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| During the war years of the 1940s, men's clothing was not in high demand, as a good portion of men were in the service. Incidentally, men who had gone to war often returned to find that their wives or mothers had turned their old suits into new clothes for themselves or the children. Those men who remained civilians still wore square-shouldered suits, but without vests, pocket flaps, pleats, or cuffs. Because of fabric restrictions, jackets and pants were cut shorter and narrower and lost any decorative touches. After the war, most men, tired of uniforms and restrictions, preferred generously cut suits in pinstripe, herringbone, or glen plaid fabrics. Jackets were very broad-shouldered with wide lapels and two or three buttons. These were worn with generously pleated and cuffed pants with deep patch pockets and slightly tapered ankles. These suits were everything wartime suits were not! After years of not being able to purchase vests, wearing a suit without one became the social norm, and remains so to this day. Braces: Braces are button-on suspenders. They are much classier than clip-ons, which only became popular lately. They were generally worn with nice suits through all three decades. And, remember, braces hold your pants up, so you really don't need a belt, too. Watch Chains: Your normal man in the 30s-40s wore his watch in a vest pocket with a small chain leading to a fob in his other vest pocket. However, if you're going for a more alternative look, or a gangster or zoot look, a long chain is a must. Double or single ones are available, which ever suits your style. This chain hangs from either the front pocket to the back pocket or from a front beltloop to a back pocket, on either the right or left side. Just make sure you tuck it into your pocket when you dance! Shoes: Through the 30s and 40s, men's shoes didn't change much. Black and white or brown and white two-tone captoes or wingtips were quite stylish, as were solid-colored, dark shoes. Of the two-tones, captoes were actually preferred over wingtips, and look very classy. Shoes were fairly heavy and clunky-looking, at least when compared to today's shoes. Worn first by black and Hispanic teenagers on both coasts in the late 1920s-1930s as a statement against the majority, the zoot was soon picked up by musicians and dancers in the early 1940s and even found its way into mainstream fashion (albeit a tad watered-down). Most zoot suiters were not white, but some were. There is some evidence that white zoot suit wearers were made fun of by the minority zoot suiters. Most of the zoot-wearing people did not dance, so if your goal is to be as authentic as possible, don't get a zoot. However, if the style appeals to you, a zoot suit can be a wonderful addition to your dance wardrobe. The zoot jacket is oversized, wide-shouldered, and hangs almost to the knees. Often, it is double-breasted with wide, low lapels. Zoot pants are low-crotched and high-waisted, often coming halfway up the torso. They are deeply pleated at the waist (generally two or three mammoth pleats on each side) and generously cut at the knee. Zoot pants taper sharply at the ankle to end in a deep cuff that rests on the shoes. The width at the ankle is generally only be as wide as needed to get over the heel (though some men had zippers sewn into their cuffs go get a tighter fit) and the cuff was 1-2". The fabric for zoot suits was like the suits themselves - dramatic and overstated. The fabric was either brightly colored or boldly patterned with wide pinstripes or glen check. With fabric, the bolder the better - the goal was to distinguish oneself from the mainstream. In the 1940s, the college crowd took to wearing very wide-legged trousers called Oxford bags, which were 19-22" at the cuff, and sometimes had wide waistbands and flap pockets in the back, which made them resemble zoot pants. |
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