tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/mens-fashion-9164/articlesMen's fashion – The Conversation2022-08-05T02:56:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1882132022-08-05T02:56:14Z2022-08-05T02:56:14Z‘This is not a barbeque’: a short history of neckties in the Australian parliament and at work<p>The question of what counts as professional dress for Australia’s politicians loomed large again this week. </p>
<p>New Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather rose to speak in question time. He wore a neat navy suit and a crisp cotton shirt, intending to pose a question about social housing. </p>
<p>But his shirt was unbuttoned at the neck, and a real problem – as Nationals MP Pat Conaghan saw it – was the fact that <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/this-is-not-a-barbeque-nationals-mp-outraged-as-greens-mp-forgoes-tie-in-question-time-20220803-p5b6yy.html">Chandler-Mather wore no tie</a>. </p>
<p>“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised the Coalition care more about ties than people waiting years for social housing,” Chandler-Mather <a href="https://twitter.com/MChandlerMather/status/1554702910834892800?cxt=HHwWgICjue2DtZMrAAAA">wrote on Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>The member for Griffith’s <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11078831/New-Greens-MP-Max-Chandler-Mather-blasted-not-wearing-tie-Parliament.html">apparent affront</a> to professional dress is the latest in a string of debates around what those leading the country wear. </p>
<p>But what exactly should our politicians wear, does it really matter, and is it time to accept “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/the-tie-is-dead-here-s-how-men-can-still-dress-well-with-a-free-neck-20220803-p5b6uf.html">the tie is dead</a>”?</p>
<h2>Dressed for Australian politics</h2>
<p>Speaker Milton Dick let Max Chandler-Mather’s tie-free ensemble pass. </p>
<p>Although Australia’s male MPs generally wear ties in the chamber, the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/Powers_practice_and_procedure/Practice7">House of Representatives Practice</a> (the definitive guide to procedure and practice) says dress “is a matter for the individual judgement of each Member”. </p>
<p>The opening of the first Commonwealth Parliament in 1901 was a lavish affair. As the <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10549899">Argus reported it</a>, men decked themselves out in their finest formal wear, in “sombre shades” of mourning for Queen Victoria, “softened by splashes of purple here and there”. The scarlet uniforms of governors and officers provided a “touch of brightness”. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477776/original/file-20220805-20-3kvp03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477776/original/file-20220805-20-3kvp03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477776/original/file-20220805-20-3kvp03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477776/original/file-20220805-20-3kvp03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477776/original/file-20220805-20-3kvp03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477776/original/file-20220805-20-3kvp03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477776/original/file-20220805-20-3kvp03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477776/original/file-20220805-20-3kvp03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth, Exhibition Building, Melbourne, 9 May 1901.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Museums Victoria</span></span>
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<p>In 1977, safari suits – expressly made to be worn without a tie – were ruled as acceptable to wear in the chamber. </p>
<p>And few could forget the <a href="https://collections.history.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/43990">pink shorts</a> famously worn by South Australian Premier Don Dunstan in 1972. Dunstan sparked a media frenzy when he turned up at Adelaide’s Parliament House, the bold bright colouring of his shorts set off with a fitted white t-shirt and long white socks worn to his knees. </p>
<p>Five years earlier, Dunstan’s casual clothing had been photographed for the Bulletin as a “<a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-688146835/view?sectionId=nla.obj-704129891&searchTerm=The+shape+of+men+to+come&partId=nla.obj-688298992#page/n64/mode/1up">summertime example</a>” for employees in government departments, with the article predicting the tie was “slowly but reluctantly on the way out”.</p>
<p>When the Bulletin named Australia’s best- and worst-dressed men in 1976, flamboyant federal politician Al Grassby received the worst-dressed title. Dunstan topped the best-dressed list. </p>
<p>Known for wearing bold, unconventional suits against the grey uniformity of his colleagues, the Bulletin likened Grassby to “<a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1644107589">something out of Guys and Dolls</a>”. Others appreciated <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/al-grassby-father-of-multiculturalism-dies-20050424-ge01a8.html">his irrepressible style</a>: his purple suit, worn while being sworn in to parliament, or his loud <a href="https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/1069845">patterned ties</a>. </p>
<p>From 1983, federal MPs have been encouraged to dress with “<a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/Powers_practice_and_procedure/Practice6/Practice6HTML?file=Chapter5&section=11&fullscreen=1">neatness, cleanliness and decency</a>”, as former Speaker Harry Jenkins put it. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dressed-for-success-as-workers-return-to-the-office-men-might-finally-shed-their-suits-and-ties-153455">Dressed for success – as workers return to the office, men might finally shed their suits and ties</a>
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<h2>Loosening the (global) ties</h2>
<p>Last year, Māori MP Rawiri Waititi was ejected from the debating chamber of the New Zealand Parliament for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-politics-of-the-necktie-colonial-noose-masculine-marker-or-silk-status-symbol-155203">refusing to wear a tie</a>. </p>
<p>Evocatively describing it as a “<a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2020/12/08/colonial-noose-maori-partys-rawiri-waititi-takes-stand-against-parliament-tie-rules/">colonial noose</a>”, Waititi insisted the hei tiki greenstone pendant he wore at his neck represented a necktie for him, while tying him to his people, culture and Māori rights.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477786/original/file-20220805-24-g4guzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477786/original/file-20220805-24-g4guzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477786/original/file-20220805-24-g4guzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477786/original/file-20220805-24-g4guzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477786/original/file-20220805-24-g4guzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477786/original/file-20220805-24-g4guzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477786/original/file-20220805-24-g4guzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477786/original/file-20220805-24-g4guzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Rawiri Waititi said his pendant connected him to his people, culture and Māori rights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Ben McKay</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Fierce debate followed. Were ties shorthand for masculinity, status or oppression? Ties were subsequently removed from “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-11/nz-politician-wins-battle-against-wearing-tie-in-parliament/13146388">appropriate business attire</a>” in the New Zealand Parliament.</p>
<p>Last week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez fronted the media without neckwear. He encouraged his ministers and other workers to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62350019">ditch their ties</a> to save energy running air-conditioning in the searing summer heat.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477778/original/file-20220805-7849-r2ke2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477778/original/file-20220805-7849-r2ke2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477778/original/file-20220805-7849-r2ke2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477778/original/file-20220805-7849-r2ke2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477778/original/file-20220805-7849-r2ke2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477778/original/file-20220805-7849-r2ke2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477778/original/file-20220805-7849-r2ke2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477778/original/file-20220805-7849-r2ke2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is encouraging citizens to go open-collar to beat the heat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/BALLESTEROS</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-politics-of-the-necktie-colonial-noose-masculine-marker-or-silk-status-symbol-155203">The politics of the necktie — 'colonial noose', masculine marker or silk status symbol?</a>
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<h2>Staying smart with easing dress standards</h2>
<p>“<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/this-is-not-a-barbeque-nationals-mp-outraged-as-greens-mp-forgoes-tie-in-question-time-20220803-p5b6yy.html">This is not a barbeque</a>,” Conaghan insisted to justify his objection this week. </p>
<p>Conaghan’s comment, likely unintentionally, echoed one made in the press 100 years ago. </p>
<p>In 1922, <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/245791814">Fred Wright wrote to the editor</a> of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. He worried about what constituted smart, professional work attire when some suggested it was time for standards to ease. </p>
<p>Wright outlined the challenges faced by young men who were expected to “look respectable” by their employers, but who knew going without collars and ties was considered unbusinesslike. </p>
<p>“A young man cannot come to work dressed as if he were going to a picnic,” Wright explained.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477788/original/file-20220805-17816-watqoi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477788/original/file-20220805-17816-watqoi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477788/original/file-20220805-17816-watqoi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477788/original/file-20220805-17816-watqoi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477788/original/file-20220805-17816-watqoi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477788/original/file-20220805-17816-watqoi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477788/original/file-20220805-17816-watqoi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477788/original/file-20220805-17816-watqoi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A young man should not dress for work as casually as he does for a picnic – like these picnickers in 1928.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of South Australia</span></span>
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<p>Fewer men donned suits and ties for the office in years to follow, reflecting these shifting standards. This had to do with the Australian climate as much as the availability of new items of dress. Sportswear and separates looked smart, menswear experts assured, although some still held up the suit and tie as the pinnacle of power and professionalism. </p>
<p>Despite Conaghan’s objections, Australian men have been going tie-less while still looking professional for decades. And most politicians are alert to clothing’s rich potential to communicate a range of other messages: through a <a href="https://theconversation.com/politicians-in-high-vis-say-they-love-manufacturing-but-if-we-want-more-australian-made-jobs-heres-what-we-need-182510">high-vis vest</a> and hard hat, or a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/when-dan-finally-had-good-news-he-had-to-wear-the-right-clothes-20201026-p568qk.html">North Face jacket</a>.</p>
<p>Should we hold our politicians to high sartorial standards – or just let them get on with the job?</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politicians-in-high-vis-say-they-love-manufacturing-but-if-we-want-more-australian-made-jobs-heres-what-we-need-182510">Politicians in high-vis say they love manufacturing. But if we want more Australian-made jobs, here's what we need</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188213/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorinda Cramer receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>When Max Chandler-Mather rose to speak in question time, he was criticised for not wearing a tie. But Australian men have been going tie-less for decades.Lorinda Cramer, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1701122021-11-04T19:11:07Z2021-11-04T19:11:07ZFriday essay: will the perfect men’s dress ever exist – and would men wear it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429904/original/file-20211103-27-1c157l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C49%2C2941%2C2074&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rapper Lil Nas X in a Cinderalla-style, toile-inspired gown designed by Andrea Grossi</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jordan Strauss/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>More famous men are wearing dresses: from actor Billy Porter <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/billy-porter-oscars-red-carpet-gown-christian-siriano">on the red carpet</a> to singer-songwriter Harry Styles on the <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/harry-styles-cover-december-2020">cover of Vogue</a>. They have prompted much commentary, both <a href="https://www.novafm.com.au/show/smallzys-surgery/the-best-reactions-to-harry-styles-already-iconic-vogue-cover/">positive</a> and <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/billy-porter-harry-styles-vogue-cover-fashion-1243781/">negative</a>, leading fashion commentators to ask if frocks might become a regular part of men’s sartorial landscape. </p>
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<span class="caption">Troye Sivan at the Met Gala.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Lane/EPA</span></span>
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<p>At this year’s Met Gala, racing car driver Lewis Hamilton wore a <a href="https://vman.com/article/the-best-dressed-men-at-the-met-gala-2021/">white lace dress over a black suit</a> and singer Troye Sivan wore a <a href="https://www.esquire.com/uk/style/g37580185/best-dressed-men-met-gala-2021/">simple black gown</a>. More recently, rapper Lil Nas X wore a purple suit with <a href="https://www.popsugar.com.au/fashion/lil-nas-x-purple-outfit-at-mtv-vmas-2021-48498955">a matching train</a> to the MTV Video Music Awards and a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/lil-nas-x-dress-bet-awards/index.html">Cinderella-style gown</a> at an earlier award ceremony. </p>
