visual reference for depression era work wear

[mike]

Anybody have any pictures for reference? I have a repro work shirt that I'm trying to visualize how to best put together a full look. thanks in advance!

 

[Feraud]

I might have some catalog pics for reference.
Will get back to you on this..

 

[pablocham]

Check out the disfarmer site for great portraits. Also, and I think these have been posted elsewhere, but ton of great photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/72157603671370361/

example:

 

[Feraud]

Thanks for the link pablocham. There are good pics on the site.

 

[_tone]

another great source for vintage photos is

http://www.shorpy.com/

 

[Spatterdash]

Wow.


I'd have to say, after about 15 minutes looking at the "destitute", the "idle workers" and the "relocated" in those photos, I'd say the official uniform for men in the Depression was...

Denim or canvas overalls.
A threadbare and wrinkled long-sleeved buttoned shirt.
Leather boots or shoes
Battered felt hats or 'newsboy' caps
A secondhand suit coat.

To complete the look, it appears you need walk in the rain, get covered in dust, sleep in the clothes and shake off what you can in the morning. Do this everyday for about a year.

Those pictures at shorpy.com are... sobering.

 

[mike]

so I look too clean and happy, huh?

 

[Spatterdash]

My personal opinion, Mike?

It's an excellent look and true in form and element. I'm sure the vast majority of men who had work managed to keep clean and well-groomed.

That's a great look, man!

I think those photos at shorpy.com were the most desperate of the desperate at the time, and not the average working man. I would think even the photographers at the time chose those people because even then they appeared astonishingly destitute. Most look like Dust Bowlers, farmers who lost literally everything, very "Grapes of Wrath", not your standard american blue-collar guy trying to keep his wages.