British Workwear

[Edward]

I used my school metalwork apron when painting my wargames or toy soldiers figures Edward usually using the back of a fingernail as a mixing palet, I often forgot to remove it before school getting odd looks when turning up for school the next day with a single coloured fingernail!!!

Ha! I've never heard of that trick before.... I used to mix my paints on an old bit of cereal packet, which I then kept so that I could match my colours again exactly when I wanted to add a new unit... Not painted for years, but I've got an itch to get back into the hobby again. I've moved on from the more traditional fantasy stuff, though - the big appeal now is Weird War 2 (Secrets of the Third Reich and the likes. Basically WW2 but with zombies, werewolves, and such thrown in....). The 'A Very British Civil War' stuff appeals too.

This character being a mechanic whose face is constantly black with oil, and it being a 1930s British film, his character goes by the name of 'Nigger'.

There are still garages all over Northern Ireland where he'd be called 'Darky'. Similar, eh, lack of sensitivity.

The Goodwood estate added overalls to their merchandise lines a few years ago, in both khaki and white.

http://shop.goodwood.com/products/overall-mens##wh1oqCDZPR2I9DAY.97

http://shop.goodwood.com/products/overalls-adult-white##jEZ3B4twSRza7OqA.97

Some nice details on them. I've been tempted to buy a pair every year I've been at the Revival, but never quite given in. Lovely quality. TBh, I think what has stopped me has been not knowing when I'd actually ever wear them, though I can see them appealing for wearing round the house in the Summer.

That's why, circa 1925, there was a fashion for pinkish hued tennis trousers: people who had played on French clay courts wanted the colour to prevent obvious marks. They then brought the fashion back to the UK, reportedly leading to pinks being a popular colour for Oxford Bags.

The book, the book....

Good photos TT, the studded belt is an interesting item...I'd have said funfair or circus worker but then again given the liking for horse brasses and horse leather work I guess it's a logical thing to happen for a farm labourer to have such a belt.

That, plus it use to be very common in England (at least in the West Country) for Romany gypsies to travel looking for casual agricultural labour, during harvest and at other times of year especially. Not a stretch to see this as an aesthtic that was commonly associated with that community.

funny to think a modern mobile phone probably has more computing power!

Since at least 2001, the average mobile phone has had more computing power than did NASA at the time of the moon landings. It's incredible when you start to think of it like that...

Back to this photo.... I just noticed (as I've been online ordering a greyback this week) that the shirt here is pretty much spot on a greyback pattern, but obviously made for the civilian market, no?

Incidently, I also found these online this week too:

http://www.woodsofshropshire.co.uk/red-stripe-cotton-grandad-shirt-from-magee

Classic, four-button placket, over-the head style. I ordered up a couple; mine arrived this morning. Brushed cotton flannel in a style worn by Irish navvies for generations. I'll report back when I've had a wear of 'em on how they're going. Look great, though. Plan to wear then with a bandana and an old waistcoat...

 

[Metatron]

That striped flannel looks very nice.
Here is one you can wear with a tie, too:
http://www.woodsofshropshire.co.uk/blue-stripe-button-down-collar-irish-shirt

 

[Metatron]

Photos of test pilot John De Havilland with presumably two mechanics, aside a DH Mosquito before a test flight in 1943:

 

[Eddie Derbyshire]

Is that Johnny Rotten? ;p

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[herringbonekid]

great photos: love the leather jacket / shirt / tie and flat cap look.

 

[Two Types]

Interesting to see the leather jacket with a tab collar shirt.

 

[Eddie Derbyshire]

She was a nurse pretty much all her life, I think this picture was taken during WWII when she was Matron of a children's hospital in Durham City (when a Matron she had the reputation of being a 'Tartar' !)

Thanks for the info - very interesting indeed!

 

[Eddie Derbyshire]

I worked in a diy/ woodyard / plumbing / building supplies place during my university years. A lot of our regulars were farmworkers (some you could usually smell coming from round the corner...). Dungarees (as I've always known them, though I know in the US at least that doesn't always conjure up the same garment) were still popular with that crowd. T-shirts underneath for the younger folks, still a collar and tie and sometimes an old tweed jacket for the over-fifties. Tis was back in the mid-late nineties. They were also popular, I think still are, with kids. Occasionally see them in the rockabilly scene here now, moreso hip hop, but as a rule in fashion terms it's more females than males I see in 'em. Typically denim for those wearing them for fashion; those wearing them as working clothes are more likely to be wearing some sort of heavy cotton drill pair in my experience. I have a strong association of a depp, navy-coloured cotton drill as being xommon on working people back in the day. A lot of those who would have worn them for working nowadays are more commonly seen in boiler suits, I think.