<p>The trend signifies a return to ancient sartorial norms, when more androgynous clothing was accepted and, indeed, required. </p>
<p>Such clothes were not “dresses” as we understand them today: the dress is a garment that has become indelibly “feminine”. But could skirts and dresses become mainstream garb for 21st century men beyond these celebrity trailblazers?</p>
<p>Our contemporary construct of masculinity is, of course, relatively recent. Until the early 20th century, boys and girls wore dresses until boys were “breeched” (put into breeches or “short trousers”) at around seven years old.</p>
<p>Pink was a manly colour, and it was almost impossible to tell boy and girl toddlers apart. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1327255753783119872"}"></div></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/girlie-or-girl-power-breast-cancer-and-the-cult-ure-of-pink-10477">Girlie or girl power? Breast cancer and the cult(ure) of pink</a>
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<h2>Androgynous frocks</h2>
<p>Before the 15th century, much clothing for men and women was fairly androgynous, particularly outside Europe – where in many cultures this continues today.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429898/original/file-20211103-19-1hlvp11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429898/original/file-20211103-19-1hlvp11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429898/original/file-20211103-19-1hlvp11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429898/original/file-20211103-19-1hlvp11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429898/original/file-20211103-19-1hlvp11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429898/original/file-20211103-19-1hlvp11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429898/original/file-20211103-19-1hlvp11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429898/original/file-20211103-19-1hlvp11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ancient Egyptian schenti, circa 1448-1422 BCE.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Japanese kimono are robes with only subtle hints at gender difference. In parts of North Africa, the jellabiya – a long, loose robe perfect for the warm climate – is worn daily by men and women. </p>
<p>Ancient Egyptian men, including pharaohs, wore the <a href="https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/schenti/">schenti</a>, a wrap skirt similar to a kilt. This garment was so practical and versatile it remained popular for over 2,000 years. </p>
<p>Ancient Greece and Rome saw universal wearing of the <a href="http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/fashion_costume_culture/The-Ancient-World-Rome/Tunica.html">tunica</a>, a simple gown that was shorter and looser for men, but constructed the same way for both sexes. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429901/original/file-20211103-23-1lufyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429901/original/file-20211103-23-1lufyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429901/original/file-20211103-23-1lufyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429901/original/file-20211103-23-1lufyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429901/original/file-20211103-23-1lufyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429901/original/file-20211103-23-1lufyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1320&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429901/original/file-20211103-23-1lufyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429901/original/file-20211103-23-1lufyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1320&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Book illustration of an Etruscan wall painting from the François Tomb at Vulci.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The elite wore longer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiton_(garment)">chiton</a> and toga, which could be more elaborately accessorised to indicate the wearer’s gender. In these societies, the higher a man was on the social ladder, the longer his gown.</p>
<p>Divided garments (not then known as “trousers”) were generally worn only by soldiers and the working class. To ancient Greeks and Romans, leg coverings were <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Dress_Codes/Yo0TEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=dress+codes+laws+of+fashion&printsec=frontcover">more representative of the barbarian</a> than powerful, civilised men. </p>
<p>From 800 AD, bifurcated (divided, two-legged) styles slowly emerged in the Christian world, propagated by the medieval emperor Charlemagne as a way of linking physicality and aggression with new European concepts of “manliness”. Such garments later came to symbolise (male) control and authority.</p>
<p>This was a gradual process, however. In medieval Europe, men and women wore long, layered clothing and tunics until the <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/men-in-skirts/">slow advent of tailoring in the 1400s</a>. Even armour, the most “macho” of male attire, could still feature a metal “skirt” pleated similarly to <a href="https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-20.html">contemporary tunics</a>.</p>
<p>From the 15th century on, shorter tunics took hold for men, beneath which they could wear hose or stockings and, later, breeches.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428432/original/file-20211026-21-julkd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="17th century male fashion" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428432/original/file-20211026-21-julkd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428432/original/file-20211026-21-julkd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428432/original/file-20211026-21-julkd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428432/original/file-20211026-21-julkd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428432/original/file-20211026-21-julkd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428432/original/file-20211026-21-julkd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428432/original/file-20211026-21-julkd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Man in ‘Petticoat Breeches’, Romeyn de Hooghe, 1670-85.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aside from brief outlier trends, (for example the lampooned and short-lived “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petticoat_breeches">petticoat breeches</a>”) men’s hemlines continued to move north. </p>
<p>The advent of stockings and a codpiece and, until the 1820s, relatively tight-fitting pants for men, acted as a <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Berg_Companion_to_Fashion/hLUIEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=men+legs+codpiece+power&pg=PA155&printsec=frontcover">non-verbal reminder</a> of their political and economic power.</p>
<p>This was in stark contrast to the treatment of women’s legs, which as <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/A_Collection_of_the_Most_Celebrated_Voya/n2CexRE5z8MC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=A+Collection+of+the+Most+Celebrated+Voyages+%26+Travels,+from&printsec=frontcover">one writer put it in 1818</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>although dressed, are […] immediately connected with parts which are not, and which decency strictly conceals from view. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Repression of expression</h2>
<p>Women fought for a long time to wear trousers, making discreet strides in the adoption of bloomers as underwear in the 19th century. While gradually accepted as trouser-wearers in the early 20th century (and in the professional realm from the late 1960s), the same freedom of clothing choice has not been given to men.</p>
<p>For women, wearing trousers represented physical freedom, making certain jobs – and therefore, financial freedom – easier. Men do not have that same need, in a practical sense, to adopt dresses. </p>
<p>Arguably, a dress does not make any aspect of life easier, but it does allow an individual to express themselves in different ways. Restricting this suggests repression of far more than physical movement.</p>
<p>It could be argued that since the 18th century, (in the west at least), men have played second fiddle to women in terms of glamour and excitement in clothing. Contrary to popular belief, it was generally women who imposed what we now see as extravagant and restrictive sartorial customs, such as the cage crinoline. For many women, fashion was the one area of life over which they had some control. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-macaronis-to-mohawks-mens-fashion-has-always-been-political-96023">From 'macaronis' to mohawks, men's fashion has always been political</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>During the 19th century, an era famously described by psychologist Carl Flugel as the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Male_Renunciation">great male renunciation</a>” of brilliant fashion, men had eye-wateringly little choice of garments compared to women. The monopoly of the (male) suit has perhaps been a result of this one-sidedness. Promoting dresses for men could redress the imbalance. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428441/original/file-20211026-21-p5yrq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="1860s fashion plate" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428441/original/file-20211026-21-p5yrq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428441/original/file-20211026-21-p5yrq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428441/original/file-20211026-21-p5yrq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428441/original/file-20211026-21-p5yrq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428441/original/file-20211026-21-p5yrq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428441/original/file-20211026-21-p5yrq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428441/original/file-20211026-21-p5yrq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Men in muted colours – 1869 fashion plate from Le Musée des Tailleurs Illustré.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fitting dresses to men</h2>
<p>If dresses are to become a genuine part of menswear once again, we need first to establish what differences, if any, there will be with women’s. How will the fit be determined? How will they be worn?</p>
<p>This is not necessarily the same as producing androgynous or gender fluid clothes. It is about dresses that will allow men, who wish it, to still feel masculine – as trousers can make women feel feminine. </p>
<p>While fashion slacks were often made to conform to a woman’s body (putting aside utilitarian and wartime uniforms) there seem to be very few dresses made exclusively for the male physique. </p>
<p>Billy Porter’s velvet tuxedo gown worn to the 2019 Oscars was an exception. A hybrid male and female garment, it used black to create a link to contemporary womenswear, and men’s traditional evening wear. Crafted by designer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Siriano">Christian Siriano</a>, it consisted of a tuxedo-style bodice with voluminous, ballgown skirt.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429877/original/file-20211103-23-j1hhew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429877/original/file-20211103-23-j1hhew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429877/original/file-20211103-23-j1hhew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429877/original/file-20211103-23-j1hhew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429877/original/file-20211103-23-j1hhew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429877/original/file-20211103-23-j1hhew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429877/original/file-20211103-23-j1hhew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429877/original/file-20211103-23-j1hhew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Billy Porter wears a black velvet tuxedo gown by Christian Siriano at the Oscars in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Shotwell/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/and-the-best-penguin-oscar-a-closer-look-at-the-tuxedo-23251">And the best penguin Oscar ... a closer look at the tuxedo </a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This dress was elite rather than mainstream fashion, created exclusively for Porter. Styles’ ethereal Gucci number on the Vogue cover is likewise hardly accessible to the everyday consumer, demanding a high level of confidence to pull off. </p>
<p>The same can be said of frocks and frock-spirations chosen by <a href="https://purewows3.imgix.net/images/articles/2021_09/Carl.jpg?auto=format,compress&cs=strip">Carl Clemons-Hopkins</a> at the 2021 Emmys and Queer Eye’s <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/red-carpet-dresses/a23067701/queer-eye-jonathan-van-ness-emmys-outfit/">Jonathan Van Ness</a> at the Creative Arts Emmys in 2018.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429902/original/file-20211103-17-nca58v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429902/original/file-20211103-17-nca58v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429902/original/file-20211103-17-nca58v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429902/original/file-20211103-17-nca58v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429902/original/file-20211103-17-nca58v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429902/original/file-20211103-17-nca58v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429902/original/file-20211103-17-nca58v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429902/original/file-20211103-17-nca58v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Carl Clemons-Hopkins at the Emmys.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Pizzello/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=_x2ssg6mRpsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=oscar+wilde+men+clothing&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwju15_3mufzAhWPV30KHRQUCFcQ6AF6BAgCEAI">Oscar Wilde</a> put it when discussing women’s dress reform in the 1880s:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the divided skirt is to be of any positive value, it must give up all idea of being identical in appearance with an ordinary skirt … [it must] … sacrifice its foolish frills and flounces.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps men’s dresses should aim for that same end: not to masquerade as anything else, but to take on a life of their own as new, separate garments. </p>
<h2>A viable option?</h2>
<p>Examples such as Porter’s and Styles’ frocks prompt intrigued debate. Other examples of men wearing dresses are usually associated with transvestism or those undergoing gender reassignment.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1454929592284815363"}"></div></p>
