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I have been adding a great collection of reprinted articles and ads on men's fashion from my collection of vintage magazines. Hope these will help you better acquaint yourself with the styles of the past.

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Color And The Man

By Howard Ketcham

There will be larger wardrobes... and more selling ... when men recover the of their taste in
color, says AMERICAN FABRICS' consultant editor on color. Men AR subject to herd instinct when they choose clothing; they are also subject to group loyalties involved in the old school tie, their clubs and military and fraternal associations. All of these loyalties present color associations. Capitalize on these loyalties and the color associations, and men's pre-19th century may be revived.

" Nowadays if men are more serious than women it's because their clothes are darker"

This perspicacious observation by France's gifted winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Andre' Gide, is a commentary on the sad fall which men's taste in costume color has taken the past hundred years

The curve in the appeal of bright colors in men's wear has shown a slight turn upward after a long swoop in the drab shadows of Victorian hues. A century ago, men still decked themselves in lavender or purple vestments; today, the nearest a man can came to it is a deep violet blue or wine red.

There are certain exceptions ... sports shirts, neckties, and even pajamas. But what has happened to the business shirts in salmon pink, heliotrope, and canary yellow that festooned haberdashery window only a year ago?

A knowing authority on the art of appealing to women in advertising copy, the engaging Bj Kidd, contrasts the technique of selling men and to women: Miss Salesgirl says to her woman customer: "Yes, ma'am, it's exclusive, there's not another like it in town." Mr. Salesman says to his man customer: " Yes, sir, it's our best seller: you'll see everyone wearing it."

Therein lies the key to restoration of man's courage to employ the colors that nature meant for his pleasure. The vast reservoir of color associations which men cherish as symbols of their schools, their fraternal organizations, and their military units can open the door to color men's wear by combining group feeling and love of color.

Nature did not mean the drab role for men. It is evident in the animal kingdom, whose gaily bedecked males strut before dowdy mates.

Even the blue-green of the peacock's tail is of a shimmering brightness, with a 97 per cent reflection value which compares with the less than 60 per cent reflection of the brightest blue printing ink. Of course, it may be that the peacock has courage to strut his colors before his hen because all others of his breed are as brightly caparisoned. Until the recent past, men had the same courage of group participation in wearing colorful apparel. It took modern civilization to slow down the human male, color wise.

The purple shunned by men today was worn to denote the rank of Homer;s Greek heroes when Troy fell, and appears earlier still in Biblical references to vestments for the priests and ornaments for the Tabernacle. Changing variations marked the use of purple in the Roman Empire, when 5000 molluscs were required to make a gram of purple dye. When the Pilgrims reached these shores, Elder Bradford wrote that "There's not a wealthy man among 'em - not a patch of purple."

Medieval Color Influences

The monastic orders in medieval times formed one of the more important group influences in styling apparel color. One such order robed itself in red cap, green or yellow coat, red trousers, scarlet leggings, and blue or green cloak. The uniformity of the colored attire made it acceptable to the individuals. Five centuries later, the red headpiece became the church symbol for the cardinal's rank.

Medieval peasantry in France was restricted to grey by edict of Charlemagne, and the modern peasant's smock of blue revives the quiet taste after centuries in which the French working class wore yellow, green, brown and grey.

In ancient Ireland the rank of a family was revealed by the number of colors in their garments. Peasant apparel was in solid color, while the the ancient Irish kings were garbed in seven color outfits.

With the rise of feudalism, a code of color symbols spread across the fiefdoms of Europe, and the colors emblazoned on the knights' shield served as a source for his selection of apparel colors. Seven basic colors were employed:
                                     Argent - silver or white             Or - gold or yellow
                                    Azure - blue                             Purpure - purple
                                   Gules - red                               Sable - black
                                                                 Vert - green

    In addition, the shields bore such symbolic representations as ermine, with the fur of the ermine flecked by conventional black spots on a background of argent; metal, a combination of the gold and silver colors; the sea; represented by wavy bars of argent and azure; and vair, the heraldic representation of squirrel's fur in argent and azure, which was restricted to the use of certain classes of nobility and added a connotation of economy

    Color symbolism in the heraldic was intricate, with such special designations as armed, when an animal bore claws, horns or beak in a different color from the body; attired, when antlers of a stag differed from the body color; barbed, when a rose bore leaves of different color; beaked, when a non-predatory bird was pictured with beak in different color; langued, with tongue in different color; membered, with legs in different color; and vaned, with vanes of different color. Many of these applications offer inspiration for designs for fabric today. even as they inspired the apparel of the entourage of noble families.

