Do You Stick to One Decade?

[hodgeko]

I'm a little all over the place. I seem to like WWII flight jackets just as much as I like 60s Harringtons, or 30s inspired workwear as much as I enjoy 50s rockabilly. It's impossible for me to stick to one decade and dress like that time period all the time. I enjoy it all, so some days I want to go Mod and some days I want to look like Indiana Jones, ha.

I'm curious if y'all stick to one decade and dress (for example) strictly 1940s all the time. I guess I'm kind of jealous of someone who is a rocker through and through and their look is completely rockabilly head-to-toe, every day, all the time, for instance. I just can't seem to commit!

What about you?

 

[Edward]

One of the (many) joys about living now rather than Back Then is precisely that we have this range of choice. I tend to find that by normal habit over the last few years (partly because it's what is readily available and/or can, trousers notably aside, be easily faked from carefully selected contemporary pieces) I veer a mix of either Middle Aged Man in the 1950s or something more distinctly rockabilly. Broadly speaking, my tastes encompass the range of menswear from about 1916ish to about 1959ish, with the core being 30s, late 40s, and 50s. As long as the waistband is up at the natural waist and the legs are wide. I lose interest in menswear styles once waistbands drop below the natural waist and legs get too skinny.

I lean to the view that if you're looking for realism, you should also mix decades. Back in the 50s, a man wouldn't generally stop wearing a favourite tie or a hat he'd had for a decade because it was no longer the cutting edge of fashion. Much like people nowadays, really: if you have a look you like and you can find it, or a close equivalent thereof, people wore it. It's the same thing as with home decor: almost no-one in 1955 had a house that was all new, 1955 designs. Most people has stuff from the last several decades. Being too "everything from one moment in time" loses the realism if that's the endgame imo. This has been brought home hard to me in recent years seeing the wave of eighties-love on television / movies, as a period I lived through and remember all too well!

 

[Harp]

Eclectic sartorial general practioner. Like music, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Schubert, and Imelda May.
Go with the flow. If it feels right wear it.

 

[hodgeko]

One of the (many) joys about living now rather than Back Then is precisely that we have this range of choice. I tend to find that by normal habit over the last few years (partly because it's what is readily available and/or can, trousers notably aside, be easily faked from carefully selected contemporary pieces) I veer a mix of either Middle Aged Man in the 1950s or something more distinctly rockabilly. Broadly speaking, my tastes encompass the range of menswear from about 1916ish to about 1959ish, with the core being 30s, late 40s, and 50s. As long as the waistband is up at the natural waist and the legs are wide. I lose interest in menswear styles once waistbands drop below the natural waist and legs get too skinny.

I lean to the view that if you're looking for realism, you should also mix decades. Back in the 50s, a man wouldn't generally stop wearing a favourite tie or a hat he'd had for a decade because it was no longer the cutting edge of fashion. Much like people nowadays, really: if you have a look you like and you can find it, or a close equivalent thereof, people wore it. It's the same thing as with home decor: almost in 1955 had a house that was all new, 1955 designs. Most people has stuff from the last several decades. Being too "everything from one moment in time" loses the realism if that's the endgame imo. This has been brought home hard to me in recent years seeing the wave of eighties-love on television / movies, as a period I lived through and remember all too well!

Great insight, sir! I love your take on it. I tend to kind of go for a 60s Ivy look at work (I work on a college campus) and more of a casual 50s or rockabilly look the rest of the time. Thanks for engaging in my little discussion!

 

[Edward]

Great insight, sir! I love your take on it. I tend to kind of go for a 60s Ivy look at work (I work on a college campus) and more of a casual 50s or rockabilly look the rest of the time. Thanks for engaging in my little discussion!

I'm an academic too. It definitely makes it easier than having a rigid dresscode - a little bit of vintage eccentricity in dress, as it's perceived in these parts, is not only tolerated but generally viewed with positivity, incl;uding by students.

