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Esquire’s Complete Golden Age Illustrations:

Flanderian

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It's a shame that Fellows tucked this suit under a coat as its material and pattern look fantastic.
View attachment 269165


While, individually, the sweaters and socks look nice in the "sweater-and-socks sets" (half way down on the right), it's too matchy-matchy for me. I do like the contrast collar and cuffs on the front sweater though.
View attachment 269166

I hadn't particularly noted the suit's cloth. It certainly does look interesting. I've seen Fellows depict some sharkskin weaves similarly, but the apparent perpendicular orientation more likely suggests a check with an overcheck.

Agree about the matching issue. This degree of matching first appeared in some Arrow and Manhattan shirts adds perhaps 5 or 6 years earlier.
 

Flanderian

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Messages
833
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Flanders, NJ, USA
These are the January 1942 illustrations.


Esq014201.jpg



Esq014202.jpg



Esq014202a.jpg



Esq014203.jpg



Esq014204.jpg



Esq014205.jpg
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
Is that a bathing suit she has on or the world's smallest dress (with no visible means of support)? Regardless, a cigarette in one hand and a cocktail in the other argues that, while he's just arriving, she's already started the vacation.
Esq014202.jpg



No, no, no, no and no. Adults should not wear matching outfits. Heck, even the Scotties are horrified.
Esq024204.jpg
 

Flanderian

Practically Family
Messages
833
Location
Flanders, NJ, USA
Is that a bathing suit she has on or the world's smallest dress (with no visible means of support)? Regardless, a cigarette in one hand and a cocktail in the other argues that, while he's just arriving, she's already started the vacation.
View attachment 269453


No, no, no, no and no. Adults should not wear matching outfits. Heck, even the Scotties are horrified.
View attachment 269454

A swimsuit, though the lady appears to have no visible means of support. ;)
 

Flanderian

Practically Family
Messages
833
Location
Flanders, NJ, USA
It's a shame that Fellows tucked this suit under a coat as its material and pattern look fantastic.
View attachment 269165


While, individually, the sweaters and socks look nice in the "sweater-and-socks sets" (half way down on the right), it's too matchy-matchy for me. I do like the contrast collar and cuffs on the front sweater though.
View attachment 269166


Demonstrating that a questionable matching frenzy need not be confined to current accessorizing, why stop at tie and PS, or even socks, when you can also match your underwear?! (From Esquire March 1942.)


Esq0342ZA.jpg
 
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17,215
Location
New York City
One of the odder development in the, now, last twenty-plus years has been men moving away from traditional raincoats and rain boots/shoes/rubbers. A good raincoat (as pictured below, the longer the better), an umbrella and a pair of rubbers is a pretty darn good way to walk through a rainstorm without getting your clothes and feet wet.

When I started working in the '80s, one of your goals was to acquire the basic rain stuff - coat, rubbers umbrella - as they worked. Then, by the end of the '90s (as biz casual took hold), rubbers gave way to either LL Bean (or similar) boots or just wearing your shoes and letting them get wet. I moved to the former as the latter made no sense to me.

Then, as time went on, men started giving up the raincoat in exchange for barn coats or Barbour jackets (the latter work, but are short) or, again, nothing. The umbrella still has currency, but traditional raincoats and rubbers are not popular at all. Often times, I'll see men sitting in the office with wet feet and clothes, but if you ask them about buying raincoats or boots, they look at you kinda funny.

I don't get it. Why did so many men decide that basic rain gear no longer makes sense? When I leave the office and it's raining, I'll see men darting this way and that with, yes, an umbrella, but just a suit and biz shoes on, no raincoat or protection for their shoes. How come a raincoat and either rubbers or boots does not make sense to them?
Esq034205.jpg



A pretty strong echo of actor Walter Pidgeon.
Esq044201.jpg
images-41.jpeg
 
Last edited:

Nobert

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832
Location
In the Maine Woods
I don't get it. Why did so many men decide that basic rain gear no longer makes sense? When I leave the office and it's raining, I'll see men darting this way and that with, yes, an umbrella, but just a suit and biz shoes on, no raincoat or protection for their shoes. How come a raincoat and either rubbers or boots does not make sense to them?

Most likely because it entails more than two minutes of consciously attending to one's attire. I think for most men, that comes under the category of asking for directions, the color pink, and noticing dirt.



