The climax system

Influence of World War1

on Menswear

clothing

Contents

- The Climax System.

- About The Book.

- Comparative Study Before and After WW1

- Introduction of Trench Coats

- Introduction of Marker Planning

- Influence of Modernism

- Looking at a Pair of trousers in the 1920’s

- The Factors Which Influenced The Changes

- The Economic Influence

- Sudden rise in population and introduction of ready-to-wear garments

- The Social Influence: Influence of the development of the Employment status of women and Women’s right to work on Mens fashion

- Introduction of Graphic design as a profession and Graphic Advertisement

- Impact of theaters and stage play on fashion

- Influence of other cultures on the soldiers: The change In export Import Treaties

- Severe depression let to a change in fashion

The climax system

Author: W E Leggat; T W Hodgkinson Publisher: London : Minister & Co.

The word ‘climax system’ means stability. This book was introduced as a result of the dramatic shift in the socio economy after the WW1, from the way the book was written meant it was there to stay for a long time and since the vast majority of the population followed it, it was considered to be a stable system of patten cutting and layout of patterns at that time.

So why do you suddenly need a stable system?

About The Book

The book is about demonstration pattern making, Pattern making is a manual of instructions to create paper patterns for clothes. This book had a detailed instruction set for various menswear patterns which reflects the kind of clothing that was prevalent at that time.

From clothes worn by the middle class to the aristrocats this book demonstrate all of them.

Also the book had a series of economic use of fabric in the form of marker planning examples which help in reducing wastage during times of war.

Comparative Study Before and After WW1

In favor of a slimmer and more youthful look suits in as early as 1911 became trimmer than the decade before.

In 1911 a 40" jacket averaged 30 inches in length. The fronts were nearly all straight with only the slightest opening at the bottom. Sleeves became slimmer and and featured the four button cuff detail. Shoulders were slimmer, often suits were advertised as having no padding.

By 1915 the effects of WWI on men's style became obvious. Jackets were advertised as featuring the "military high-wasited effect". This style echoed the serviceman's uniform and was particularly popular with those returning home. These men sought a comfortable suit similar to those donned while in the war. The high starched collar gave way to the soft collar and high button shoes were replaced by oxfords.

The semipeg trousers of the previous decade were all but gone, replaced by those cut narrower at the waist and ending properly at the ankle.

Introduction of Trench Coats

It is a fashion classic that has endured through the decades. But away from catwalk shows and Hollywood glamour, the trench coat's first starring role was in World War One kitting out battle-weary soldiers.

"Many people may be surprised about where it comes from, but for centuries fashion has influenced military dress and vice versa.”

As World War One took a stranglehold on Europe, the Allies and opposition German forces dug deep with defensive lines stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss border.

There in the trenches as the onslaught raged were the soldiers - caked in mud and battered by biting winds.

Trench warfare was one of the defining characteristics of World War One

Their heavy greatcoats - long wool overcoats which had been regulation garments for British forces since the Crimean War of the 1850s - proved ill-suited to the desperate conditions and thus Trench coats.

But they were not the only practical benefits. Epaulettes displayed an officer's rank, while a gun flap buttoned at the chest was designed to provide an amount of additional protection when in combat.

Their subdued colour, too, played an important role.

Introduction of Marker Planning

Later in the book the authors who were master pattern makers and tailors in London at that time came up with economical solutions of marker planning for the first time. There is no visual or written documents of marker planning being widely accepted before the WWI. In this case the patterns were placed in specific ways which reduces the wastage of fabrics. This was the first time when people started thinking of economical use of fabrics as there was a huge shortage of imports and wastage was a luxury which no nation could afford.

Influence of Modernism

This radicle change can be associated to modernism movement as well which happened at that time. Modernism is known for rejecting old concepts and come up with more radical changes as if speaking of a story or structuring a story in a very different way and certain features of modernism which includes straight lines, sharp angular bends can be seen in fashion in the silhouettes too.

Looking at a Pair of trousers in the 1920’s

Lets take for example a pair of trousers, men’s pants grew from skinny jazz trousers to wide straight leg trousers to the over-sized oxford bags in the span of just 10 years. All men’s 1920s pants had very high waists and waist bands held up with button suspenders. Vintage pants and reproduction pants are very hard to come by. Instead you can wear new men’s pants with 1920s style like these,

It costed around 3-6 pounds, which was much less than that before the war. He would spend, he would spend 13 -15% of his income on clothing.

This dramatic change was due to a lot of reasons, one of them being as fabric was still cheap and labour was expensive and there was a massive demand to produce clothes. Tailors were over worked and a lot of unskilled tailors started making money by stitching a relatively easier pattern as compared to patterns in the edwardian era.

Why Did Fashion Change?

The Factors Which Influenced The Changes

War always has an effect literally on all the prospects of life and changes the balance of a society, its effects are far reaching and trickles down to our basic day to day aspects of our lives, so a change in the way we would dress up did not happen all of a sudden over night and a lot of factors put together over a period of time causes it.

Men were away from their home for a long period of time and in unimaginable conditions, The BBC Magazine writes that men who were fighting only had 1 pair of socks issued to them during the whole course of the war and taking a bath and getting new clothes were a far cry, so if you have been wearing 1 pair of socks for years you would definitely want to change your outlook and wear something different.

In the following pages we will now look at the different factors which led to the changes in the menswear fashion.

