American Male Turning To England’s Fashion

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28734, 4 November 1958, Page 18

American Male Turning To England’s Fashion

[Specially written tor N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVER.I NEW YORK, November 2. Savile row and Bond street appear to be changing the dressing habits of the American male. During the summer just past New York and other Eastern cities saw what amounted to an avalanche of “boaters.” Towards the end of the summer no well-dressed New York male had anything on his head but the boater, for hat-makers cashed in on the trend. When autumn weather began to arrive in this neighbourhood the boaters were put away and in their place came a sprinkling of bowlers, headgear unknown in New York and Washington since the early years of this century.

| Clothes began to change, too, this year. For years the American male has felt himself out of fashion unless padding carried his jacket shoulders outwards a couple or three inches beyond his actual shoulder tip, and unless the jacket fell at least half way between hip and knee. And as the jacket was invariably double-breasted the stylish American male looked well-tented, if not well dressed. Then insidious British influence got to work. Suddenly. the single breasted suit came into fashion and hundreds of small tailoring shops in New York’s side streets began advertising that they would for a small fee turn any double breasted jacket into a single and they did good business. New York and Washington began to look a little like London. English tailors (and bootmakers) are said to be cashing in on the trend. Since the end of the last war tailors and bootmakers from London have been visiting the principal cities of America once or even twice a year, taking measurements and within a few weeks sending the finished goods back—at not much more than half the price of top quality tailoring in New York. These visiting tailors have had a good deal to do with the curj rent trend in men's fashions towards London style, or what was • London style until the Edwardian (trend set in there a little while ago. Moves in Texas Now the trend towards London style has swept across the country and the great state of Texas is “going London.” In the city of Dallas. Texas, I there exists one of the more remarkable shops not only of the United States but of the world, Neiman-Marcus. This shop has just been putting on a “British fortnight” but it had nothing to do with women’s fashions and all to do with men’s fashions. Reports from the Lone Star State say the fortnight has been a whopping success and rich oil and cattlemen of the State are reported laying in stocks of bowl-

ers. stylish Hombergs and London style suits. There was nothing half-hearted about the British fortnight in Dallas. On the main floor of the store was a 70-foot replica of London bridge and a full sized Jaguar car was placed on Wedgwood teacups to demonstrate the strength of that chinaware. There was a full range of British sports cars on another floor. On another was a cavalcade pf British fashion’s (men’s) covering the last century and a half. The store restaurant served grouse flown in from Scotland. That, however, was not by any means all. Sir Pierson Dixon. British delegate to the United Nations, cut the ribbon that opened the fortnight. The Old Vic Company was in Dallas making its first appearance in Texas and the art museums of the city put on special shows of British pictures and sculpture. The public library displayed British prints and showed British documentary films each day. Big Ben in Texas Three times a day a Dallas bank tower gave out the Big Ben chimes and British speakers were on hand to lecture to the women’s club, the Rotary Club, and the schools.

Visitors from other states report it was difficult to believe they were in the state of vast ranches, hard riding cowbovs and oil well drillers. It was British British all the way as Dallas men began to exhibit the ‘‘British *ook.” narrower shoulders and narrow peaked lapels. surmounted by a smart bowler, or British plaid suits for less formal wear, or handsome warmly-lined sports jackets on the shoulders of which to rest a Purdey gun, which Neiman-Marcus was offering for from 1400 dollars to 2600 dollars. There was snob appeal all right but it did appeal, especially to the women, who took their men to the show and, mostly, saw that they bought something for, as Stanley Marcus, one of the owners, says, woman’s influence on men’s purchases is strong because ‘‘a woman’s best accessory is a well-dressed man.”

The ‘‘snob appeal” was found to draw not only the wealthy and the would-be fashionable but also the housewife and the office girl. Everyone went and the trend towards British styles in men's clothing seems to be definite. From New York the trend has ranged inland for a couple of thousand miles but there are no reports yet that it has touched cosmopolitan San Francisco or Hollywood, the centre of the country’s “loud” fashions in men’s wear.

But anything can happen: it needs but one popular film star to appear on Sunset Boulevard in a British suit and a bowler, to start a run on both, says one cynical commentator.

What does seem certain is that certain British male fashions are here and will remain for a while to the benefit of British exports of cloth and clothing and a hundred other things. t< pdd as it may seem the word “imported” is a synonym for “superior” in the American advertising world which emphasises “imported this” and “imported that,” so much so that the manufacturer of one American product advertises that his produce is an “imported” article in 25 countries. In London the special correspondent of the N.Z.P.A. reports that the Wholesale Clothing Manufacturers’ Federation has launched a campaign to make British men more clothes conscious. It has laid down “the absolute minimum” amount of garments that the average man should have to keep up a reasonable standard of personal appearance. It is three suits—two formal and one informal—two sports jackets, one dinner suit or evening suit, one topcoat, one raincoat and two pairs of leisure trousers. Announcing its campaign, the federation claimed there had been an alarming drop in standards of late years and that where men unhesitatingly made a down payment on a car they had difficulty in making up their minds about clothes. If such men only looked at themselves in a mirror occasionally, said an official, they would see what a sorry picture they made.