In regards to the above, I feel compelled to weigh in. In my experience, double-breasted, patterns and wide trousers; all true. Bow ties, also a good horizontal element. Spread collars and Windsor knots I'm not so sure about. If you're thin in the face a Windsor can compete with your head for dominance. And I don't like my head dominated. Ask any of my junior-high teachers.
The hat thing I think is also more about head shape than overall physique. I know that I don't like the way I look in porkpies. A bit too Sheckie the Card.
(Sorry, I don't usually go on about 'thin guy' problems. A lot of the stuff about vertical stripes being slimming and horizontal the opposite has been debunked of late, and it provoked me to a response).
 

Flanderian

Practically Family
Messages
833
Location
Flanders, NJ, USA
One of the odder development in the, now, last twenty-plus years has been men moving away from traditional raincoats and rain boots/shoes/rubbers. A good raincoat (as pictured below, the longer the better), an umbrella and a pair of rubbers is a pretty darn good way to walk through a rainstorm without getting your clothes and feet wet.

When I started working in the '80s, one of your goals was to acquire the basic rain stuff - coat, rubbers umbrella - as they worked. Then, by the end of the '90s (as biz casual took hold), rubbers gave way to either LL Bean (or similar) boots or just wearing your shoes and letting them get wet. I moved to the former as the latter made no sense to me.

Then, as time went on, men started giving up the raincoat in exchange for barn coats or Barbour jackets (the latter work, but are short) or, again, nothing. The umbrella still has currency, but traditional raincoats and rubbers are not popular at all. Often times, I'll see men sitting in the office with wet feet and clothes, but if you ask them about buying raincoats or boots, they look at you kinda funny.

I don't get it. Why did so many men decide that basic rain gear no longer makes sense? When I leave the office and it's raining, I'll see men darting this way and that with, yes, an umbrella, but just a suit and biz shoes on, no raincoat or protection for their shoes. How come a raincoat and either rubbers or boots does not make sense to them?
View attachment 269815


A pretty strong echo of actor Walter Pigeon.
View attachment 269816 View attachment 269817

If one were still dressed in traditional business attire, (Not necessarily a winning assumption. :() a 15 minute walk from a train station on a cold, wet November day would cement your argument about the value of same.
 

Flanderian

Practically Family
Messages
833
Location
Flanders, NJ, USA
Most likely because it entails more than two minutes of consciously attending to one's attire. I think for most men, that comes under the category of asking for directions, the color pink, and noticing dirt.




In regards to the above, I feel compelled to weigh in. In my experience, double-breasted, patterns and wide trousers; all true. Bow ties, also a good horizontal element. Spread collars and Windsor knots I'm not so sure about. If you're thin in the face a Windsor can compete with your head for dominance. And I don't like my head dominated. Ask any of my junior-high teachers.
The hat thing I think is also more about head shape than overall physique. I know that I don't like the way I look in porkpies. A bit too Sheckie the Card.
(Sorry, I don't usually go on about 'thin guy' problems. A lot of the stuff about vertical stripes being slimming and horizontal the opposite has been debunked of late, and it provoked me to a response).

+1.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
Interesting that, despite very noticeable shoes - brown and white saddles with red soles - the text makes no mention of them. Always nice to a see a woodie in the background.
Esq054201.jpg



This is how slim fit should be done. It's also how a bow tie can be worn quite "un-ironically." That said, the scale seems to be off on the Godzilla-sized piece of luggage.
Esq064201.jpg
 

Flanderian

Practically Family
Messages
833
Location
Flanders, NJ, USA
Interesting that, despite very noticeable shoes - brown and white saddles with red soles - the text makes no mention of them. Always nice to a see a woodie in the background.
View attachment 270057


This is how slim fit should be done. It's also how a bow tie can be worn quite "un-ironically." That said, the scale seems to be off on the Godzilla-sized piece of luggage.
View attachment 270058

Perhaps the saddle shoes were once so common place as to not draw notice. I have one surviving pair of saddle shoes, and when I wore them the other day my wife observed that when she was a little girl they were commonly referred to as "Catholic shoes" because black and white saddles were part of the girl's uniform of a nearby parochial school, and she had wished she had a pair.

Agree entirely concerning the brobdingnagian luggage, and surprising too, as Esquire's eventual art director, Robert Goodman, was typically meticulous with his illustrations. Interesting too because throughout his work in Esquire, he experiments with several styles of illustration. At one point, he appeared to be consciously imitating Fellows.
 

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