by The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through American History 1900 to the Present (pdf)
Single-breasted vests or waistcoats were still
worn for more formal occasions under tuxedo,
morning, and tail coats and featured rolled or
shawl lapels.
Shirts
White shirts with starched fronts that closed
with shirt studs were worn by older men for
very formal occasions. White ‘ soft front’ cot-
ton, rayon, or silk shirts were worn under tux-
edo and dinner jackets by the trendy crowd.
One of the famous and distinctive Arrow shirt ads,
created by J.C. Leyendecker, showing a handsome
Pants
gentleman in a striped shirt, from about 1920.
Tuxedo pants and pants worn with dinner
[Library of Congress]
jackets were fuller cut, featuring wide legs
with a braid on the outseam. Pants were typi-
cally cuffless.
Decorative Details
Midnight blue and black were the preferred colors for eveningwear. Tux-
edo jackets, vests or waistcoats, and trousers were all cut from the same
cloth. Dinner jackets were typically white, especially for summer outings,
and were paired with black trousers. Bow ties were the preferred neckwear
for eveningwear and formal events.
BUSINESS WEAR
Silhouette
The sack suit, seen as early as the 1840s, continued to serve as the basis for
men’s business attire. Sack suits were less structured than the frock coats
1920s, The Jazz Age
265
and morning coats men wore for business attire in previous decades but still
were impeccably tailored, and, when finances allowed, English tailored suits
were considered the best. The resulting silhouette for jackets was slim fit-
ting in the early part of the decade and using waist seams and darts to cre-
ate shaping, and became more relaxed and boxy as the decade progressed.
Business trousers followed the same gradual shift as men’s jackets, fitting
close with tapered legs in the early part of the decade and trending toward
fuller cuts with wide legs by mid-decade. Three-piece suits consisting of
jacket, trousers, and vest or waistcoat were worn by all businessmen.
Jackets and Vests
Suit jackets were slim fitting, featuring either waist seams or darts to pro-
vide soft shaping and center back vents. As the decade progressed, the fit
began to relax and broaden, moving away from the natural shoulder line.
Single-breasted, three-button styles prevailed over double-breasted styles.
Collars and notched lapels were short and wide, ending in a high stance
below the chest for most of the decade. By the end of the 1920s, collars
and lapels both began to narrow and lengthen. Welt breast and hip pock-
ets were either set in at an angle or straight. Some jackets featured ele-
ments commonly found in Norfolk jackets, such as back shoulder yokes
with or without inverted pleats and waist belts or half-belts. Vests or
waistcoats were single breasted, very fitted, closing high on the chest
above the suit jacket closure, with five buttons. Vests or waistcoats for
business suits rarely sported lapels.
Shirts
The early years of the 1920s saw a continuation of shirts with detachable
collars. However, because of improvements in manufacturing as well as an
increase in the use and quality of home washing machines, ‘ hard’ detach-
able collars were replaced by ‘ soft’ attached collared shirts. Shirts were
slim fitting with straight fitted sleeves and French cuffs. Soft collars were
pointed and typically pinned together under the tie with a tiepin, tie bar,
or self-fabric tab.
Pants
Trousers were slim fitting, with straight legs and cuffs in the early part of
the 1920s. As the decade progressed, trousers for business suits grew
wider and fuller cut, retained their cuffs, but did not reach the extremes
seen in casual or collegiate styles.
266
MEN’S FASHIONS
Decorative Details
The components of business suits were always fabricated from the same
cloth, creating matching jackets, trousers, and vests or waistcoats. Colors
were subdued browns, tans, and grays in tweeds and herringbones. As the
decade progressed plaids, checks, and both pinstripes and chalk stripes
became more popular than tweeds and herringbones. White replaced dark
colors for summer suits in linen or flannel for those who could afford sea-
sonal wardrobes as depicted in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Decorative elements were minimal in men’s suiting and were typically
limited to welt pockets, half-belts, and shoulder yokes. Solid cotton shirts
in white or cream were standard for most conservative businessmen.
However, a range of stripes, checks, and geometric patterns were also
popular in lavender, pink, and blue rayon and silk fabrics.
CASUAL WEAR
Silhouette
In the 1920s, radio, movies, telephones, airplanes, and automobiles made
the world a smaller place, and jazz music gave American society a rhythm.
Society became more health conscious and participated in numerous
sports such as football, swimming, tennis, and skiing. The youth move-
ment replaced courtship with dating, taking young couples out of the
family parlor and into a movie theater, speakeasy, or motoring excursion.
Increasing numbers of both men and women moved away from home to
attend college. These factors, combined together, brought the demand for
a new sporting wear (later dubbed ‘ sportswear’’) that could be worn for
informal gatherings and athletic activity (Blum 1981, 3). The need for
comfort and functionality demanded a departure from the traditional forms
of clothing previously worn by the middle and upper classes.