<p>Huge progress over the past few decades has made their visibility and acceptance far more widespread, along with gender fluid and queer identity becoming a regular part of the fashion landscape, thanks to designers such as <a href="https://www.harrisreed.com/about">Harris Reed</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/style/telfar-clemens-designer.html">Telfar Clemens</a> and <a href="https://londonfashionweek.co.uk/designers/charles-jeffrey-loverboy">Charles Jeffrey Loverboy</a>. Each, in their own way, are creating and championing fluid fashion, showing the world how it can be done. </p>
<p>However, we are not yet at the point where most men would consider a dress a viable option, or where a man wearing a dress would not provoke assumptions around sexuality or gender identity. We also seem to be at a crossroads in terms of how men in dresses are received by different communities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Fashion designer Harris Reed" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428446/original/file-20211026-21-eewamv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428446/original/file-20211026-21-eewamv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428446/original/file-20211026-21-eewamv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428446/original/file-20211026-21-eewamv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428446/original/file-20211026-21-eewamv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428446/original/file-20211026-21-eewamv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428446/original/file-20211026-21-eewamv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harris Reed: ‘The arbitrary criteria of defining a ‘manly man’ is so outdated. Being a man looks exactly how you want it to look. YOU define that criteria, no one else’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Instagram</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/apr/15/kid-cudi-dress-saturday-night-live-lgbtq">A controversy</a> arose earlier this year when cisgender man, the rapper Kid Cudi, performed on Saturday Night Live wearing a dress intended to pay tribute to Kurt Cobain. </p>
<p>In 1993, Cobain had boldly donned a similarly patterned, but shorter frock <a href="https://theface.com/archive/grrr">on the cover of The Face</a> magazine, attracting considerable backlash.</p>
<p>In 2021, wearing a fuller, longer, more classically “feminine” style, Cudi was met largely with praise. However, some commentators – particularly those from the LGBTQI community – felt his choice was nothing but a “costume” worn by a performer.</p>
<p>Some pointed out that what was a publicity stunt for him amounted to a “life and death” decision, for which trans people have been severely bullied. The reality is that however casually a man might wear a dress, and whatever his motivations for doing so, the choice is fraught with political, emotional and social ramifications. It will be commented on and judged, positively or negatively. </p>
<p>Earlier this year, singer Post Malone’s stylist Catherine Hahn <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/post-malone-nirvana-tribute-dress-kurt-cobain-style-youtube-covid-fundraiser-who">put the singer in a dress</a>, another tribute to Cobain. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1253808521981894656"}"></div></p>
<p>The success of this outfit inspired her to create “a unisex dress that could be worn every day. To work, to school, to skateboard in, or on a date.” The result is a <a href="https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6112e208de2801dbb8c10fe8/master/w_1600,c_limit/_MG_3399_hires.jpg">calf-length, oversized plaid shirt</a> that recalls 90s grunge styles and certainly offers a fun, fresh, casual option for men.</p>
<p>However, it is still unisex, rather than aimed specifically at men. Its shirt-like cut makes it a familiar, non-threatening segue for those wishing to experiment with dresses. This style is the closest we have seen to a potentially mainstream, workable male frock option. </p>
<p>Dresses are likely to remain a novelty for many men, a defiant show of bravery and individuality akin to the female pioneers of the rational and aesthetic dress movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. </p>
<p>Mind you, during this pandemic, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/mar/24/super-freeing-mens-skirts-emerge-as-pandemic-fashion-trend">there has been a surge</a> in male skirt designs by the likes of Burberry and Stefan Cooke. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1364388272944857090"}"></div></p>
<p>Many of these take inspiration from the traditional “man skirt”, the kilt. But longer, calf-length, pleated and A-line examples have been championed too. More men may have felt comfortable experimenting with a skirt or dress during the privacy of lockdown. </p>
<p>The year 2020 was a seismic shift in life as well as fashion. But given the highly gendered and ingrained nature of clothing codes, it seems unlikely we will see men’s dresses go mainstream anytime soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170112/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lydia Edwards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More famous men are wearing dresses, harking back to ancient times, when androgynous clothing was the norm. But for male dresses to truly take off they might need a style separate to women’s.Lydia Edwards, Fashion historian, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1534552021-01-26T18:51:26Z2021-01-26T18:51:26ZDressed for success – as workers return to the office, men might finally shed their suits and ties<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380127/original/file-20210122-13-1dg1p9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C26%2C985%2C694&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Melbourne office commuters circa 1940. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110589558">Ray Olson/Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy ACP Magazines Ltd</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The summer break is over, marking a return to the office. For some, this ends almost a year of working from home in lockdown. Some analysts are <a href="https://news.northeastern.edu/2020/12/14/will-the-covid-19-pandemic-change-how-people-dress-for-work-in-the-future/">predicting</a> it might also mark an enduring shift in how we dress for success. </p>
<p>It’s not the first time in Australia’s history the return to “normal” life after times of turmoil has prompted calls for more comfortable dress. The suit — quintessential men’s business dress for more than a century — has sat at the heart of these debates.</p>
<p>What we dress in speaks of our occupation as much as it shapes how we work: a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-the-mens-white-shirt-26312">collar that is blue or white</a>, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-singlet-a-short-history-of-an-australian-icon-145545">singlet</a> or a suit. The history of the suit is also tied to ideas of masculinity, class, modernity and fashionable consumption. </p>
<p>Is it time men swapped the suit for something more relaxed? </p>
<h2>The birth of the business suit</h2>
<p>Young men moved away from formal professional attire of top hats and frock coats — cut with hems that fell to the knee — around the 1870s. Instead they wore “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1031461X.2017.1300178">business fashion</a>”, pairing tailored jackets, trousers and sometimes patterned waistcoats with white shirts. Stylish neckwear and bowler hats completed the look. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380128/original/file-20210122-23-1srwb63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Men in suits circa 1900" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380128/original/file-20210122-23-1srwb63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380128/original/file-20210122-23-1srwb63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380128/original/file-20210122-23-1srwb63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380128/original/file-20210122-23-1srwb63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380128/original/file-20210122-23-1srwb63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380128/original/file-20210122-23-1srwb63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380128/original/file-20210122-23-1srwb63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Group of bank managers, stock and station agents dressed for work but not the weather, circa 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library Queensland</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the turn of the century, three-piece suits cut from the same dark-coloured woollen cloth were worn for work. These became known as “business suits”. They are strikingly similar to what we see businessmen wear today, though our contemporaries no longer wear them with stiff, detachable collars or watch chains.</p>
<p>As business suits became ubiquitous for city wear and office workers across Australia, working-men’s attire became increasingly practical. Those labouring in the sun or in roles demanding movement stripped back to shirts with their sleeves rolled up, or down to undershirts. </p>
<p>Women working in offices or shops donned <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-humble-blouse-got-women-out-to-work-and-revolutionised-a-citys-manufacturing-industry-in-the-process-144315">lightweight blouses</a> teamed with long, dark skirts. The fascinating history of their transforming workwear deserves a piece of its own. </p>
<p>Many men lamented that suits and ties were hot and stuffy by comparison, particularly in Australia’s summer months. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380140/original/file-20210122-13-12hbde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Street crowd in Melbourne 1950s" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380140/original/file-20210122-13-12hbde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380140/original/file-20210122-13-12hbde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380140/original/file-20210122-13-12hbde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380140/original/file-20210122-13-12hbde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380140/original/file-20210122-13-12hbde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380140/original/file-20210122-13-12hbde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380140/original/file-20210122-13-12hbde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To the office via Collins Street in 1954.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://rosetta.slv.vic.gov.au/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_func=stream&dps_pid=FL15778388">Mark Strizic/State Library of Victoria</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-the-mens-white-shirt-26312">The story of ... the men's white shirt</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Rethinking men’s dress</h2>
<p>There were calls for men’s “dress reform” from the early 20th century. Dress reform movements <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-19th-century-activists-ditched-corsets-for-one-piece-long-underwear-180976774/">were not new</a> at the time, nor were they confined to Australia or to men’s dress. </p>
<p>But war was a catalyst for change, when reformers emphasised health and hygiene over conservative, heavy suits and constrictive, tight collars. The aesthetics of men’s dress — dubbed drab, austere and colourless — also <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1316022?seq=1">came under question</a>. </p>
<p>As men returned to Australia from the first world war, commentators debated new ideas around colour, comfort and clothing that was better suited to Australia’s climate. Reformers advocated for different cuts to men’s clothing or swapping certain garments: jackets with knitted jumpers, for example, or stiff collars for looser versions that freed the neck to move. </p>
<p>But men in the city remained hesitant. Going without jackets and ties was undoubtedly more comfortable, but unprofessional against the dress codes of the day. As one young city worker expressed in late 1922, it made a man look “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/245791814">as if he were going to a picnic</a>”.</p>
<p>When discussions around dress reform flourished in the aftermath of the second world war, they responded to shortages as much as to dressing for the heat. “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231723306">Civvy suits</a>” issued to returning servicemen from 1943 were in short supply. These suits were lampooned and despised when they looked cheap and badly made, but wool mills were stretched to their limits and tailors struggled to keep up with demand.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380143/original/file-20210122-15-1eql01f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men in suits in 1947." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380143/original/file-20210122-15-1eql01f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380143/original/file-20210122-15-1eql01f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380143/original/file-20210122-15-1eql01f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380143/original/file-20210122-15-1eql01f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380143/original/file-20210122-15-1eql01f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380143/original/file-20210122-15-1eql01f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380143/original/file-20210122-15-1eql01f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dress reform aimed for comfort and style, exemplified by these chaps photographed for Pix magazine in 1947.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laurie Shea/Mitchell Library, State Library NSW and Courtesy ACP Magazines Ltd</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Into this void, some suggested men adopt sportswear for their return to the office — a more comfortable alternative men deserved after long years of war and austerity. This form of sportswear referred to jackets and trousers sold as separates and worn in different colour combinations, or woollen cardigans and jumpers.</p>
<p>An example was photographed in 1947 for Pix magazine. It captured two young men breezily strolling along Sydney’s Martin Place in open-neck shirts and loose or safari-style jackets. The photograph’s caption noted that they looked “<a href="https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-465007182">cool, smart and comfortable</a>” unlike “conservative” men in suits left to “swelter in the heat”.</p>
