﻿9 OUTDATED Fashion Trends You Sadly Missed Out On
[0:00:00] Have you ever heard the word,
bigwig? It’s defined as an important person, especially in a specific sphere.
Now, personally I like to think I’m a bigwig in the men style industry, but then I received
comments like this that put me in my place. But, seriously, gents, did you ever think about
where does that phrase come from? Where does the word, bigwig,
originate? [Music]
So, for about a hundred and thirty years from 1665 to 1795, wigs were a fashion trend for men. It was
kicked off by a couple of kings over in France and England that were losing their hair due to
syphilis and, hey, they needed to cover it up. And these wigs became a big deal, a sign of
status, because they were expensive. In fact, there was one receipt from the year 1700
that shows the guy in today’s dollars paid $10,000 for his wig. I mean,
seriously, that’s a lot of money. And, guys, we are so much smarter because can
you imagine somebody spending thousands of dollars on something just to show off their wealth?
Now, here in the United States, we’re familiar with these wigs because when we look at the
first five presidents – Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison,
and James Monroe, we see the white hair and we think, hey, these guys were wearing wigs, right?
Well, almost. At the time of the American Revolution, wigs were falling out of fashion.
Besides being uncomfortable, they also had issues with bugs, lice. But, really we had
switched over to actually powdering your hair. Now, white hair was in, so actually George
Washington did not wear wig. He just simply had red hair and he powdered it white because that
was the fashion trend at the time. The latter four presidents, they did occasionally put on a wig.
So now, you know where the word, bigwig, comes from and who knows, maybe in a few
hundred years, they will refer to people who are really important as bigwatches, right?
Because this next fashion trend, let’s go to the 1930s, the height
of the double breasted suit. One of the pinnacle pieces of menswear, the double breasted suit
requires more tailoring than a single breasted suit, requires more fabric. And in my opinion,
on the right body type, looks so much better. Seriously, it does a great job of building up
the torso, those extra buttons, they just really slim up the right type of build. And
even on a shorter man, even on a big large portly man, if done correctly – and this
is when you want to have the Y formation with the buttons, this really is just a great look.
You got to get the tailoring right, you got to get the fit, but if you do that,
this suit is really hard to beat. It’s also worth nothing the double
breasted suit is more formal than a single breasted suit. You can never wear this jacket
unbuttoned. In addition, the gorge and the placement of the V is higher.
And we’re looking at sales records, we see that single breasted and double breasted suits were
sold in about equal numbers. So, what happened because nowadays, you’re lucky to see one percent
of suits out there being double breasted? The answer is World War II and fabric rationing
because it takes about 20% more fabric to make a double breasted suit. So, if you’re going to make
millions of them, you’re going to make uniforms, you’re going to go with a single breasted suit
that the soldiers got used to wearing, they found as more comfortable, and guess what? Cost less.
So, you come back from World War II, all of a sudden the double breasted suit is difficult
to find unless you go to a custom clothier. And this takes me to an important point because
a lot of people think that fashion trends come and go because that’s what designers
decide what to do. That’s part of the equation, but the bigger equation is
what’s actually going on economically. When I look at fashion trends and you
go through history, you see that this is influenced by, hey, is there a war going on.
And oftentimes during the war, you have shortages after you have surplus. That’s why camouflage came
in and all of a sudden we started seeing a lot of military garb step into the fashion arena.
Also changes in manufacturing. We saw the start in World War I and finish in World War II,
but mass produced clothing. All of a sudden the custom clothing industry shrank. People say,
hey, you know what? I can buy something off the rack, we can adjust it. Before that,
most clothing was made by hand. And, of course, we can’t downplay the style
icons of the time, the Prince of Wales, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, Elvis Presley, The Beatles,
Kurt Cobain. Each of these men had a huge impact on the fashion trends and
the manufacturing of clothing in their time. Now, speaking of suits and the influence of war
on suits, let’s talk about the zoot suits. So, this first popped up in the 1930s. We saw them
in jazz clubs, but they eventually became mainstream especially for rebellious youth,
who wanted in the 1940s to show that, hey, you know what? I don’t care about these restrictions,
I’m going to wear whatever I want. Now, zoot suits, because of the amount of fabric
they use were actually illegal to manufacture in mass. But, people got around this by actually
just buying them on the black market, making them in small batches or making them by hand.
I mean, it’s hard to fathom today, but simply by using all that excess material by going
really flashy, by doing something that was against societal norms,
these men that wore them were actually sending the signal, hey, you know what? I’m going to live
life on my terms, which now sounds noble, but that the time was looked down upon.
[0:05:00] Now, the next item on our list unfortunately
was out of style about a hundred years ago and that is the cape. This has been around since
medieval times and it has provided protection from the elements keeping the man warm keeping the rain
off of him, and also, protection. There are examples of capes that
actually a type of armor on them, made from leather made from different
materials in a sense to protect the wearer. And what I really like about capes is we see them
pop up separately in different societies different times. The Aztecs actually wore capes to signify
rank and basically who you were in society. Now, there are military units out there that still
rock the cape. The Italian Carabinieri, one of the best examples. They actually wear it in mass.
