[Charles Dana]

Oops, the thread title should say "Ivy League Look." Anyway:

The late Bob Hallman was a reporter for the Gastonia [North Carolina] Gazette. He also loved clothes. In June 1967, he wrote a series of three feature articles about the origin and spread of the Ivy League Look. Here's Part I, published on June 4, 1967. Parts II and III will follow ASAP.

A few things before I present the article:

(a) Note that the headline contains a very early use (in the popular press, anyway) of the word "Trad"--not merely as a shortened form of "traditional," but as a shortened way of referring specifically to "traditional Ivy League clothing." I learned from Christian Chensvold's Ivy Style blog that in the early 1960s, a menswear store called "The Trad Shop" served the Cornell University community. That store advertised in local newspapers, of course. But aside from references to The Trad Store, the headline below might be not just an early, but possibly the first use of "Trad" (as we know it) in a mass-market newspaper.

(b) In the article, Mr. Hallman emphasizes that Ivy Style was created by and for the sons of America's elite classes. Although to us here in 2018 he seems to be stating the obvious, Mr. Hallman's facts could have been news to his readers in 1967. After all, by 1967, Ivy or Ivy-inspired clothing--especially in the Carolinas--was simply what a lot of men wore and took for granted. Surrounded by the style, people in the 1960s would not have necessarily associated it with America's aristocracy.

(c) It's ironic that it was in 1967 that Mr. Hallman wrote of the enduring presence of Ivy League clothes. By consensus, that year is regarded as the last year of Ivy's "heyday." Styles didn't change overnight--this was especially true in the Carolinas--and Ivy style hasn't disappeared (completely). But big style changes were about to happen. The year 1967 was a turning point. Of course, Mr. Hallman could not have known that at the time.

(d) I am not presenting this and the other two articles as the definitive history of the Ivy League look. Rather, they comprise one particularly astute and interested reporter's interpretation of that history. Even if you disagree with his conclusions, the articles are fun to read.

(e) In the second-to-last paragraph, Mr. Hallman mentions that the Ivy look has built up "a hard core of dedicates." Does that phrase remind you of anyone you know?

And now the article:

"The Story of Ivy: Part I

"Trad's History is Rebellion

"EDITOR'S NOTE: Traditional or Ivy League clothes are worn more in the South today than in any other styling. Young men are adamant in their preference for it. Why? What kind of hold does it have upon students and young executives? In this, the first of a series, traditional styling will be explored from its beginning to the present--and how it got where it is.

"By BOB HALLMAN
"First Of A Series

"Some call it Ivy League.
"Others call it Traditional.

"BUT BY ANY other name soft-shoulder clothing--the kind that has virtually become a campus uniform in the South--is still Natural Shoulder styling.

"Look about and see the Traditional Man--the student says he's one; young executives make the same claim. Those who make and sell it add a third dimension: the high school youth who isn't quite certain how he wants to dress since he continually follows the whims of the day.

"TRUE TO ITS name, Natural Shoulder Clothing originated in that cluster of Norheastern schools so proudly proclaimed the Ivy League. And like some fringy fads of the present, it too was the product of unrest and rebellion. But unlike the novelty hit of the day, often expended and discarded like a paper cup, having exhausted its sales potential, Traditional styling has lasted almost four decades with minor innovations, now more solidly entrenched than ever in the Southeast.

"Followers attribute its longstanding success to a clean and uncluttered look, maintained in the face of broadside challenges. Others say it just happened to be the best idea of the time, conducive to the climate, atmosphere, and thinking of the New South. A third view points to the fact that it was created and nursed along by young men who styled and restyled it themselves.

"There's validity in all three arguments, for the fundamental characteristics of Traditional Clothing is simple standardization. Not only the form but the details are stock items, beginning with the lean and young look that embodies straight lines, unpadded shoulders, and a soft, relaxed shaping.

"The basic silhouette remains the same and in the purest sense it is accessorized with oxford cloth shirts that have soft rolling collars and long points, three-inch repp ties and more often than not wingtip brogue shoes or moc-toe slip-ons.

"THAT'S TRADITIONAL styling today, not always this prescribed formula that has become the stock-in-trade for young Americans.

"The look, basically its present form, originated shortly after World War I in New England colleges and universities by young men of wealth, who wanted to shake themselves free of "college boy" suits which had gravitated from overpadded styles in the 1880s to the skin-tight jobs in the early 1900s.

