.

 

[resortes805]

Neck ties and jeans (or denim overalls) can look pretty sharp, but it can only be pulled off if you are going for the vintage 'hillbilly' look.

 

[Paisley]

I am interested in the perception of blue jeans in the golden era.

Were they considered work pants only?

How about when they faded? Were people horrified to be caught in a pair of jeans with a hole in them?

Back in the 50s, my grandfather saw my brother in patched jeans and he said to my mother, "Doesn't he have a better pair of pants?" At the time, my family was made of poor country folk.

 

[John in Covina]

Magnum PI

As a regional thing, on Long Island in the 60's up to some point in the 70's, jeans were not considered proper dress for other than manual labor type of work. I remember discussions of the high school faculty over the denim / jeans problem at school. Once designer jeans had hit and made it to the mens side of fashion things seemed to open up, and Magnum PI seemed to add credence to the semi-dressed jeans with tie or jacket look.

 

[MudInYerEye]

There are thousands of old WPA photos featuring men wearing denim jeans, overalls, or dungarees with dress shirts, ties, suit jackets, and fedoras. Often the denim is heavily patched. Plenty of work clothing ads in Sears, Wards, and Penneys catalogs circa 1920-1960 featuring illustrations of men dressed in a similar manner, albeit with new denim.
So, in short, yes. Period correct.

 

[Edward]

Tie with jeans always looked odd to me, but I think that's because I've grown up in an age where the tie was only a formal occasion / work / uniform garment. I tend to favour a cravat for regular work wear (I'm not subject to a suits dress code every day at work), most often with a pair of wide-legged casual trousers (basic Uniqlo stuff, though if i could find them for GBP35 or so I'd probably go over to 30s/40s style casual pants instead) and a blazer. Today, acutally, I'm wearing an open-necked lumber jack shirt and 50s-style jeans (just a dark denim, strait wide leg modern pair, but they have that real 50s feel) with a pinstripe "blazer" that is actually the jacket of a suit that is now past its best. And my black Boston. Not remotely period-correct, but I'm sure there's some kind of comment on a mix of white and blue collar dress sense in there somewhere!

Veering OT, I like that a lot of older style jeans are coming back - it sure makes them cheaper to buy!

 

[Quigley Brown]

That's pretty much my style (I've shown this photo before).

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