A Brief History of Menswear
How men dressed then, now, and in between
Sartorial Radicalism
When Keir Hardie was elected to Parliament in 1892, it was evident he was not like his colleagues. A miner, turned trade union leader, turned independent politician, the man who would go on to help found the Labour Party made a consorted effort to not be in the political establishment.
This was most obvious in his policies. He was a champion of trade unions and workers’ rights, suffragette, and pacifism. However, this progressivism was also apparent in how he dressed. Mark Twain famously said, “Clothes make the man,” and Hardie’s sartorial radicalism embodied this idea perfectly.
At a time when it was forbidden for MPs to appear in the Parliament in anything other than a frock coat, Hardie rebelled against wearing the formal, stuffy, Victorian-era garment. He chose instead to dress like the masses — the miners who had helped elect him, how people dressed when they went on a strike.
So, what did he wear to the Parliament? He wore a suit.
Today, Hardie’s decision can be puzzling. If he wanted to dress like the ordinary man, he should have worn joggers and a t-shirt. But, near the end of the Victorian era, the suit was what ordinary people wore. In fact, the original name for the suit was — the lounge suit.
At the same time as Hardie’s sartorial blasphemy, the Duke of Windsor, then Edward VIII, was also on to something similar. Rebelling against his father, master of royal codes and conduct George V, the Duke similarly chose the lounge suit to express his divergence from his father’s formality, much to his father’s dismay. (How he dressed, of course, would not be the greatest divergence the Duke would make from the Royal Family.)
These episodes of sartorial rebellion represent one of the three most important transitions in menswear that eventually helped it settle into its current state. Ironically, the lounge suit itself became the new frock coat by the start of the twentieth century thanks to its endorsements from both Hardie at one end and the Duke at the other. The suit gradually morphed into the choice garment for those who would have worn a frock coat half a century ago.
Uniquely American Style
We now turn to America, specifically, Ivy League universities in the 1950s and 60s. Students attending these institutions during this time dressed with a proud uncouthness. Though not lacking in school spirit by any means, getting an Ivy League education for these students was a birthright, and they dressed and acted accordingly.
These students were self-assured and knew they did not have to try hard to look good. Ivy Style was about looking just as good as you needed to, not better, not worse.
Their fathers wore suits; the Ivy generation wore jackets and blazers. Their fathers wore oxfords; the Ivy youth wore penny loafers. Their fathers wore waist coats; sweaters were the norm at the Ivies. Their fathers wore pleated pants; Ivy Style relied on chinos. Ivy Style was the uncouth approach to dressing well. A disregard, but not disdain.
Ivy Style was also the first uniquely American style. It was born out of an American confidence and hubris instead of the European thoughtfulness and reservation that was traditional (or ‘Trad’) up till that point. More critically, it was a style that one could grow into, not be born into, and it did not require one to grow out of either. The strength of Ivy Style was its dynamism — it was readily adaptable all the way from the youth on college quads to Madison Avenue to the White House. It looked just as good on someone in their 60s as it did on those in their 20s.
And, according to fashion journalist G. Bruce Boyer, Ivy Style heralded the first-time menswear emphasized, at least to some degree, comfort as one of its goals. Clothing, which traditionally had always been an end for men, began to shift toward being a means.
Sadly, these very characteristics would lead to the demise of the Ivy Style. Just as it had swapped dress shirts for button-downs and dress shoes for loafers, men eventually began to swap button-downs for t-shirts and loafers for sneakers. Joggers became the new chinos.
Jeans and a T-Shirt
We finally again turn to America, this time at the very end of the 20th Century, where one man was becoming extremely frustrated with the clothes he saw around him. “Jeans and a t-shirt have become the establishment,” said Thom Browne summarizing his ire, and this is really all we need to know to understand his philosophy toward clothes.
To Browne, dressing down was the enemy of the modern man and he was ready to embrace the challenge of fighting it. Given the nature of menswear, new silhouettes are extremely hard to come by and claiming ownership of such a new look is an even harder feat. However, Thom Browne was able to do just that.
He presented to men what they already knew, the suit, but in a way that they wanted to know it. Browne reconstructed the suit’s classic silhouette for today’s sensibilities. He cropped the trousers and the jacket, raised the armholes, and shrunk the proportions of just about everything as much as he possibly could without tearing the fabric.
Initially laughed at by his friends and told fashion was not meant for him, Browne continued anyway, driven by a desire to make the clothes he wanted to wear. In 2001 he opened an eponymous atelier and by 2004 he was making ready-to-wear. It took a while for his look to catch on in America and, funnily enough, if it were not for the Japanese and Chinese markets, he and his take on American menswear would have gone bankrupt in those early years. However, by 2008 he was collaborating with Brooks Brothers.
By 2010 it was clear that his revolution was successful. Men were wearing cropped pants and, when they did attempt to dress-up, tighter, shorter blazers with skinner lapels and ties to match.
There will never again be one overarching style for men and this is a good thing. We are free to wear what we want. Menswear as a reaction against the establishment is also dead, so too is the need to rebel against your father. When asked why he loves the grey suit so much, Thom Browne reflected, it was what he saw his father wear every day.
