Cummerbund with a Suit?

[Quetzal]

The other day, I watched "The Last Crusade", and something that I didn't notice earlier was that Sallah appears to be wearing a cummerbund with his suit and tie. Naturally, I thought that it was an error on behalf of the costuming department, but then I watched Casablanca and saw this combination again. As both films are set in a similar time and location, was it common in the Golden Era to wear a cummerbund with a suit in Northern Africa?

-Quetzal

 

[Fastuni]

Well it is a combination of elements of "typical local" dress (red fez and cummerbund) with a Western suit.

Such combinations of "traditional" and "modern" dress weren't unusual across the world.
Compare images from N-Africa or the wider Arab world from that time.

Within the context of these films, these outfits are of course supposed to make the "native" characters recognizable, "colorful" and give them something more "exotic" than a standard modern suit. Sallah in particular was also a sort of "comic relief". His "traditional" elements of dress reflected his "incomplete modernization"... remember his bickering about his brother-in-law and camels, etc.? Pretty much the typical Golden Era B-Movie "native sidekick" character or more benign Arab cliché.

Here an example from Egypt 1936-1939:

Western sportcoat and dust coat, shirt and tie, but local fez (this was de rigeur also for the elite in Egypt until the revolution of 1952).

http://www.deutschefotothek.de/documents/obj/89000768

Also in N-Africa from the same time... note the man with a suit coat over his otherwise traditional dress.

http://www.deutschefotothek.de/documents/obj/89001746

 

[Dostioffsky]

On a related note, what about this sort of thing:

I'm not sure but I think I saw another photo with non-formal clothes as well...

The transitional step between waistcoat and cummerbund? In this tailoring book from 1917 it is called a 'vestette' and does indeed seem to be meant as a formal garment.

 

[Audi S5 TC]

The cummerbund with the suit look (at least with a neck tie) looks as awful as I imagined it would look. Maybe a bow tie would make the cummerbund with the suit look good looking.

 

[Feraud]

Well it is a combination of elements of "typical local" dress (red fez and cummerbund) with a Western suit.

Such combinations of "traditional" and "modern" dress weren't unusual across the world.

I always enjoy seeing pictures of people who take elements of different cultures and reflect it in their dress.

If memory serves, some years back one of our members LaMedicine posted photos which showed Japanese men wearing traditional clothing with a fedora and possibly a sport coat. They were striking images of the melding of cultures.

 

[Broccoli]

I am pretty sure I've seen it worn with cream flannels and a blazer in a 1920's illustration. Meant as a cooler option to a vest.

 

[Edward]

I am pretty sure I've seen it worn with cream flannels and a blazer in a 1920's illustration. Meant as a cooler option to a vest.

That would be carrying the same logic behind it for evening wear over to day dress.

 

[Fastuni]

I think we need to differ between the cummerbund (from Persian kamarband = lit. waist-belt) as part of Middle Eastern and wider "oriental" local dress and the cummerbund as part of Western evening dress, which was derived from the former. The original cummerbund is a wide shawl worn on the waist from N-Africa to India since centuries.

It was picked up by Europeans from the Ottoman Turks and Tatars in Eastern Europe as part of the popular "Oriental fashion" already by the 17th century.
(Other theories have the British pick them up in Afghanistan... but this is false IMO. It was mentioned in English dictionaries by 1616, I strongly assume that the European-Ottoman conflicts during the 17th century introduced it to the West.)

The film examples Quetzal referred to are supposed to be recognizable as Egyptians/Morrocans - therefore the film characters had to feature local dress. Regardless of whether this was at some point deemed "acceptable" by fashion illustrators. (That doesn't mean that this subject is irrelevant! I would love to see the illustration if you can find it Broccoli! )

The belt-waistcoat shown by Dostioffsky is a type of waistcoat - and therefore not really a cummerbund. At best it is the attempt to incorporate the features of a waistcoat on Cummerbund-type belt for fashion reasons. But it is not so that the cummerbund was created by "reducing" the waistcoat.

 

[Rabbit]

Very interesting, Fastuni. If the Europeans picked it up in the 17th century, was there a continous use of the cummerbund or did they unearth it again during later periods?
I wonder if modern dress just extended the previous use or if they re-invented it, again looking at Oriental/ Arab dress.

The 1930s fashion élite did enjoy picking up other exotic elements to incorporate them into their resort wear especially.

 

[Fastuni]

Good question that would need a bit of research.

I have the suspicion that the wearing of military sashes around the waist (instead over the shoulder) in Europe since the 17th century was derived from Moorish/Turkish inspirations.
But I need to check on that.

There certainly were repeated waves of "Oriental fashion" in the Western world.

In the 17th and 18th century there was the "a la Turque" fashion, mostly morning robes made from embroidered silk, turbans and slippers (as you know in German they are often called "Puschen" - also derived from Persian "pa-push" = footwear). In the mid 19th century there was the big wave of military/civilian "Zouave fashion" in Europe and the USA inspired by N-African dress. And during the 1930's again there was great interest in "exotic", often Middle Eastern fabrics, patterns and dress (Paisley, Madras and other designs, fezzes, cummerbunds etc.)

So I wouldn't be surprised if it went out of fashion at some point and was "re-discovered" at another.