Putting on the Ritz in Morning Dress

[Sator]

I just had a listen to Ella Fitzgerald singing Irwin Berlin's Putting on the Ritz and it suddenly dawned on me she is singing about dapper chappies down Park Avenue in morning dress with the cutaway coat and striped trousers:


Have you seen the well-to-do
Up and down Park Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare
With their noses in the air

High hats and narrow collars
White spats and lots of dollars
Spending every dime
For a wonderful time

Now, if you're blue
And you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Different types who wear a daycoat
Pants with stripes and cutaway coat
Perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz

Dressed up like a million dollar trooper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper
Super-duper

Come, let's mix where Rockefellers
Walk with sticks or "umberellas"
In their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

------ short instrumental break ------

Tips his hat just like an English chappie
To a lady with a wealthy pappy
Very snappy

You'll declare it's simply topping
To be there and hear them swapping
Smart tidbits
Puttin' on the Ritz











Evening formal dress gets a lot of attention (both here and on other forums) but daytime formal dress has often been somewhat neglected by comparison.

My question is what particular things one must be mindful of in bespeaking a morning coat. What constitutes a well cut million dollar trooper's 'cutaway coat" (as they tend to be called in America) of 'perfect fits'? I want to ask this because I feel waisted coats (dress coat, morning coat, frock coat, and spencer jacket) need to be cut with a different aesthetic to lounge suit coats (stroller coats, dinner jackets included).

Thoughts, opinions?

http://www.cutterandtailor.com/forum/in ... owtopic=96

[alden]

[Sator]

I've always preferred this photo myself:



http://www.cutterandtailor.com/forum/in ... owtopic=96

[Sator]

This one is another of my favourites. It dates from May of 1901.

Notice the silk facings to the lapels and the silk edge that runs around the edges of the coat. I also like the cuffs on the sleeves also edged with silk. The skirt is also shorter than later became standard length but throughout the 19th C. the length of the skirt went up and down like a yo-yo according to fashion. Another striking feature that has come out rather poorly here are the button holes running down the lapels - a feature on dress coats, frock coats and morning coats that died out after the Edwardian period.

I am sure those are Oxford boots with contrasting coloured tops.

The main tailoring feature common to this and the coat made for the Duke of Windsor is the exquisite degree of waist suppression. Nineteenth century tailoring manuals sometimes mention the fact that men often liked a snug cut around the waist. The Italian word for a morning coat is also a "tight" (using the English word). There is a reason why that waist seam is there after all.




http://www.cutterandtailor.com/forum/in ... owtopic=96

[Sator]

The first image comes courtesy of Brioni with a lovely example of a self-tie cravat.

The rest come from Villarosa and Angeli. I particularly like the buff coloured waistcoat in the last example. Buff is the more traditional colour for a waistcoat. Pity that the morning coat looks a size too big on the model.

In this portrait by Gainsborough from 1785, you can see that the tradition of buff coloured waistcoats has a long tradition indeed:

[

http://www.cutterandtailor.com/forum

[HappyStroller]

Fantastic posts, Sator. I thoroughly enjoyed the various images showing the various possibilities in Morning Dress fashion.

Just examing the image showing both Prince Charles and Princess(?) Camelia proved to be quite educational.

I notice the following things:-

1. His trousers does not have black stripes; instead the alternating stripes are medium grey and a pencil thin very light grey;

2. His shirt is not white; instead it and the cuffs are light blue with white chalk stripes. Only the collar is white;

3. The shirt has a point collar and French cuffs; perhaps the collar is detachable because it seems to float rather independently of the neck band. The cuffs are French because they look soft and the fold can be seen when the image is magnified 300 per cent.;

4. The right-hand side lapel does not seem to have a button-hole; and,

5. The endges of the lapels of the black Morning coat is hand-stitched.

[floatinjoe]

The rest come from Villarosa and Angeli. I particularly like the buff coloured waistcoat in the last example. Buff is the more traditional colour for a waistcoat. Pity that the morning coat looks a size too big on the model.

Sator, which book did these images come from? Is that a picture of an untied ascot at the bottom of the first picture?

I'd like to learn as much about formal ascots as possible, are there any good sources of information or pictures of untied ones out there? I've heard of the ascot being a 40-inch square that gets folded diagonally several times and then tied. I've alse heard that it is straight with no shape but a rectangle. But I've also seen pictures where the ends are like large paddles and the middle is narrow.

Any and all help is appreciated.

Mike

[Mark Seitelman]

[quote="Sator"]I just had a listen to Ella Fitzgerald singing Irwin Berlin's Putting on the Ritz and it suddenly dawned on me she is singing about dapper chappies down Park Avenue in morning dress with the cutaway coat and striped trousers:


Have you seen the well-to-do
Up and down Park Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare
With their noses in the air

High hats and narrow collars
White spats and lots of dollars
Spending every dime
For a wonderful time

Now, if you're blue
And you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Different types who wear a daycoat
Pants with stripes and cutaway coat
Perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz

Dressed up like a million dollar trooper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper
Super-duper

Come, let's mix where Rockefellers
Walk with sticks or "umberellas"
In their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

------ short instrumental break ------

Tips his hat just like an English chappie
To a lady with a wealthy pappy
Very snappy

You'll declare it's simply topping
To be there and hear them swapping
Smart tidbits
Puttin' on the Ritz



The above lyrics are very well known, but they are not the original lyrics.

These revised lyrics were written in 1946 for the film, "Blue Skies", where it was performed by Fred Astaire.

Essentially, the revised lyrics were about affluent whites "strutting up and down Fifth Avenue." The original lyrics were about Harlemites. It was featured in the 1930 film, "Putting on the Ritz", with Harry Richman.

Here are the original lyrics:

Have you seen the well to do
up on Lennox Avenue?
On that famous thoroughfare
with their noses in the air?
High hats and arrow collars
white spats and lost of dollars.
Spending ev'ry dime for a wonderful time.

If you're blue and
you don't know where to go to
why don't you where Harlem sits?
Putting on the Ritz.

Spangled gowns upon the bevee of high browns
from down the levee, all misfits
Putting on the Ritz.

That's where each an ev'ry Lulu-belle goes.
Ev'ry Thursday eeveing with her swell beaus
rubbing elbows.

Come with me and we'll attend the jubilee
and see them spend their last two bits.
Putting on the Ritz.

The original lyrics are rarely recorded. Steve Ross sings both versions on his recording of Fred Astaire songs, "I Won't Dance."

Wikipedia has a history of the song. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puttin'_on_the_Ritz