Vintage vintage

[Metatron]

Was there an equivalent of today's vintage in earlier times? Would a 'vintage' man in the 1930s be someone who wore a bowler hat for example?

 

[Fastuni]

Well the bowler was still a "normal" hat during the 30's. I think the equivalent would be wearing clothes of the mid to late 19th century... frock coats and stovepipes... ;-)

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Poor people or farmers certainly wore clothes from the tens and twenties. Think of Otto Kringelein in Grand Hotel who still rocks the stiff wing collar with a tie.

Intentional vintage? I dunno. It would be considered more eccentric than it is now. Many of the FL members don't don't quite appreciate it but I think we have a great freedom to wear what we want these days. There are hundrets of niches and subcultures that coexist. The big trend are gone and we have more micro trends. For me this is a good thing.

 

[Metatron]

Fastuni, agreed, it was normal, although not hip as far as I can tell. I find that in films of the time, the old fashioned, or elderly character is often denoted by his bowler hat.

FFF, You are definitely right about the freedom we have today. Though with diversity comes ugliness (and here I'm sounding unintentionally far right!)

I do feel though that a 30s look can be neutral enough to pass unnoticed today, where a Victorian look would have been much more conspicuous.
I always thought the Japanese surrender delegation looked a bit weird in their top hats and tailcoats.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were even a few celebrities known for their "vintage" style. Herbert Hoover insisted on wearing high celluloid collars well into the thirties, and baseball manager Connie Mack was famous for wearing dark 1910s-era suits, derby hats, or straw skimmers in the dugout as late as 1950.

 

[Stanley Doble]

They didn't have a name for it unless it was "eccentric". Some older men continued to wear the wing collars and old fashioned suits of their youth. Canadian newsman Gregory Clark preferred elastic sided boots long after they went out of fashion. President Roosevelt commented on them, called them "Congress gaiters" and said he hadn't seen a pair in years, although they were once common wear for older men.

Lucius Beebe tried to keep the Victorian age and train travel alive through the twenties, thirties, forties, and into the sixties. He was considered an amiable oddball. He started no trends.

Probably the first people to revive old clothing styles as a fashion trend, were the "Teddy Boys" in England who dressed in Edwardian fashion in the fifties.

There is a very obscure American version of this. The Zoot Suit of the early 40s. Experts have traced the zoot suit back to a young man who had his tailor make a suit in the style of the Prince Albert coat worn by Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind.