Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Suits - Pre 1920

Photographer is Tormod an t-Seòladair (Norman Morrison)

Somewhere 1910-1920ish. Wingnut, grim grandmother, Lewis Scotland.

Family-group-011.jpg


Slightly earlier family shot. Again on Lewis.

Island-life-a-Lewis-famil-011.jpg
 

Rudie

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,069
Location
Berlin
When did the turn-ups become common? I think even though the teens and early 20s had a skinny look going on it is aesthetically much more pleasing to me with the two-inch turn-ups than modern trousers without them.
 

The Good

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,361
Location
California, USA
When did the use of all buttons on coats fall out of practice? Was it during the 1910s or 1920s that most men stopped doing the bottom button? I think it's a bit of a shame that King Edward VII was what effectively caused it to become improper. Because of that one man's influence on fashion, it is still incorrect, and people today generally don't know why that is a convention. I think I remember reading that modern suits and sports jackets are made in a way that it is to the benefit of the jacket's shape that the bottom button is undone, although all of the buttons done do give a slimming effect.
 

Fastuni

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,277
Location
Germany
Though misunderstood today (as so many things) as a "rule", it was mostly a matter of fashion and preference.
It was and is perfectly fine to button the bottom button or button all buttons (say that ten times quick ;)).

It is of course also a matter of the cut of the jacket - or more specfically the button stance.
Jackets with a high button stance need the lowest button to be closed. From the early-20's to the mid-30's there were many coats with such placements.

Todays jackets have mostly very low set buttons (as do late-40's and 50's garments). Closing the lowest button often looks very silly on them.

(However don't get me started on modern suits... one actually feels the need to close the lowest button to close up to the terribly low pant waist.)
 

Tomasso

Incurably Addicted
Messages
13,719
Location
USA
Yeah, the bottom button rule is a relatively recent enactment. As is showing linen (shirt cuff). Back in the day both were considered a matter of individual preference. My grandfather buttoned up and covered his linen and was considered to be among the best dressed men in NY and Paris.
 

DamianM

Vendor
Messages
2,055
Location
Los Angeles
The buttoning of the bottom button was all in the cut of the jacket.
Anything prior of the mid 1920s was able to have the bottom button buttoned ( :) )
After that the cut started changing and buttoning the bottom button would distort the shape of such jackets.
So it can be considered preference until a certain period. I have lots of old pictures from the teens and most of these men and young men have only the bottom button buttoned and it goes with the cut of such a jacket.
 

Tomasso

Incurably Addicted
Messages
13,719
Location
USA
The buttoning of the bottom button was all in the cut of the jacket.
Anything prior of the mid 1920s was able to have the bottom button buttoned ( :) )
After that the cut started changing and buttoning the bottom button would distort the shape of such jackets.
So it can be considered preference until a certain period. I have lots of old pictures from the teens and most of these men and young men have only the bottom button buttoned and it goes with the cut of such a jacket.
:rolleyes:
If the cut of the jacket is such that all the buttons can be buttoned then it is a matter of personal preference as to how many buttons you chose to button. Jackets cuts allowing all buttons to be buttoned have always been available on the RTW market.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
109,097
Messages
3,074,083
Members
54,091
Latest member
toptvsspala
Top