The late Attorney A. Dewey Follett might have been known to many Mariettans as one of the city's "best dressed" men a half century ago, but he might also be accredited with setting the pace for what is termed "collegiate" or sports-wear ensembles, and of modern styles, according to William G. Sibley, old time Marietta College friend of the attorney who comments on what Dewey wore away back in the 1880s in the last century. Mr. Sibley remembers the toggery of his old Marietta College days and what other folks wore in those days. He wrote about it in his latest "Along the Highway" column in the Chicago Journal of Commerce recently.
This thing of having the courage to abandon "black" clothes that were worn almost universally by most all young men 50 years ago is attributed to Mr. Follett, and Mr. Sibley was not far behind in setting the pace for more colorful raiment - at least something not so either formally dressy or "age-y" as black for the steady raiment of a college boy. Here is Mr. Sibley's column:
Solemn Black
We remember one day when we were a boy in Marietta an amazing sight on the sidewalk It was Dewey Follett, a brilliant young fellow, who, after accumulating the first honors of his class in college, had gone to Cornell University for a course in law. There he had picked something up - nothing less than the courage to abandon black clothes.
Everybody wore black then, except in summer, when professional men shifted to linen suits, one to wear this week when the other was in the family washtub. The first suit that gave us joy was black, with a long-tailed coat of the style called Prince Albert. That was in our junior year in college - the first tailor-made garment we ever had after we were eight years old and first was suspenders. All the students wore black, and if their parents were prosperous, preferred long coats. Occasionally there were exceptions who wore blue.
Looked Like Snow Storm
Well, Dewey Follett came out in a sack suit that looked like a miniature snow storm, wool and almost white. He was the observed of all observers. That was the first revolt we saw against black clothes for men. It was a sack suit, and soon other daring exponents of style shed their dark, double-breasted coats, worn in winter and summer, for light colored materials. The next year we had a brown herring-bone coat and vest, and a pin-check plaid of medium gray trousers, and were inordinately proud of them. They would be called extremely modest now.
Occasionally an Englishman came to town in conspicuous plaids that looked like checkerboards and was a sensation almost as conspicuous as our professor of Greek was when he ventured forth in a tail gray stiff hat with a very narrow and curly brim.
When we escaped from college we took to grays that grew lighter and lighter, and for 40 years never wore anything else for everyday. Now we observe that the merchant tailors are still trying to get men to wear something besides black in the evening. They don't seem to make much headway. The Tuxedo coat has held them back. It is neat and comfortable. Many a man who would easily be weaned from swallow-tails clings to his black dinner coat.
But for formal occasions black is the almost universal custom. It used to be so in business hours, but now a metropolitan paper notes that bankers are shedding their frock coats and boards of directors are turning to colors and comfort. That is, they no longer "dress up" for business hours. The same is true of lawyers and doctors. Even clergymen show up in grays for street wear, along with professors and school teachers.
Man is more conservative than woman, who will wear anything or next to nothing if fashion so dictates. Nothing is too startling for them in colors or exposures. They have emancipated their legs from skirt bondage. What they will give up next for fashion's sake nobody knows. They have sufficiently demonstrated their willingness to be free of conventions - in dress at least.
No comments:
Post a Comment