<p>Though suits continued to be worn by many office workers, this set in place the move towards more casual dress that would resonate across decades to come.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380144/original/file-20210122-15-dv6d73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People in suits in modern boardroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380144/original/file-20210122-15-dv6d73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380144/original/file-20210122-15-dv6d73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380144/original/file-20210122-15-dv6d73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380144/original/file-20210122-15-dv6d73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380144/original/file-20210122-15-dv6d73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380144/original/file-20210122-15-dv6d73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380144/original/file-20210122-15-dv6d73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The idea of a room full of suits, standing so close together, seems dated post-lockdown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fashioning-blue-collars-chambray-shirts-and-indigo-dyed-workwear-24603">Fashioning blue-collars: chambray shirts and indigo-dyed workwear </a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Post-pandemic office wear</h2>
<p>Lockdown has again transformed our dress as we’ve tested new combinations of comfortable clothes while working from home — variously labelled “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-slob-chic-style-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic">slob chic</a>” and the “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/the-lockdown-look-now-is-the-time-to-embrace-your-inner-misfit-20200421-p54lp8.html">lockdown look</a>”, with fancy dress days to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/apr/17/im-trying-to-make-working-from-home-as-fun-as-i-can-what-readers-are-wearing-in-lockdown">keep things interesting</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/has-covid-changed-fashion-forever/news-story/306aca3fb53bfa6f9be7c72b0b9e9392">Sales of athleisure and activewear brands</a> spiked in 2020 thanks to massive sales of tracksuits and the like. The trade in locally made sheepskin boots also <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-09/covid-19-helps-gold-coast-ugg-boot-maker-recover-china-sales/12429194">reportedly boomed</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380138/original/file-20210122-23-4hqs6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man at home with laptop, suit and slippers on. Feet on desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380138/original/file-20210122-23-4hqs6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380138/original/file-20210122-23-4hqs6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380138/original/file-20210122-23-4hqs6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380138/original/file-20210122-23-4hqs6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380138/original/file-20210122-23-4hqs6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380138/original/file-20210122-23-4hqs6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380138/original/file-20210122-23-4hqs6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Working from home stretched the limits of what could be called business attire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rear-view-freelancer-working-process-young-685863463">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-could-have-a-lasting-positive-impact-on-workplace-culture-143297">COVID-19 could have a lasting, positive impact on workplace culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some forecast our penchant for relaxed clothing will ripple through office dress protocols this year in a move to something <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-09/how-workplace-fashions-will-change-as-covid-19-restrictions-ease/12830138">akin to casual Fridays</a>.</p>
<p>While it’s unlikely the tracksuit will replace the suit just yet, looser styles, freer tailoring and lighter fabrics would be another step along the path suggested by dress reformers a century ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorinda Cramer receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>The history of men’s workwear is clothed in ideas of masculinity, style and comfort. Reforms have happened following times of turmoil in the past and business attire may be due for another shake up.Lorinda Cramer, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1126232019-03-14T10:37:22Z2019-03-14T10:37:22ZWhy shouldn’t men wear skirts?<p>Year on year, predictions are made that skirts will finally <a href="https://indie-mag.com/2018/01/fashion-men-in-skirts/">be adopted by men</a> as an <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/skirts-for-men">extension of their regular clothing</a>. Prompted by international fashion weeks and glittering award ceremonies, the idea seems to be that men who make bold statements on red carpets and runways will prompt a trend which will shake up men’s clothing once and for all, and end the apparent tyranny of trousers.</p>
<p>Despite the hype, however, the fact appears to be that men still only tend to wear skirts and dresses to make fashion statements in public, or as a display of cultural heritage. Take actor Billy Porter’s “tuxedo gown”, which he wore to the 2019 Academy Awards, for example. The ensemble, which looked like a normal tuxedo at the top, had an <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/fashion/billy-porter-steals-the-show-on-the-oscars-red-carpet-with-velvet-tuxedo-gown-a4075251.html">enormous velvet skirt on the bottom</a>. </p>
<p>Already known for making bold fashion statements, Porter’s dress was another act of fashion rebellion on his part. <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/billy-porter-oscars-red-carpet-gown-christian-siriano">Writing later for Vogue</a>, he said, “My goal is to be a walking piece of political art every time I show up. To challenge expectations. What is masculinity? What does that mean? Women show up every day in pants, but the minute a man wears a dress, the seas part.” By wearing a dress, Porter is demonstrating that, although it is uncommon, diversity in clothing for men is entirely possible. Skirts and dresses can be more than just statement pieces.</p>
<h2>Power and clothes</h2>
<p>Traditionally, men are <a href="https://indie-mag.com/2018/01/fashion-men-in-skirts/">no strangers to wearing skirts and dresses</a>. The kilt, for example, was initially a <a href="https://www.scotclans.com/history-of-kilts-worn-in-battle/">battle dress for Scottish men</a> and is still worn today. Or take the <a href="https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-clothing/kurta.html">shalwar kameez and kurta</a>, a long collarless shirt worn over matching trousers by many Indian men, and those from Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. </p>
<p>Over time, men who are not in the public eye have worn skirts – but they’re usually used as acts of rebellion. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/22/teenage-boys-wear-skirts-to-school-protest-no-shorts-uniform-policy">British schoolboys</a> and French bus drivers have all <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/21/french-bus-drivers-don-skirts-protest-shorts-ban-heatwave/">donned skirts or dresses</a> when they have been banned from wearing shorts for practical purposes in hot weather. However, they were not asking for greater tolerance or diversity for men’s clothing, or for men to embrace skirts as part of everyday attire. </p>
<p>Generally, men have never adopted the garments in quite the same manner that women have adopted trousers. Women initially started wearing trousers out of practicality, to take on men’s jobs during the war years, albeit amid <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.602.769&rep=rep1&type=pdf">some resistance</a>. Designer Coco Chanel was the first to pioneer them as <a href="https://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2013/09/04/seven-wonders-how-coco-chanel-changed-the-course-of-womens-fashion/">women’s fashion items</a> in the 1930s. </p>
<p>Skirts now appear to be intrinsically allied to femininity. My forthcoming research addresses the innately masculine role of men’s suits, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/style/anne-hollander-scholar-of-style-dies-at-83.html">outlined by historian Anne Hollander</a>, and suggests that women in power often adopt a trouser suit when they <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/angela-merkel-wide-legged-pants_n_3467370">wish to be taken seriously</a> in a traditional gender order which puts <a href="http://www.raewynconnell.net/p/masculinities_20.html">powerful men at the top</a>. </p>
<h2>‘Boring’ menswear</h2>
<p>But fashion is considerably different from everyday clothing, and skirts still suggest femininity. Yet besides the assumptions that people may make of someone wearing a skirt, the garments do add variety to womens’ wardrobes. Clothes designer Marc Jacobs – who attended the prestigious 2012 Met Gala Ball in a <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/marc-jacobs-met-ball-2012-outfit-red-carpet-designer-look">sheer black lace dress with white boxer shorts</a> underneath – has previously said, “I didn’t just wanna wear a tuxedo and be boring.” This suggests how difficult it is for men to stand out from other men, and also hints at the general lack of diversity in men’s clothing.</p>
<p>Tuxedos are “boring” because they have a homogenising effect on the wearer, and seem to be the only choice for men to wear to red carpet events. Failure to dress up and try to differentiate yourself from others means that your presence might be missed, and there is also a suggestion here that men have limited means by which to achieve a glamorous appearance. </p>
<p>But men like Porter, Jacobs and others – including Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire who <a href="https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/gymwxj/a-fancy-hotel-first-date-with-nicky-wire-of-manic-street-preachers">regularly wears a skirt</a> on stage – are at the top of their professions, and so are unlikely to be marginalised as a result of sporting skirts.</p>
<p>They occupy very specific and narrow spaces in the entertainment and creative industries, and with the exception of Jacobs, use skirts or dresses for performance, rather than for daily attire. Jacobs inhabits the exclusive world of fashion design where creating difference through clothing can be more difficult, with innovative competitors all seeking the same spotlight. So Jacobs wears skirts as a way of showing his design style, as well as a feature of his personal style. </p>
<p>Fashion is all about change and risk. While men donning skirts on an everyday basis might at present be a <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/men-in-skirts/">future form of fashion</a>, changes in men’s trousers have already started. Skinny jeans, tapered and cropped trousers, tailored shorts and loose culottes are now <a href="http://www.topman.com/en/tmuk/category/clothing-140502/mens-trousers-joggers-6608240?geoip=noredirect">regularly worn by all kinds of men</a>. At least some men are ready to wear a greater variety of clothing, and there’s no reason why skirts shouldn’t be a part of this.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112623/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashley Morgan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Will men ever escape the tyranny of trousers?Ashley Morgan, Researcher and Senior Lecturer in Theory for Constellation, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/636492016-08-24T20:26:14Z2016-08-24T20:26:14ZWhy STEM subjects and fashion design go hand in hand<p>The fashion industry evokes images of impossibly beautiful people jet setting around the world in extravagant finery. Like a moth to the flames, it draws many of our most creative young minds. Often, the first instinct of high school students who want to work in creative industries is to drop all their math and science subjects to take up textiles and art. </p>
<p>As a fashion and textile designer myself, I would like to explain how this is a bad strategy and how the future of fashion requires <a href="https://www.academia.edu/27951162/SO_YOU_WANT_TO_BECOME_A_FASHION_DESIGNER_..%E2%80%8B">science, technology, engineering and mathematics</a> (STEM skills) more than ever.</p>
<p>Beneath the glamorous façade, the fashion industry is undergoing disruptive changes due to rapid advances in technology. We take it for granted that you can use your Iphone to watch a fashion runway show on YouTube, Google the garment to find an online retailer like Net-A-Porter, pay for it using PayPal and then upload a selfie onto Snapchat. None of these services even existed 20 years ago.</p>
<p>Materials that were theoretical thirty years ago have become pervasive. So when you buy yoga clothing from Lululemon that are “anti-bacterial” you are actually wearing fabrics that are coated in silver <a href="http://eng.thesaurus.rusnano.com/wiki/article1257">nano-whiskers</a>. Sportswear companies such as <a href="http://www.materialise.com/cases/software-solutions-help-nike-in-supporting-great-art">Nike</a> and <a href="http://www.materialise.com/cases/adidas-futurecraft-the-ultimate-3d-printed-personalized-shoe">Adidas</a> engage in a technological arms race of materials and technology. The reason why their latest shoes look like something out of science fiction is because the technology is truly cutting edge science.</p>
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<span class="caption">Actor Gwendoline Christie models a creation by Iris van Herpen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benoit Tessier/Reuters</span></span>
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<p>In 2011, Parisian High Fashion forever changed when designer Iris van Herpen was <a href="http://www.materialise.com/cases/iris-van-herpen-s-escapism">invited as a guest member</a> of La Chambre Syndicale de La Haute Couture. Van Herpen, who makes liberal use of hi tech materials such as magnetic fabric, laser cutters and custom developed thermoplastics which are 3D printed, was embraced by the oldest establishment as “Haute Couture”.</p>
<p>Even the supermodel Karlie Kloss advocates the importance of STEM skills for future careers in the tech industry and has a scholarship program <a href="http://kodewithklossy.com/">Kode with Klossy</a> that teaches young girls computer coding.</p>
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<span class="caption">Karlie Kloss: a fan of coding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Danny Moloshok/Reuters</span></span>
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<p>Fashion is a unique blend of business, science, art and technology. It requires a polymath, a person who can understand all of these skills. The most compelling reasons to learn STEM skills is because technology and rapidly changing business models have made surviving in the business more competitive than ever. </p>
