Which items of vintage clothing would you never wear? And why?

[1961MJS]

... but for me, they always feel like an business man from one of the Edgar Wallace books. I can't tell why, maybe because of the almost always black look, the highly formal stance, but i always think of frock coats with an unsure feeling.
Greetings
Marco

Hi Marco

It's somehow strange, but also logical that we view things more from a personal standpoint that historical, political, cultural, or other context. You might look great in a leisure suit, but since (for example) your grandfather wore one when he teased you as a kindergartener, you'll always hate them and anyone wearing them.

The stuff on my list of dislikes are almost all based on trying one on. Actually I would LOVE to look good in a Homburg, but.. I look like a dork. The main thing on my list that's at least somewhat personal, is the bow tie. The bow tie was the trademark of a local politician with whom I disagree entirely.

Scotty, with respect to the boater, it wasn't that it looked bad on me, it FELT bad. The one I tried on was a $75.00 new boater in Levine's in Downtown Saint Louis, but it FELT like a Styrofoam Shakey's pizza hat on my head, no give at all. A couple of guys from California bought one from him that day.

Later

 

[Chasseur]

it's a shame that the bowler has suffered from such strong associations as it's quite a versatile hat. oddly enough you see lots of turn of the century French men wearing it; think Toulouse Lautrec, and yet it's still in most British people's minds associated with the London businessman.

That is quite true. For example Simenon's great French detective Maigret wears a bowler in the book series (it was a very common hat for plain clothes policemen in France up to the 1930s or so) even though most TV or film adaptations put him in a fedora. The French call it a chapeau melon (a melon hat).

 

[MB15]

Hello Mike

Hi Marco

It's somehow strange, but also logical that we view things more from a personal standpoint that historical, political, cultural, or other context. You might look great in a leisure suit, but since (for example) your grandfather wore one when he teased you as a kindergartener, you'll always hate them and anyone wearing them.

The stuff on my list of dislikes are almost all based on trying one on. Actually I would LOVE to look good in a Homburg, but.. I look like a dork. The main thing on my list that's at least somewhat personal, is the bow tie. The bow tie was the trademark of a local politician with whom I disagree entirely.

Scotty, with respect to the boater, it wasn't that it looked bad on me, it FELT bad. The one I tried on was a $75.00 new boater in Levine's in Downtown Saint Louis, but it FELT like a Styrofoam Shakey's pizza hat on my head, no give at all. A couple of guys from California bought one from him that day.

Later

You got the point. Same thing about that 6x1-Double breasts. My father and all my male relatives wore them when i was young in the nineties. And altough the 6X1-facon is an classic one, i can't wore one without feeling like my own father in 1995! Same thing applies to others with boaters, derbies, tails, etc.
Greetings
Marco
PS: I would happily wear a leisure suit, if it wasn't one from the Disco era

 

[Undertow]

Button collar shirts with a suit.
Loafers.
Dickies (the fake shirt, not the brand).
Ascots
Skinny ties, wool ties

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Put me on the list for no skinny ties, as well!

 

[Edward]

Outside of certain settings (that is to say, re-enactment, photoshoots, etc) I also wouldn't wear a bowler; though for slightly different reasons to those above (as it would be rather hypocritical of me). I just think it's gone from a piece of semi-formal headwear to almost "comic national British dress". Wearing a bowler about strikes me as rather akin to a Scotsman actually wandering around in a kilt and woad, a Bavarian in lederhosen, or an Irishman in a green suit with a buckle on his hat - too stereotypical, and almost in the realms of a send up of Englishness.

I think that might be part of my aversion to them as well. Just never liked them at all.... Of course, as a Homburg can do for any situation in which a bowler might otherwise be worn, I have no need of one either.

I seldom like loafers with tassles, though I wear loafers frequently. The tassles just say Wall St. 1980's to me for some reason.

