Men's Jacket Research Articles

Men's Jacket Styles 1919–1941: An Example of Coordinated Content Analysis and Object Study

Men's Jacket Styles 1919–1941: An Example of Coordinated Content Analysis and Object Study

Urban Transient Women

for her clothes (placed neatly over an air vent in the street) to dry. She has just washed them out at the bus station. Another woman is sleeping i a doorway nearby with her shopping bag tucked underneath her head for a pillow. One woman wears bright colored ribbons braided through her hair, another has a matted wig perched precariously above her bruised face. Although the weather is warm one woman wears five men's jackets and three or four housedresses. Some women wear

Fashionable and Objectionably Fashionable

The word first brings to mind the things people wear or don't wear. Some such fashions are whims of the wearers. For example, ornate necklaces, affected by America's first inhabitants, were adopted by mountain men of the 18th century, later became bolos in the western United States, and then moved east in less attractive form. Now men wear neckties again. Beards and hair styles are other examples. Other fashions in attire come and go, influenced by profit motives of designers. Lapels on men's jackets become wide, then narrow, then wide again. Neckties are equally unstable as to width, and bow ties are in and out and in once more. Ladies' hemlines follow an elevator principle; they go up and down on a schedule influenced by the push of a button. There are also fashions in use of words. For instance, slang expressions appear according to whim or need. Some

Prices in the Clothing Industry

THE clothing industry manufactures an immense variety of garments ranging from the sheerest of women's underwear to the heaviest types of men's protective clothing, and as would be expected a high degree of specialization of product exists. It should, therefore, be stated at the outset that the present remarks refer to a family manufacturing business of medium size (about 200 employees) producing a wide variety of men's and boys' raincoats and lumber jackets. The raw materials, e.g. cloths, are purchased in the piece from mills and merchants, and all the processes required to convert the piece goods into complete garments are performed in the factory. Firms manufacturing clothing are usually termed 'makers up' and a few words about the early history of our firm may be found useful. The business was founded in the early I920S by my father on a very small scale, and with capital which was the result of his savings, and there was a steady growth until I939. In the beginning, the main lines had been ladies' and men's mackintoshes (i.e. rubberized raincoats) and these continued to be the main products until about I934-35. For a few years previously competition had been becoming more intense and many orders were obtainable only at prices which did not show a profit. My father had therefore begun to look out for a different product to manufacture and he eventually found one in lumber jackets which he manufactured in a variety of textile materials as well as leather. These were well in production by I 935, and in this year also men's raincoats made from chemically shower-proofed gabardines were added to the range, and rubberized mackintoshes were allowed to peter out. It was at this time, therefore, that the foundation of our present trade was laid, and various types of lumber jackets soon became the main production. By I939 the business had expanded considerably, was producing a better type of product and several overseas markets had already been found, principally in the Union of South Africa and the Scandinavian countries. The war brought many changes. Production was switched from civilian to service requirements, and, at the same time, greatly expanded. The factory was totally destroyed in I940 through enemy action and accommodation was secured in premises far too small so that a large number of outdoor makers had to be employed. (An