<p>If you are running a fashion label you will probably need a business loan or have to justify what you are spending your money on. No matter how brilliant your ideas, the people who control money are only swayed by arguments based on sound financial reasoning. Rates of return, accounting and interest rates are all ideas that can only be well understood using mathematics.</p>
<p>Mathematics is mandatory for financial literacy. It introduces ideas such as optimisation, understanding statistics and problem solving and forms a language that allows designers to talk to scientists, engineers and business people.</p>
<p>If you are going to study fashion in college, you will need to learn about fabrics, which are material science. No matter how advanced the school syllabus in textiles, by the time you get to college there will be new materials and technology that did not exist before you got there. If you learn chemistry and physics you will understand the underlying scientific principles on a deeper level, making new material science really easy in the future.</p>
<p>Learning chemistry in school introduces you to lab protocols, taking measurements and accurately recording experiments. These are the exact skills you will need when working with dyes and pigments in textiles. </p>
<p>Using dyes to change the colour of textiles is essentially carbon chemistry. To do this a designer must change the acidity or alkalinity of the fabric - known as the PH level. This allows the “chromophores,” which are the parts of the dye molecule that create colour, to embed into the fabric. The PH scale in chemistry is a logarithmic scale and this is one place where abstract mathematical ideas are actually used in practice.</p>
<h2>Maths and creativity</h2>
<p>Mathematics can also push the boundaries of creativity in fashion. Designer Dai Fujiwara collaborated with legendary 1982 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fields-Medal">Fields Medal</a> winning mathematician William Thurston to create radically different garments inspired by geometry and topology. </p>
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<span class="caption">A 2011 creation by Dai Fujiwara.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benoit Tessier/Reuters</span></span>
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<p>In his 1 32 5 collection Fujiwara collaborated with computer scientist Jun Mitani to create mathematical folding algorithms generating innovative clothing. My own PhD research explores <a href="http://newsroom.uts.edu.au/news/2016/08/disruptive-fashion?utm_source=disruptive_gk6&G3utm_medium=gk&utm_campaign=disruptive_aug16">the underlying geometry of how clothing is made</a> and has even been used to teach abstract mathematical concepts through making fashion garments. </p>
<p>For a socially minded designer, STEM skills are essential to understanding environmental sustainability. Fashion used to have seasons, but now with fast fashion companies such as Zara and H&M, new clothing is coming into stores in each week. Fast fashion companies are often criticised for being unsustainable and exploiting workers. </p>
<p>Sustainability in the fashion industry is an extremely complex issue. It requires an understanding of the underlying science, economic behaviour and business practises of the fashion industry and their environmental impact. </p>
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<p>The fashion industry is full of “Greenwash,” fake sustainable marketing which has no scientific basis. STEM skills allow you to navigate these complex issues and try to address them for yourself.</p>
<p>The future of fashion is uncharted territory, but STEM skills make a budding fashion designer smart and adaptable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63649/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Liu receives funding for an Australian Postgraduate Award from the Australian Government Department of Education and Training. </span></em></p>The fashion industry attracts creative young minds. But to succeed as a designer in a time of rapid technological change, knowledge of maths and science is invaluable.Mark Liu, PhD Philosophy, Fashion and Textiles Designer, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/287512014-07-11T17:35:57Z2014-07-11T17:35:57ZGiorgio Armani: 80, the new 40<p>With 3,000 employees, <a href="http://www.fashionunited.co.uk/fashion-news/fashion/armani-reports-45-percent-rise-in-2013-revenues-2014051621120">2,473 points of sale</a>, seven different fashion and furniture labels (to say nothing of his makeup, skincare, chocolate and flower lines), 16 cafés and restaurants, two <a href="http://www.armanihotels.com/en/index.html#">hotels</a>, a basketball team and revenue of 2.19 billion euros, Giorgio Armani had much to celebrate on his <a href="http://www.independent.ie/style/fashion/fashion-fix/happy-80th-birthday-giorgio-armani-here-are-eight-of-his-iconic-red-carpet-dresses-30424696.html">80th birthday</a>. </p>
<p>Those numbers would delight the craven desires of any bottom line-obsessed fashion industrialist more focused on corporate ledgers than the principles of inspired design. But in the case of Armani, the self-made sole owner of one of the world’s largest fashion empires, these numbers symbolise an impressive history and unprecedented legacy built on one man’s hard work, determination and aesthetic rigour. </p>
<p>They underscore his unprecedented contribution to an often-shaky Italian economy as well as the staying power of the Made in Italy label (itself under threat from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-take-over-italys-garment-workshops-2013-12">Chinese manufacture</a>).</p>
<h2>At his best</h2>
<p>The latest Giorgio Armani men’s collection was aptly titled <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/25/fashion/giorgio-armani-emporio-armani-dsquared2-milan-men-fashion-week-review.html">Echoes of Armani</a>. Many fashion journalists somehow detected <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/mens-style/37687/giorgio-armani-flirts-with-nostalgia-at-milan-mens-fashion-week.html">a wistful note</a> in a summer effort that, while certainly possessing all the classic Armani elements, was far from nostalgic. </p>
<p>The collection was Armani at his best. It showcased fluid-yet-flattering jackets, shirts so exquisite ties need not apply for work, trousers that caressed a well toned body without ever veering into vulgarity. Nothing innovative, to be sure, but an important renewal of the designer’s commitment to the core principles on which he’s built an empire: comfort, luxury, elegance and graceful ease.</p>
<p>Echoes can be heard long after their inception and their reverberations can be felt far and wide. If the menswear collections in Milan this season were any indication, then Armani’s influence was palpable and omnipresent, once again, well beyond his Tadao Ando designed minimalist concrete, softly illuminated staging facility in via Bergognone. His influence, especially in men’s wear, is by all accounts unrivalled, and easily taken for granted in a world where elegance is no longer the main criterion for design.</p>
<h2>Surviving partner</h2>
<p>A failed medical doctor and by his own admission a closeted architect, Armani never trained in the typical manner. Taking up various positions at the eponymous La Rinascente department store in Milan, followed by a stint in the textile mills of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/27/news/27iht-rside.html">Nino Cerruti</a> (where he also designed its Hitman menswear line), Armani quickly learned the importance of quality textiles and the full range of issues that determine the life, brand and image of a fashion house.</p>
<p>Setting out on his own at the age of 40, spurred on by his then partner in life and business Sergio Galeotti, Armani is one of the very few designers who remains entirely in control, both financially and aesthetically, of his house. </p>
<p>Only ten years after founding the company, Galeotti <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1985-08-25/local/me-24917_1_sergio-galeotti">died prematurely</a>. Since then, Armani has been plagued every season, almost without fail, with questions from the press about the future of the company and of his retirement. It might be worth pointing out that his near contemporary Ralph Lauren (74) and Karl Lagerfeld (80) have never had to endure the same degree of questioning. </p>
<p>Faced with the loss of his dearest friend and co-founder, Armani not only demonstrated his resilience, but also proved to the world that his design acumen could be translated to marketing, management and retail innovation.</p>
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<h2>Work ethic</h2>
<p>Armani’s working-class childhood in Piacenza, Northern Italy, clearly taught him the importance of hard work. Beyond the splendid sartorial propositions or red carpet confections he manages to create season after season, vaulting celebrities into the ranks of the best-dressed lists time after time, Armani will surely always stand for aesthetic rigour, determination, steadfast vision and above all else hard work. </p>
<p>A milestone such as an 80th birthday is a prompt to pause and take stock of the past, or to ponder the possibilities of the future. But the two are not mutually exclusive, even within the fashion industry. As Giorgio Armani the man turns 80 and Giorgio Armani the house prepares to turn 40 in July 2015, we should all stop to pay tribute to an incredible life’s work. It is a time for celebration, and Armani is certainly fit enough to dance up a storm. </p>
<p>So, 80 just might the most powerful number yet. After all, isn’t it <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/news/articles/2013/2/80-could-be-the-new-40">the new 40</a>?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28751/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Potvin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With 3,000 employees, 2,473 points of sale, seven different fashion and furniture labels (to say nothing of his makeup, skincare, chocolate and flower lines), 16 cafés and restaurants, two hotels, a basketball…John Potvin, Associate Professor & Director of the Humanities Ph.D. Program, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/276902014-06-06T04:21:04Z2014-06-06T04:21:04ZWhy are the Australian Commonwealth Games uniforms so bad?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/54371/original/wfb4ggpg-1405914989.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">original</span> </figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<span class="caption">Australian athletes wear the Australian Commonwealth Games Athletes’ uniform for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games during a launch event in Melbourne on Wednesday this week.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/ David Crosling</span></span>
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<p>It’s unanimous: we think that the uniforms designed for the Australian Commonwealth Games team are ugly. More than 15,000 people polled by <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/yes-its-ugly-public-slams-aussie-commonwealth-games-uniform/story-fni0cvc9-1226944307542">the Daily Telegraph said so</a>, <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/aussie-commonwealth-games-team-to-take-on-glasgow-in-nanna-jumpers/story-e6frg7mf-1226943013020">The Australian</a> likened the official knitwear to “nanna jumpers”, and Elle Australia’s deputy editor <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/dreadful-australian-commonwealth-games-uniforms-will-challenge-athletes-20140604-39jer.html">Damien Woolnough</a> remarked that the uniforms serve as an example of “why Olympians used to perform naked”.</p>
<p>Well … they’re not great. As I often write on my students’ work, I can see what the designers, Australian Defence Apparel, were trying to do, but the work didn’t quite get there.</p>
<p>To start with, they had to use the national colours of Australia, green and gold, which are not exactly the most complementary of hues. To make it worse, somehow the colour that designers of such uniforms often reach for to balance this vibrant clash is grey. Think back to the Australian team’s Commonwealth Games uniforms from 2010, in which jade green and butter-yellow gold were matched back with shiny pewter suits. Wrongtown. </p>
<p>This year, the pale ghost-gum shade of the pants works well with the dark green of the uniform, but is a horror next to the lemon. And I can’t help but think that an athlete wearing both top and pants in that grey would look like an escaped extra from the set of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50451/original/yyphx7jg-1402027223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50451/original/yyphx7jg-1402027223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50451/original/yyphx7jg-1402027223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50451/original/yyphx7jg-1402027223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50451/original/yyphx7jg-1402027223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50451/original/yyphx7jg-1402027223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50451/original/yyphx7jg-1402027223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50451/original/yyphx7jg-1402027223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Athlete Jeff Riseley wears the Australian Commonwealth Games Athletes’ uniform for the Glasgow Commonwealth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/ David Crosling</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In an effort to make the uniforms contemporary and fashionable, the designers incorporated a homespun, grassroots feel by way of making Australian stalwart Dunlop Volleys the official shoes, and producing chunky knitted jumpers and scarves topped off with over-sized patches emblazoned with the coat of arms. </p>
<p>What works against this is the unfortunate quasi-business aesthetic that persists in the design of official sports uniforms. It’s as if someone decided years ago that off-duty athletes should be dressed like businesspeople who are trying to jazz up their work wardrobes. So we see the business-wear basics – blazer, trousers, overcoat – tricked out with unnecessary details that take away from the sleek competence such items are supposed to convey. Think of this year’s lemon-yellow piping on the outerwear jackets, and those <em>enormous</em> lapels, or the over-sized pockets of the 2010 uniforms. They would be quite useful if you wanted to carry a discus on each hip but otherwise … </p>
<p>What is so bizarre about all of this is that it should have been so easy. Activewear, a catch-all term for sports and leisurewear designed for athletic activity, is enjoying an unprecedented popularity in fashion. Website <a href="http://www.businessoffashion.com/2014/06/is-activewear-the-new-denim-lucas-hugh-lululemon-athleta.html">Business of Fashion</a> has likened its influence and development as a prestige market to the surge in designer denim in the 2000s. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/fashion/chanel-dior-send-couture-sneakers-runway-article-1.1590800">Trainers were shown by Chanel and Dior</a> at the recent Haute Couture shows in Paris, and items such as bodysuits, yoga pants and leggings have long since crossed over from the terrain of morning workout to everyday wardrobe. </p>
