Show us their suits

[herringbonekid]

Two Types, this film might find its way onto your British film blog in the near future: 'I Lived With You' 1933.
a comedy co-written by and starring Ivor Novello as a down and out Russian Prince (who causes havoc when he's taken in by an ordinary cockney family) :

 

[Nick D]

Some Romanian gents showing us how it's done. More from the Costica Acsinte archive.

 

[Two Types]

Two Types, this film might find its way onto your British film blog in the near future: 'I Lived With You' 1933.

I will have to look out for that one. It looks great.

 

[Two Types]

I've been back into British films of the 1930s:

The Four Just Men (1939)

Wonderful overcoat:

Note to everybody out there: (especially film/tv costume designers) Not everyone wore spearpoint collars. There were some dramatic cutaway collars available

Nice view of a narrow waisted suit with the stripes meeting at the back:

These show how waisted double breasted suits were in the late 1930s:

Typical British casualwear of the late 1930s:

 

[Fastuni]

Goodness! But one also needs the physique for this nipped waist!

 

[Two Types]

He really was thin. The actor is Griffiths Jones. He lived to the age of 97 and only retired from acting at the age of 90, spending the last 25 years of his career performing on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

 

[simonc]

He would have had a world of stories and tricks up his sleeve with that career, wonderful!

 

[volvomeister13]

Very nice post, TT. I love the British suits of the late 30's and the 40's. While the US was on the way to ever boxier styles the English were keeping things pretty slick and refined. Good stuff!

 

[Two Types]

Here's the British bit-part actor Russell Waters wearing the same double breasted pin stripe suit in three different films:

Seven Days to Noon:

Man in the Sky:

Lease of Life:

 

[Two Types]

Here's an outfit just crying out for an injection of colour:

Denholm Elliott in the 1954 film 'Lease of Life'. It's a nice tweed suit but it's crying out for even a plain red wool tie and any colour or detail in his jumper would be welcome.

 

[Two Types]

Here's Jimmy O'Dea in the 1939 film Let's Be Famous ...

... wearing the same suit he wore in Penny Paradise (also 1939):

 

[Two Types]

More from Let's Be Famous

Jimmy O'Dea revealing a 'dickey' false shirt front:

Garry Marsh in a four piece tweed cap:

Elsewhere on the FL there are discussions about double breasted suits buttoning on the bottom button. Here are a couple of examples:

What appears to be a 1920s suit:

A wonderfully bold weave overcoat:

 

[herringbonekid]

What appears to be a 1920s suit:

the stripes on the sleeve are so well matched to the shoulder that it appears to have no separate sleeve at all !

 

[Two Types]

Freida (1947):

David Farrar looks fantastic in this film. So much about his outfits reminds me of how I dress in autumn & winter:

And I like his version of workwear:

 

[Two Types]

School uniform:

 

[Metatron]

All the outfits sported by Farrar are spot on, but I think he has a charismatic and intense demeanor which really brings everything to life.
The school uniform is unusual, that double breasted front with a single row of buttons is very sharp!
The other day I was thinking that school kids in uniform are inadvertently some of the best dressed people around, they are some of the few people out and about wearing classic looking separates.

 

[herringbonekid]

that double breasted front with a single row of buttons is very sharp!

i think the buttons have been removed for some reason.

 

[Nick D]

Every tweed suit should aspire to this.

 

[Two Types]

Here's Stewart Granger in the 1944 film 'Love Story':

Casual outfit

Cutaway collar shirt:

Two button sports jacket, with a much lower button stance than most British jackets of the period (also with covered breast pocket, something I've noticed on a few of Granger's suits)

With his broad shouldered suits and low button stance, Granger always appears to be a few years ahead of British fashion.

 

[Metatron]

Nice casual outfit. The light coloured thin belt and jumper sans collared shirt contrast the tailored jacket wonderfully.
Funny how wide padded shoulders start to resemble unstructured shoulders when they slope like that.