![]() ![]() While designer duster coats and tailored peacoats will always be timeless outerwear staples, capes are a stylish but no less practical diversion to invest in this fall and winter. This season’s cozy coat is the cape, with modern interpretations that nod to its refined, ladylike origins. In both the UK and the US, dress shirt protectors abruptly fell from popularity at the end of World War One, likely due to the concurrent decline in coal use.Each fall/winter fashion season, statement outerwear trends emerge from the runways and determine the latest must-have pieces worn on chilly streets worldwide. A sachet (small package of perfumed powder used to scent clothes) was sometimes added to the protectors although some authorities considered this practice a bit gauche. When a collar was added to the protector in 1888 to cover the neck and shirt collar, gentlemen could also do away with their mufflers. A similar lining was incorporated into the full dress protector thus rendering the undervest unnecessary. Concerns of contracting “pneumonia and other diseases” initially prompted the use of the under vest, a sleeveless high-buttoning garment made of warmly lined silk and worn under the shirt. Unlike all other types of men’s suits which buttoned high and/or had a tall waistcoat underneath, the unique design of full dress allowed for only a thin layer of cotton between the wearer and the elements. Secondly, it was quilted to shield the wearer’s chest from the unhealthy cold. Firstly, it was black instead of white owing to its purpose of shielding the snow-white expanse of shirt front from the aforementioned soot that plagued coal-powered cities of the time. It differed from the dress muffler in a couple of ways that made it more practical. ![]() Initially made of cotton and wool then of satin or silk, it was essentially an oblong muffler broad enough to cover the expanse of shirt revealed by the open tailcoat front and low-cut evening waistcoat. In the United States, it was more often referred to as a full dress protector and sometimes a dress shirt shield and debuted a decade earlier. According to History of Underclothes, it was popular in Britain from about 1897 and consisted of “a pad of white quilted satin faced with white silk.”Ĭollared version from an 1899 Chicago newspaper ad. Dress Shirt ProtectorsĪ more effective version of the muffler was the Victorian dress shirt protector. They also recommended wearing the muffler tied in ascot style. ![]() During that period Apparel Arts and Esquireallowed for crepe material, pale yellow color, fringed ends (again) and monogrammed initials. Plain white silk remained the norm until modern times with the notable exception of the glory days of menswear in the 1930s. Said one 1894 newspaper report: “The London dandy prides himself as much on the spotless purity and the expanse of his white silk neck scarfs as the dandy of forty years ago did on his many-colored waistcoats.” In fact, wearing white garments was a point of pride owing to the considerable laundering expense required to keep them clean in soot-filled cities of the time. Most other turn-of-the-century authorities didn’t mention fringed ends and suggested plain white silk. The standard top hat was made of black silk plush (a pile longer and less dense than velvet pile) or felted beaver fur while early collapsible versions were generally made of the former material.Įsquire suggested that dress mufflers be tied ascot style and have a monogram. That all changed when a collapsible version of the round hat was invented in 1812 which allowed gentlemen to store their headwear under their seats.Īcceptable at first only for informal evening events, tall hat styles became increasingly popular as full-dress attire in the 1820s with the arrival in England of the French top hat. ![]() The tall “round hats” worn as daywear were impractical in comparison because they were awkward to carry at a ball and had to be checked at the opera or theater. Also known as a bicorne, it was a crescent-shaped headpiece like the one made famous by Napoleon but was specifically designed as a collapsible hat to be carried under the arm – thus its French name “arm hat”. 1930s midnight blue white tie-grosgrain silk facings stiff pique shirt fashion illustration The Evolution of the Evening Hat The Top Hat and White Tie The Early YearsĪt the turn of the nineteenth century, the chapeau bras was the only hat for evening dress. ![]()
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