Sprecher, D. 2019. I am an ordinary man: Getting and wearing suits in Britain 1945-1980. Everyday Fashion: Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Clothes. University of Huddersfield and University of Leeds 27 - 28 Jun 2019 University of Huddersfield.
| Title | I am an ordinary man: Getting and wearing suits in Britain 1945-1980 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sprecher, D. |
| Type | Conference paper |
| Abstract | ‘When you bought a Burtons’ suit…you were saying, basically, I am an ordinary man and that’s what most Englishmen really wanted’. Nik Cohn, Today There are No Gentlemen, (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971), p. 14. Getting and wearing a suit was an experience common to most men in the post-war period in Britain. From the 1940s to the 1980s men had suits given to them, purchased for them and they bought them for themselves. The status and ubiquity of the suit as a garment worn by men, even as it has declined in significance, means it is an important site where men have negotiated their identities and sense of masculinity. The suit has operated as a marker of conformity but also of emotion, agency and choice, especially with made-to-measure tailoring. The analysis will use the made-to-measure suits of the Leeds tailoring industry as the focus of the discussion – the Leeds tailoring companies such as Burton dominated the British outerwear tailoring market until the 1970s. The paper will use object study to draw on the garments themselves, as well as oral history, personal accounts and extensive imagery to argue for a richer and more nuanced understanding of men’s ordinary dress and fashion. |
| Keywords | menswear, tailoring, ordinary dress, age |
| Year | 2019 |
| Conference | Everyday Fashion: Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Clothes |
| Publisher | University of Huddersfield |
| University of Leeds | |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 28 Jun 2019 |