Another Haberdashery Adventure!

I found another one of these gems in The Haberdasher!

Just Woke up Like This

Just waking up from a long winter's slumber, looking luxurious and radiating glamour.

An ad from a 1921 issue of 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? 

Tie Trouble

Another marvelous cartoon by Art Helfant, published in a 1921 issue of The Haberdasher.

Just Peachy!

An International Tailoring co. ad from a 1921 issue of The Haberdasher. This one speaks for itself. 

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.

Fashion Disaster

Behold, a tale of fortunes reversed, of trust betrayed, and the revelation of concealed truths! 

This priceless bit was printed in a 1921 issue of The Haberdasher

Merry's Windows

The Haberdasher and The Clothier and Furnisher would regularly run contests for the best window displays in the country, and I noticed, after scanning through several issues, that a certain window dresser from the midwest kept appearing in the winners' circle. He stood out, because while all the other winners usually had their hair slicked back, or to one side, the talented Mr. Merry, was always pictured with his locks piled into a wonderful pyramidal structure, daringly perched on the top of his head.

There he is, on the right, above some of the other winners of The Haberdasher's Display Championship. In 1921, he would win the championship for a second time. 

Here he is some years earlier, winning 2nd place in The Clothier and Furnisher's 1912 window dressing contest. 

And Here he is again, winning a Clothier and Furnisher competition in 1913, giving a little credit to his school. This bit was printed in Merchants Record and Show Window.

Below are some more examples of Mr. Merry's prize-winning work from The Haberdasher's 1920 Contest:

So, after seeing this shining star of window dressing pop up in periodical after periodical, you can imagine my excitement, when I saw the headline: "The King of Display Men Speaks!"In the following article, Mr. Merry sets down his guidelines for success: 

The Collar Struggles Continue

The quest to wear the latest in snug 1920s collars, claims another fashion victim , in this Art Helfant cartoon from a 1921 issue of The Haberdasher. 

Fashion Victim

Looking trendy is not always easy, especially when being the pinnacle of fashion means adopting extreme styles, like the close-fitting, perfectly crisp, and perfectly unforgiving stiff collars of the 1910s and 1920s. When starched to their limit, they could render their wearer quite uncomfortable, and, according to a few contemporary reports, sometimes even constricted gentlemen to the brink of faintness. 

A major draw-back to extreme trends, is that when they are in full swing, it becomes much more difficult for those who wish to be stylish and practical, to find products that are both. 

Example: An ad by J.C. Leyendecker,   

Note the cutting fit of the stiff collar.

Mr. Art Helfant weighs in on the situation, in a 1921 issue of The Haberdasher:

It's no wonder that through the 1920s, soft collars slowly began to gain in popularity, and by the 1930s, their conquest of collardom was virtually complete. Infact, the same issue, in which Mr. Helfant's cartoon was printed, contains an article with the following headline: 

Vogue

In 1921, a men's jewelry company moved their headquarters from 5th Avenue to Madison Avenue. Their name was "Vogue" Jewelry for Men, and their logo includes a typeface, strangely similar to the one used today, on the cover of a certain famous magazine. According to the ad below, printed in an issue of The Haberdasher, the store was run by four brothers, and was founded in 1890. I was curious to find out more about "Vogue," so I did a little digging:  

I unearthed another ad for the store in a 1908 issue of The Clothier and Furnisher. It appears that they were not a retailer, but rather, a jewelry house, producing their own lines of fobs, pins, links, clasps, and buttons:

After some more digging, I found the following notice, printed in The Boy's Outfitter from 1920. It describes "Vogue" as a wholesale endeavor: 

But what became of them? It took a bit more searching to find information from later than 1921, but after poking around for a while, I discovered two Vogel Brothers Company. inc. patents from 1926, listed in the Index of Patents Issued from the United States Patent and Trademark Office:

Earrings? Did I read that correctly? For sailors, perhaps? 

Unfortunately, after the patent listings, a clear trail (at least on the internet) seemed to run out. and I can't seem to find any images of the jewelry that the produced. Perhaps more information will turn up.

Behold the Bohemian Youth

This article from a 1919 issue of The Haberdasher provides a wonderful sketch of a perennial type: The glassy-eyed youth with poetic sensibilities, who drifts through life in a state of rapt abstraction, passively gaining the admiration of all aspiring bohemians he encounters, and thoroughly confounding everyone else.  

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:

Corsets for Men

"Don't laugh. I bet plenty of you men wear one of these!"- Elmer Fudd from The Wacky Wabbit, 1942. 

According to the following excerpt from an article printed in a 1921 issue of The Haberdasher, men's corsetry experienced a surge in popularity during the early 20s. (The days when men of Elmer Fudd's generation were eager young professionals, wanting to fit in, perhaps?). "The Baron" gives an enthusiastic, if a trifle haphazard, report of the latest trends, and events, in London menswear, and writes about a new and booming corset industry: "...the male corsetieres are doing a roaring trade..." he says, "...corsets for men are, in fact, openly advocated and boasted of, for the first time in my memory."

It might seem a little odd for men to re-adopt such a restrictive garment at a time when interest in sportswear and personal comfort were growing rapidly. However, the appeal of corsets begins to make more sense when one examines the popular silhouette at the time. The barrel chested suits of the 1890s and 1900s had become decidedly outmoded. Figure-hugging tailoring over subtle hourglass curves (which had been coming into fashion during the 1910s) was now in vogue, and going nowhere. The new silhouette was perfect for slightly curvy gentlemen, with naturally trim figures. However, it presented a challenge for fashion conscious gentlemen who didn't quite fit the new mold. For many, corsets may have seemed like a straightforward answer to a troubling style problem. 

Right: A men's coat form from 1922, advertised in The Clothier and Furnisher. This form represented the ideal silhouette of a gentleman already clothed in his long underwear, shirt, and waistcoat.

Everything Ultra

So, old top, what's the ultra word? Are you alive to being utterly utter? 

I'm discovering so many choice tid-bits of early 20th c. vernacular in these old magazines! This style guide is from a 1921 issue of The Haberdasher.