I know that the United Marine Corps still has a cape that is authorized you can wear
with your mess dress. I actually own one. Never wore it when I was in the service.
But, yeah, has anyone actually been out there rocking the cape? And, guys,
if you want a separate video on the history of the cape, let me know down in the comments or history
video on any of these topics I’m talking about. I’m actually looking to put together a series
and I would love to hear from you down in the comments what you want to see videos made of.
But, yeah, unfortunately, the downfall of the cape both it was using a lot of extra fabric,
they’re relatively expensive. And, if you’re a fan of The Incredibles like I am, you probably know
that capes are also dangerous. They can catch onto things. They can get sucked into jet engines. So,
yes, the cape definitely looks really cool. Dart Vader is able to pull it off.
But, yeah, I think Dracula also helped with the demise of the cape. He just made it – yeah,
it looks something kind of creepy. Is anyone out there successfully
pulled off a cape? Again, I want to hear from you down in the comments below.
Now, this next fashion trend I’m really sad I missed in the late 19th century at home
luxurious beautiful robes. So, this was inspired by what travelers saw
over in Japan, what they saw over in Turkey. They brought this back to Europe and luxurious robes
for a period of 20 or 30 years were a big thing. It was something that you could walk around in
your house. But, when you had guest over, they were able to see just,
I mean, besides keeping you war, because it was also colder in a lot of houses at that time,
way before central heating, but you would wear these robes and they were expensive.
Not only that, you make sure you had amazing slippers with them. Nowadays,
I mean, look at what we’ve been reduced to. Most of us walk around either in our
underwear, some of you guys probably naked. Guys, imagine, I mean, if you go out and look
for robes, I mean, they’re just really isn’t much of a selection. I’ve actually thought about this,
creating just amazing robes for men. Is anyone interested in this? Let me
know in the comments below. I may actually do a small run of just like crazy awesome
luxurious robes that make you look like a king. Yeah, you may be driving, you know,
a 1983 Nissan like beater, but you’re going to have a robe that makes you look awesome, right?
Next up, let’s talk about high-waisted trousers. Up ‘til about 1940, these were incredibly popular.
There was a good 30 to 40-year period in which men were wearing trousers 3 inches above the navel.
Why so high? Well, first up, it looked really good with the suit. It lengthen the leg line
and that’s actually naturally were trousers when worn with suspenders are going to hang
the best. And the trousers were designed in a way that they would have a single or a double pleat
right there in the front. It would go all the way down the line of the trousers.
Again, you’re wearing this with a jacket occasionally. You would take your jacket
off if you’re at home, but you’re going to be in your shirt, which is
at the time considered almost underwear. But, point being is this just worked really
well with the suit combination and it was incredibly comfortable.
Unfortunately, World War II came around and guess what? This used a lot of fabric. So,
they lowered it, all of a sudden they were able to save like 10 to 15% of the fabric going into
trouser manufacturing and they just lowered and they all of a sudden people started wearing belts
and they were putting it right at where naturally we think is the waistline is,
which is now 2 inches below the navel. That being said, if you’re a fan of Harry Styles,
if you have seen some of the high-waisted trousers out there, things do come back.
And it’s really interesting, you know, what was in fashion a hundred years ago comes right back in.
So, if you buy something and it goes out of fashion, keep it in your closet. Who knows,
50, 70 years from now, you may be able to wear it again, if you’re alive.
Now, when you think about the 1950s for most people in fashion, this is a black hole.
Not really much happened here. It’s all about conformity. But, there was a group that stood
out and it’s now a classic style at least from movies and that’s the greaser look.
Now, they got their name from the Grease from the pomade that they used in their hair. Now,
the look was really defined by a few pieces. You had a fitted t-shirt, usually in white,
but black was also perfectly fine. You would then match that with blue
jeans or with black jeans and you would always make sure to roll the jeans or trousers.
And let’s not forget the jacket, the letterman jacket,
the bomber jacket, the classic leather jacket. And to finish things off, you’d want to bring
in the right shoes. We’re talking either army boots, maybe Converse Chuck Taylor’s All Stars.
Now, in the 1960s we saw a lot of trends all coming out of England. So,
right then that was the pinnacle of The Beatles and everybody wanted to look they’re young,
you wanted to look like you had some type of connection to what’s going on over there.
[0:10:03] One of the most – my favorite
pieces to come out of that time period is the Chelsea boot. And, this is a simple slip-on dress
boot that nowadays I think you can dress up you can dress down, wear it with jeans, you can wear
this with, you know, a suit in inclement weather. But, Chelsea boots, again, you got to have the
right style, you don’t want to go with something super large, something, you know, again, get the
right style, the right material. But, Chelsea boots to this day, I still think are great.
And you will see some Chelsea boots out there with a longer heels, sometimes 2 to 3 inches.
