A Brief History of the Modern Day Suit
Before the Suit
When you think of men’s wardrobes from before the 1700s, there’s a an image that’s conjured up of men dressed in high heels, draped in cloaks, often times wearing a jacket with fluffy shoulders called a doublet.
This was the wardrobe of the noble class.
Keir Hardie
Keir Hardie
In 1892, a man named Keir Hardie showed up to his first day of British Parliament wearing a tweed, working-man’s three piece suit, with a double-breasted coat, known as a lounge suit.
While this event may seem quite innocuous now, at the time it represented a big change in fashion and a challenge of class.
Before Hardie’s suit, lounge suits were exclusively worn by the working class because this was the only affordable menswear out there.
The upper classes and members of Parliament wore frock coats, which were coat-skirt hybrids that paid homage to petticoat breeches, the large coats/dresses you would see men wear in Victorian times.
When Hardie entered Parliament in 1892 wearing the uniform of the working man, it changed the dynamics of style and politics. The lounge suit instantly identified Hardie as a member of the working class, and as someone that would fight for working class ideals.
Hardie was not only one of the first politician to use the clothes he wore to appeal to voters, he gave permission to the upper class to begin wearing what we now know as the suit.
While this story of Hardie and why men wear what we know as suits today is little known, the man that first popularized the modern suit is far from it: The Duke of Windsor otherwise known as Edward VIII.
Duke of Windsor
Duke of Windsor
The Duke of Windsor’s closet
The Duke of windsor
Edward’s father, King George V of the United Kingdom, always expected Edward to succeed him on the thrown.
This allowed Edward to travel all over the world, where he became the most photographed man in the world, in part because of his wardrobe of outstanding patterns and colors, and never-before-seen details.
Edward popularized flap pockets
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Since the Duke’s popularity in the 1920s and 30s, the modern day lounge suit has become the standard of menswear, and has virtually remained unchanged.