"The pajama is ascending to glorified heights. Long the black sheep of polite private life, this garment has been elevated to the four hundred...Men are drugging their senses with batik designs in sleeping apparel and inhaling the stimulation of contrasting shades in underclothes."
"What the well-dressed man will wear when going to bed is one of the burning topics of the immediate future...By and large, the thirst for color permeates the accessory field from linen to lingerie. The picture might be said to be complete. Man has achieved his zenith."
Read about a pajama fashion innovation that never quite caught on... Attached herein, you will find the fashionable coats, suits, shoes and cufflinks for men from the harsh winter of 1919 that had been approved by the Fifth Avenue swells of the VANITY FAIR editorial department. The attached piece was written in the shadows of W.W. II - a time when Levi Strauss' famous blue jean fabric was not simply being woven for the 12,000,000 souls in the U.S. military, but also the civilian war-workers who donned jean overalls and found them ideal for the heavy, industrial labor that they faced each day.
As if this wasn't enough to keep the factories of Levi Strauss & Co. humming happily, the American teenagers also discovered blue jeans in the around the same time and have been devoted to them ever since. The author of this article could never have known that the social revolution that made the name "Levi" a household word all across the globe was only nine years away.
Read About the History of the T-Shirt
An article about 1940s denim can be read here...
Click here to get a sense of men's slow and subtle slide from appropriate business attire in the office to slovenly sportswear.
Click here to get a sense of men's slow and subtle slide from appropriate business attire in the office to jeans and trainers.
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*Click here to read about the 1956 college fashion craze* During the early days of 1953 some of the young men of the World War Two generation looked into their grandfather's wardrobes and came away with a new friend - the Norfolk jacket: "There has been some talk concerning the possible revival of certain Edwardian fashions. In the renewed acceptance of the Norfolk jacket, which takes its name from the 15th Duke of Norfolk, we have the revival of a style which is even older, having first come into being during the Victorian era....In 1910 it was so well accepted that few small lads of that era were content unless they had a Norfolk coat just like their fathers'."
Buy an Original Pattern:
1870s-1900s Norfolk Jacket Pattern
In the early parts of the 20th Century serious attention had been paid in some quarters to what was called "dress reform". An article from the August 14, 1929 magazine The Nation pointed out that "The Life Extension Institute weighed the street clothing of the women in New York City last June. The clothing of the women...averaged two pounds, ten ounces, while that of the men was was eight pounds, six ounces."
The Italian Futurist Ernesto Thayaht offered his remedy for the fashion maladies of the day with the design of a one piece garment that many Americans chose to see simply as pajamas. Needless to say, it didn't catch on.
Click here to read a 1929 article about the Dress-Reform Movement.
Click here to read an editorial about the need for reform in men's attire.
Read about men's fashions from 1937 and the break-through in color that had been so sorely needed.
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