DRESS DOWN,BUT NOT OUT

The day of the bowler hat has long gone, reflects Michael Harvey, but even though work wear has changed over the decades, it doesn't mean you can don your old jeans and trainers to go to the office CLOTHES make the man. Naked people have little or no place in society." So said Mark Twain. I disagree. If we all tipped up to work naked on a Friday every now and again it would pep things up no end. At the very least make for an interesting chin-wag over a 12 o'clock Pot Noodle.

And the days when plagues of identical business types with bowlers, brollies and pinstripes poured across Blackfriars Bridge are long gone. But now that anything goes and you've the world of fashion at your feet, give a thought to the office worker of old.

Your typical office worker at the turn of the last century would have made do with his second-best suit.

That's the one relegated to second place when he got himself a new one for Sunday Best.

The uniform of your average civil servant would no doubt have been the lounge suit bought from the local tailor. The jacket would have wide shoulders, small lapels and four button with a high break (that means it buttoned up high on the chest). Shirts, of course, would be worn with stiff, detachable collars and obligatory collar studs.

The jacket would be worn with narrow pants, bowler and, if you were lucky, the ultimate overcoat of the time, the Chesterfield. This single-breasted, velvet-collared fly- front coat would remain popular right up until the start of the First World War. After WW1 office workers returned home to find at least one thing had survived the war - their old office suits. In fact, the lounge suit (aka the British blade, British lounge) made it safely into the 1940s.

Eyebrows were raised though when the first Oxford Baggies (later to be known simply as Bags) hit the street around 1925.

Understandably, a turn-up with a 25-inch circumference raised more than a few eyebrows.

The Thirties saw the birth of the classic look typified by the double-breasted suit with its broad lapels, accentuated square shoulders and wide trousers. The business man who invested wisely in a Savile Row whistle could wear the same suit for almost 30 years without looking dated. This was handy as the Great Depression eventually hit Europe.

The decade also introduced a forerunner of Princess Diana. The Duke of Windsor was an ambassador of British fashion. While he stuck to traditionally acceptable attire for formal occasions his town wardrobe cried out easy, casual stylishness. Just like Di, the Duke couldn't go anywhere without the Press describing every aspect of his dress. If anyone was responsible for merging the US style with

that of the UK, it was the Duke. He also had the wherewithal to ship Brooks Brothers shirts by the crate-load from America.

For the business suit though, the look was still sober, in blue or grey for both the six-button double-breasted and three-button single- breasted.

Colin Wood-head is a menswear consultant to the likes of Brioni (think Bond, James Bond) and Moss Bros.

He says that while the tailors of Savile Row were kept busy, so were retailers like Burton. "Burton dominated the made-to-measure market for decades. In the Forties, men were shopping in Burton, John Collier and Hep-worths. The popularity of off-the-peg suiting, and Burton's inability to take to it, saw the retailer start to suffer, and it has never really recovered."

THE Forties saw the working man in his army uniform. Even after the war some still wore their old uniform to work and it was a time when housewives were handier with a darning needle than ever. Wool was in short supply and even the most prestigious tailors weren't averse to darning and even turning an old suit.

In the Fifties, if you loitered around die-hard conservative institutions like Coutts & Co, chances are you could still spot the old black jacket and striped trousers of old. Men were still shopping with their wives and mothers to replace their worn, torn or shiny suits. Conservative was the word and very little had changed.

The traditional bowler hat continued well into the Sixties but the end of the road was the Italian-style suits sported by Michael Caine in The Italian Job. Modest budgeters made a beeline for C&A, Burton and Woolies.

"Down with the Ritz, up with the street," cried Yves Saint Laurent in the Seventies. Political upheaval, antiestablishment attitudes and youth culture meant kipper ties, buttock hugging flares, platform shoes and anything-goes shirts. When you think Seventies suburban strap hangers think Reggie Perrin and Jerry Ledbetter.

"This is your wakeup call, pal. Go to work," said Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in the Eighties hit Wall Street. It was the decade of the "dress consultants" which guided both politicians and industrialists wardrobes.

Michael Douglas typified the old school in his bespoke suits while Martin Sheen represented the new wave of businessman in the designer suits of Armani and Hugo Boss.

The Nineties was the decade of techno fabrics and even the most structured looking suit was light as a feather and benefited from state of the art laser cutting.

The look was less formal too and saw us take to Friday wear and warm towards dress-down.

When it comes to dressing down though, a word of warning. Jeffrey Doltis, managing director at 40 Savile Row, which is one of the only bespoke tailors to offer tailor made casual wear says: "Dress-down does not mean a ropey old pair of chinos and a sweat shirt. You still need to take pride in your appearance and look authoritative."

He tips wool and cashmere jackets, soft cord or moleskin trousers and revere collar shirts designed to be worn without a tie.

So be warned, a casual approach to work wear does not mean carte blanche to fish out those tatty old joggers from the laundry basket.

Copyright 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.