The Economic Influence

The heavy drain of resources and war expenditure caused a setback of output growth of atlas 8 years according to author Derek H. Aldcroft in his book “The European Economy 1914-2000 he spoke of how Svennilson analyzed and calculated that “if there had been no war and the 1881-1913 European rate of industrial output growth had been maintained (3.25 per cent per annum) then the 1929 level of production would have been achieved in 1921.”

During the First World War, Britain incurred debts equivalent to 136% of its gross national product, and its major creditor, the USA, began to emerge as the world's strongest economy.

War cant lead to a split economy and so most of the money in the coffers went to buy machinery and guns for the purpose of defense. The middle class did not have the money to spend it on clothes. Rationing of clothes also started during this time (1916) and people were discouraged from buying new clothes. As a result for a number of years the middle class would recycle and wear old clothes.

So naturally after the war people wanted to get out and try something new.

Sudden rise in population and introduction of ready-to-wear

garments.

After the war many people went out on the street and countries like Britain saw a sudden rise in population. The country wasn't equipped to handle the rise in the middle class who had the money from either the war or from working in weapon factories for the war.

More rise in population meant that people especially men needed more clothes to wear at different times of the day and so they had to get more clothes stitched.

As a result Retail stores started coming up which sold ready to wear clothes that can be bought almost immediately. Now these retail stores started mass production of garments and so came up with easier patterns which would take less time to be stitched as production time was very little.

Once the middle class who were is large number started wearing differently and showing off the aristrocats and so called well-off people forum it old fashioned to dress up in a all-fitted attire.

The Social Influence

Influence of the development of the Employment status of women

and Women’s right to work on Mens fashion

World War One played a huge part in development of women rights. By 1916 middle class women went out to work in the weapon factories. With the employment status of women changing the clothes they had to wear also had to change. women could no longer wear elaborate Edwardian era costumes. Designers started coming up with pants and body hugging work clothes which are easier to carry off. This slowly gained popularity.

Now when the men came back from the war and saw his woman more independent and with different looks he too wanted to change his style and look. They started wearing more boxy silhouette as that gave way to a complete different personality.

Introduction of Graphic design as a profession and Graphic

Advertisement.

WW1 was the time when the profession graphic design as a career developed. All the retail stores which was selling clothes came up with attractive advertisement on the kind of merchandise they were selling. This had a great impact on the middle class society as this kind of a propaganda was very new and highly attractive at that period of time.

So the sale of simple boxy silhouettes were very high and more people estarted to buy these clothes. More than the women who has seen the rise of the popularity of posters gradually, men for whom this was a complete new experience after returning from the war) was more attracted to it.

Impact of theaters and stage play on fashion

Since the middle class had money and wanted to live a better life they started having fun and going watch theaters and stage plays during their off hours. So artists and actors both men and women were more inclined in wearing these new sillhouettes as that was more attractive to the common people.

This played a vital role both trickle up and trickle down fashion as the actors were inspired to wear clothes of the common mass as they wanted to relate to them and watching them the common mass got even more inspired to try newer silhouettes.

Influence of other cultures on the soldiers

During the First World War the British soldiers were fighting alongside indian and other East European and Asian troops. This let to a mixture of cultures and after the war men unconsciously started adopting different methods of dressing up inspired from other regions. Here modernism comes into play as soldiers from hearing other communities were inspired to lead a more simplified life and developed a fondness for simpler yet easily garments.

Also because of the war import and export collapsed completely, it was very difficult to bring raw materials from the east by avoiding the enemy so since cotton imports decreased more economic measures were taken to reduces wastage and thus the marker planning.

Severe depression let to a change in fashion

Men had to wear one set of clothes for months at a go, there were no bathing or washroom facilities available and health was at risk not only because of the war but because of the poor living conditions in the trenches.

A lot of soldiers had taken to knitting to pass time during their long waits in the army to fight.

When they came back they definitely had to try new clothes and new styles. They were not in the mood to wait for their clothes to be custom made. They were getting cheaper clothes faster so they could have more than one pair for the same price. Retail stores took advantage of this and later Hi- street tailors had to adopt similar means.

References:

English, B.L. (2013) A cultural history of fashion in the 20th and 21st centuries, Second edition: From Catwalk to sidewalk. 2nd edn. Oxford: Berg Publishers. In-text citations: (English, 2013)

Armstrong, S. (2014) The trench coat’s forgotten WW1 roots. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29033055 (Accessed: 1 December 2016). In-text citations: (Armstrong, 2014)

Styles, R. (2014) Fascinating photos reveal how British women stayed stylish in WW1. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2719872/The-changing-fashions-worn-battling-women-World-War-One-revealed-incredible-illustrations.html (Accessed: 1 December 2016). In-text citations: (Styles, 2014)

Effects of WWI (no date) Available at: http://ibatpv.org/projects/great_war/effects.htm (Accessed: 2 December 2016). In-text citations: (Effects of WWI, no date) Add notes

No Date) Available at: http://2016 (Accessed: 2 December 2016). In-text citations: ([CSL STYLE ERROR: reference with no printed form.])

Submitted and Mason, E. (2016) 15 things you didn’t know about fashion in the First world war. Available at: http://www.historyextra.com/feature/first-world-war/15-things-you-didn%E2%80%99t-know-about-fashion-first-world-war (Accessed: 2 December 2016). In-text citations: (Submitted and Mason, 2016)

Menswear 1910’s (no date) Available at: http://costumereference.weebly.com/menswear-1910s.html (Accessed: 2 December 2016). In-text citations: (Menswear 1910’s, no date)