Wearing a suit in 1924

When I saw this image on the Duke University website of a group of men in 1924, I started thinking about wearing a suit. And although I don't know who these men are, my best guess is that they were business bigwigs. You know, captains of industry, robber barons, that sort of thing. They're not models, or actors, which is what most of us are used to seeing when we picture people "back in the day". And so it's reasonable to assume that they dressed themselves, not a wardrobe person. Of course they would have had help from their tailor, and possibly their wives, but mostly I'd say that this is a fair representation of what these men wore every day.

Of course, they all had hats (I'm assuming that the man on the far left is holding his behind his back). Men took off their hats for ladies, and to be photographed! The man with the cigar seems to have buttoned just the bottom button of his coat, which makes me wonder if it was in fashion, or if this guy just got it wrong? By the way, the man with the bowtie is wearing a topcoat, something that you really don't see very often. I never owned a topcoat during my suit-wearing years, as I lived in California and Arizona and it didn't really get that cold. This photo is Atlantic City, New Jersey, and it gets cold there!

I started wearing suits when I started my corporate career in my late twenties, because someone told me that it would make me look older (and I looked about twelve in those days!). Little by little I learned the right and wrong way to wear a suit, including the fact that you always buttoned the jacket when you stood up, and unbuttoned it when you sat down. Makes you look slimmer, and most guys need that, especially our prosperous-looking group here!

I've rarely worn a vest with a suit, but I learned that you always, always, leave the last button unbuttoned. There are also adjusting straps on the back of a vest in case you started to gain weight, or just ate too much for lunch. I just noticed that two other men have the bottom button butted on their coat, so it must have been intentional. Notice the man in the background with the very old-fashioned collar, he must have either believed in tradition, or didn't buy shirts very often.

Something that I noticed on the younger guy there, second from right, is his tie pin. He's also wearing a collar stay, and has a good-sized ring. Very fashionable! He appears to be about the only one in the group who hasn't grown out of his suit. Maybe he's not as prosperous. I just noticed the tie pins on the other men - maybe they're from the same alma mater!

I enjoyed learning about how to properly wear a suit, and as the years went by I got better and better at it, even going so far as to invest in shirts with french cuffs so that I could wear cufflinks, that I would find at thrift stores. It was never a requirement where I worked (aside from wearing a shirt and tie), but I enjoyed it, and enjoyed learning about it. For men, it becomes sort of a secret handshake that other men can recognize, and to me there was nothing sadder than seeing someone who was wearing a suit poorly who should have known better. And overall, wearing a suit is a very simple thing to do - the coat and pants match, and there are only two colors of shoes that you have to choose: brown or black.

I haven't worn a suit now for many years, they hung in my closet for years until I gave them to the son of a neighbor of mine who had just graduated from college. I hope that they helped him at the job interviews, but whether he wore them or not I'll never know.

Thank you for wearing a suit in 1924 with me!

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