 

[Harp]

I once-when on campus-preferred tweed and traditional dress including pocket watch, Chinese gold
chain with my Kappa key dangling next to a Field Artillery School gold and red shield.
Sino silk bow ties would have been a sartorial fixture, alas I am not a bow-ery boy and wore
the typical straight dagger with occasional US Army regimental stripe for good measure.
Tweed coats at the time were regularly available, Goodwill and the better consignment shops
had racks of worthwhile find. Then tweed began thinning out, figuratively and literally.
And what there was jacked up beyond easy plastic flash gordon grab. Grad student teaching,
with tenured faculty tailor-evening classes mainly gave way to a much less easier wallet
casual informality. Khakis with shirt and sweater, hush puppies. Understandable.

 

[hodgeko]

I'm an academic too. It definitely makes it easier than having a rigid dresscode - a little bit of vintage eccentricity in dress, as it's perceived in these parts, is not only tolerated but generally viewed with positivity, incl;uding by students.

Agreed. I’m actually an administrator rather than faculty, but I think it holds true. I like that… “vintage eccentricity.”

 

[Harp]

Agreed. I’m actually an administrator rather than faculty, but I think it holds true. I like that… “vintage eccentricity.”

Glad to hear...absolutely nothing wrong with being a maverick-in-or-out of class; however, for making
a 'statement' the laconic bow tie is unbeatable. In class, court, judicial chambers, office-or corridor-a
bow tie is always noticed. And creates an indelible impression. Guys can stamp their imprimatur with
a bow. But the bow needs to be right. I believe Chinese silk, embroidered most equisite is the exact ticket.
Hong Kong silk work cuts to the quick.

 

[hodgeko]

I once-when on campus-preferred tweed and traditional dress including pocket watch, Chinese gold
chain with my Kappa key dangling next to a Field Artillery School gold and red shield.
Sino silk bow ties would have been a sartorial fixture, alas I am not a bow-ery boy and wore
the typical straight dagger with occasional US Army regimental stripe for good measure.
Tweed coats at the time were regularly available, Goodwill and the better consignment shops
had racks of worthwhile find. Then tweed began thinning out, figuratively and literally.
And what there was jacked up beyond easy plastic flash gordon grab. Grad student teaching,
with tenured faculty tailor-evening classes mainly gave way to a much less easier wallet
casual informality. Khakis with shirt and sweater, hush puppies. Understandable.

Glad to hear...absolutely nothing wrong with being a maverick-in-or-out of class; however, for making
a 'statement' the laconic bow tie is unbeatable. In class, court, judicial chambers, office-or corridor-a
bow tie is always noticed. And creates an indelible impression. Guys can stamp their imprimatur with
a bow. But the bow needs to be right. I believe Chinese silk, embroidered most equisite is the exact ticket.
Hong Kong silk work cuts to the quick.

Agreed! I always get so many compliments when I wear a bow tie.

 

[Edward]

Eclectic sartorial general practioner. Like music, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Schubert, and Imelda May.
Go with the flow. If it feels right wear it.

Lovely. Lovely Ludwig's Ninth is a hard one indeed to beat - I'm particularly fond of the second movement, though the pinnacle has to be what's now usually referred to as Ode to Joy. Makes me want to dance riotously on top of a table like nothing else can. Shostakovich's Jazz suites, marvelous.

I remember going to see Imelda May perform way back in the day, when she was still with the Mike Sanchez Band. Followed her for years when she went solo, from Camden dives when there were ten of us in the audience and half of those were the next band on, to sell-outs in the Albert Hall. Less enamoured of the 'Mark II' material, it's a little slick for my tastes and all the joy went out of the live show when the original band variously moved on or were asked to move on. All artists must forge their own path, of course, but it's still sad as a fan when that leaves you behind a bit. Not heard the very latest album yet, though I am told it's a small half-step closer an earlier era than the first big MkII outing.

I once-when on campus-preferred tweed and traditional dress including pocket watch, Chinese gold
chain with my Kappa key dangling next to a Field Artillery School gold and red shield.
Sino silk bow ties would have been a sartorial fixture, alas I am not a bow-ery boy and wore
the typical straight dagger with occasional US Army regimental stripe for good measure.
Tweed coats at the time were regularly available, Goodwill and the better consignment shops
had racks of worthwhile find. Then tweed began thinning out, figuratively and literally.
And what there was jacked up beyond easy plastic flash gordon grab. Grad student teaching,
with tenured faculty tailor-evening classes mainly gave way to a much less easier wallet
casual informality. Khakis with shirt and sweater, hush puppies. Understandable.

