Caps, Canes, and Coonskins: Princeton and the Evolution of Collegiate Clothing, 1900–1930

Abstract

Winner of the Best Graduate Student Paper Award at the 2007 American Culture Association Conference The study of fashion is proving to be far less capricious than it was considered two decades ago; the subject has received attention from scholars ranging from anthropologists (e.g., Tranberg Hansen; Eicher) to sociologists (e.g., Davis; Crane) to scholars of material culture (e.g., Barnard; Steele). However, it is the visual manifestations of fashion that have most often caught the eye of scholars; fashion photographs, designer's illustrations, magazine layouts, and the garments themselves document the dramatic shift in the American wardrobe over the course of the twentieth century. While the evolution of the era's aesthetic is well-studied, questions remain as to how specific trends evolved and came to national prominence. There has been limited inquiry into the social, cultural, and economic forces that bring fashion trends to life and inexorably lead to their demise.1 This is a case study of the clothing worn by students at Princeton University between 1900 and 1925. It aims to demonstrate how the University's homogenous student body actively crafted a clothing style to fit their leisure-focused lifestyle. Long before sportswear was acceptable street attire, Princeton men wore it on a daily basis to socialize and to study. Clothing carried much currency on the Princeton campus and one's tie, hat, or lapel decoration told of his social standing. Yet not everyone enjoyed the privilege of participating in the campus's fashion system. Freshmen were forced by convention-and roving bands of sophomores-to wear a specified uniform, consisting of a black sweater, corduroy pants, and black shoes. This well adhered to pecking order actively controlled the clothing of all students. Each class was allowed more and more freedom, and, by the spring of their senior year, students earned the right to wear the coveted beer suit-a white canvas suit perfect for protecting Brooks Brothers jackets from leaky keg taps. Both gender and class provide analytical frameworks for this study. The sportswear worn on the campus year-round signaled a dramatic shift in menswear styles and in notions of manhood. The article explores how the University's elitist and self-regulating student culture played a pivotal role in redefining the American man as youthful, leisure focused and casually, yet carefully dressed. Class is central to understanding how students were able to indoctrinate and monitor newcomers. Unapologetically homogenous, Princeton was a rich boy's university; in the period studied, more than eighty percent of its students came from private high schools. Fashion flourished in this well funded and fertile ground. The focus here is twofold. First, this study considers the elite nature of the Princeton student body and the role private high schools and selective eating clubs played in keeping it so. In this birds of a feather environment, club-associated regalia took on increased meaning, as it connoted belonging and honors earned. Varsity sweaters and sports team blazers spoke of an involvement with sports. Princeton men were avid sportsmen who took to the links and courts with fervor-and they dressed the part. The dominance of leisure clothing illustrates the interface between class and gender; fashions associated with elite sports, such as golf and tennis, were worn around the clock and across the seasons. Princeton men implemented casual attire such as knickers and oxfords into their wardrobes on a year-round basis, a harbinger of the casualization of menswear. The second aim is to understand how the University's elaborate social hierarchy served as a means of turning a Princeton boy into a Princeton man. Regulating what freshman could and could not wear was part of the initiation into a campus culture that stressed the importance of clothing. The cultural significance of these rituals was seen when their usefulness was called into question by the students themselves. …