"National Retail Clothier" Magazine, Feb. 21, 1929

[Marc Chevalier]

Thunderw21, again and again you deliver the goods! Wonderful stuff! Who knew that felt hats back then sometimes had feathers tucked in the ribbon? For the first time in a long while, I'm learning new things about vintage menswear.


Thank you so much! :eusa_clap


(At this writing, your thread has been viewed 101 times. It would be nice if more of these viewers thanked you for the thread.)

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[Feraud]

That is some fascinating reading!

 

[Brad Bowers]

Wow, this is great, thank you for posting! :eusa_clap My favorite era in hats.

I live for this stuff.

I wouldn't mind seeing a higher-res version of this page to read.

If you have any other hat mentions of Crofut & Knapp (Knapp-Felt), Dobbs, or possibly even Cavanagh, that would be great.

Brad

 

[thunderw21]

Cheers, gents!

Wow, this is great, thank you for posting! :eusa_clap My favorite era in hats.

I live for this stuff.

I wouldn't mind seeing a higher-res version of this page to read.

If you have any other hat mentions of Crofut & Knapp (Knapp-Felt), Dobbs, or possibly even Cavanagh, that would be great.

Brad

Brad, I'll see what I can do. That image you quoted in your post is pretty small but I'll see if I can get anymore detail out of it.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

As for this hat ... there are no words

 

[scotrace]

FANTASTIC!

 

[thunderw21]

Here is a closer view of the image that Brad requested. I had to cut it up into sections to bring out the most detail.

Looking through the mag, there aren't ads by too many of the hat companies that Brad asked for. Found a couple old ads that were part of articles, though:

"Cavanagh Edge" even back then.

 

[Fletch]

Interesting...was this supposed to be an attached collar with the rigidity of a boiled, button-on model? The few vintage collar-on shirts I have handled didn't seem to have any interlining in the collar, certainly nothing crisp or resilient. As a result they crumple and fly around.

WOR as flagship of the Columbia network...that's going back a ways. Later in 1929 they filed for a new ticket and started WABC. (Yes, WABC...there wasn't any ABC yet.)

 

[thunderw21]

Here's a supremely fascinating full article about hat trends for 1929. Dimensions, styles and colors are discussed including talk about the demise of the "snapped brim" that had been "predicted for so long".

Cheers

 

[ArrowCollarMan]

I need to go back in time...

 

[Brad Bowers]

"Cavanagh Edge" even back then.

I'd love to find one of these booklets. Just think about how many were thrown out with the garbage.

I'm in historian heaven here, particularly with the snap-brim article you just posted.

Again, thank you for posting this. The next round's on me!

Brad

 

[Nathan Flowers]

I'm giving this thread

Fantastic find. Thanks for sharing.

 

[cufflinkmaniac]

Fantastic find. Thanks for sharing.

Seconded! But darn you Thunder, now I am yearning for those items!

 

[zetwal]

Thanks for sharing these -

 

[thunderw21]

Really appreciate it guys.



I've had the follow images for a while but have been too busy/lazy to edit and post them. Lefty's fantastic thread has inspired me to get these posted. Thanks Lefty!

Stetson wasn't the only company with a Playboy.

 

[thunderw21]

...

Ads in four colors...oh the luxury! I wonder, has anyone ever come across one of those ads?

 

[thunderw21]

Strangely enough, some of the colors and styles mentioned in this magazine remind me of the colors and styles described in The Great Gatsby.

He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, and monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.

“They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.”

While writers of that period were well known for their use of colors to describe certain characters and moods, it seems that the colors described in Gatsby were not too far off from the truth.

Ex:
"Fancy colors that make the rainbow pale."

"...this years colorings are cream, silver, bottle, biscuit, sunburn and nutria."

"Pearl and Cedar will be the best shades, it is believed."

"Some of these ties are in bright colors."

This sounds like something Gatsby might have worn:
"An attractive ensemble noted in New York City included: Suit of dark brown, with diagonal stripe, rather pronounced, in white, the jacket double breasted with three buttons...demi-bosom shirt in very fine cross stripes, in peach color; tie of black ground with orange polka dots; hat a cocoa brown Homburg; yellow gloves; socks in vertical stripes of orange and black..."

"Just the right weight, in new Algerian tans, Stone greys and Lovat."

This ad speaks volumes:

In early 1929 this stated that "The Era of Color Enthusiasm" started 5 year previous, or in 1924.
The Great Gatsby was first published in 1925, falling within this "Era of Color Enthusiasm".

 

[Lefty]

Thanks for the compliment, but I was following your lead.
Again, thanks for posting all of this.

 

[carter]

I haven't read it all yet but ...

This is a terrific thread, thunder21. The best new men's attire thread in some time. Thanks for posting!

 

[Tiller]

Thanks! This is helping me learn alot .