Students have always been very casualised in my experience, but it's been interesting seeing younger academics become increasingly so. I see it especially at conferences now; at one time, it was those who turned up to present in a pair of jeans who were the statement-makers; now, I'm a relative rarity by wearing a tie. Partly entry-level academia in the UK has become gradually more financially precarious than was once the case, I'm sure, though it is reflective of a greater trend of casualisation much more broadly. A couple of years pre-pandemic, even the big law firms in the City went casual. Not my preference, but I've no particular beef with it, on the proviso that nobody tries to enforce an overly-casual dresscode. Live and let live. Understandable, as you say, from a budget pov, though I think it's also a cultural shift now. It'll be interesting to see if that cultural trend towards more casualisation is as unstoppable as many commentators like to suggest, especially post-pandemic. It feels like I've been reading about the death of the suit and/or the tie for thirty odd years now. Sure, they aren't as common as they were, but I don't see any sign of them disappearing. I actually wonder whether, once they no longer carry that association of something you "have to wear" in certain circumstances, we'll actually see them become more popularised again as a choice.

Glad to hear...absolutely nothing wrong with being a maverick-in-or-out of class; however, for making
a 'statement' the laconic bow tie is unbeatable. In class, court, judicial chambers, office-or corridor-a
bow tie is always noticed. And creates an indelible impression. Guys can stamp their imprimatur with
a bow. But the bow needs to be right. I believe Chinese silk, embroidered most equisite is the exact ticket.
Hong Kong silk work cuts to the quick.

There's an old thread on here somewhere which carries a post of me as a newly arrived Lounge patron indicating a lack of love for bows outside of black/white tie. Funny how things change... fifteen odd years later, I wear one once or twice most weeks. It's a lot of fun. Handy with academic dress, too - less fiddling around behind the tie to get the hood to sit right.

Agreed! I always get so many compliments when I wear a bow tie.

It's even more fun when the occasion calls to be able to undo it. Although with a little practice I find it no more complex than a four in hand knot (the trick, I think, is ensuring the bow is the correct length to begin with), most folks out there nowadays may never have occasion to wear one (unless black tie, and even then a pre-tied clip-on style is the norm). It seems to be seen almost as a level of voodoo to be able to manage one. In my single days, it was always impressive how many ladies were impressed by it. Not universally, mind - one ex-girlfriend was positively outraged when I bought my first self-tie bow in plain black silk for her graduation ball, many years ago, and (as I later heard) spent a long time badmouthing me for it behind my back. Lucky escape!

 

[GHT]

Grad student teaching,
with tenured faculty tailor-evening classes mainly gave way to a much less easier wallet
casual informality. Khakis with shirt and sweater, hush puppies. Understandable.

My sewing fairy has just finished these khaki "baggies." They need a good press to put a crease in. How I love them.

Agreed! I always get so many compliments when I wear a bow tie.

Curiously my floral shirts get many compliments. I still wear the office uniform of collar and tie but when the temperature rises the shirts come out

I remember going to see Imelda May perform way back in the day, when she was still with the Mike Sanchez Band. Followed her for years when she went solo, from Camden dives when there were ten of us in the audience and half of those were the next band on, to sell-outs in the Albert Hall.

Mike Sanchez, oh wow, what a charismatic stage presence he had, how we would rock our socks off to The Mike Sanchez Band. Only ever saw Imelda May the once, can't remember for sure, but I think it might have been at The Rhythm Riot. There again, it could have been at The Thunderbird Club. My memory is like a sieve.

Going back to the title of this thread, I have met some who are so pedantic about their subject they become boring. One such individual recognised the tyres on my old MG, I had radials fitted for safety, this geek informed me that when the car was new it would have been fitted cross-ply tyres. My response was too profane to print here.

 

[Vintaged]

I'm a little all over the place. I seem to like WWII flight jackets just as much as I like 60s Harringtons, or 30s inspired workwear as much as I enjoy 50s rockabilly. It's impossible for me to stick to one decade and dress like that time period all the time. I enjoy it all, so some days I want to go Mod and some days I want to look like Indiana Jones, ha.

I'm curious if y'all stick to one decade and dress (for example) strictly 1940s all the time. I guess I'm kind of jealous of someone who is a rocker through and through and their look is completely rockabilly head-to-toe, every day, all the time, for instance. I just can't seem to commit!

