Another Haberdashery Adventure!

I found another one of these gems in The Haberdasher!

More Stories from "The Haberdasher"

A couple more entertaining tales from a 1922 issue of The Haberdasher.

Tie Breaker

Ooh! I wonder what the outcome of this little correspondence in a 1922 issue of The Haberdasher was? 

The Razor of Youth

According to this ad from a 1922 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, shaving with the Valet Auto-stop Razor is the key to keeping young. "Leading dermatologists now tell us three men in four, past 35, look years older than they are because of improper methods of shaving," they say, and go on to declare "For youth, a keen blade." I can honestly say, I've never seen this precise angle taken with a men's razor ad before, and the illustrations drive the message home, sketching out a dire warning to the reader: "Don't use the Valet Auto-stop Razor? Then, say hello to crow's feet, bags under your eyes, and a double chin." It is very dramatic.

A Friendly Cardi

Hats are not the only articled of apparel that you can befriend. According to this 1922 ad from The Saturday Evening Post, Tom Wye knit jackets make great pals! They are practical, stylish, and always up for an outdoor adventure. 

Portlandia

Is there anything more Portland than an artisanal confectioner's-smoking lounge fusion, where you can get a shave, and try on the latest thing in hats? 

Adventures in Haberdashery

During the early 1920s, The Haberdasher ran a nifty little contest called "The Funniest Sight" where shopkeepers and sales clerks could share stories of their most amusing or bizarre experiences in the the haberdashery business. The top two or three entries would be printed and illustrated each month, and the winner received $5.00.

Below are two hilarious anecdotes from The Haberdasher's "Funniest Sight" contest of April 1922. Click the text to zoom.

Plotting a Comeback

For the last couple of centuries, western menswear has been largely shaped by what a select number of taste-makers declare to be correct, tasteful, and manly. It doesn't matter if they endorse fur collars, leather pumps, blue and gray suits, or lavender pajamas, when the demigods of fashion have spoken, the menswear industry, as a whole, puts its shoulder to the wheel, and makes a valiant effort to win some small sign of their icy approval    

Of course, what do you do, when the demigods of fashion decide to turn up their discerning noses at your branch of the industry? What if you no longer fit in with the aesthetics of the moment, or worse still, what if they dismiss your products as gauche? What were the experts in sequin embroidery to do, when Beau Brummell denounced the wholesale bedazzling of the tailor's craft?

Below is a letter to the editor of The Jeweler's Circular from August 1st 1922, addressing an article exploring the issue. As the public fascination with sports began to inform the laws of menswear, the trend-setters and taste-makers of the day decided that little glittering accessories should, for the time being, be kept to a minimum. Jewelers needed a plan to re-establish the market for men's jewelry, when the average Joe on the street had, out of respect for his favorite trend setters, firmly decided that most jewelry was no longer "correct." 

Diamond Dragnet

I've found that most fashion industry journals from the 1920s are quiet affairs. They publish the latest trends in lapel notches, and the best ways to arrange silk neckties in windows. The height of drama, on their well ordered pages, might be a little coy feuding between fashion scholars and adventurous trendsetters, or perhaps a hint of a copyright infringement scandal. 

Not so, with The Jeweler's Circular! That robust periodical is glittering with more drama than a rack of dime novels! Jewel heists, automat holdups, car chases, cavalier criminals who give their victims sporting chances at escape, bugged hotel rooms, and detectives in disguise, The Jeweler's Circular has it all in spades. 

Here's one example that is the stuff of Hollywood classics!

Prize-Winning Prototypes

Like the stock market, the fashionable male's waistline has a tendency to go up and down over the decades, and in the early 1920s it momentarily alighted somewhere near three quarters of the way down the fashionable male's ribcage. 

Below are three prize winning jackets by H. Daroff and Son.'s designer, Pietro Yantorno. Note how, on Yantorno's third prize model, that the waist suppression begins almost right under the arms, and on the belted model (lower left), by Dryfous and Lang's designer, Gus Reinhardt, the belt seems to be placed right above the point of the elbow. 

I'm guessing that these high-waisted jackets were a real joy for naturally short-waisted gentlemen. Their particular physique had not been a trendy one in western fashion, for at least a century. Finally in the late 1910s and early 1920s, they could purchase ready-made jackets, that were cut to be the narrowest, right where they were naturally the slimmest.       

Speaking of slim, in the following collection of jackets by international designers, one can see some fine examples of the "marked tendency to waisty effects" mentioned by " The Baron." in 1921.  

Majoring in Taste

I found this charming little illustration (by Forbell) and excerpt from an article by Richard C. Bohem, summarizing 1922 style trends on college campuses. In the first part of the article, Bohem discusses the disparity between the way college boys were portrayed on the stage (often loudly dressed, and a little sloppy), and actual campus fashion, which consisted mostly of comfortable, tidy, looks, with an occasional preppy, or fashion-forward perspective. After mentioning sportswear, and sack coats, which had become a college staple, the article is concluded with the following: