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Rather unusual striped shirt

Two Types

I'll Lock Up
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London, UK
This is from a 1930s film called 'The Big Fella'. At first i thought it was a 'Dickie' worn with a short sleeved shirt, but it actually appears to be fully attached.

bigfella2_zps7c12f86a.jpg


bigfella1_zpsc4b0211a.jpg


The film was British made, but set in France.
 

Burma Schave

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Glendale, CA
This was probably once a long-sleeved shirt whose sleeves were later cut. It does have an attached bosom front, and the semi-soft collar is probably detachable...unless it was once detachable but then sewn onto the shirt at a later date. This shirt may have predated the movie by a decade or more.
 

Two Types

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I guessed it was just thrown together in an approximation of something a 'low-life' French criminal might have worn.



I certainly wouldn't wear it? Would you?
 

herringbonekid

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East Sussex, England
TT, cutting the collar with the stripes running vertically rather than lengthwise was a common teens and early 20s thing (it probably goes back to Victorian times too but i'm not doing Victorian yet) especially with detachable collars.

i looked through my 20s catalogues and there isn't a single shirt in there with horizontal stripes, but i have saved this picture of an Arrow shirt with horizontal striped bib:

contrastbib_zps391c989f.jpg
 

Evan Everhart

A-List Customer
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Hollywood, California
Horizontally striped shirt bosoms were common enough during the Victorian, Edwardian, and very early Jazz Age, but began to lose favor soon after only typically being seen as a throw-back or bumpkin type of garment worn by someone who couldn't afford newer or more fashionable shirts. The shirt from the look of it is actually an old fashioned type of "long-John or two-piece long-John worn during the same period and by most people up through the 20s to early 30s and by the less fashion conscious for longer, these garments were often worn by low-class (that is to say individuals who were not gentlemen nor even respectable, but who were dressing up a bit) as a shirt, with a detachable shirt collar and breast-plate worn over it. Imagine a thermal T-shirt with a buttoning collar worn with a detachable collar and shirt bosom. And yes, that is exactly the type of thing a Parisian Bohemian might wear, particularly one who wasn't merely slumming, but was actually in their own element as a lower class individual. The shirt collars in that stripe arrangement, while not aesthetically appealing to our modern sensibilities (which are more formed and informed by upper class taste despite what people say), was quite popular as a dress up option for the non elite. I think that I even remember a film with Bing Crosby where he wears a monstrosity of a shirt like that (though not striped), it was of course done in an entirely tongue in cheek manner, emphasis on cheek.

One other thing, the English have been known to enjoy needling the French at any opportunity, what better opportunity than with regards to their fashion at that date?

Hope I've been of help!
 

Flat Foot Floey

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Germany
H&M also had horizontally striped shirts in the last season. Also more of a workwear look. Imagine chambray with woven stripes or something like that. I even tried it on but didn't buy it in the end because it reminded me of a pyjama top. What I like better about the ASOS shirt is the pullover style. But then it's a button down which I kinda dislike.
 

herringbonekid

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East Sussex, England
Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife) from G W Pabst's 1931 film version of Die Dreigroschenoper (the Threepenny Opera):

ScreenShot2013-03-01at225017_zps39ad123f.png


... set in a Victorian London but stylistically resembling an early 30s/Victorian hybrid.
 
Last edited:

herringbonekid

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East Sussex, England
in the final analysis i don't think the horizontal striped shirt front really works as when the eye ventures down into the 'V zone' of the tie area it should return to the face rather than be sent left and right.

too many contrasting directional lines end up annoying the viewer.

same for suit/sports jackets with a strong horizontal stripe.

French horizontal striped boat jumpers seem to work though... maybe because they're not combined with opposing elements ?
 

Metatron

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United Kingdom
That's it I think, in some cases the stripes clash with the vertical line of the placket as they intersect. The horizontal stripes on a jumper accentuate the wearer's chest if one is thin.
 

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