What about you?

I feel good with what I’m wearing as long as the trousers are high waisted, shirts with spearpoint or separate collars and a short vintage tie. These clothes crosses quite a few decades but I’m happy with my overall appearance.

It’s the vintage ties that are hard to track down though, ones ones that are short and fit under separate collars.

I think that post Covid people will start to loathe wearing loungewear all the time and maybe start dressing in a less slovenly way?

 

[Edward]

Mike Sanchez, oh wow, what a charismatic stage presence he had, how we would rock our socks off to The Mike Sanchez Band. Only ever saw Imelda May the once, can't remember for sure, but I think it might have been at The Rhythm Riot. There again, it could have been at The Thunderbird Club. My memory is like a sieve.

Yeah, he was great. Lives in Spain now, I believe - we saw him play at the Riot the last time we made it there, which was 2016. Couldn't get in 17, 18 or 19, and then Covid hit... I think he and Imelda were both regulars at the Riot before shoe broke out. Also used to see him quite often at the 100 Club, back when a friend was his bass-player.

Going back to the title of this thread, I have met some who are so pedantic about their subject they become boring. One such individual recognised the tyres on my old MG, I had radials fitted for safety, this geek informed me that when the car was new it would have been fitted cross-ply tyres. My response was too profane to print here.

You tend to get that type in almost any hobbyist group, alas. Have to know more than anyone else, always like to pick holes or point out what is "wrong" just to show off their "knowledge." Best way I've found of dealing with them is not to rise to it, they usually get bored then.

I feel good with what I’m wearing as long as the trousers are high waisted, shirts with spearpoint or separate collars and a short vintage tie. These clothes crosses quite a few decades but I’m happy with my overall appearance.

It’s the vintage ties that are hard to track down though, ones ones that are short and fit under separate collars.

I think that post Covid people will start to loathe wearing loungewear all the time and maybe start dressing in a less slovenly way?

 

[Bushman]

Definitely all over the place here. I wear clothes that range all the way from the 1930s to the early 2000s. There's a lot of different fashions in those years. Why restrict myself?

 

[bn1966]

Mix mine up from the 1930’s onwards..I’m not a re-enactor

 

[Harp]

Lovely. Lovely Ludwig's Ninth is a hard one indeed to beat - I'm particularly fond of the second movement, though the pinnacle has to be what's now usually referred to as Ode to Joy. Makes me want to dance riotously on top of a table like nothing else can. Shostakovich's Jazz suites, marvelous.

I remember going to see Imelda May perform way back in the day, when she was still with the Mike Sanchez Band. Followed her for years when she went solo, from Camden dives when there were ten of us in the audience and half of those were the next band on, to sell-outs in the Albert Hall. Less enamoured of the 'Mark II' material, it's a little slick for my tastes and all the joy went out of the live show when the original band variously moved on or were asked to move on. All artists must forge their own path, of course, but it's still sad as a fan when that leaves you behind a bit. Not heard the very latest album yet, though I am told it's a small half-step closer an earlier era than the first big MkII outing.



Students have always been very casualised in my experience, but it's been interesting seeing younger academics become increasingly so. I see it especially at conferences now; at one time, it was those who turned up to present in a pair of jeans who were the statement-makers; now, I'm a relative rarity by wearing a tie. Partly entry-level academia in the UK has become gradually more financially precarious than was once the case, I'm sure, though it is reflective of a greater trend of casualisation much more broadly. A couple of years pre-pandemic, even the big law firms in the City went casual. Not my preference, but I've no particular beef with it, on the proviso that nobody tries to enforce an overly-casual dresscode. Live and let live. Understandable, as you say, from a budget pov, though I think it's also a cultural shift now. It'll be interesting to see if that cultural trend towards more casualisation is as unstoppable as many commentators like to suggest, especially post-pandemic. It feels like I've been reading about the death of the suit and/or the tie for thirty odd years now. Sure, they aren't as common as they were, but I don't see any sign of them disappearing. I actually wonder whether, once they no longer carry that association of something you "have to wear" in certain circumstances, we'll actually see them become more popularised again as a choice.



