Period Casual ?

[cbrunt]

Hi Gang,

Very novice question here

I'm finally worked up the nerve to take swing lessons. Yes, severe dance-phobia... My date, she's more vintage than I, so I'm not sure what to do. I wonder, can anyone guide me to a "solid" type of 1940 casual outfit that would work without being too foppish ?

Thanks in advance,

Clint

 

[dhermann1]

Start with the shoes. You don't need to get fancy Capezio dance shoes, but comfortable LEATHER soled shoes are important. Leather enables you to swivel and pivot. Next, trousers. Loose, maybe even baggy, and high waisted. Suspenders are cool, but DON'T use those dopey clip on types. Get trousers with suspender buttons and use real button suspenders. (Then you can join the ranks of the suspender obsessed. A good thing!)
A comfortable shirt. For practice any kind of shirt is fine. If you really get hooked, you may find you go through 2 or 3 shirts in a night. I never got this way, but swing dancing can really get addictive. Also a good thing.
After you've developed a bit of confidence, and decide to go out steppin' with your lady, then you can become vintage tie obsessed. That is a VERY good thing. (There are quite a number of threads and posts here where vintage ties are displayed. They're an art form in themselves.)
As far as dancing is concerned, the advice I always give is to master the basics before you get fancy. Make sure you have the hang of the basic step before you even try to do turns. Don't be embarrassed to just do the basic step over and over again for a whole song, just to get the FEELING of it.
Enjoy! Good for you!

 

[resortes805]

How committed to the look are you?

The easiest way to pull off a forties casual look is to pair a nice vintage styled Hawaiian shirt with some dress slacks or khakis. Sun Surf shirts are top of the line reproductions, but a nice Avanti shirt can be had for under $60.

With a Hawaiian shirt, you can leave it untucked, so you can wear it with pants that may not be as high waisted as their vintage counterparts.

If you do want period specific pants, you have a few choices. The first is to go vintage. Slacks from the 1940's and 1950's are very similar and are not too rare. Look in the post war section of ebay. There are new slacks available that have a vintage cut, or are vintage reproductions. Use the search option to locate some threads that talk about this in depth. For a cool post war look, go with khakis. Bill's are a little expensive, but have the right look. Dancestore.com carry these cool wide bottom slacks.

Another option is to go with a nice vintage gabardine shirt. Look for the ones with flap pockets and a loop collar. The forties shirts had longer pointy collars, and the fifties have shorter, sometimes rounder collars. Since most people can't tell the difference anyway, it shouldn't really matter. A few years back, the male swing dancer uniform here in socal consisted of a vintage gab shirt, baggy forties pants and white bucks.

If you a really committed and want to go with the teenage jitterbug look, go with a stripey t-shirts, or cable knit t-shirt, but not everybody can pull this look off.

For shoes, some people prefer leather, others prefer suede, and other prefer rubber. Try them all and see what works best for you. I usually have a variety of shoes I leave in the car when I dance. The dance floor, and moves (i.e. heel slides) I want to do will dictate what kind of shoes to wear.

Have fun!