"CONTRARY to many popular misconceptions of the day, it was not the masses, the middle-income group or the lower-end students who made this style go. It took money to bring it home, make it, and wear it. After that it became another story.

"So, there is no real reason to believe that those affluent Ivy collegians who used their dads' bankrolls to go abroad for the summer with the varsity crews and tennis teams to compete against Oxford and Cambridge had anything in mind other than a good time. Bringing back styling ideas for new clothes was certainly not a matter of grave concern.

"HOWEVER, one look at what British men were wearing stirred an excitement within themselves that never quite quenched itself. The yen to be different, look different and having the money to do it sowed the seed that gradually evolved into Ivy League styling.

"Over there the English were wearing short two-button jackets with rounded fronts, broad shoulders and as often as not peaked lapels. (Rather different for the times.) This, combined with elephantine "Oxford Bags" (trousers that were 21 to 23 inches wide), plus-six knickers (so-called because the drape of the leg extended fully six inches below the knee), set the stage for the beginning of Traditional clothing in this country.

"AND IT was various interpretations of the English Look that gradually became a single look. Those coming home brought foreign clothes with them, took them to tailors, pulled them apart then sewed them back into an American adaptation. The look was styled, restyled, modified, and remodified and eventually, probably as much due to the
Depression as anything else, worked its way into a version of the Traditional Look as it is known today.

"Amazingly enough, once an identity was established, it held firm. Unlike some of its counterparts, Ivy never yielded to a passing fancy. Despite efforts to debase, abort, and bastardize it, Ivy League styling remains the most-wanted, most-worn, and most talked-about look in the land.

"THIS IS NOT to infer the soft-shoulder look has always enjoyed unprecedented popularity. It hasn't. It came from the families of the rich, which ruled out the masses immediately, thereby making its rise more slowly than would be the case today. But by the same token it was building a hard core of dedicates who would not compromise for less.

"As time tells, its biggest stronghold during the past 20 years has been in the Carolinas, often called "The Island of Natural Shoulder History," largely because pockets of Traditional fanciers remained there during periods of quick-changing styles wars.

"NEXT: Traditional Develops Despite Obstacles"

Quoted material used under a Creative Commons non-commercial license.

To be continued....

 

[Dr.Watson]

As a native of the Carolinas, I'm very interested in reading the rest! Thanks for posting.

 

[fishertw]

Thanks Charles for posting this with the promise for more. As a sidebar to the information made by Bob Hallman, I would also argue that the influence of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, Davidson College and Wake Forest University had a distinct influence on the buying patterns of young college men during that time. Particularly Duke, Davidson and Wake Forest were the outposts for many well heeled young men who came south to attend colleges. UNC then and now, although often perceived as a "public Ivy" had out of state enrollment caps. Chapel Hill did though have a wealth of mens stores during that time and the basketball and football rivalries on "Tobacco Road" between Duke, Carolina and Wake Forest brought these populations together in a first generation after World War II. These were the sons of prominent northern and southern executives who had access to funds to dress well and pattern themselves after their northern Ivy League counterparts.

 

[Vecchio Vespa]

I, too, am fascinated by this. I grew up in a Navy household with very old New England roots. Many aspects of this style of dressing capture my father and even my grandfather in the fifties and early sixties only they were very true to their Scottish heritage and the collars on their shirts would be turned and their cordovans would have been around twenty or thirty years and all out of shape. The tweed jackets would have patched elbows because they were actually worn out. Fast forward to the mid sixties when I was in school in Virginia and no one would have embraced that look with the possible exception of duct taped Weejuns. Virginia preps in that era were fastidious. It was hard to keep up! (So I got a job.) Now that I live in Texas I find that trads down here are similarly fastidious. In short I have experienced very different sensibilities in the north and the south. I personally am more comfortable with the northern. A frayed cuff is no big deal. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[paper clip]

Great find. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Charles Dana]

Here is the second article in Bob Hallman's three-part series on the history of the Ivy League look. This article appeared in the Gastonia Gazette for June 11, 1967.

"Keeping Dressed on Ten Thousand Dollars

"EDITOR'S NOTE: Natural Shoulder clothing today enjoys unprecedented popularity in the South--for a reason. In this second in a series on the evolution of Ivy League styling, the gradual movement is traced toward the South.

"By BOB HALLMAN
"Second Of A Series

"There is no accurate way to chronicle the first appearance of Ivy League clothing in the Carolinas and Virginia.

"NO INDIVIDUAL can claim this responsibility, for long-time advocates of soft-shoulder say several factors were involved.