There's an old thread on here somewhere which carries a post of me as a newly arrived Lounge patron indicating a lack of love for bows outside of black/white tie. Funny how things change... fifteen odd years later, I wear one once or twice most weeks. It's a lot of fun. Handy with academic dress, too - less fiddling around behind the tie to get the hood to sit right.



It's even more fun when the occasion calls to be able to undo it. Although with a little practice I find it no more complex than a four in hand knot (the trick, I think, is ensuring the bow is the correct length to begin with), most folks out there nowadays may never have occasion to wear one (unless black tie, and even then a pre-tied clip-on style is the norm). It seems to be seen almost as a level of voodoo to be able to manage one. In my single days, it was always impressive how many ladies were impressed by it. Not universally, mind - one ex-girlfriend was positively outraged when I bought my first self-tie bow in plain black silk for her graduation ball, many years ago, and (as I later heard) spent a long time badmouthing me for it behind my back. Lucky escape!

Imelda's 11 Past the Hour have not yet heard. Covid really put present tense front burner kettle towards back,
but the fire is still lit. Her cover of Patsy Cline's I Go Walking masterfully captured rockabilly damascene
of southern lunar lovestruck mood "...Here there is no light, save what from Heaven is with the breezes blown, through verduous glooms and winding mossy ways." I steal Keats shamelessly and without apology....

Understated disciplined sartorial elegance definitely strikes a chord within undergraduate soul.

 

[Edward]

Imelda's 11 Past the Hour have not yet heard. Covid really put present tense front burner kettle towards back,
but the fire is still lit. Her cover of Patsy Cline's I Go Walking masterfully captured rockabilly damascene
of southern lunar lovestruck mood "...Here there is no light, save what from Heaven is with the breezes blown, through verduous glooms and winding mossy ways." I steal Keats shamelessly and without apology....

Understated disciplined sartorial elegance definitely strikes a chord within undergraduate soul.

That was a great cover; often was a set-closer in the very early days, including, if memory serves, one night in the Camden Barfly when the band all went on stage wearing whatever they'd travelled in because the dressing room had flooded....

 

[Harp]

A last word.... Age all too often bows to youth, a frequency occasioned as much
by envy as to beauty, fear; whatever cause, reason, rhyme- pick your poison please;
and, in my view-at least on campus the bow is far too deep.
The Homeric whisp: Aphrodite robs the wits of the wise; so'er prudent, rings true.
And surprisingly, age fails to comprehend its innate advantage over youth.

The undergraduate insouciant soul respects age, especially when clothed appropriately
with disciplined thought. Confident scholastic within restrained elegance if I may avail
Sappphic verse strikes lightning, its thunder clearly heard within young hearts and minds.

Now I favor the look of tweed, and just the basics. Hair neat, beard trimmed.
The 1917 era trench complete with rifle shoulder pad, pistol pocket, belt, grenade loops,
epaulets, the masculine version, not a neutered knockoff. A gloverall duffle.
White shirt, cuff links. Regimental tie or school blade; and, should a break out the bold
need arise, Chinese silk bow ties, embroidered dragons/tigers. Brogues; wingtip;
or more informal hush puppies. And, real bows. Not clip ons.
Saturday horn book hash; law tutorials; grad proctor rounds, the Marine commando
or Royal Navy rollneck sweater; khakkis, hush puppies make the look with the right
amount of rumple. Warmer wear choose your weapons but a dress shirt, light
varsity sweater, or occasional rugby go great with the trousers.

 

[GHT]

"Now I favor the look of tweed, and just the basics.."
The spelling of the word favour, as in favor, is the only hint that you are not of these shores, but the content of your essay can only be that of an Anglophile. Love the description of the original trench coat and the withering put down of imitations, a neutered knockoff. I might steal that.

 

[Harp]

Sartorial issues occasionally reflect underlying societal philosophies in vogue,
and the 1917 officer trench is a case in point. For aesthetic or just trespass raison d'etre
the original had to be castrated to correctness. It is difficult to find a trench today
that is tailored to original spec, without excuse or apology.
The provenance of the Marine commando sweater dates to the Second World War,
perhaps even further down to the 1914-18 period; likewise the Royal Navy submariner.
Both garb passed to civil wear status yet today can cause campus comment.

I have found that military issue lasts for return on investment.
And my basic issue that I kept from the Army outlasted more fashionable dress.