<p>It would have been much more exciting to see the designers of these uniforms apply the principles of sleek functionality, as well as high-performance fabrics, to their work, developing well-cut, handsome clothes that mirror the lifestyle and occupation of the athletes who will wear them. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
It’s unanimous: we think that the uniforms designed for the Australian Commonwealth Games team are ugly. More than 15,000 people polled by the Daily Telegraph said so, The Australian likened the official…Rosie Findlay, Teaching Fellow and PhD Candidate, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/264982014-06-04T20:24:33Z2014-06-04T20:24:33ZThe story of … the military jacket<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50208/original/9x7dd5y7-1401857931.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Beatles' bright costumes can be seen as cheeky nostalgia for an empire in decline.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeremy Chan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fashion and war don’t seem an obvious pairing, but the military jacket is a fashion staple. It may take the form of a double-breasted dress uniform with brass buttons and epaulettes, trimmed in rock star braid, or it may be a khaki combat jacket, worn with Doc Martens and a scowl.</p>
<p>Here I explore how these two forms of the military jacket were frogmarched into fashion.</p>
<p>One of the most enduring of military jackets is the elaborate regimental dress uniform with its rows of horizontal gold braid across the front and gold tasselled epaulettes on the shoulders. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50211/original/fvcczwf2-1401858156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50211/original/fvcczwf2-1401858156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50211/original/fvcczwf2-1401858156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=671&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50211/original/fvcczwf2-1401858156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=671&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50211/original/fvcczwf2-1401858156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=671&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50211/original/fvcczwf2-1401858156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50211/original/fvcczwf2-1401858156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50211/original/fvcczwf2-1401858156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cornet Henry John Wilkin, a British Hussar from the Crimean War, 1855.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Its origins are the 18th century <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussar">hussars</a>, the Hungarian light horse troops. Their pelisse, or braided outer coat, was high-collared with fur cuffs and fur lining. Although <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Five_Centuries_of_American_Costume.html?id=easYAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">designed for pomp rather than comfort</a>, this uniform became the model for many forms of military dress uniform. </p>
<p>The tailored style, fur detailing and braid trims of the dress uniform found their way into women’s clothing almost from the beginning, with 19th-century fashionable women wearing clothing <a href="http://jsh.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/105.full.pdf">inspired by officers’ uniforms</a>. It may have begun as a way to show solidarity with their officer husbands, but the jackets were also very flattering. The braid and brass was bold yet decorative, bringing a certain <em>frisson</em> through being a feminine reworking of styles from a resolutely masculine vocation.</p>
<p>Long after the kinds of wars the hussars fought had ended, fashion and the military jacket met again, when the shop <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/i/robert-orbach/">I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet</a> on Portobello Road in London’s Notting Hill began selling antique military uniforms. Eric Clapton was the first rock star to buy from the shop, followed by John Lennon and Mick Jagger. Jagger purchased a red Grenadier guardsman drummer’s jacket and wore it performing on <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/i/robert-orbach/">Ready Steady Go</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MEWYOt3bxNI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Rolling Stones - Paint It Black (Ready Steady Go).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jimi Hendrix, himself a former soldier, famously purchased an antique hussar’s uniform that dated back to the 1850s. Many of Hendrix’s most iconic photographs have him wearing it, bare-chested beneath and with wild hair, a universe away from the upright officer who must have worn it 90 years prior. </p>
<p>Around the same time, military regalia made an eye-popping appearance in Sgt. Peppers-era Beatles. Designed for their mock Edwardian-era military band, their acid bright costumes can be seen as cheeky nostalgia for an empire in decline.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50194/original/gtj6ybgh-1401855483.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50194/original/gtj6ybgh-1401855483.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50194/original/gtj6ybgh-1401855483.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50194/original/gtj6ybgh-1401855483.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50194/original/gtj6ybgh-1401855483.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50194/original/gtj6ybgh-1401855483.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50194/original/gtj6ybgh-1401855483.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50194/original/gtj6ybgh-1401855483.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jimi Hendrix at the amusement park Gröna Lund in Stockholm, Sweden, May 24, 1967.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From there, the many variations of the original hussar’s pelisse became a rock and roll trope. <a href="http://www.posh24.com/photo/1404653/michael_jackson_red_military_j">Michael Jackson</a> wore many forms of it in his stage costumes. He was the King of Pop, so he dressed the part, posing like royalty in scarlet dress uniform with gold tassels and braid.</p>
<p>Adam Ant, Chris Martin from Coldplay and Rihanna have all worn variations of the dress uniform, adding another layer of history to the military jacket. Fashion designers from Lagerfeld to Givenchy have offered versions. Wearing it now conjures up not only the pomp and ceremony of another world, but also a subversive, rock-star hedonism.</p>
<p>No doubt the uniform Hendrix wore while serving in the US army was far-removed from the 1850s cavalry jacket he wore as a rock star. But the humbler khaki jacket of the troops has also been absorbed into fashion. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50200/original/3hnm6kqh-1401857201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50200/original/3hnm6kqh-1401857201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50200/original/3hnm6kqh-1401857201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50200/original/3hnm6kqh-1401857201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50200/original/3hnm6kqh-1401857201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50200/original/3hnm6kqh-1401857201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50200/original/3hnm6kqh-1401857201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50200/original/3hnm6kqh-1401857201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jackson at the White House being presented with an award by President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan, 1984.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1940s Britain, the regulations imposed under the wartime <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Wartime_Fashion.html?id=6Z_ekmT6JW0C&redir_esc=y">Utility Clothing Scheme</a> meant fashions become boxier and less embellished through necessity. The amount of fabric and style of garment were tightly regulated, and extraneous details such as pocket flaps were banned. As women joined the war effort, they wore uniforms just as the men, and these styles found their way into civilian clothing. </p>
<p>Well after the war ended, the utilitarian styles of the troops were embraced in a very different spirit by youth subcultures. Fashion theorist <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bloomsbury/jdbc/2008/00000012/00000002/art00013">Elizabeth Wilson recalls</a> how in the 1970s, army surplus gear:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>was de rigueur if you were in the “alternative” Left, a “Libertarian”, feminist, anarchist or general revolutionary.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This grittier form of the military uniform can be seen as an anti-establishment protest in punk, 90s grunge, and “crusties’” styles.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50222/original/c6fdfhbq-1401859421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50222/original/c6fdfhbq-1401859421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50222/original/c6fdfhbq-1401859421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50222/original/c6fdfhbq-1401859421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50222/original/c6fdfhbq-1401859421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50222/original/c6fdfhbq-1401859421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50222/original/c6fdfhbq-1401859421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50222/original/c6fdfhbq-1401859421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtney Emery</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Drawing on this, high fashion and fast fashion alike regularly trip out versions of the khaki military jacket. The 2000s saw <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3086669.stm">“glamourflage” versions</a> (a confection of glitter and fatigues) hit catwalks and shopping centres, while on our TVs we watched the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. </p>
<p>Now the protest first associated with wearing army surplus gear has slipped away, and khaki jackets and “camo” prints are just another fashion style.</p>
<p>Season to season, military jackets are reinvented, and references to combat fatigues, storybook soldiers and rock stars are all mixed up and made new again. </p>
<p>In new iterations, as a recent <a href="http://www.vogue.com/archive">US Vogue</a> declares, military jackets are “blasting into the future, with moulded shapes, sci-fi accessories, and Jedi-warrior attitude”.</p>
<p>And so fashion will no doubt keep on co-opting the grit and glamour of military uniforms, both real and imagined.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><strong><em>Read more articles in <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/the-story-of">The Story Of</a> series</em></strong></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><strong><em>Are you an academic or researcher? Is there a fashion item – iconic, everyday or utilitarian – you would like to tell the story of? Contact the <a href="mailto:paul.dalgarno@theconversation.edu.au">Arts + Culture editor</a> with your idea.</em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Payne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fashion and war don’t seem an obvious pairing, but the military jacket is a fashion staple. It may take the form of a double-breasted dress uniform with brass buttons and epaulettes, trimmed in rock star…Alice Payne, Lecturer in Fashion, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/263122014-05-14T02:32:01Z2014-05-14T02:32:01ZThe story of … the men’s white shirt<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48318/original/7wx4dfmq-1399958344.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The influence of the white dress shirt can be traced back to the Victorian era. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ross</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The classic white dress shirt is familiar and omnipresent in men’s fashion. As a result, we tend to be unaware that for more than 200 years this singular item of apparel, which is essentially unadulterated in form from the late 19th century, has been able to define and represent status, wealth and fashion norms.</p>
<p>The history underlying this garment is rich and, in the main part, untold.</p>
<p>For men, the influence of the white dress shirt can be best traced back to the Victorian era where it was an important symbol of wealth and class distinction and a powerful emblem of sobriety and uniformity – despite it being for the most part hidden by outer garments. </p>
<p>The pure white colour of the cloth fulfilled masculine ideals of resolute austerity and only a person of substantial prosperity could afford to have their shirts washed frequently and to own enough of them to wear.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48113/original/xdv4vc49-1399598214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48113/original/xdv4vc49-1399598214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48113/original/xdv4vc49-1399598214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48113/original/xdv4vc49-1399598214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48113/original/xdv4vc49-1399598214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48113/original/xdv4vc49-1399598214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48113/original/xdv4vc49-1399598214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48113/original/xdv4vc49-1399598214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">TempusVolat</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The link between social distinction and colour of the cloth was a marker for affluence, with the terms “white collar” and “blue collar” evolving from this delineation. Indeed, some working class men resented clerical workers for wearing white dress shirts, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-0424.00278/abstract">referring to them</a> as “white collar stiffs” as they dressed above their social rank, as an employer not an employee.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48114/original/gdbf3ytw-1399599010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48114/original/gdbf3ytw-1399599010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48114/original/gdbf3ytw-1399599010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48114/original/gdbf3ytw-1399599010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48114/original/gdbf3ytw-1399599010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48114/original/gdbf3ytw-1399599010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48114/original/gdbf3ytw-1399599010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48114/original/gdbf3ytw-1399599010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration of stand-up turned-down collar, 1898.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly, the collar was also used as a symbol of status, with high-standing armour-like detachable collars preventing a downward gaze. Starched high rigid collars distinguished the elite from clerks, who necessitated low collars for ease of movement – the idiom “to look down one’s nose” was, in part, connected to this consequential upright facial stance.</p>
