Close to the place I grew up in Mortlake, south-west London, there’s an unimaginable antiques store. 

‘Reminiscences of Mortlake’ is the life’s work of collector Elke Crowther, who sadly handed away final 12 months, after a long time of promoting something and the whole lot in her house-cum-shop. 

There are vintage plates stacked up, within the old school sink. An infinite oil portray of Kaiser Wilhelm lies sideways alongside the highest of a wardrobe. The store window is piled with examples of 40s and 50s design: postcards, cigarette packs, biscuit tins. 

I point out all this by means of context, as this submit is about a little bit discovery I made in the back of one shelf: a superbly preserved set of playing cards illustrating British fashions by way of the ages. 

Relationship from the late Fifties, these got away with tins of Brooke Bond Tea: you purchased a tin, you bought a card, you endeavoured to gather the set. 

Elke did a reasonably good job, and though most relate to womenswear (it has modified far more, in any case), there are sufficient together with menswear to make them attention-grabbing. 

Listed here are the meticulous little pictures, in reverse chronological order, with the textual content on the again provided by trend historian Madeleine Ginsburg of the Victoria & Albert Museum. The illustrations are by Michael Youens. 

I’ve added my commentary in italics, however I’m certain you’ll have your individual ideas as nicely. 

Day Garments about 1927

With simply this primary instance, I’ve included the textual content on the lady’s costume as nicely, to offer a way of what normally runs earlier than the boys’s.

“This woman, from a trend plate of 1927, reveals how plain, straight, loosely-fitting and low-waisted clothes had turn into. They grew to become shorter from 1920, and by 1925 legs clad in beige flesh-coloured stockings have been seen to the knee. 

Ladies appeared as free and straightforward as boys with their flat figures and new brief ‘bobbed’ hairstyles, coated in tight cloche hats.

The person’s swimsuit continues to be high-waisted with a rounded jacket. Males’s trousers have been full, generally widening on the turn-up to type ‘Oxford baggage’. Contrasting sports activities jackets have been beginning to be worn for leisure.”

Traditionally, I discover the extra excessive fashions inside menswear get recorded and mentioned – such because the oxford baggage talked about right here. However these have been typically pretty short-lived.

Extra attention-grabbing is how the minimize of fits different every decade or so – right here, there’s the ‘rounded’ jacket, which refers back to the cutaway of the fronts, and the excessive buttoning level (the waist). 

Day Garments 1920

“The person’s lounge swimsuit suits tightly and nonetheless retains its lengthy jacket. The trousers are straight however shorter, typically with the turn-up, launched about 1904. He wears the brand new, mushy, felt hat and spats defending his shoe, launched in the course of the nineteenth century.”

This minimize, you’re feeling, can be at dwelling at Liverano or the Anthology, except for the size of the jacket. It’s attention-grabbing how shut becoming the jacket is, and the way a lot slimmer the trouser, in comparison with only some years later. 

Additionally noteworthy is how, over time, old school components are step by step allotted with. For instance observe how this gentleman has a distinction collar, most likely removable, whereas by 1927 he doesn’t. But the spats dwell on some time longer.

Day Garments 1916

“The gentleman wears a ‘lounge swimsuit’ with an extended, loose-flaring jacket and high-button lapels. His trousers taper barely. Bowler hats have been quite common and for night he might put on both the much less formal, extra comfy dinner jacket, launched within the 1890’s, or the extra formal cut-away ‘tails’.”

Swiftly, the swimsuit is barely recognisable. So lengthy, and buttoned so excessive, that it seems to be nothing like a jacket in the present day. Though the inverted commas round ‘lounge swimsuit’ are supposed to replicate the novelty of the time period, it additionally makes us replicate on how dissimilar it’s from a contemporary swimsuit. 

Day Garments 1901

“Her companion wears a excessive, curved high hat with a double-breasted ‘frock overcoat’ on high of his formal jacket and striped trousers.”

A shorter entry right here, sadly, with a lot of the textual content discussing the lady’s clothes. However the picture and brief textual content says all of it – we’re earlier than the lounge swimsuit gained recognition, and the whole lot is about lengthy, high-buttoning frock coats with contrasting trousers. 

Day Garments 1896

“The gentleman wears the highest hat and frock coat which have turn into established formal gown for over forty years. Black is established as the usual color for formal gown, and little else has modified besides particulars just like the size of the lapel and the curve of the tails. He wears a excessive starched collar.”

The Victorian interval witnessed relative stability of gown, as mirrored on this commentary, with the frock coat and trousers dominating sensible daytime apparel. Though it’s attention-grabbing that 40 years is taken into account an extended interval, but the swimsuit in the present day has barely modified besides in points like lapel widths for slightly longer. At all times good to get a way of perspective.

Day Garments 1872

“[Described as ‘seaside costume’] The person wears an off-the-cuff lounge swimsuit, the form based mostly on a cut-away coat. He wears the extra comfy turn-down collar with knotted tie and low-crowned ‘bowler’-like hat.”

What a swimsuit! Not simply the sample, however the cutaway jacket, the peeping waistcoat, the distinction collar. It’s nonetheless a lounge swimsuit, although, and solely worn as a result of it is a extra informal atmosphere – by the seaside. Over time the informal replaces the formal, the swimsuit replaces the frock coat, and in the present day the shirt and trousers replaces the swimsuit.

Day Garments 1856

“The person wears a light-weight overcoat over a ‘frock coat’ with full sq. tails, not minimize away, and a contrasting waistcoat with lapels and free, straight, drab trousers. He wears a bow tie launched about 1840 and the now common high hat.”

This picture is outwardly taken from a portray of a pair on the races – ‘Derby Day’. Really the male costume isn’t that dissimilar to the morning gown required within the Royal Enclosure of Ascot in the present day, no less than in comparison with the opposite variants above. Which reveals how some locations and occasions can retain that formality, once they have such management.

Day Garments 1848/9

“Her companion wears the new-fashioned brief lounge jacket with large trousers, launched for nation put on round 1800. His collar is decrease and a bow replaces the starched cravat.”

I nonetheless discover it stunning when descriptions of clothes this far again speak about new fashions, set to such exact dates. Although I’ve to say, the gentleman’s companion doesn’t look that happy together with his new trend. 

After this card, the years begin leaping again, normally by a century or two at a time. We’re subsequent taken to the period of Henry VIII…

Man’s Formal Garments about 1548

“This gentleman from a portrait painted about 1548 by Guillim Stretes, wears an overgown with full higher sleeves including breadth to his shoulders, trendy from about 1520. His doublet is free with a seam on the waist and skirts, and his higher shares (breeches) are separate from his hose, for larger consolation and ease of constructing. 

He has a padded ‘cod piece’ and his shirt is embroidered in black silk with small frills on the neck, which finally grow to be the ruff. His cap is softer and wider than beforehand, and his sneakers are much less broad within the toes than within the early years of Henry VIII.”

I received’t go additional again in time, because the costumes begin to lose their relevance. However I like this one due to its fantastic factors – highlighting barely much less broad sneakers – when there’s a lot extra dramatic happening. Like large sleeves and a cod piece. 

I additionally discover clothes of this period humorous for the way in which it reminds us how cyclical concepts of masculinity are. Carrying puffy sleeves and pink tights might sound odd, till you consider all these guys with gym-built torsos and skin-tight stretchy denims…