Clothing

[Chantilly]

grrrr...I need a good photo editor!  I don't have a good way to shrink photos to fit the file size for the posting requirement.  Can anyone recommend a good photo editor program - reasonably priced.  I would use one fairly often if it weren't too complicated!  I also need a good secretary to organize this stuff!!

[Chantilly]

Calamity Jane 1875, Black Hills,

[Books OToole]

I still wear the same style that I wore in the 70's (or even the 60's).  A button-down shirt and a pair of khakis or chino slacks seems to remain in style for the last 50 years.

It was in the '80s when Playboy briefly had another magaizine on the line of GQ.  That is where I read an interview with the greatest man of style of the 20th, Cary Grant.  From that point on I bought nice conservative clothes of the highest quality I could afford.  Some of those clothes I do still wear. [It's hard to beat a London Fog Jacket, etc.]

I've been thinking some more about fall front pants.  From the 'history police' perspective, a man in his 50s living in the mid to late 1860s could probably get away with wearing broadfalls.  But he should be packing '51 Navies.

Another problem with extrapolating fall fronts into the late '60s and beyond would be;  No one would be making a style that out of date.  And a pair of trousers probably would not survive 20 years. (Except those disco pants in my closet )

Books

PS I probably have half a doze pair of narrow fall pants and about that many broadfall pant in my closet.

[Pawnee Bill]

It was in the '80s when Playboy briefly had another magaizine on the line of GQ.  That is where I read an interview with the greatest man of style of the 20th, Cary Grant.  From that point on I bought nice conservative clothes of the highest quality I could afford.  Some of those clothes I do still wear. [It's hard to beat a London Fog Jacket, etc.]

I've been thinking some more about fall front pants.  From the 'history police' perspective, a man in his 50s living in the mid to late 1860s could probably get away with wearing broadfalls.  But he should be packing '51 Navies.

Another problem with extrapolating fall fronts into the late '60s and beyond would be;  No one would be making a style that out of date.  And a pair of trousers probably would not survive 20 years. (Except those disco pants in my closet )
Books


Books

PS I probably have half a doze pair of narrow fall pants and about that many broadfall pant in my closet.

Books
A possible exception is the use of broad fall overalls by Mexican Cowboys and anglo's that adopted their dress.
Time Life Spanish West has a photo fron the 1870's showing two southern California Rancheros wearing broad fall overalls. There are two that I know of Remington ink drawings showing Anglo Cowboys gone native with broad fall overalls. All are the european military style like those used by the Lancers and Hussars with buttons down the side and renforced crotch. This style seems to have been fossilized as folk dress. BTW it is not unheard of for Mexican Cowboys to wear velvet Knee Britches as late as the 1890's for featival dress.
I have a Charro outfit from the 1920 and although it is fly front the decoration still has the braid where the broad fall would have been.
Cheers
Pawnee Bill

[Stina]

Aw, now, why does this sort of thing always come up when my books are at work, and I'm home?

Regarding fall-front pants....to the best of my recollection, my Blue Book of Men's Tailoring, published in 1908, has a pattern for broad-fall pants, with a statement to the effect that, while they are no longer in fashion, any decent tailor needs to know how to make them, as many "older gentlemen" prefer to wear them.  In 1908.....

I'll return with better documentation later in the week, I promise.

Also, just to stir the pot a little--my persona is a Swedish immigrant woman, and while my husband and I are 'city folks' with university educations, many Swedes were still wearing what we would think of as 'folk-costume' up until the 1960s, at least to church on Sundays.  Most of the men's outfits would have fall-fronts--most were even knee-breeches.

Now, people being what they are, I'm sure even if the immigrants arrived in America with old-fashioned fall-front trousers or breeches, they probably changed them as soon as possible, in order to fit in better.  But--it's possible that they could have made it out west.....

No, I don't have a scrap of documentation--immigrants don't seem to have had their pictures taken very often.  So you won't be seeing Lars in knee-breeches at a shoot, though I might wear my folk-costume to a banquet sometime.

Stina

[Kayleen]

Chantilly,
  Great photos.
  I might add that when you view these, please read what these ladies are doing. Mountain climbing, minng, farming.
If you want to wear trouser, so be it, just don't have that melt me and pour me in to them look.
You all know the skin tight pants that leave nothing for the imagination. If ladies wore trousers they were not form fitting. More than likely they were a pair of their husband's.


Kayleen