Every once in a blue moon, I'm tempted, but I can never convince myself of them.... Last wore 'em when I was six. Apart from the American Gothic costume, of course...



Far from a new issue (though quick and easy credit hasn't helped it). I'm sure Socrates complained about this too.



Amazing how quickly it change,d isn't it? I remember being in hospital to have my appendix out in 1996; back then, most nurses still wore a dress and the small 'hat'. These days, I think they're pretty much all in the same sort of surgical scrubs that theatre staff wear.

You're right that boiler suits are the norm for anyone under the age of about 80 really. I'd say they're generally more practical, but damned hot in the summer time (I've chased cows around fields in them a few times, and it really does get a bit warm!) Interesting otherwise that bib-and-braces have gone out of favour though. But then again, a lot has.

With regards nursing uniforms, I suppose they did indeed change rather quickly. My wife wears a tunic and trousers, but dresses can still be worn, but altogether they're a million miles away from the traditional uniforms. I can't speak for scrubs (different health authorities have different regulations) but I think generally they have a distinct uniform. Probably different dependent on the ward/theatre they're in.

 

[Edward]

That striped flannel looks very nice.
Here is one you can wear with a tie, too:
http://www.woodsofshropshire.co.uk/blue-stripe-button-down-collar-irish-shirt

I've worn a couple of my collarless ones now, and they're lovely. I might well look at the collar version in due course - It'd look great with a late forties tie and a short leather jacket - that sort of sporty/casual look...

Is that Johnny Rotten? ;p

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Ha! Took me a minute to twig to what you meant, but yeah.... there's a small resemblance there...

With regards nursing uniforms, I suppose they did indeed change rather quickly. My wife wears a tunic and trousers, but dresses can still be worn, but altogether they're a million miles away from the traditional uniforms. I can't speak for scrubs (different health authorities have different regulations) but I think generally they have a distinct uniform. Probably different dependent on the ward/theatre they're in.

Could be... the hospital nurses I know are in Intensive Care, so it could well be connected to that. I remember it being in the news some years ago that nures on the job were demanding a switch to trousers from the dress, mainly for practicality's sake, but also because of the popular notions of sexuality attached to the more traditional dress.

 

[Eddie Derbyshire]

Edward - yes I see what you mean with regards change of dress for nurses. The new styled ones are decidedly practical! And I do have a feeling that perhaps intensive care does tend to have a different outfit, and also A&E. But again, it can vary between health authority, and whether the hospital does the laundry or if the nurses have to take the uniform home etc.

 

[Eddie Derbyshire]

Some pictures from the book Around Ripley, by Julie Potton and Janet North (Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd: Stroud, 1995)

This one's for your Esteban68...

Caps ahoy!

 

[esteban68]

Some crackers there Eddie, proper dinner plates on the first photo in 1900 but by 1936 on the second photo that even before austerity/CC41 came into being that the diameter of caps had diminished quite a bit.
It's also interesting to note that around the period 1880 to the first world war that it was common just to fasten the top jacket button.

 

[Eddie Derbyshire]

Thanks Esteban! They are great caps to see.

I think the higher fastening had to do with the 'ghillie' collar originally being fastened right at the top, which then morphed into the lounge suit. It looks okay

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[Stuffsmith]

I'm going to venture that the dating is a bit off on that image - far closer to 1911-13, as those dinner plate sized caps just didn't exist before then, at least in all my research.

 

[esteban68]

Interesting point, I've seen big caps often dated circa but very few exact dated.....unless the fashion took a little longer to get to Australia?

 

[Eddie Derbyshire]

I'm going to venture that the dating is a bit off on that image - far closer to 1911-13, as those dinner plate sized caps just didn't exist before then, at least in all my research.

You could well be right Keith. I don't know whether the author of the book was making a blind assumption based on the clothes or using evidence based on those particular workers at the Butterley Company.

 

[Stuffsmith]

Are those pics from Australia? My dating comes from US/European history...

 

[herringbonekid]

Are those pics from Australia? My dating comes from US/European history...

no, they're British.

 

[herringbonekid]

interesting shirt collars from 1921:

 

[Eddie Derbyshire]

Interesting indeed. They look like those rounded collars from the 1970s. I think a tightly pinned, very soft collar looks absolutely great. Not that I have any myself, but I can admire from afar...