Jackets
The Norfolk jacket was worn for casual activities in the 1920s. Norfolk jack-
ets featured many structural details such as belts, shoulder yokes, inset panels,
and large patch pockets compared with business wear and formalwear jack-
ets. Norfolk jackets were worn over vests or, more typically, sweater vests, by
many college students, thus dubbing the look the ‘ collegiate style.’
Shirts
Jackets were no longer a mandatory component of men’s casual wear.
Sweaters and cardigans became substitutes for jackets in the 1920s,
whereas turtlenecks and polo shirts became substitutes for button-down
1920s, The Jazz Age
267
shirts. Crew neck and shawl collar pullover sweaters and cardigan sweaters
with shawl collars in heavy rib and shaker knits were preferred to jackets.
Pants
Knickers are probably one of the garments most synonymous with men’s
casual wear from the 1920s. Knickers (originally called knickerbockers),
previously only worn by young boys, were adopted by men as emblematic
of the youth movement sweeping America. Knickers came in two distinct
forms: oxford bags and plus fours. Plus fours were originally popularized
by the Prince of Wales (known as the Duke of Windsor after his abdica-
tion of the throne) for golfing and athletic activities. Oxford bags were a
more extreme version of plus fours, up to thirty-two inches
in diameter,
that are believed to have originated at Oxford College (Tortora and
Eubank 2005, 396). The style was so named because the pants were four
inches longer than the more traditional knickers. Knickers in any form,
although popular with college students, were deemed inappropriate by
college faculty. The ban on knickers reportedly enticed some students to
wear extremely wide-legged trousers over their knickers so that, after
class, they could drop their trousers and be instantly ready for social activ-
ities. Whether this long-held story has any basis in reality, the fact
remains that when not wearing knickers, wide-leg trousers were the pre-
ferred pant form for casual events.
Decorative Details
Casual wear was not only a departure from traditional dress in form, but
it was also a departure in color and pattern. Knickers, trousers, jackets,
and vests were all fabricated separately, mixing and matching solids and
patterns so that no two pieces ever matched. Bold colors, such as maroon,
orange, gold, and navy, and patterns, such as checks, stripes, and plaids,
were combined together for eclectic sporty, collegiate looks.
OUTERWEAR
Coats
Traditional Chesterfields in wool melton with velvet collars and Ulsters
were worn for business wear and formalwear. Both featured single-
breasted, fly-front button-down closures with either set-in or raglan
sleeves and often sported belts or half-belts across the back. Chesterfields
and Ulsters were available in plaids, stripes, tweeds, and herringbones.
More fashion-forward men and young men preferred polo coats to Ches-
terfields and Ulsters. Polo coats became popular after the British polo
268
MEN’S FASHIONS
team played exhibition matches in the United States (Tortora and Eubank
2005, 399). Polo coats were made from tan camel’s hair and were double
breasted with six buttons and a half-belt across the back. Fashionable col-
legiate young men also donned the ubiquitous raccoon coats.
Other Garments
Long dusters in cotton canvas, either single or double breasted, were a
must for ‘ motoring’’ to protect a man’s suit from the dust and inclement
weather encountered in open-air vehicles on dirt roads. Leather jackets
lined with lamb’s wool were worn for casual activities, whereas fishermen’s
gear and rubber coats were adopted as raincoats.
SWIMWEAR AND SPORTSWEAR
Swimwear
The 1920s witnessed an increase in the sport of swimming, spurred on by
Gertrude Ederle’s record-breaking swim across the English Channel and
a preference for healthy-looking, sun-tanned skin as a status symbol of
wealth and leisure. As a result, men’s swimwear continued to diminish in
size and increase in functionality.
Both one-piece and two-piece styles were available in lightweight wool
jersey knit. Suits featured either one-piece construction with trunks and
tank knit as one unit with buttons across the shoulder, or two-piece con-
struction with separate tank and trunks. Tanks on two-piece designs were
either worn long, with a slightly flared hemline, on the outside of the
trunks or more fitted and tucked into the trunks. As the decade pro-
gressed, the tank became smaller in scale or was replaced by only shoulder
straps. Both one- and two-piece designs featured horizontal stripes across
the chest and tank hem and contrast trim around the armholes, both typi-
cally in red or white. Gray, navy, red, and black were standard colors for
swimwear.
Golf
The Prince of Wales (also known as the Duke of Windsor after he abdi-
cated the throne) was a sports enthusiast and fashion leader during the
1920s. The baggy, full-cut knickers he was depicted wearing during golf
outings, dubbed plus fours because they draped four inches below the
knees, became a key component of the quintessential golf ensemble worn
by men on the course. Knickers and plus fours either buttoned at the knee
or were gathered into knit bands and were paired with fitted Norfolk
1920s, The Jazz Age
269
jackets or rib knit cardigan or shawl-collar sweaters. Norfolk jackets, also
popularized by the Duke of Windsor, featured waist seams with belts or
tab closures, front and back shoulder yokes, large patch pockets with flap
closures, and extensive topstitching. Soft-collar button-down shirts were
worn under jackets and sweaters. Soft crown golf caps or tams with small
visors completed the ensemble. Brown, olive, and gray tweeds were the
most common fabrications.