"It's generally conceded that Eastern college graduates wearing Brooks Brothers clothes, who came south for business reasons, were among the initial principals who introduced it below the Mason-Dixon line. For it was in the period from 1926 to 1930 that a handful of collegians began to drift toward the look. However, these were minute since the points of purchase at Charlotte, Greensboro, Chapel Hill and Charlottesville, Va., were as diverse.

"ALTHOUGH most clothes being worn at that time were hand-tailored, a few manufacturers like Braeburn, Learbury and Langrock were producing purist natural shoulder suits. However, most of these went down with the economy's collapse in the '30s.

"Ivy styling had just begun to be noticed in the Carolinas when, with the advent of drape-model suits in the early and mid-'30s, the look almost became extinct.

"Hollywood performed an almost lethal blow in this direction. Without intent, Clark Gable appeared in a film wearing a gusseted jacket with a bi-swing back and overnight every influential male in the land went ape for the rugged he-man look.

"SO WIDESPREAD was this mania for the Gable jacket that it was marketed with a sewn-in belt in the back under his name.

"But far from being dead, Traditional clothes were still being worn in the Carolinas. And it was during this period that brothers Lewis and Thomas Saltz of Washington, D.C. opened one of the first strictly natural shoulder shops in the South at Chapel Hill. This was a short duration, however, for the line of merchandise was 'too tasty' and costly. The store closed after a season. That left a major chunk of natural shoulder's survival to the hands of made-to-measure firms like Stetson D and Globe Tailoring.

"Meanwhile back in the Northeast, Traditional styling began to regain some of its lost popularity, due largely to concentrated wealth among students who were still taking their business to custom tailors like J. Press, Roy Ltd., White of New Haven and Feinstein Brothers. These youths were having complete wardrobes tailored and not blinking an eye and plunking down $65 for a tailored suit or taking one off the peg for $45.

"CLOTHES THEN, similar to today, were prestige items with young men of means and if they liked a bolt of cloth, they bought it, had a suit or jacket tailored and discarded the remainder to guarantee a certain exclusiveness.

"Jack Wood, Jack Wood Ltd., Charlotte, the Carolinas' counterpart to Brooks Bros., was then a student at Yale, partially sustaining himself by working as a tailor's assistant at Roy, Ltd. His recollection of Natural Shoulder is vivid in the fact that it was the wealthy who kept it going. The rank-and-file student was not as well-heeled and consequently didn't wear natural shoulder--not because they didn't like it, but because they couldn't afford it.

"Frequent customers served by custom tailors in the New Haven area read like the Blue Book. They included Tafts, Vanderbilts, Heinzes, Pattersons, Teagles and even the Crown Prince of Siam.

"'It wasn't unusual,' Wood recalls, 'for a student to have a $10,000 clothing allowance and blow the whole bit.'"

"He remembers one standout who drove a Stutz Bearcat, a two-seat convertible replete with an interior trimmed in gray and red leather, plus a complete bar in the back seat.

"Thankfully, it was the advent of a handful of producers bringing to market a traditional suit for $27.50 and a sport coat that retailed for $20 that caused a mushroom in Natural Shoulder. Langrock and J. Grief (then called Roger Kent Stores) opened the avenue for less fortunate collegians to own suits in the most-wanted stylings and this almost caused a revolution in the Northeast, as the first, big, bold move was made in Traditional styling.

"WITH PRICES within reach more students were wearing the look. More firms were getting into the market. Even secondhand stores who bought slightly-worn discards from rich youths for a fraction of their original value, suddenly began doing a landslide business reselling to 'lower-end' customers.

"Despite this, there were complications like some manufacturers who entered and made hasty exits from the field, making it extremely difficult for retail firms to find and hold resources for a good balance. In addition, the popularity of the sport coat in the late '30s, with some emphasis taken from the suit, did damage to the movement.

"Even so, there remained a small group of producers who continued to make Natural Shoulder clothes. And it was this hard core that ultimately paved the way for the look to embed itself and spread."

Quoted content provided under a Creative Commons non-commercial license.

In the next and final part of Bob Hallman's series, he focuses on how and why the Ivy League style gained traction in the South. He mentions, as did Fishertw and TKI67, the influence that college students had in the style's popularity in the South after World War II.

 

[Fading Fast]

Here is the second article in Bob Hallman's three-part series on the history of the Ivy League look. This article appeared in the Gastonia Gazette for June 11, 1967.