Agreed! I've never much been a fan of slip on shoes (maybe it's some subconscious association with lace-ups being 'big boy shoes', maybe it's the suppressed memory of being mercilessly teased for an entire year at school for the shoes I had at thirteen which - for that year of my schooling alone - were velcro-fastening, and very much resembled slip-ons otherwise) at all, but I particularly loathe the tassles for some reason. I think it is primarily an Eighties thing.

Sock garters look goofy, though I have thought on countless occasions how handy they would be, my socks are constantly falling down.

Worn correctly they're never seen, though.... I do like them. They work functionally, but also they give me an added sense of another detail in place. I'm a sucker for those little extra details (cufflinks, watches, pocket square, coordinating hats and socks...) that contemporary fashion has deemed "unnecessary". I suspect (and I speak with some direct personal experience here, following many years in the Rocky Horror community....) it's something of the same attraction to stockings over tights for the ladies (though I've yet to hear of a lady expressing a fondness for a gentleman in sock suspenders. If only they got me as much attention as the fishnets used to...!).

Hello
One of the things i would never wear: Frock coats. I like morning and evening tailcoats, Dinner Suits, all kinds of formal attire, but frock coats are one of the garments i would never wear.
Same thing for boaters. There are people out there who look good in it, but in my head a picture of me with an boater on my head equals to an clown with his pants and shoes.
Greetings
Marco

I'm very fond of my boaters - the big difference was getting hold of a couple of real boaters rather than the floppy, fancy-dress kind. They always remind me of Harold Lloyd (a good thing, in my book). They can have a costumey air, I agree.... I've yet to wear one into the office (it will happen, though). I think a lot of it is down to how you carry it, as with so many things. I saw an elderly (seventies, I'd guess) gentleman last Summer near my office on a number of occasions in a light linen suit, co-respondents and a boater and it was a superb look. One day...

I love the bowler and I think it will be extremely likely I will one day wear one. I similarly find the straw boater to be splendid and think it cuts quite a dash on the right noggin; I may try wearing one someday.

I don't think I could ever bring myself to wear plus fours with long stockings; although I think it's just dandy, the look is SO strange and unheard of in a modern setting, I don't think I could possibly pull it off.

Those I'm increasingly interested in - I hope to pick up a pair if I make it onto the Tweed Run in future.

Hi Marco

I have no clue what I'd look like in these, but the Earp family in the movie Tombstone are wearing frock coats most of the time, and they look great. I'm considering one for Winter.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108358/

Later

I love the look of frock coats. The only downside is that they nowadays carry some association with tacky, soccer-player wedding wear, and they are less flattering than a morning coat on those of us who tend to carry our weight around the middle. I do want one, though.....

it's a shame that the bowler has suffered from such strong associations as it's quite a versatile hat. oddly enough you see lots of turn of the century French men wearing it; think Toulouse Lautrec, and yet it's still in most British people's minds associated with the London businessman. Jude Law gave the bowler a fresh look in the film Road To Perdition...

...which seemed perfect for his seedy, beetle-ish character.

It was - as I think someone else has noted above - the most common hat in the Old West. When Laurel and Hardy wore them, they were parodying common workwear. The bowler started out as a fairly casual hat for the labouring man (also had a protective element to it), only later being adopted by the upper classes (much like the covert coat). An early Twentieth Century example of the casualisation trend...

The bowler was not unusual as funeral headgear (mostly on older men) in the mining areas of south Wales and north-east England right up to the 1980s; and of course it has Ulster Unionist associations as well.

Yes.... I think the latter may influence my dislike of them. Certainly even (perhaps especially, given the relative rarity of brimmed hats) today wearing a bowler in the six Counties will tie you to the Orange. Growing up in the Northern Ireland middle class, one was raised not to wear anything which could carry overt political symbolism in relation to the Irish Question. Within my own family, this was a security matter (appear to be "the other sort" in the wrong area is even today A Very Bad Idea), but for many more the greater notion was that it was simply gauche.