Rise of the Scottish Clan Colors

    In the Scottish Highlands, descendants of the Celtic tribes whose excellent woven cloths in brilliant colors had excited the Romans, developed the color code of the tartan. The colors and patterns of that plaid woolen all-purpose garment ... a cloak by day and blanket by night ... were obtained in distinctive and soft effects through use of vegetable and moss dyes, and the Highlanders of old were skillful in maintaining the color patterns. Originally, there were about 40 clans whose use of an individual plaid pattern is justified by history, but as the clans increased in size the cadets ... chiefs of the branches ... added a line or two of color to the clan tartan to indicate the subdivisions. In later centuries, too, such clans as the Stewarts devised a special darker tartan with colors less conspicuous, for hunting.

    Altogether, the Highlanders numbered less than 200,000 wearers of
the clan tartan at the time of the ill-fated uprising of Culloden in 1745,
after which a 37-year ban barred the wearing of the emblematic garment.
Today there is a rebirth of interest in this old symbol in fashion circles
everywhere.

     One of the outstanding pioneers in the use of color for the basic apparel
of the American male, Ray Twyeffort ... past president of the National
Association of Merchant Tailors of America and sponsor in this country of
the colored dinner jacket... has now come out with tartan-colored tuxedos.
Both are fashions Capt. J. A. Murdocke first spotted abroad. One tailor in
Buffalo has sold twelve of them, and vast excitement was stirred when a Milwaukee financier wore a hunting Stewart tartan tuxedo to an investment bankers session, and a Pittsburgh convention was attended by a man in a yellow and dark blue MacLeod plaid.

    Changing Scenes Affect Colors

    Even as the tartan colors set enduring associations and loyalties in the glens and valleys of the Scottish hills, and the color symbolism of feudal knighthood prevailed in the dress beyond moated castle walls, the Church established color meanings in Britain and elsewhere in its domain.

    At the same time, a growing availability of fabric and dyes, combined with the new outlook fostered by the Crusades and the new bourgeoisie in the thriving cities, was reflected in added color in apparel. From the colorful floats and garments of the pageant-filled festivals, it was a short step to colorful clothes for the craftsmen in the new trade guilds and for the city fathers. Each town developed its colors its color standards, and the loyalty of Parisians to the city's red and white is akin to the feeling of Americans for the symbol of the red, white and blue. There is one difference, however; in 14th-century Paris, the city fathers and guild-masters actually wore the colors, in vertical panels.

    Color took on political significance in the red and blue head gear worn by
followers of Etienne Marcel in anti-nobility outbreaks. Servitors to the nobility
wore the colors of the family emblem, and finally the family itself chose less
conspicuous hues for apparel; the gaily-colored livery became symbolic of the
serving class

    In England, Lincoln green was popular long after Robin Hood, and the
Pilgrims' progress across the ocean in the Mayflower was enlivened by the gay
green and russet brown of their apparel. Elder William Brewster was pious in
red cap, violet coat and green drawers

    In France, the high-heeled shoe was introduced to the world of fashion by
short King Louis XIV, and le roi soliel wore his novel elevato footwear in red.

     When King Charles II returned to England from France, he brought back the glory of color in men's attire, and this last stand of brilliance and luxury in men's dress endured until the French Revolution and the introduction of long trousers marked the end of colorful men's wear.

Colors and Men's Clubs

     Through the centuries, however, associations of color and symbolism were forming the basis of a relationship of color to men's organizations. The cult of the old school tie is founded on the theme that where men share loyalty they share color.

    Men's clubs had started in ancient Greece, with religious worship of the hetaireia ... special sects which bowed to gods not of the state religion. In Rome there were Sodalities ... the clubs founded around the Roman baths ... political associations, poor men's burial societies, and even trade associations. King Henry IV of England founded the first luncheon club, Le Court de Bon Compagnie, and Sir Walter Raleigh established the Bread Street Club at the Mermaid Tavern. A spate of coffee house clubs - and gambling clubs as well - became woven into the British social scheme, and followed to the United States with the Sans Souci Club of Boston in 1785 and the Turtle Club of Hoboken in 1797.

     Club colors developed in 1843, when the Zingari Cricket Club appeared on the field of sport dressed in gypsy black, red and gold. The Marylebone Cricketing Club soon after adopted red and yellow. At Rugby, the players wore velvet caps with tinsel plates and silver tassels.

     At the universities, clubs developed their own color; at Oxford the Vincent's Club wore tie of dark blue and silver crowns, and at Cambridge the Hawks wore dark red with narrow stripes.