"Keeping Dressed on Ten Thousand Dollars

"EDITOR'S NOTE: Natural Shoulder clothing today enjoys unprecedented popularity in the South--for a reason. In this second in a series on the evolution of Ivy League styling, the gradual movement is traced toward the South.

"By BOB HALLMAN
"Second Of A Series

"There is no accurate way to chronicle the first appearance of Ivy League clothing in the Carolinas and Virginia.

"NO INDIVIDUAL can claim this responsibility, for long-time advocates of soft-shoulder say several factors were involved.

"It's generally conceded that Eastern college graduates wearing Brooks Brothers clothes, who came south for business reasons, were among the initial principals who introduced it below the Mason-Dixon line. For it was in the period from 1926 to 1930 that a handful of collegians began to drift toward the look. However, these were minute since the points of purchase at Charlotte, Greensboro, Chapel Hill and Charlottesville, Va., were as diverse.

"ALTHOUGH most clothes being worn at that time were hand-tailored, a few manufacturers like Braeburn, Learbury and Langrock were producing purist natural shoulder suits. However, most of these went down with the economy's collapse in the '30s.

"Ivy styling had just begun to be noticed in the Carolinas when, with the advent of drape-model suits in the early and mid-'30s, the look almost became extinct.

"Hollywood performed an almost lethal blow in this direction. Without intent, Clark Gable appeared in a film wearing a gusseted jacket with a bi-swing back and overnight every influential male in the land went ape for the rugged he-man look.

"SO WIDESPREAD was this mania for the Gable jacket that it was marketed with a sewn-in belt in the back under his name.

"But far from being dead, Traditional clothes were still being worn in the Carolinas. And it was during this period that brothers Lewis and Thomas Saltz of Washington, D.C. opened one of the first strictly natural shoulder shops in the South at Chapel Hill. This was a short duration, however, for the line of merchandise was 'too tasty' and costly. The store closed after a season. That left a major chunk of natural shoulder's survival to the hands of made-to-measure firms like Stetson D and Globe Tailoring.

"Meanwhile back in the Northeast, Traditional styling began to regain some of its lost popularity, due largely to concentrated wealth among students who were still taking their business to custom tailors like J. Press, Roy Ltd., White of New Haven and Feinstein Brothers. These youths were having complete wardrobes tailored and not blinking an eye and plunking down $65 for a tailored suit or taking one off the peg for $45.

"CLOTHES THEN, similar to today, were prestige items with young men of means and if they liked a bolt of cloth, they bought it, had a suit or jacket tailored and discarded the remainder to guarantee a certain exclusiveness.

"Jack Wood, Jack Wood Ltd., Charlotte, the Carolinas' counterpart to Brooks Bros., was then a student at Yale, partially sustaining himself by working as a tailor's assistant at Roy, Ltd. His recollection of Natural Shoulder is vivid in the fact that it was the wealthy who kept it going. The rank-and-file student was not as well-heeled and consequently didn't wear natural shoulder--not because they didn't like it, but because they couldn't afford it.

"Frequent customers served by custom tailors in the New Haven area read like the Blue Book. They included Tafts, Vanderbilts, Heinzes, Pattersons, Teagles and even the Crown Prince of Siam.

"'It wasn't unusual,' Wood recalls, 'for a student to have a $10,000 clothing allowance and blow the whole bit.'"

"He remembers one standout who drove a Stutz Bearcat, a two-seat convertible replete with an interior trimmed in gray and red leather, plus a complete bar in the back seat.

"Thankfully, it was the advent of a handful of producers bringing to market a traditional suit for $27.50 and a sport coat that retailed for $20 that caused a mushroom in Natural Shoulder. Langrock and J. Grief (then called Roger Kent Stores) opened the avenue for less fortunate collegians to own suits in the most-wanted stylings and this almost caused a revolution in the Northeast, as the first, big, bold move was made in Traditional styling.

"WITH PRICES within reach more students were wearing the look. More firms were getting into the market. Even secondhand stores who bought slightly-worn discards from rich youths for a fraction of their original value, suddenly began doing a landslide business reselling to 'lower-end' customers.

"Despite this, there were complications like some manufacturers who entered and made hasty exits from the field, making it extremely difficult for retail firms to find and hold resources for a good balance. In addition, the popularity of the sport coat in the late '30s, with some emphasis taken from the suit, did damage to the movement.

"Even so, there remained a small group of producers who continued to make Natural Shoulder clothes. And it was this hard core that ultimately paved the way for the look to embed itself and spread."

