Apparel Arts and Esquire Images

[theoldesouth]

Thank you, Minh. Nice to see some of the charms of the world as it was not long before many of us arrived on the scene.

[Minh]

For Christmas Eve, a guide to what to pack for the holidays from Esquire January 1935:



Enlarged:




A fascinating detail is that the formal dress shirts are made of either linen or silk.

Resort wear:



A herringbone cheviot tweed ulster for the winter:



A white silk shirt to be worn at Palm Beach:



A Christmas gift guide:



To answer Angelo's query, the issues of AA and Esquire I've seen so far do not have the fabric samples, but I've scanned only a slim percentage of them. More to come.

For daytime formal-wear, inspired by the Duke of Windsor:



The list of authors who contributed to this issue is extraordinary -- F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hermingway, Ezra Pound, Theodore Dreiser, and Langston Hughes:

[Minh]

This is the very first issue of Esquire, from Autumn 1933. This passage was particularly inspirational, in view of the London Lounge tweeds:

It is impossible to over-emphasize the importance of soft rough fabrics in any consideration of clothes for campus wear. The popularity of rougher clothes in browns and Lovats, both in tweeds of the Harris type and in the soft handling homespuns, Shetlands and Saxonies is universal among the better dressed members of the fashion setting groups of upper classmen at Princeton and Yale.

I've included the smaller image to show the whole page and title, and the larger image to make the text more readable and to emphasize the texture of the cloth:



Lovely shoes. Look at that deep shade of brown in the blucher, and the beautifully elegant last on the wingtips:

This belted overcoat with raglan shoulders is gradually taking its place as the successor to the double breasted tan camel hair polo coat with pearl buttons which was, for such a long time, virtually the campus uniform in eastern prep schools and universities. These coats are made up, in this one model, in the softer handling fabrics of various weights and they go very well with the rougher suitings that are so dominant on every campus.

A single-breasted, peak lapel suit with jetted pockets:





A peak lapel, fly-front overcoat in dark grey cashmere with a herringbone pattern:

[jscherrer]

The grey with wide alternating blue/white stripe on p. 75 is edgy for business, but a guy with salt could pull it off. I'd love to see a LL version.

Also, I saw a few suits and coats in a diagonal weave throughout the illustrations...that's something you don't see every day. A good LL project? Say in a nice dark taupe? Hope so!

[alden]

The grey with wide alternating blue/white stripe on p. 75 is edgy for business, but a guy with salt could pull it off. I'd love to see a LL version.

There are three 1930s style alternating stripes in the LL Fox flannel book including this lovely example that is very similar to the one in the illustration:

http://www.themerchantfox.co.uk/prod/24 ... ton-stripe

Cheers

[alden]

The list of authors who contributed to this issue is extraordinary -- F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hermingway, Ezra Pound, Theodore Dreiser, and Langston Hughes:

And French novelist, Henri Barbusse, author of "Under Fire" who would pass away in August of that same year.

I don't think, in a hundred years, readers will pick up Esquire, Time, GQ or any magazine for that matter and be stunned by the names listed there like we are by this 1935 edition. I continue to believe that future generations will study the period "Between the Two Wars" the way we study the Renaissance.

Minh, Thank you for posting these. It was a wonderful Christmas present for all of us.

Cheers

[preobrazhensky]

Michael, would it ever be possible to add to the LL linens a couple of shirtings in dull reds, like the 'Salmon' and the 'Oxblood' seen here, or something in between like a brick red? I have been looking for similar, but I can't find anything out there.

Merry Christmas!

[jscherrer]

Thanks for directing me to the LL Fox Flannel book Michael...I hadn't noticed those diagonals before. And the Gerberston is fantastic--it's on my list!

[Minh]

Michael, the pleasure is mine. The real Christmas gift has been to enjoy the London Lounge and the unsurpassed cloths you've designed.

I continue to believe that future generations will study the period "Between the Two Wars" the way we study the Renaissance.