This is known as a Cuban heel. And I’m not sure this is a good one and I was around to see this.
Let’s talk about the 1990s stonewash jeans that are baggy.
There was a time believe it or not for you younger guys that you could wear this and nobody would
laugh at you. It was an amazing time period. You could also wear this type of sweater,
you could wear clothing that look like this and it was perfectly fine. Oh, yes, the 90s.
Now, for this next one, I want to start by showing you some photos. Check out these guys here. Pretty
intimidating, right? Look at this guy right here. Yeah, you’re not going to mess with him,
right? What about this guy right here? Yeah, you are going to stay out of his way.
Now, having shown you that, the next fashion trend I want to talk about,
men’s makeup. Think about it, that you would – that didn’t – did you call that makeup?
No, I mean, what – what – what would you call that? War paint? Would you call that, hey,
getting ready for the game? I’m about to go in there and kick some ass, I’m going to put this
stuff on my face to intimidate my enemy? You know, it’s basically the same thing.
Makeup has been around for the longest time. In fact, I’m invested in my friends over at Stryx. No
sponsorship here. I just simply want to give him a shout out. They were on Shark Tank. It’s pretty
cool to see Jon and Devir kicking butt with this. But, I love the fact that we see this coming
back. And I know many guys like, “Ahh, I never wear makeup.” Well, guess what? It’s not targeting
you. It’s going after the guy that isn’t afraid to actually, hey, he’s got a blemish on his face,
he wants to look good. He’s going to be on a phone, he’s going to be engaged, he’s going
to film a video maybe for work or for something. And men are still wearing makeup. It’s oftentimes
it’s gotten so good that you don’t even notice it. And it’s really interesting to
see how men have perceived this throughout history how it’s been used to intimidate,
but also has been used to cover up to send the message and that’s still to this day what it’s
used for when you use in my opinion to the level I think – or, yeah, I – you guys get the point.
Next up, let’s talk about breastplates and armor. And you may think, hey, I’m going back
to medieval ages, I’m going back to the time of the gladiator. Yes, those men did pay attention.
In fact, if you were a knight and you had means and money, not every knight did,
you want to be able to differentiate yourself by having intricately made,
very expensive armor because it was, you know, hey, you wanted to protect yourself.
But, a lot of times, you know, you had these knights, they didn’t have a whole lot of money
and everything was actually in their armor. So, this was very important that they were
able to send the message gladiators, other men that would be fighting.
They would spend a lot of time on the detail that went into their armor because it was
what represented them. They were out there, they were show men that were on the field.
Now, today, you may be wondering, well, who’s wearing breastplates, who’s wearing armor?
Well, actually, look at modern day soldiers out there. They actually have fun, they do, you know,
do designs and drawings on their helmets, not always, you know, most PC stuff.
Point being is you still see people to this day who are using protection and that’s part of, you
know, who they are, it’s part of the job that they do. And that’s why there’s so many regulations
with police departments and other places where they want to have more the uniform
feel that you cannot normally do this. But, you’re finding a lot of people do it anyway.
Next up, let’s go to the crazy times of the 1970s, let’s look at bell bottoms,
let’s look at leisure suits. So, some people have said that
bell bottoms it was all about more movement and not – and being less restrictive. That’s
not actually the case. What it was is about drawing attention to the feet,
drawing attention if you wanted to go for something, you know,
the bell bottom on the hand basically you’ve got that ruffle there around your cuff.
That was about basically flow. It’s about whenever you’re moving your hands to draw more attention to
them. If you’re going to be out on the dance floor, you wear trousers pants like that,
yeah, people are going to be looking at those feet and it, you know, notice
a lot of times they weren’t fully covering the shoe, so you could still get the shoes
out there and they’re kind of flashing them. And when I look at the leisure suit all of this,
it was expression. This was about using color. This is when we have all these new
synthetic fabrics hit the scene. Yes, you may be sweating because they weren’t super breathable,
but you’ve got that elongated super long collared shirt in which the collar is on top of the suit.
You’re going crazy with those lapels. Not only are they peak lapels, but they’re covering most
of your chest. I mean, these – it was excess use of fabric, it was an excess of decade
in which people were having fun. You’d come out of the constriction in the 1950s,
the liberation in the 1960s, which we saw the floral and the paisley shirts,
which was another great fashion trend. I think men being able to wear flowers is a great thing.
We saw this actually with knights going back hundreds of years. But, all of a sudden that’s the
beautiful thing about this. When you start getting into it is you could actually bring some of
these into your wardrobe today if you’ve got the courage or if you just maybe don’t give a damn.
And what video to watch next? Well, guys, if you’re interested in collars,
how they went from armor to a modern day status symbol, I’ve got you covered with this video right
here. I did a lot of research. Solid video, go check it out, it’s a really good one.
And, yeah, I’ll leave it right here. Magically click it and, yeah, it’s a
good one. Go check it out. [0:15:26] End of audio