Quoted content provided under a Creative Commons non-commercial license.

In the next and final part of Bob Hallman's series, he focuses on how and why the Ivy League style gained traction in the South. He mentions, as did Fishertw and TKI67, the influence that college students had in the style's popularity in the South after World War II.

CD, thank you again, these are great posts. Looking forward to part III.

My only complaint with the article's author is that he doesn't keep the timeline clear as to the natural shoulder suit's early ups and downs in the South and, at colleges, its spread to the general student population.

 

[Charles Dana]

Here is the third and final installment of reporter Bob Hallman's series of articles exploring the origin of the Ivy League look. In this article, he focuses on why it spread to, and became popular in, the Carolinas.

The article was published in the June 18, 1967 issue of the Gastonia Gazette.

"Traditional: The Look That Jack Built

"EDITOR'S NOTE: Although young men in the Carolinas wear more traditional clothes than any other kind, few comprehend its origin or why it maintains a lofty position year after year. Today's installment explains why.

"By BOB HALLMAN
"(Last Of A Series)

"Those who accept the facts as they are call Jack Wood the father of Natural Shoulder clothing in the Carolinas.

"Without his beliefs, stern merchandising techniques, a willingness to starve rather than be wrong, and a natural-born affinity for Traditional styling, it is doubtful if the style called 'Ivy' would be where it is today.

"As long as he can remember Wood has been a champion of the relaxed, soft-shoulder suit either as a wearer, tailor, retailor or made-to-measure order taker. His brothers wore it, so it naturally followed that when he became accountable he donned it too.

"Today Jack Wood, owner and operator of a Charlotte shop that bears his name, still thinks Ivy, lives Ivy, sells Ivy and would rather be caught dead than not wearing Ivy. He's a believer.

"HE'S ALSO a purist. He'll never be branded for carrying a bastardized Traditional suit in his stock and he doesn't think too much of other contemporaries who do--especially if they put up the Natural Shoulder frontage.

"'Lots of stores are opportunists drifting with a trend. There are only a few who will stick with their convictions when the going gets rough,' he maintains.

"The going has been rough, at times, for Jack Wood.

"A SCHOLARLY-looking gent with athletic and journalistic leanings, he had enrolled at Duke University with intentions of doing something besides selling clothes.

"Just as the first hint of Natural Shoulder moved through the New Haven area, Wood decided that was the place to be. He packed, left Duke, and headed for Yale. And there, as a tailor's assistant and student, he found his calling. This set the stage for his return to the Carolinas and paved the way for the eventual blossoming of traditional styling down south.

"FIRST STOP in Charlotte was his measure-to-order shop, a cubicle in the heart of Charlotte's downtown business district. In this small space he outfitted some of the top names in business and musical circles, but this was not the answer.

"He did duty as salesman and manager of a men's shop while covering sporting events for the Charlotte Observer. Day and night work became too much and he made the plunge into his own operation.

"His feeling for Traditional clothes was more than real when he opened in 1940. Background, all the money he could muster, and an old dream drove him to it. And it paid off.

"Getting established was almost insurmountable. Engrained with purist Traditional thinking, he determined his shop would mirror himself and his ideas, but he found this was difficult for years to come. In the first place, the shortage of specialized manufacturers in everything from suits to plain-front pants complicated plans. There were only a few resources for traditional shirts, the soft, oxford button-down model. Repp and foulard ties were rare. When World War II came along and the picture as muddled as it was for obtaining goods, Woods lost his staff to the draft, closed his shop and enlisted in the Navy.

"NATURAL Shoulder was still on shaky legs when he reopened in 1946 with the same old short-supply problems, compounded by new things like clothing allotments from producers, based on the previous year's purchases.

"But being the innovator he is, Wood skirted the issue. He bought goods in the textile market and had pants tailored to his specifications rather than compromise on some 'debased abortion.' It gaffed him terribly to sell 'some' pleated trousers. But he did.

"By the time the zoot suit had run its course in 1950 Traditional Clothing was available in abundance and had begun to blossom. For the next 10 years it swept through colleges and universities in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia like a brush fire. Thinking they had made a new discovery, students snapped up the trim, lean look.

"The move was on. Old-line established suit houses that had never deviated from dead center suddenly got caught up in the prospect of a golden market and climbed aboard the bandwagon with their own adaptations of Natural Shoulder.