That's a very interesting observation. Imagine what it was like to read literature before the modernist period between the wars. If we were in a library in 1890, what authors would we have to read who were less than century old? Perhaps Kipling, Dickens, and Austen. But there would be no Proust, no Joyce, no Eliot. In American letters, we might have James, but no Fitzgerald, Faulkner, or Hemingway. The 1920s and 30s were decades of incandescent intellect and artistry.

My theory about this is that the periods of greatest creativity are when the old order is ending. Artists question the timeworn ways of a dying era, and the upheaval calls forth all their powers of originality. Yet the old order has not completely faded, and artists still have the inheritance of the past, with its profound knowledge and skill accumulated over generations. The Enlightenment and interwar years were both times when the the spirit of experimentation coupled with the mastery of tradition to give birth to genius.

[Minh]

For Christmas Day, the first issue of Esquire, Autumn 1933, continued:

The jacket and trousers flow smoothly together in this beautiful blue suit. The closely cut bottom of the jacket meets the fuller cut of the trouser tops, so the transition between the two is seamless. You can hardly tell where the jacket ends and the trousers begin.





A single-breasted three piece suit with lapeled vest:



Cuffs are moderate and the trousers are clean, with no break:



"With the new trend toward rougher textures, brown suitings have been given a greatly increased importance in the fashion picture."





I remember Michael's earlier post on warmer overcoat linings: (viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11245). Interestingly, this windowpane overcoat is lined in "a sturdy, hard-wearing worsted, although the outer surface is a soft handling cashmere."





A herringbone double-breasted suit:





Outerwear for the horse racing set:





A tattersall check waistcoat for riding:





A Lovat jacket in shetland tweed with heavy flannel trousers:



Today it's quite common and attractive to wear a blue shirt with tweed jackets. What's striking is how in the Esquire of the 1930s, many of the shirts were earth toned:

[uppercase]

Thanks Minh for taking the time and trouble to post these.
A lot of inspiration here.

[hectorm]

Very valuable and enjoyable stuff, Minh. Thank you very much for taking the time and sharing.

[ismailalmurtadza]

Thanks Minh for taking the time and trouble to post these.
A lot of inspiration here.

Minh,
Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
I hope you will continue posting the Esky/apperal art illustration for the new year to come.
from me,a thousand thanks.

murtadza

[theoldesouth]

Helpful to have the two sizes of each image, too. Thank you, again, so much.

[Minh]

Happy holidays to Michael, Murtadza, uppercase, J.S. Groot, JB, Joel, David, Couch, T.K., Angelo, Scot, theoldesouth, Jscherrer, Preobrazhensky, Hectorm, and my fellow members of the London Lounge. Knowing that such elegant and knowledgeable gentleman are enjoying the Esquire and Apparel Arts images makes all the work worthwhile.

For today, we have the February, 1935 issue of Esky, with Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Pound.



What to wear when skiing in St. Moritz, a tableau:





The overcoat in the upper left-hand corner is lined in fur with a mink collar. The overcoat in the center is in cashmere. The tailcoat in the upper right-hand corner is midnight blue, following the style precedent of the Duke of Windsor. The double-breasted vest is correctly fitted above the front points of the tailcoat.



A heavy tweed balmacaan with a camel-hair lining. Back in the 1930s, men knew Michael's point that Bemberg was too cold a lining for an overcoat in winter. The balmacaan is worn with a grey cheviot suit:





You'll be warm in a double-breasted, fur-lined tweed overcoat. The overcoat is paired with a glen plaid Saxony suit. The chinchilla in the navy guard's coat on the left does not refer to fur, but to a heavy woolen overcoat fabric. The double-breasted is three-piece in a worsted flannel:





Something you don't see everyday from Lawrence Fellows -- suggested wear for a larger gentleman. Esquire delicately notes, "every so often we get conscious of the extreme angularity of Mr. Fellows' heroes."





A heavy tweed 3-roll-2 suit:





A tweed Norfolk jacket with grey heavy tweed breeches for skiing:





Lovely grey trousers in a larger-scale herringbone:





Cartoon characters were better dressed in 1935:



Even the advertisements from Esquire were supremely elegant: