Dark colored dress shirts (and other colors) in the golden era

[Geesie]

In 1967, when my father was a junior executive at General Electric, he was sent home to change after coming to work in a light pink dress shirt.


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Oh, for a happy medium between that and pleated Dockers + company logo polo shit.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

What was he thinking?

Meanwhile, young women were romping topless during that same year's "Summer of Love". [huh]


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[Geesie]

At GE? What a workplace!

 

[Widebrim]

I like how despite all the colorful shirts in those pictures, the men in them are all wearing white shirts (except for the one guy laying on his back with his feet up in the air; I can't see his shirt.)

The guy on his back is wearing pajamas...Your point is well taken though: although "colored" shirts were readily available, it seems that white was the norm. I've got a ton of photographs of my father and other male relatives from the '40s-'50s, and it's white shirts all the way. However, since my dad's family is from PA and my mom's family is from NYC, it might have been more of an East Coast thing. As MarcC pointed out, dark shirts with light neckties was more of a "California" look.

 

[habberdasher]

also does anyone know when that white collar/blue shirt fad happened or has it always been around? you know, the one that you always see on 1980s powersuits matched with suspenders- white collar and cuffs but blue or some other color everywhere else?

The movie Wall Street has a LOT of good examples of that. Not only did Gordon Gecko wear a lot of those shirts, but Charlie Sheen wore some beautiful red-white striped shirts with white collars and cuffs and golf collar/French cuffs. It looked very unique and vintage.

 

[Dr Doran]

As MarcC pointed out, dark shirts with light neckties was more of a "California" look.

My dad lived in CA from the 1920s until the 1990s and he was the king of colored dress shirts, often dark colored, during this entire period, very often worn with a light tie and a suit. I wear a great deal of dark colored dress shirts with lighter tie and a suit also, partly from his influence.

 

[Miss Sis]

This pic is from the Autumn 1938 catalogue from Simpsons, a great British Department store of the time in Central London.

I'm still quite amazed that any Brit of the time would have worn some of those combinations of shirt/tie - mainly the green plaid with a white tie.

Dress shirts from a 1930s British catalogue:

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[filfoster]

White collar/colored dress shirts

The movie Wall Street has a LOT of good examples of that. Not only did Gordon Gecko wear a lot of those shirts, but Charlie Sheen wore some beautiful red-white striped shirts with white collars and cuffs and golf collar/French cuffs. It looked very unique and vintage.

I used to like this look. That is, until two of the largest rectums ever to take human form ran our division in the late '80's and early '90's, while affecting this look, replete with tie bars and pocket hankies, thus spoiling it for me, forever.

 

[Dr Doran]

I used to like this look. That is, until two of the largest rectums ever to take human form ran our division in the late '80's and early '90's, while affecting this look, replete with tie bars and pocket hankies, thus spoiling it for me, forever.

I HATE it when that happens.

You have a nice look that no one in your immediate environ is using. You sport it for a while. Then jerks come along and take it over. When there are two of them, there is nothing you can do.

Horrible.

(And when they are not even human beings, but recta, that's even worse.)

This is one reason why I cultivate an unpleasant facial expression at the University. The message: DON'T. EVEN. START. COPYING. ME.

 

[filfoster]

Recta horribila

I HATE it when that happens.


(And when they are not even human beings, but recta, that's even worse.)

I appreciate the Latin plural! My three years are mostly forgotten. At least I did not become an agricola, which was my heritage. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[Dr Doran]

I appreciate the Latin plural! My three years are mostly forgotten. At least I did not become an agricola, which was my heritage. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Tacitus certainly admired one Agricola.

 

[Widebrim]

My dad lived in CA from the 1920s until the 1990s and he was the king of colored dress shirts, often dark colored, during this entire period, very often worn with a light tie and a suit. I wear a great deal of dark colored dress shirts with lighter tie and a suit also, partly from his influence.

A man after my own heart.

 

[filfoster]

Agricola

Tacitus certainly admired one Agricola.

Cincinnatus?

 

[Torpedo]

I HATE it when that happens.

You have a nice look that no one in your immediate environ is using. You sport it for a while. Then jerks come along and take it over. When there are two of them, there is nothing you can do.

Horrible.

(And when they are not even human beings, but recta, that's even worse.)

This is one reason why I cultivate an unpleasant facial expression at the University. The message: DON'T. EVEN. START. COPYING. ME.

I would object. I seriously doubt that a jerk could, overnight, usurp the sartorial skills of the average gentleman here. To the contrary, a feeble imitator would cause you to stand out in comparison.

 

[Feraud]

I would object. I seriously doubt that a jerk could, overnight, usurp the sartorial skills of the average gentleman here. To the contrary, a feeble imitator would cause you to stand out in comparison.

It is not that anyone will usurp your style but they identify it with the lowest common denominator.
As noted here -
I knew it would happen

 

[Dr Doran]

I would object. I seriously doubt that a jerk could, overnight, usurp the sartorial skills of the average gentleman here. To the contrary, a feeble imitator would cause you to stand out in comparison.

I agree with you almost 100%. Here is the single exception: if, in addition to displaying great sartorial sensitivity, you also have (or use for a while) a trademark item, such as a porkpie. Let us say two nasty people start wearing porkpies in your social circle or place of employment, and their general sartorial skills are a few cuts above average. In this case, lots of people will think of them as sharp-looking and as people who have commandeered the porkpie, and the very clever and subtle sartorial skills that you have developed may go unnoticed by most folks, and in fact be too subtle for them to notice.

 

[Dr Doran]

It is not that anyone will usurp your style but they identify it with the lowest common denominator. ]

Yes, well, I feel that way every time someone makes an Indiana Jones comment.

 

[davestlouis]

Back to white shirts for a moment...a friend of mine was a management trainee at 5/3 Bank in Cinti in the late 80s...he told me at the time that he could get away with a solid blue shirt every other Friday, and that was it! It had to be solid white otherwise.

I have enough trouble with color coordination that I wear mainly solid white shirts, wouldn't dream of attempting to match a tie with a plaid or dark colored shirt...takes too much mental energy.

My grandfather was born in 1900, and wore a white, short sleeve point collar shirt every day of his life that I can remember, with an occasional PALE blue thrown in the mix...with black or gray polyester dress slacks. No stripes, no loud colors, and I suspect he dressed that way his whole adult life.

 

[Wash In Lux]

Alrighty, besides the bluish/mauve patterned 30's dress shirt that I recently picked up (shown in another thread), I've had these two for quite some time. They are remarkably similar western styled dress shirts. They're both gabardine. The black one feels like rayon and the green one wool, maybe a wool blend. Superb styling. I'm thinking late 30's early 40's. The black one is mine, mine mine! The green one however is too big for me and will be for sale shortly with a lovely silk tie.

 

[davestlouis]

wow, a dry clean only shirt, I wonder how common that was at the time? I can tell ya right now, my grandmother, who my dad referred to as a Prussian drill instructor, would not have bought my grandfather anything that needed to be dry cleaned, except his "Sunday suit".