"STORES previously oblivious to the look suddenly began to set up departments for Ivy and gave them catchy names with appeal to the younger man who was now doing the buying. Producers saw the value of a "think young" label and logo for their models and so designated them. Natural Shoulder had swelled into a bonanza for both maker and seller.

"Shirt houses came forth with the soft roll collar that buttoned down. Some put a button in the back that became legend. Belt makers, caught up in the tide and unable to squirm out, rushed more leathery and wider models into the picture.

"In the Carolinas it was a Natural Shoulder world. The look and style had arrived and who would venture an opinion that it would be around for the next two decades stronger than ever? Nobody.

"TODAY THE areas from Virginia to Florida remain the focal point of the look, still the young man's No. 1 suit. It remains so in the face of gimmickry, faddish, foreign influences and even conspiracies which have attempted to puncture this mysterious mountain of solidarity.

"Some manufacturers gave it a swat in the face in the '50s, with a model called 'jivey Ivy.' This backstrapped fraud was rejected for what it was. Then in the early '60s the Italian Continental [with] the two-button coat with narrow and peaked lapels with vents, roared in and limped out.

"Last year, the Americanization of London's Carnaby Street look, called Modism, took a bead on Trad, lobbed a weak wad and moved on. Some say the total look was not important but the influence lives on.

"Not in Traditional. Year after year, Natural Shoulder styling remains favored [by the] young man in the South. Exactly why it continues to do so is a matter of conjecture. William J. Ullmann, fashion analyst for Menswear Retailers of America and for 17 years Senior Editor of Men's Wear Magazine, observes: 'The Carolinas were just ready to dress and they took hold of the best idea of the moment and it thrived. The climate was conducive to Traditional acceptance.'

"In another vein he once remarked: 'There is a lot of money around and the kids have access to it and older men apparently consider Traditional a status symbol.'

"After a swing through the Carolinas for football weekends Ullmann was so impressed with the high degree of dress on college campuses he wrote: 'I'm convinced Southern life is for real. People live the leisurely pace and the only things moving fast are traffic, money and men's wear merchandise.'

"Wood's contemporaries credit him with being the Father of Natural Shoulder in the Carolinas since he was a pioneer and still is a champion. His store is living proof of purist traditionalism in the first degree, a plate glass image of the man himself.

"Wood credits the wealthy man with being the originator of Traditional styling, just as it is today with the man of means who can have his suit cut to his own specifications.

"He cites the polo coat, which was picked up abroad and brought to life on an American tailor's bench; the mess jacket, khaki hat, white buck shoes, once worn for squash games; and the reversible overcoat, as cases in point. Even Madras, which originated in India, splashed the American fashion scene at Palm Beach. But try telling that to [the] collegian today who just six years ago was an innovator of the same thing.

"NATURAL shoulder changes little. It has always been this way. This fashion report bears it out:

"'Suits: single breasted, three button with plain backs, center vents, of Harris tweeds, soft goods, some shetlands and neat checks.

"'Shirts: button-down collars, some whites, some neat stripes, and neat checks worn with wool challis, deep tone silk repp stripes and clubs.

"'Rainwear: Some double-breasted trench coats, some single breasted raglans with no belt and is lightweight oyster.'

"The above report is not for Fall '67 although it very well could be.

"This report is 32 years old and was made by a New York agency as a resume of what was being worn at the Princeton-Yale football game in 1935.

"No, Traditional styling doesn't change much."

Quoted content provided under a Creative Commons non-commercial license.

 

[fishertw]

Charles,
Thanks for posting all three of these articles. Obviously, they resonate today with a few of us as they would have at the time they were written. They also provide (for me anyway) a look into the origins that I was not as deeply aware of as this picture paints. I do recall as an 17 year old in 1965 wishing I could afford the fine clothing that Jack Wood sold and had in his store and I guess I have modeled my wardrobe since then on the notions that he espoused.

Another menswear store in NC at Chapel Hill which followed Jack Wood was "Julians", the owner of which was the father of todays Alexander Julian the menswear designer, who BTW designed the first Charlotte Hornets basketball uniforms. Julians was THE place to go in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area for Traditional clothing and I'm sure took it's lead from stores like Jack Wood.

Thanks again for locating and posting these great articles.
Tom

 

[Fading Fast]

Charles, great posts/articles - thank you for all your efforts.

This caught my attention: "Some put the button [for the OCBD] in the back that became legend." Is there any more information about that button in the back's origin?

