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VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

Shirt Week: 1926

November 1926. Washington, D.C. "Raleigh Haberdasher window, 1310 F Street." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

November 1926. Washington, D.C. "Raleigh Haberdasher window, 1310 F Street." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

 

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Brands and styles

It is 1926 and several brands of men's clothing are recognizable. Manhattan Dhirts were quality apparel and existed into the 1970s. I haven't seen this brand for years now.
The venerable Hart, Schaffner & Marx clothing continues to survive (and be produced in the USA).

The shirts in the frontal display case show the emerging trend in shirt collars: those on the left have stiff attached collars, while those on the right show the newer sewn-in collars that would dominate shirt construction.

Not much has changed with respect to ties; just back and forth on the width.

Am I reading the window correctly -- Stetson "Shoes"?

[The Stetson "SS" shoestika! - Dave]

The finery of yesteryear

The days when service was expected and delivered. Where did that concept go except for where the elite are concerned?

More on the store's history here.

And some of its clothes are still around:

Coat on eBay.

And a tie.

Been There, Bought the Shirt

Well, a Manhattan shirt at least. In 1968, I worked in the National Press Club Building just down the block. It still looked the same then. The interior was all stained wood and beveled glass mirrors. It was jaw-dropping. I managed to buy a few things on my college student budget.

Incidentally, the name came from their first store in the Raleigh Hotel.

Shirts and Hats.

I wore Manhattan shirts for many a year. Very comfortable and lasted a long time. Stetson, still have a couple of hats that I wear. A fedora that belonged to my Dad and my regulation cowboy hat. After all, I do have a steer in the back pasture!

Freestanding store display windows-

So classy and evocative of the period's commercial architecture. In San Diego, Universal Boot Shop on Fifth Avenue had a stylish art deco one just south of Broadway until about the early 1990s. The shoe store building's extant; I'll have to drive past sometime and see if their window display case is too, now that the original shop has closed. Shops like those always reminded me of the spectacular L.A. establishments like the Bullock's Wishire store along the Miracle Mile, where the some of ladies who looked like movie stars picking out neckties quite possible were.

Sigh

I miss the Raleigh's in Chevy Chase; now a restaurant, or at least it was the last time I was in the neighborhood. Things change so fast these days. Great service and they made it a point of keeping up with your requirements so they knew what to suggest to fit your profile. A class act.

Nice ties!

Those ties would look hip and stylish even today. I can't tell their color, but the pattern is spiffy, especially the three with circles.

Alas, poor Raleigh

I knew thee well. Raleigh Haberdasher was another of my late mother's favorite shopping destinations for upscale clothing but it, too, has gone the way of other Washington department stores. I think she bought my father's dress shirts there (white, no colors or stripes, per order of J. Edgar Hoover). But, I must say, those ties are just plain ugly.

Polly Esther

This great picture was made when mostly natural fabrics were used for clothing and I believe the only natural fabrics were made from cotton, silk, wool and linen. (Leather is not really a fabric). Rayon and nylon were in the experimental stage, probably not in wide usage, so these beautiful detailed shirts, finely crafted hats, robes, ascots, ties and suits were likely quite costly. Since this was three years before the big stock market crash and depression, some people were relatively prosperous. I watched the PBS six hour "Prohibition" series this week and I see the resemblance in the styles and quality of the clothing (especially the gangsters' sharp tastes in fashions). This era may have been the peak of the well-heeled gentlemen of the roaring 20's like F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) and the sharpest dresser ever, Mr. Duke Ellington. Beautiful vintage clothing here.

A smoking jacket!

I watched movies and men would come home from the office, take off their suitcoats, put on a smoking jacket, and light up a cigarette. It was pretty cool, but I always wondered why.

I also wonder if Stetson changed its trademark when WW II came around.

Still hip after 85 years

Looks like you could put those shirts and ties on today and look as if yo just picked them up at Armani. Albeit the hipster doofuses wouldn't think so with their skinny ties, skinny jeans, and skinny lapels.

Au Courant

Those dress shirts look like they could be in a store today. I even like the ties!

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