Skiwear
Skiing, another extremely popular sport in the 1920s, co-opted golf cloth-
ing to combine warmth and functionality on the slopes. Knickers or plus
fours, heavy cardigans, turtle necks and shawl-collar sweaters, and Norfolk
jackets were donned for the ski slopes as well as the golf course.
Other Activewear
Tennis, popularized by Rene Lacoste’s (nicknamed ‘‘Le Crocodile’’) string
of victories in the mid to late 1920s, also produced a need for functional
apparel. In the early part of the 1920s, standard soft-collar, button-down
shirts were worn with flannel trousers by most men playing tennis.
Lacoste popularized an alternative shirt (later dubbed the polo shirt), fab-
ricated from lightweight cotton knit with short sleeves and rib knit collar,
that was not only cooler but provided stretch for ease of movement.
White was considered the only acceptable color on the tennis court.
The 1924 Olympics held in Paris, France, help to popularize all forms
of sports and athletics. The interest in sports and athletics during the
1920s also witnessed increased popularity in riding, hunting, and hiking
because of the growth of the middle class with increased funds to spend
on leisure pursuits. All three sports also co-opted versions of the golf en-
semble. However, riding pants were more fitted through the hips than
golf knickers, and riding ensembles were paired with tall boots rather than
the oxford shoes worn for golfing.
UNDERWEAR AND INTIMATE APPAREL
Underwear
One-piece union suits with short or long sleeves and short or long legs
were common throughout the first part of the 1920s. As the decade pro-
gressed, knee-length drawers paired with sleeveless undershirts replaced
the one-piece union suits. Drawers featured a button fly, and the under-
shirts were sleeveless and were either pullovers or featured button fronts.
Both wovens and knits were used to fabricate men’s underwear.
270
MEN’S FASHIONS
Sleepwear
Full-length nightshirts were still worn in early part of the 1920s. Night-
shirts featured long center front-button plackets and long sleeves. Paja-
mas replaced nightshirts by the middle of the decade. Pajamas featured
long button-down shirts paired with matching trousers. Some pajama
tops were either collarless or featured soft collars, and many featured a
belt or sash. Men’s pajamas, in keeping with the fascination with oriental
styles, also incorporated kimono sle
eves, band collars, asymmetrical frog
closures, and oriental patterns. Kimono robes were also popular. Night-
shirts, pajamas, and robes were fabricated from cotton, flannel, silk, and
rayon in plain white, solid colors, stripes, and geometric or oriental
prints.
HEADWEAR, HAIRSTYLES, AND COSMETICS
Headwear
Men wore a range of felted bowlers, fedoras, derbies, and homburgs for
business and formal occasions. Hats were in basic tans, browns, blacks,
and grays and featured grosgrain ribbon hat bands, typically in black or
dark brown. Straw boaters and Panama hats in tan
or white were worn for summer business attire and
casual activities, whereas tweed, plaid, and striped
wool tams or soft crown caps with small visors were
for golfing, riding, skiing, and other sporting
activities.
Hairstyles
The cinema star Rudolph Valentino was the epit-
ome of men’s fashions and hair styling in the 1920s.
His short cropped hair was plastered tight to his
head with pomade, as if his hair was a hard helmet.
Adaptations of his signature style were either center
parted, side parted, or combed straight back.
Although men were predominantly clean shaven
throughout the decade, some men did sport a pen-
cil-thin mustache.
Cosmetics
Fashionable men in the 1920s styled their hair with
pomades, hair creams, and tonics to create sculpted,
Rudolph Valentino. [Library of Congress]
smooth styles.
1920s, The Jazz Age
271
FOOTWEAR AND LEGWEAR
Footwear
Oxfords and wingtip shoes replaced the high-button boots or spats of the
previous eras. Both oxfords and wingtips featured either pointed or
squared toes and either perforated or embossed designs. Brown, tan, and
black leather were the most common colors, although white or two-toned
shoes were worn in summer. High-top canvas ‘ sporting’’ shoes with rub-
ber soles became available for athletic wear.
Legwear
Socks were highly patterned and colored in the 1920s, especially those
worn with knickers or plus fours. Argyles, chevrons, diamonds, and stripes
were common patterns.
NECKWEAR AND OTHER ACCESSORIES
Neckwear
The four-in-hand tie was the most popular neckwear style in the 1920s.
Ties were shorter in length, ending well above the waistline (because they