Growing up in the late '60s/'70s and buying cheap imitations (no BB clothes made it to my house; the OCBDs of my youth came from Sears, Robert Hall and Arrow on sale), the button in the back seemed integral to the OCBD.

At the recent BB exhibit at Grand Central, I noticed (and posted about the fact) that none of BB OCBDs - going back to the '40s (that's what was on exhibit) - had a button in the back of the collar.

 

[Charles Dana]

Fishertw and Fading Fast: You're welcome! Bob Hallman really came through for us.

Not surprisingly, the building that housed Jack Wood's clothing store at 300 S. Tryon Street in Charlotte was demolished and was a vacant lot for many years. In 2014, ground was broken on that site for a 25-story office tower. It was completed last year.

Here's a link to a more recent article, this one by Cole Waddell in the May 2015 edition of Charlotte Magazine. In it, Mr. Waddell shares his memories of working at Tate-Brown Company, Charlotte's other bastion of the Ivy League style (and a store that I believe Fishertw remembers well).

www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/May-2015/Penny-Loafers-and-Alligator-Belts

Unfortunately, I don't have more information about the origin of the back collar button that was a feature of so many OCBDs in the 1960s. Probably some designer said, "Sure it's superfluous, but it can be a sellng point." Then it spread from there.

Growing up, I never wore Brooks Brothers clothing, either. Mainly I was a Penney's kid. Sometimes my mom would splurge and get me things from the May Company and Broadway, two of the better department stores in the Los Angeles area in the 1960s.

 

[fishertw]

Fishertw and Fading Fast: You're welcome! Bob Hallman really came through for us.

Not surprisingly, the building that housed Jack Wood's clothing store at 300 S. Tryon Street in Charlotte was demolished and was a vacant lot for many years. In 2014, ground was broken on that site for a 25-story office tower. It was completed last year.

Here's a link to a more recent article, this one by Cole Waddell in the May 2015 edition of Charlotte Magazine. In it, Mr. Waddell shares his memories of working at Tate-Brown Company, Charlotte's other bastion of the Ivy League style (and a store that I believe Fishertw remembers well).

www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/May-2015/Penny-Loafers-and-Alligator-Belts

Unfortunately, I don't have more information about the origin of the back collar button that was a feature of so many OCBDs in the 1960s. Probably some designer said, "Sure it's superfluous, but it can be a sellng point." Then it spread from there.

Growing up, I never wore Brooks Brothers clothing, either. Mainly I was a Penney's kid. Sometimes my mom would splurge and get me things from the May Company and Broadway, two of the better department stores in the Los Angeles area in the 1960s.

I didn't shop at Tate-Brown often but did buy my first pair of Bass Weejuns there in about 1962. Most of my clothing growing up came from Belks and Iveys in downtown Charlotte but I do recall being treated well at Tate Brown by a salesman named Bill Cashion who was the Bill in the charlotte magazine article.

Fishertw and Fading Fast: You're welcome! Bob Hallman really came through for us.

Not surprisingly, the building that housed Jack Wood's clothing store at 300 S. Tryon Street in Charlotte was demolished and was a vacant lot for many years. In 2014, ground was broken on that site for a 25-story office tower. It was completed last year.

Here's a link to a more recent article, this one by Cole Waddell in the May 2015 edition of Charlotte Magazine. In it, Mr. Waddell shares his memories of working at Tate-Brown Company, Charlotte's other bastion of the Ivy League style (and a store that I believe Fishertw remembers well).

www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/May-2015/Penny-Loafers-and-Alligator-Belts

Unfortunately, I don't have more information about the origin of the back collar button that was a feature of so many OCBDs in the 1960s. Probably some designer said, "Sure it's superfluous, but it can be a sellng point." Then it spread from there.

Growing up, I never wore Brooks Brothers clothing, either. Mainly I was a Penney's kid. Sometimes my mom would splurge and get me things from the May Company and Broadway, two of the better department stores in the Los Angeles area in the 1960s.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fishertw and Fading Fast: You're welcome! Bob Hallman really came through for us.

Not surprisingly, the building that housed Jack Wood's clothing store at 300 S. Tryon Street in Charlotte was demolished and was a vacant lot for many years. In 2014, ground was broken on that site for a 25-story office tower. It was completed last year.

Here's a link to a more recent article, this one by Cole Waddell in the May 2015 edition of Charlotte Magazine. In it, Mr. Waddell shares his memories of working at Tate-Brown Company, Charlotte's other bastion of the Ivy League style (and a store that I believe Fishertw remembers well).

www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/May-2015/Penny-Loafers-and-Alligator-Belts

Unfortunately, I don't have more information about the origin of the back collar button that was a feature of so many OCBDs in the 1960s. Probably some designer said, "Sure it's superfluous, but it can be a sellng point." Then it spread from there.