<p>Arguably, by the late 19th century, men who concerned themselves with decorative versus utilitarian dress were reviled for being “non-masculine”. Indeed, the unadorned white dress shirt was intrinsically correlated to appropriate moral masculine behaviour and this austerity of dress indicated that a man could be trusted and was soberly business-like.</p>
<p>By the close of the 19th century, the use of the white dress shirt as an insignia to define status had diminished. Increasing affordability and availability of the white dress shirt allowed a man to wear it for church, the “high street” and for employment within clerical roles – the defining factor for class separation was no longer the whiteness of colour, but the fit, quality of the cloth and discreet style variations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48111/original/x9ntrtzw-1399597778.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48111/original/x9ntrtzw-1399597778.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48111/original/x9ntrtzw-1399597778.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48111/original/x9ntrtzw-1399597778.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48111/original/x9ntrtzw-1399597778.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48111/original/x9ntrtzw-1399597778.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48111/original/x9ntrtzw-1399597778.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48111/original/x9ntrtzw-1399597778.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arrow Shirt Collar advertisement, 1907.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After the end of the first world war, a societal shift was occurring and a new, softer and more fluid look was developing for less formal clothing. </p>
<p>One of the key influences was the Prince of Wales (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII#Prince_of_Wales">Edward VIII</a>), who was a popular leader of fashion at the time. His rejection of the white shirt, with its severe lines, in favour of soft, floppy, coloured shirts created a major shift in menswear. Nevertheless, in the early 1920s the white dress shirt was still associated with moral respectability. </p>
<p>In 1924 the founding father of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/waywewore/waywewore_1.html">was insistent</a> on a dress code, demanding his office employees wear a classic white shirt as part of their mandatory attire. This association with ideals of steadfastness was also played out in the fictional American advertising creation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arrow_Collar_Man">Arrow Collar Man</a> (1905-31), with his rigid white shirt, promoting American masculine ideals.</p>
<p>The next significant change for the white dress shirt was the introduction of synthetic fabrics, with questionable ability for comfort, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. </p>
<p>Then in the late 1960s and early 1970s an escalation of floridity occurred, in particular, frontal flounces and ruffles, as well as increased collar widths. But the white dress shirt was still seen as a very “proper” garment, as a vast array of highly coloured and printed casual shirts popularised the market place.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48115/original/wr86cjgp-1399599571.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48115/original/wr86cjgp-1399599571.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48115/original/wr86cjgp-1399599571.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48115/original/wr86cjgp-1399599571.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48115/original/wr86cjgp-1399599571.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48115/original/wr86cjgp-1399599571.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48115/original/wr86cjgp-1399599571.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48115/original/wr86cjgp-1399599571.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seinfeld’s ‘Puffy Shirt’ on display at the National Museum of American History.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the early 1980s, for a brief period, an innovative romantic style of dressing with loosely styled foppish and frilled white dress shirts was the height of fashion – influenced by popular new romantic bands, such as British band <a href="http://www.spandauballet.com/">Spandau Ballet</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JE2sCISQmpE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Then through the 1980s “power dressing”, with labels such as German fashion house Hugo Boss, was fashionable in urban business contexts and the white dress shirt regained its association with power and prestige – a legitimacy of place that it rightfully still holds, albeit an association aligned with designer names.</p>
<p>Next time you walk through a department store, and glance at the rows of intricately folded and exactingly boxed white dress shirts, you can pause to consider the important historical connections. </p>
<p>But this is only part of the story … the women’s white dress shirt has an equally significant but different story to tell, connected to labour reform and shifts in gender ideals. But that’s for another day …</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><strong><em>Are you an academic or researcher? Is there a fashion item – iconic, everyday or utilitarian – you would like to tell the story of? Contact the <a href="mailto:paul.dalgarno@theconversation.edu.au">Arts + Culture editor</a> with your idea.</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong> <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-the-top-hat-26215">The story of … the top hat</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26312/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dean Brough does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The classic white dress shirt is familiar and omnipresent in men’s fashion. As a result, we tend to be unaware that for more than 200 years this singular item of apparel, which is essentially unadulterated…Dean Brough, Senior Fashion Studio Lecturer, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/262152014-05-07T20:37:14Z2014-05-07T20:37:14ZThe story of … the top hat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47927/original/bt7c7c2r-1399429091.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">By the 1830s, fortunately for beaver populations, beaver pelt became démodé as the silk top hat appeared.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Stevenson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong><em>If you had to tell the story of one item or phenomenon in fashion, what would it be? See the end for information on how to get involved.</em></strong></em></p>
<p>Throughout the 19th century, the top hat was a mainstay of Victorian life: a man in a topper was well-to-do, respectable, a man of industry. But now the top hat is only a caricature of the upper class privilege it once represented. Its history traces a line through dandies, beavers, silk, and madness.</p>
<p>The top hat is a tall cylindrical hat, typically made of silk mounted on a felt base. It has a high crown, a narrow, slightly curved brim, and is often black. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47919/original/xsc6vgkq-1399427283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47919/original/xsc6vgkq-1399427283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47919/original/xsc6vgkq-1399427283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47919/original/xsc6vgkq-1399427283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47919/original/xsc6vgkq-1399427283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47919/original/xsc6vgkq-1399427283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1631&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47919/original/xsc6vgkq-1399427283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1631&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47919/original/xsc6vgkq-1399427283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1631&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caricature of Beau Brummell, print by Robert Dighton, 1805.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The earliest top hat is often attributed to English milliner John Hetherington in a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Fashion-History-Valerie-Cumming/dp/1847885330">(possibly apocryphal) story</a> in the St James’ Gazette in January 1797. Hetherington’s first public outing in the top hat caused a riot, and he was later charged for “having appeared on the Public Highway wearing upon his head a tall structure having a shining lustre and calculated to frighten timid people”.</p>
<p>The top hat gained acceptance thanks to the famous English dandy, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jan/01/biography.features">George “Beau” Brummel</a> (1778-1840), who became its first champion. </p>
<p>Brummel was an innovator in men’s fashions and a close friend of the Prince Regent, George IV (who became king in 1821). He spurned the flamboyance and decadence of men’s fashion of the time, instead adopting simple, elegant and tailored attire such as equestrian-inspired breeches, spotless white shirts and exquisitely tailored jackets. </p>
<p>Essential to his ensemble was the new top hat, dubbed the “beaver” as its felt was made from beaver fur.</p>
<p>Brummel was a style leader, and with the new craze for beaver top hats came an economic opportunity for the North American fur trade. </p>
<p>Felt made from beaver fur was the most sought-after for hats as the qualities of the fur meant it held its shape in the rain, unlike the cheaper alternative of rabbit fur. While the European beaver was long-gone, hunted to extinction for its pelts by 1500, beavers were being hunted in North America. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47923/original/qsw6ddgg-1399427751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47923/original/qsw6ddgg-1399427751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47923/original/qsw6ddgg-1399427751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47923/original/qsw6ddgg-1399427751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47923/original/qsw6ddgg-1399427751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47923/original/qsw6ddgg-1399427751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47923/original/qsw6ddgg-1399427751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47923/original/qsw6ddgg-1399427751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top hat from a French department store catalog, Paris 1909.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://www.hbc.com/">Hudson’s Bay Company</a>, established in America in 1670 as a fur trading business, enjoyed a lucrative trade in beaver pelts. Brummel’s popularising of the top hat in the early 19th century played a role in further decimation of beaver populations. </p>
<p>From its beginnings, the expense and rarity of the beaver top hat became synonymous with upper class wealth, as a genuine beaver top hat <a href="http://www.georgianindex.net/tailors/tailor.html">would have cost</a> 40 shillings, while a hatter may only have earned two shillings and tuppence a day. </p>
<p>Making a top hat was often lethal for hatters since mercury was used throughout the process of transforming beaver or rabbit fur to felt – known as “carroting” as it turned the fibres orange. Prolonged exposure to mercury frequently led to mercury poisoning, with symptoms including early-onset dementia and irritability, muscular spasms and tremors, loss of hearing, eyesight, teeth and nails. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47920/original/2g43sqw9-1399427379.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47920/original/2g43sqw9-1399427379.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47920/original/2g43sqw9-1399427379.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47920/original/2g43sqw9-1399427379.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47920/original/2g43sqw9-1399427379.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47920/original/2g43sqw9-1399427379.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47920/original/2g43sqw9-1399427379.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47920/original/2g43sqw9-1399427379.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mad Hatter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stewart Baird</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The mercury-poisoned mad hatter was of course immortalised in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter is always illustrated in a topper, the manufacture of which probably sent him mad in the first place.</p>
<p>By the 1830s, fortunately for beaver populations, beaver pelt became <em>démodé</em> as the silk top hat appeared. Until the turn of the century, the silk top hat was ubiquitous in respectable Victorian society. </p>
<p>Although various shapes evolved such as flatter brims or higher or lower crowns, the basic form remained. Hat checkers had to be introduced at the theatre and opera, as top hats grew tremendously tall – up to 12 inches high – making it impossible for theatregoers to view the performance through the thicket of toppers. This led to Frenchman Antoine Gibus’ invention of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chapeauclaque.png">the opera hat</a>, or Gibus, a collapsible spring-loaded silk top hat. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RZOJoV6H2UM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Top Hat (1935). Such flair and grace.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The top hat fell out of favour in the early 20th century as slowly more casual styles of headwear, such as the bowler hat, became accepted for everyday wear. The top hat became associated with Victorian stuffiness and formality, and was pulled out only for strictly formal occasions: weddings, the opera, garden parties, Ascot.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47925/original/57pjx6hy-1399428843.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47925/original/57pjx6hy-1399428843.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47925/original/57pjx6hy-1399428843.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47925/original/57pjx6hy-1399428843.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47925/original/57pjx6hy-1399428843.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47925/original/57pjx6hy-1399428843.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47925/original/57pjx6hy-1399428843.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47925/original/57pjx6hy-1399428843.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hip-hop musician T-Pain wearing a top hat at the Video Music Awards in 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Techie Diva</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The top hat’s swan song may have been Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027125/">1935 film</a> of the same name, one of the most famous of the duo’s performances, in which Astaire wears a top hat with an elegance and panache to rival Brummel himself (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZOJoV6H2UM">and famously dances with one too</a>). </p>