 

[Shangas]

The bowler was developed by the Bowler Brothers, a pair of English hatmakers. It was originally designed as a gamekeeper's hat. It was supposed to be comfortable, close-fitting, low and strong (to prevent gamekeepers injuring their heads, should they gallop under low-hanging tree-branches).

It became a popular middle-class hat, because the other alternatives were the top-hat (increasingly associated with the upper classes), and the flat-cap (a solidly lower-class/working-class hat for several decades).

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I still see it as just that, personally. Guess I've watched too many old movies lol

It became a popular middle-class hat, because the other alternatives were the top-hat (increasingly associated with the upper classes), and the flat-cap (a solidly lower-class/working-class hat for several decades).

 

[Hal]

...the flat-cap (a solidly lower-class/working-class hat for several decades).

The flat cap is also associated with the well-off country set.
And wasn't the bowler invented by a Mr Coke, not by Messrs Bowler?

 

[AntonAAK]

The flat cap is also associated with the well-off country set.
And wasn't the bowler invented by a Mr Coke, not by Messrs Bowler?

I believe it was commisioned for Mr Coke. He was the customer whereas the Bowler Brothers (of Lock's) designed and made the hat.

 

[Mario]

Ah ys. Plus fours. I wasn't sure about them either but I will get some made soon. Marcs amazing country suit made me want them. :eusa_doh:The FL is too much "inspiration" It will ruin me one day.

I agree that SOME can pull off that look but I certainly wouldn't even want to try it. I'd be walking along bent over to keep gawking at those things. Plus-fours are definitely not for me.

 

[Chasseur]

I think for plus fours to work you also need context. I wear them quite often for out door activities (shooting, hunting, etc.) in Europe and they are fine. Wearing them in town, well its harder to pull them off successfully. I've had some interesting experiences in Parisian cafes getting a late dinner or drink after a day of shooting. One waitress was sure that my plus fours were part of my "traditional native dress in Alaska." Similar with trying to wear a seersucker suit and a panama hat in cold northern city in the winter or fall.

 

[MikeBravo]

I believe it was commisioned for Mr Coke. He was the customer whereas the Bowler Brothers (of Lock's) designed and made the hat.

An excerpt from a recently borrowed book "Fifty hats that changed the world" by the Design Museum, London

The bowler was designed by London hatters Thomas and William Bowler for the famous London hat shop James Lock & Co. The hat had been commissioned from the shop by English aristocrat, Edward Coke, for use by his gamekeepers, who needed a hard hat to protect them from overhead branches while riding.

 

[MikeBravo]

There are a few famous bowler hat wearers

John Steed

Sally Bowles

Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp

Rene Magritte's Son of Man

 

[Mario]

One waitress was sure that my plus fours were part of my "traditional native dress in Alaska."

Now that one made me smile. I thought the traditional Alaskan garb was a blue or red lumberjack shirt...

Similar with trying to wear a seersucker suit and a panama hat in cold northern city in the winter or fall.

*shudder* I have an old 1950's Seersucker suit from Haspel's and I certainly wouldn't want to wear it in a cold Berlin winter... :eeek:

 

[Chasseur]

I thought the traditional Alaskan garb was a blue or red lumberjack shirt...

Yes! Matched with either Sorels or Xtra tuff boots!

I've also been asked if I was Austrian by Parisian waitresses in my plus fours, I guess as a type of baggy tweed lederhosen. [huh]

But really if you wear plus fours out in the countryside with a bunch of other guys in tweed, loden, barbor style waxed cotten jackets, etc. they are fine. Running about in town, hmm... much less comfortable...

 

[Mario]

I've also been asked if I was Austrian by Parisian waitresses in my plus fours, I guess as a type of baggy tweed lederhosen. [huh]

To the untrained eye it sure looks all the same...

​

 

[Chasseur]

Yup.

 

[old barnacle]

Anything Regency, it makes you look like a penguin !

 

[Peregrine]

Ah now, John Steed...had the bowler not been invented, he would have invented it himself. Patrick Macnee has been in a gazillion things over the years, but I can only ever picture him in a bowler...