&nabs;&nabs;&nabs;&nabs; Among the other clubs, color emblems rose in many ways. When Mr. Norman Forbes entered the Gar rick Club quarters, wearing a tie of pink and grey, fellow-members of the theatrical club jibed at him and were told. "This is the Garrick Club tie." And it came true. A famed officer of the Household Brigade was accosted, according to a popular old story, by a choleric old gentleman who demanded, "Are you aware, sir that you are pirating the colors of the Upper Tooting Bicycle Club?"

The Old School Tie

    The many great and old public schools of Great Britain, dating back as far as Winchester, founded in 1384, bear historic colors which are worn today. Neckwear can yet prove only thestarting point for color combinations which will apply to more basic garments for men.

    The color loyalties of every college and high school graduate are wrapped around colors of the old school. I can readily attest to the feeling of staid business men for the colors of the old school tie; recently, in developing a color line for a manufacturer of marine paints. I found a more ready acceptance of the unique and original color line I had worked up, after the company president, a Princeton man, providentially found a Nassau orange among the different colors I proposed for his company.

    An effective merchandising plan for a progressive manufacturer of men's wear would be to set up a line of color combinations embracing the most commonly used school colors, with instructions to the retailer to adopt promotional names tying in the colors at point-of-sale to the local high schools and nearby colleges.

Military Units Offer Color Stimulus

     Military colors, too offer a prospect for applying the group loyalties of men to color. Fredrick the Great is credited with stimulating the pride of his Prussian armies through restoration of color to military trappings, and in the post-war period of American demobilization, a plan was seriously considered to bolster volunteer enlistments by establishing a uniform including blue-grey coat, silver blue buttons, royal blue trousers, and orange braid. Great was the outcry in Great Britain when the scarlet of the Home Guard was eliminated; greater was the rejoicing last year when the Brigade of Guards was permitted to restore the scarlet full-dress tunic for such public duty in London as the guarding of Buckingham Palace and, in fact, a declining rate of enlistment was checked.

     Britain's colorful regimental units of guards, cavalry, infantry and artillery bear historic honors in the regimental colors which have been a popular source of inspiration for striped neckwear. The King's Hussars wear navy blue, gold and maroon; the Dragoon gauds, black, ruby and grey; the Seaforth Highlanders, navy, gold and ruby; the 11th Hussars a distinctive red trouser commemorating a Napoleonic war triumph in Spain; the Black Watch, scarlet, green and blue, with scarlet feather to denote a notable triumph against Napoleon; the Royal Scots, oldest infantry unit in continuous military history, blue, tan and scarlet.

    The colors of military units are strongly keyed to masculine taste for red and blue colors, typical of these among American military regimental and divisional stripings and colors are the red, blue, grey and gold of the Air Forces, and the blue, red and grey of the Air Transport Command.

     One of the factors that has weakened the appeal of military emblem colors in civilian applications is the tendency to distribute the colors in even-spaced stripings. As one of the outstanding hospital administrators phrased it, " the use of perfectly harmonious colors in a room would cause the patient to scream for a change of pace." Applying the same theme to the regularity of spacing of military colors in designs for civilian apparel, one might quote the poet Robert Herrick:

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness.

    It is a curious fact that a study Colors used in the world's 28,000 military decorations, orders and medals finds not more than 15 colors in use, in a total of 105 color combinations. Beyond that, the military mind has provided no alternative but copying and minor changes in color distribution.

Woman's Influence in Colors for Men

    In the selection of men's apparel, the dominating influence may doubtless be summed up in one word ... women. Estimates of the percentage of men who buy clothing under the supervision of their distaff consultant range from 35 to 60 per cent, with the figures for accessory purchases ranging as high as 85 per cent. Women who shop for men's apparel are torn between their own freedom of approach to color and an awareness of the inhibitions that shackle the male.

      Place some facts on group color loyalty in the hands of the woamn and you will have less difficulty enriching the colors of man's attire. And with greater freedom to use color, men will perforce require larger wardrobes; certainly the brighter colors cannot be worn with the day-in day-out regularity of solemn blues, greys and browns.

      It's largely a matter of education ... for the man, and for the little woman. One of the nice stories of Abraham Lincoln's home life relate how the President complimented his wife on a new dress, commenting that the blue flowers in the dress design were the color of here eyes. Turning to here sister, Marry Todd Lincoln delightedly exclaimed: " You see, Emilie, I am training my husband to see color. I do not think he knew pink from blue when I married him."
                   -HOWARD KETCHAM  

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