<p>Today top hats are rarely worn non-ironically. The art of top hat making is dying out, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3636955/Royal-Ascot-gentlemen-prefer-toppers.html">with only a handful of hatters still plying their trade</a>. </p>
<p>In popular culture, the top hat is frequently comic, subversive or ridiculous – worn by such varied characters as Willy Wonka, stage magicians, steampunk cosplayers, the Fat Controller and Slash from Guns n’ Roses. </p>
<p>Perhaps this is why, at Prince William and Catherine Middleton’s royal wedding in 2011, David Beckham <a href="https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=579&q=%22david+beckham%22+%22top+hat%22&oq=%22david+beckham%22+%22top+hat%22&gs_l=img.3...1694.9299.0.9529.26.22.0.4.0.1.314.3336.9j1j11j1.22.0....0...1ac.1.42.img..10.16.2126.CkL3USdZfUc">awkwardly cradled his Philip Treacy top hat</a> rather than wearing it.</p>
<p><br>
<strong><em>Are you an academic or researcher? Is there a fashion item – iconic, everyday or utilitarian – you would like to tell the story of? Contact the <a href="mailto:paul.dalgarno@theconversation.edu.au">Arts + Culture editor</a> with your idea.</em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Payne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you had to tell the story of one item or phenomenon in fashion, what would it be? See the end for information on how to get involved. Throughout the 19th century, the top hat was a mainstay of Victorian…Alice Payne, Lecturer in Fashion, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/232512014-02-26T19:24:49Z2014-02-26T19:24:49ZAnd the best penguin Oscar … a closer look at the tuxedo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42544/original/qrxnv697-1393387583.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Apparently the tuxedo was first worn in the New York Tuxedo Club.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Nelson/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The women on the red carpet garner so much attention on Oscars night it can be easy to overlook the men. Even the title given to the required dress code - “black tie” – is deceptive. What indicates to male guests that a dark dinner suit is called for is <em>carte blanche</em> for women, as long as their hemline reaches the knee (at least) and is, well, <em>dressy</em>. </p>
<p>In fact, men’s formal wear is often unfairly maligned as stuffy and boring, perhaps because its subtleties dims next to the dazzle of borrowed <a href="http://www.boucheron.com/en/">Boucheron</a> jewels and <a href="http://www.eliesaab.com/en/haute-couture/fw-2013-2014">Elie Saab Haute Couture</a>. Italian fashion designer <a href="http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/biographies/roberto-cavalli-biography">Roberto Cavalli</a> sums the general sentiment up best: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>in the evening every man looks the same. Like penguins. Women have a special dress for that event; men, the same tuxedo.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42545/original/dg8fbdp2-1393388039.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42545/original/dg8fbdp2-1393388039.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42545/original/dg8fbdp2-1393388039.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42545/original/dg8fbdp2-1393388039.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42545/original/dg8fbdp2-1393388039.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42545/original/dg8fbdp2-1393388039.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42545/original/dg8fbdp2-1393388039.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42545/original/dg8fbdp2-1393388039.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andy Rain/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course, such an assessment is hardly accurate. While at a glance tuxedos can seem a bit uniform, comprised as they always are of the same basic components - a jacket with a lapel and wrist-length sleeves, worn with trousers made of the same fabric, and a buttoned shirt – it is the variation of detail, fabric and fit that distinguish a good suit from a great one. </p>
<p>These variations on a theme are the currency of men’s black tie and are the key to individualising it.</p>
<p>So in the interests of equipping you with enough information to bore the others at your Oscars party to tears, here is everything you ever wanted to know (and some you didn’t) about the tuxedo.</p>
<h2>The history of the tuxedo</h2>
<p>The suit first developed in the English court in the late 17th century when loose-fitting buttoned coats for men came into fashion, replacing the gown and padded doublet. Breeches were still worn, but their desired fit was low-slung, loose and soft, rather than being laced tightly up to the now-abandoned doublet. </p>
<p>The buttoned waistcoat made its entrance in this sartorial context thanks to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_England">King Charles II</a> who, in an effort to instill the value of thrift in his nobility, famously tried to set a fashion that would never alter: the waistcoat. (Unfortunately for the King, this decree was neatly side-stepped by the spendthrift nobility who constantly found ways to reinvent the garment in different cuts and fabrics.)</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42547/original/5kkxf8yg-1393388392.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42547/original/5kkxf8yg-1393388392.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42547/original/5kkxf8yg-1393388392.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42547/original/5kkxf8yg-1393388392.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42547/original/5kkxf8yg-1393388392.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42547/original/5kkxf8yg-1393388392.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42547/original/5kkxf8yg-1393388392.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42547/original/5kkxf8yg-1393388392.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since that time, the suit in this basic three-piece form has never really gone away, although it has developed into many different permutations, each bound with certain rules concerning the appropriate way it must be worn. These customs often have an intriguing catalyst. It is still considered fashionable for a man to leave the last button on his waistcoat unbuttoned. The trendsetter behind this particular look was the fashionable <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII">Edward VII, the Prince of Wales</a>, who would apparently undo the bottom button of his waistcoat after a big meal to allow room for his generous stomach. </p>
<p>The particular origins of the tuxedo are contested, but all accounts are tied with the upper class. Both British accounts are tied with those classic pursuits of the English aristocracy: hunting and cigars after dinner. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Englishmans-Suit-Hardy-Amies/dp/0704371693">Hardy Amies</a>, founder of the eponymous iconic English fashion label, tells it, men would change out of their hunting clothes for dinner so as not to bring the scent of the stables inside. The other account as told by art and design writer <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mens-Fashion-Twentieth-Century-Intelligent/dp/0896762254">Maria Constantino</a> is that the dinner jacket stems from the smoking jacket, which men would don to smother the odour of cigar smoke lingering in their clothes. </p>
<p>The French claim the dinner jacket as their own, dubbed the “Monte Carlo” as its lightweight fabric was well suited for wearing to the casino on summer evenings, whereas it is American history which lends the garment its distinctive name. </p>
<p>Apparently the place where a tuxedo was first worn in America was at <a href="http://www.thetuxedoclub.org/">The Tuxedo Club</a> in New York, where American tobacco manufacturer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Lorillard_IV">Pierre Lorillard IV</a>’s rather rebellious son Griswold wore one to a ball, scandalising everyone else, as the dinner jacket was at that point still regarded as casual wear.</p>
<h2>Why are tuxedos still so popular?</h2>
<p>Art historian <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Hollander/e/B001ITYTMW/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1">Anne Hollander</a> has written the best explanation for the enduring power of the tuxedo in her marvellous book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Suits-Kodansha-Globe-Anne-Hollander/dp/1568361017">Sex and Suits</a>. If even that snappy title isn’t enough to make you pick up a book on fashion history, allow me to summarise here.</p>
<p>Basically, she argues that the suit is the most modern of garments in terms of its aesthetic: it has clean lines, it is functional and mimics the form of the figure underneath, allowing freely for movement, and there is no superfluity to its design. </p>
<p>Tuxedos are always black or midnight blue, the uniform colour both visually unifying the body whilst avoiding any further decoration, the antithesis of modern design which favours strong, simple forms.</p>
<p>Hollander links the erotic appeal of suits to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the unselfconscious natural dress of animals [as their design mimics] the efficiency and elegance of nature. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>I believe that this is precisely why ill-fitting suits are such a visual irritant. If the visual power of a suit is tied with ease of means and movement, superflouous fabric in the limbs or torso, an overlarge fit on the shoulder, or pant legs that are too short bely the easy inhabitation a suit is supposed to invite. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42556/original/f6zc7jrd-1393393663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42556/original/f6zc7jrd-1393393663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42556/original/f6zc7jrd-1393393663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42556/original/f6zc7jrd-1393393663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42556/original/f6zc7jrd-1393393663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42556/original/f6zc7jrd-1393393663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42556/original/f6zc7jrd-1393393663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42556/original/f6zc7jrd-1393393663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ettore Ferrari/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead of seeing the unity of suit and man wearing it, in an ill-fitting suit we see a slippage between: the suit is not doing what it is supposed to. </p>
<p>Such qualities of masculine black tie dress are thrown into relief when compared with that of women. If a tuxedo implies readiness for action, ease in the body and casual elegance, the attire of women on the red carpet suggests the exact opposite. </p>
<p>From her elaborate hair and make-up, her expensive jewels, her fitted or ballooning gown, and her high heels, the appearance of women at the Oscars suggests the careful preparation of a dazzling appearance, one that restricts quick movement and presents her to be admired. </p>
<p>The contrast suggested by this gendered dress is identical to men’s and women’s wear in less formal contexts, but in both, as Hollander observes, the conventions of men’s and women’s clothing are “always being made with respect to the other”.</p>
<p>Where men can get creative with their suits is in the detail, and these can be varied to the minutest detail to form an original look. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the cut is the most important factor. The length of the sleeves and trouser legs must be hemmed exactly to the wrist and bottom of the ankle, and the shoulder seams must sit exactly on the tip of the shoulder. A ready-made suit can fit almost as well as one tailored to an individual, but the key is to buy one that fits like a glove. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42532/original/6kbz8xjz-1393384050.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42532/original/6kbz8xjz-1393384050.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42532/original/6kbz8xjz-1393384050.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42532/original/6kbz8xjz-1393384050.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42532/original/6kbz8xjz-1393384050.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42532/original/6kbz8xjz-1393384050.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42532/original/6kbz8xjz-1393384050.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42532/original/6kbz8xjz-1393384050.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like penguins.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Deme/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From there, the choices are virtually endless: single or double-breasted, black or midnight blue? Shawl, peaked or notched lapel? And what colour the buttons on the sleeve, and how many? To cummerbund or waistcoat (but most certainly never both)? </p>
<p>And what kind of shoes? A butterfly or straight bow-tie at the neck? And what of tie-pins, watches, socks and buttonholes? But the final word must belong to English fashion designer <a href="http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/biographies/hardy-amies-biography">Hardy Amies</a>, who advises free rein in terms of the colour of the pocket-square but strictly advises that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to show a white handkerchief is to show a white flag in the battle of life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Be ye thus warned should you ever receive an invite to the Oscars.</p>
<p><br>
See <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/oscars-2014">further Oscars 2014 coverage</a> on The Conversation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosie Findlay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The women on the red carpet garner so much attention on Oscars night it can be easy to overlook the men. Even the title given to the required dress code - “black tie” – is deceptive. What indicates to…Rosie Findlay, PhD Candidate, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.