With temperatures below freezing outside, it is once again time to get the heavy winter overcoats and suits out of the closet. To help get you in the winter frame of mind, I want to present an article from Apparel Arts about winter worsteds and fabrics, which was published in 1934 and provides some interesting insight into the season’s patterns and topcoats styles. Also, you will find fabric samples that were not part of the original article, but they are nevertheless from 1934.
Nevertheless, knockout drops have not been administered to winter worsteds. To many men, a winter without worsteds would be like a winter without overcoats. But even the worsteds have caught something of the more casual spirit of the softer fabrics, and their uninteresting patterns have given way to small neat color stripes and overplaids. The perennial blue worsteds, too, will carry similar striping effects, and black worsted suitings are seen with spaced groups of white or colored stripes.
After an eclipse of more than a decade, a revival of exceeding interest is the Irish nubbed Donegal tweed. This fabric with its characteristic colored flecks and its rough surface still carries the hallmark of its home-spun origin. Heretofore, Irish Donegals have appeared in the customary basket weave, but many of them are now being executed in the new herringbone patterns. While they have retained their rugged
appearance they seem to have taken on new attractiveness.
Irish Donegals, of course, are not the only country fabrics being favored. The popular Scottish district plaids, considerably lighter in weight, are seen wherever the sporting gentry of the English countryside come together. Of the many district patterns the small double toned 2×2 check with brightly colored overplaids seems to be the most popular.
In connection with the subject of district plaids, it may be mentioned that fashion scouts have noticed them at English sporting events made up into jackets cut like riding sacques. There are the same slanting pockets, the side vents, and the wide flares at the bottoms. Waistcoats of the same material are tailored in postboy fashion, and the trousers are conspicuous with open lap seams.
A striking feature of the London season, and a radical departure from customary flannels, are the new black flannel suitings with vertical white or colored stripes.
Advance reports from Bond Street and Savile Row indicate that black flannels have made an immediate hit with some of the best-dressed men in London.
Beside the night-shade flannels, the English market has shown a definite preference for cheviots and tweeds of all categories, particularly favoring those with spaced colored stripes. An interesting example of spaced striping is a brown cheviot fabric carrying a three-quarter inch stripe of gold alternating with a stripe of red. Another popular favorite is the blue cheviot with alternating stripes of grey and yellow. Subdued Glen Urquharts and overplaids, generally in a blue-grey mixture, are also London headliners. Mention has already been made of the introduction of herringbone weave into Irish Donegals. All along the line, herringbone seems to be given more prominence than any other definite pattern. Although the size of the pattern varies, it is generally reproduced in black and white or brown and fawn.
ROUGHER fabrics always demand color. In the country this season, special interest will be centered around the Lovat green shades. Grey-greens and blue-greens are the most representative shades in this family. Although they lend themselves ideally to cheviots, other tweeds and flannels are made up in these colors, and are often set off strikingly with colored stripes and plaids.
As in past seasons, blues and blacks will reign predominantly in town with a marked trend being manifest toward blue-grey patterned fabrics. While browns are usually preferred in the country, this season will see brown checks, plaids, and stripes hold a position second only to blues and blacks in the metropolitan areas. Little excitement seems to be aroused by grey-colored suitings in town with the exception of some greys touched up with stripe or check effects.
The wave of rough fabrics which seems to have reached tidal proportions this season has swept overcoats and topcoats along with it. Harris tweeds which yield an odor of burning peet in damp weather, roomy Shetlands, cheviots, and Irish tweeds are still in the ascendancy. This winter, patterns will figure importantly in the fashion picture with an interesting trend to colorful plaid backs. Glen Urquharts, herringbones, overplaids, and diagonal twills still maintain their popularity.
The prestige of the navy blue guard’s coat will be enhanced by its return to favor this season. Likewise for more formal town wear, soft heavy fabrics, notably chinchilla, will be widely favored. For formal evening occasions the man about town will wear a Cashmere coat either in a diagonal or herringbone weave, only in oxford grey.
Bad weather in town, or any country event, will call out the Ulster, or great coat, which is enjoying a revival. Bold patterned fleeces and heavy tweeds, of course, lend themselves most favorably to these huge overcoats. Over-sized plaids and Glen Urquharts, In addition to the herringbone, are the patterns most frequently followed.
As you can see, there used to be a much greater cloth variety in the 1930’s. Today, most men wear plain black overcoats that are mostly the length of a pea coat. If they are longer, chances are, they are navy, charcoal or grey and while the herringbone pattern is still around, Donegals, Cheviots of bold overplaids are almost completely extinct. If you have your clothing custom made, you should take the chance and break out of this rather uninspiring overcoat monotony and wear coats like Gary Cooper or other elegant gentlemen of the time.
Personally, I prefer double breasted overcoats when it is cold outside because the overlapping fabric in the front will keep you extra warm.
Tomorrow, we will show you a few fashion illustrations of said topcoats, so make sure to check back.
The Fabric Picture for Winter
After so much descriptive text, we should also take a look at some pictures of winter fabrics from 1934.
If you recall our article about hunting clothing, there seems to have been a trend in Apparel Arts at the time to use real fabric to create outfit mock-ups. The fabric model on the left wears an Ulster Overcoat in grey Harris tweed with a Lovat green overplaid. It is combined with a yellow scarf, a green tyrolean hat and brown trousers which have a green tint. The gloves are chamois and have this beautiful beige color which so difficult to find nowadays. The suit on the right is made of grey Harris tweed in a large herringbone weave with red stripes, a knitted scarf, chamois gloves, and brown Scotch grain shoes. His shirt is red, white and black striped with a tab collar, paired with a Spitalfields tie showing red and grey figures. With such an ensemble, the black calf leather shoes are just fine. In the background you can see his brown fleece Ulster with subtly broken brown checks.
Want to learn more? Check out our Fabric Guide.