Growing up, I never wore Brooks Brothers clothing, either. Mainly I was a Penney's kid. Sometimes my mom would splurge and get me things from the May Company and Broadway, two of the better department stores in the Los Angeles area in the 1960s.

Wonderful article. Love the elevator woman.

 

[Charles Dana]

I do recall being treated well at Tate Brown by a salesman named Bill Cashion who was the Bill in the charlotte magazine article.

Fishertw: Just for fun, you should try to contact Cole Waddell, the author of the article, and remind him of the salesman's name.

 

[fishertw]

Fishertw: Just for fun, you should try to contact Cole Waddell, the author of the article, and remind him of the salesman's name.

Charles,
I tried to email him at the address in the article but it bounced.
Cheers, tom

 

[Charles Dana]

Charles,
I tried to email him at the address in the article but it bounced.
Cheers, tom

Well, now I know why your e-mail bounced. Cole Waddell passed away just before his first--and only--magazine article was published. He died of asphyxiation after choking on an Oreo cookie at his home in Lancaster, South Carolina. The folks at Charlotte Magazine didn't know he had died until a reader called their attention to Mr. Waddell's obituary shortly after his article hit the newsstands.

Here's a follow-up article from Charlotte Magazine regarding the life, sad last years, and strange death of Cole Waddell who, despite poor health, evidently remained a sharp-witted storyteller until the end:

www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/June-2015/First-and-Last-Words-Cole-Waddell/

 

[TimF]

Well, now I know why your e-mail bounced. Cole Waddell passed away just before his first--and only--magazine article was published. He died of asphyxiation after choking on an Oreo cookie at his home in Lancaster, South Carolina. The folks at Charlotte Magazine didn't know he had died until a reader called their attention to Mr. Waddell's obituary shortly after his article hit the newsstands.

Here's a follow-up article from Charlotte Magazine regarding the life, sad last years, and strange death of Cole Waddell who, despite poor health, evidently remained a sharp-witted storyteller until the end:

www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/June-2015/First-and-Last-Words-Cole-Waddell/

All I have to say to this is, Life is stranger than fiction.

 

[Fading Fast]

Well, now I know why your e-mail bounced. Cole Waddell passed away just before his first--and only--magazine article was published. He died of asphyxiation after choking on an Oreo cookie at his home in Lancaster, South Carolina. The folks at Charlotte Magazine didn't know he had died until a reader called their attention to Mr. Waddell's obituary shortly after his article hit the newsstands.

Here's a follow-up article from Charlotte Magazine regarding the life, sad last years, and strange death of Cole Waddell who, despite poor health, evidently remained a sharp-witted storyteller until the end:

www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/June-2015/First-and-Last-Words-Cole-Waddell/

My girlfriend and I have three of our, now, all-in-their-80s parents still with us and we have had to repeatedly cajole them to see the doctor, go to the specialist, schedule and, then, go for the test, call for results, do the follow up, take the pills, go to therapy, do their PT exercises and on and on.

We've flown to them, found doctors, made appointments, gone with them, researched options, bought them this or that aid/devise/cushion/etc., spoken with their doctors, dealt with their insurance issues (which is the worst of the list) and this has gone on for years and for varying degrees for all three.

Our sample of three is too small to make sweeping conclusions, but is does cause me to believe that many older people need actively engaged family members to ensure that they do all the things necessary to maintain the best health they can in their later years.

It seems that, unfortunately, while Mr. Waddell had some help, he didn't have that family member who made him do his shoulder PT, etc. - who made him actively engage with the frustrating and bureaucratic, but (if you work hard to get the most out of it) pretty good healthcare apparatus we have for the elderly.

That's it; just reading the story made me feel sad for him as I could see my girlfriend's and my parents in the same situation if they didn't have family members helping them navigate and stay very thoughtfully involved with their healthcare.

 

[eagle2250]

My sartorial senses are quite overwhelmed Charles Dana. My friend, you have far surpassed even your characteristically lofty posting standards with this most recent series! Thank you.

 

[Charles Dana]

Eagle: Thank you!

Regarding the late, lamented Cole Waddell--He had a career in the advertising business in New York City before going back to his childhood home to retire. So he was a Trad Man and a Mad Man.