Alternate Fashion

[Thande]

Another WW1 one (though this may be a myth or exaggeration) is that top hats supposedly went out of fashion in Britain because the upper classes (who mostly wore them) were having to ride the Tube rather than take carriages, and the low ceilings on the entrances and trains kept knocking the hats off.

 

[Color-Copycat]

Wristwatches were supposedly popularized by WWI due to the impracticality of pocket watches on the battlefield.

 

[Thande]

Wristwatches were supposedly popularized by WWI due to the impracticality of pocket watches on the battlefield.

I believe this is true. Wristwatches did exist before WW1 (they were known as 'Neapolitan watches' at one point because the Queen of Naples had one) but didn't catch on until the trenches made them more useful.

I remember reading that a few years ago and thinking 'it seems strange that people wouldn't just realise how much easier wristwatches are to start with. I mean, it's not like people would ever go back to pocketwatches now'. AND YET THEY HAVE. Since then, The Youth have started not wearing wristwatches at all in favour of just looking at their phones...which are reasonably-sized bulky objects they carry in their pockets and have to get out to check, exactly like pocketwatches. Fashion and cultural practice is not something that can be rationally predicted.

 

[Color-Copycat]

The phone fob, that latest must-have accessory for your handheld electronic gadget! Or, for advertising purposes, the "phone phob".

 

[W.W.A.F.T.]

For a big differance you can mess with or remove beau brummel, do that and standard western male dress changes rather considerably.

 

[Marc Pasquin]

I believe this is true. Wristwatches did exist before WW1 (they were known as 'Neapolitan watches' at one point because the Queen of Naples had one) but didn't catch on until the trenches made them more useful.

I read that the popularity came from pilots using them during WW1 as it made it easier to check while piloting.

 

[Marc Pasquin]

Also, some fads may not catch on and the more relaxed clothing of women during Britain's Georgian period could stay more complicated and opulent. On the other hand, we might see simpler fashions continue in a world without an OTL-style Victorian age.

simplicity does seem to go through cycles (centuries long ones). You follow from antiquity to the renaissance and then today and you can see how this fluctuated.

Another interesting is how, in a way, clothing tend to be more equalitarian nowaday. The clothes worn by the lower and upper class were at certain times and places completely different between the 2 groups with some items worn by the laters absent from the former method of dress. Nowaday, it seem that often the difference between the upper class and lower' sunday's best is more a question of quality (cut and type of cloth) then elements contained in it (i.e. tailor made armani virgin wool suit vs an off the rack synthetic fibres one).

 

[Marc Pasquin]

No WWI -> Trenchcoats never come into fashion and Humphrey Bogart and the occassional Gestapo bogeyman have to wear other coats.

Mind you, you already had some commonly worn raincoat and dress coat that were fairly long like the macfarlane so I don't know if it's wear (or lack thereoff) in WW1 have that much of an impact.

 

[obamaslovechild]

Butterfly away the social upheavals of the the 1960's and men's fashions might not of got so bad (wide ties, bell bottoms, loud colors, etc).

I think that men's fashion pretty much stayed the same from about 1900 to the late 1960's to the early 1970's.

 

[Marc Pasquin]

This is a good thread. I always ask myself how fashion would develop in, say, a Sinocentric world.

based on some fashion trend I've seen from some chinese films, maybe some would be an absence of lapels on coat, round colars on shirt and white colour due to its link with death might be more of a rebelious colour instead of black as in OTL (if there is an equivalent to goths and metalheads).

 

[Mr.J]

I mean, it's not like people would ever go back to pocketwatches now'. AND YET THEY HAVE. Since then, The Youth have started not wearing wristwatches at all in favour of just looking at their phones...which are reasonably-sized bulky objects they carry in their pockets and have to get out to check, exactly like pocketwatches. Fashion and cultural practice is not something that can be rationally predicted.

And texting is just wireless telegraphy - me and my cousins had a running joke of putting STOP at the end of each sentence in a text for a while .

 

[Marc Pasquin]

And texting is just wireless telegraphy - me and my cousins had a running joke of putting STOP at the end of each sentence in a text for a while .

I'm actualy surprised there's no app that display text message as telegrams

 

[Max Sinister]

I read that the popularity came from pilots using them during WW1 as it made it easier to check while piloting.

Wouldn't they better fit on the instrument board?

 

[Marc Pasquin]

Wouldn't they better fit on the instrument board?

In 1904* , I think it was more of question of having one on you to begin with with intruments probably being fairly minimal.


* the first "official" men's wristwatch was made by Cartier in that year for aviator Santos-Dumont. Mind you, Girard-Perregaux also made some for german naval officers in the late 19th century but these were simply pocket watch mounted on a leather strap.

This is what an 1910 repro looks like:

 

[Petike]

I still prefer a wristwatch.

Also, what if pockets sewn directly onto clothes became practical already during the Middle Ages ? Less cutpursing and more pickpocketing sooner ?

 

[pieman3141]

Who needs alternate history:

http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/7/5/prada-goes-steampunk-with-oldman-dafoe-hedlund-and-bell.html

Gary fucking Oldman. Damn.

 

[Marc Pasquin]

Also, what if pockets sewn directly onto clothes became practical already during the Middle Ages ? Less cutpursing and more pickpocketing sooner ?

Its one of those things that seem so obvious in insight, doesn't it ?

 

[Georgepatton]

I remember reading that a few years ago and thinking 'it seems strange that people wouldn't just realise how much easier wristwatches are to start with. I mean, it's not like people would ever go back to pocketwatches now'. AND YET THEY HAVE. Since then, The Youth have started not wearing wristwatches at all in favour of just looking at their phones...which are reasonably-sized bulky objects they carry in their pockets and have to get out to check, exactly like pocketwatches. Fashion and cultural practice is not something that can be rationally predicted.

Bah, you're totally ignoring the additional functionality of phones! Phones don't fit on wrists, not unless it's 1938 and you're wearing a yellow trench coat.

I'd be with you if kids were tearing the wrist-bands off watches to put them in their pockets, but they're not: they're just dispensing with an unnecessary encumbrance. I wear a watch for work, and the first thing I do when I'm done is take it off.

 

[Petike]

Its one of those things that seem so obvious in insight, doesn't it ?

In hindsight, definitely. But so do things like zippers or the type of eyeglass lenses we use today, etc.

 

[Marc Pasquin]

Bah, you're totally ignoring the additional functionality of phones! Phones don't fit on wrists, not unless it's 1938 and you're wearing a yellow trench coat.

I'd be with you if kids were tearing the wrist-bands off watches to put them in their pockets, but they're not: they're just dispensing with an unnecessary encumbrance. I wear a watch for work, and the first thing I do when I'm done is take it off.

I used to wear a pocket watch but had to dispense with it at work for safety reason. Now all I carry is my cellphone.