The Cut of His Coat: Men, Dress, and Consumer Culture in Britain, 1860-1914

Chapter 3

3 “really there is much more to be said about men’s fashions than i had imagined” Fashion and the Birth of the Men’s Lifestyle Periodical It seems to me that what is called in France the ugly sex (le sexe laid), has been left out in the cold too long. . . . Now, why should not the ugly sex have a fashion journal, or, if we cannot spare them a fashion journal all to themselves, surely we might allow them a department at least of our periodicals dealing with matters of costume. —Corisande, “Fashions for Men” (1879)
n March 1898, a magazine premiered in London, hailing itself as the first popular periodical on men’s fashion (fig. 3.1). The new monthly was simply but appropriately titled Fashion, and its lively, breezy copy kept its readers abreast of the latest cuts and styles in men’s garments, along with regular features on military dress and men’s costume in current theatrical productions. In its first issue, Fashion’s founding editor, “Beau Brummel, Junr.,”declared, “We have the pleasure to inform you that it is our intention to produce shortly a” MONTHLY JOURNAL of unique interest and value to theTailoring and AlliedTrades.This journal will not be of an exclusively technical tone, but will be based upon a requirement that has recently become a necessary adjunct to the demands which are now expected from producers of fashionable apparel. We are aware that there are a number of papers in the field which talk to the manufacturer or producer from the point of view of the trades concerned, but there is none (at present) which advises the tailor, the hatter, the bootmaker, and the hosier from the point of view of the customer who purchases their productions, and who is therefore a much more important person to consider than the technical writer upon things already produced and established. (“Introduction,” 1) 91 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. The debut of a periodical dedicated to men’s fashions received widespread positive notice from its peers in the press, who almost unanimously declared that it was about time. “Man’s turn has come at last!” extolled the Morning Leader. “No longer is woman to have sole claim to all the fashion papers!”The Star declared that Fashion rendered “an ancient wrong remedied, and a long-felt want supplied. . . . This is as it should be.” And a reviewer for the Western Press remarked, “I am only surprised that such a paper has not appeared long before. Men need advice 92 the cut of his coat Figure 3.1. Front cover of Fashion’s first issue (March 1898) (permission British Library) You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. upon the art of dress almost more than women, judging by the mistakes they so frequently make in style, colour, and material” (“In Praise of ‘Fashion,’” 15). Fashion and general-interest magazines for women were plentiful in theVictorian era.1 But within a highly patriarchal print culture that implicitly assumed a male audience, the notion of a magazine that consciously addressed men as men in the same way that women’s magazines addressed their readers—that is, as fashion devotees and active consumers—was revolutionary.With a few failed exceptions ,2 previous periodicals devoted to men’s fashion were predominantly professional journals for the tailoring trade.3 Although a small handful of popularinterest periodicals—notably To-Day (1893–1905)4 —offered brief items on men’s costume, scholars generally agree that fashion and lifestyle periodicals for a popular male audience did not emerge in Europe and the United States until the 1920s and ’30s. For example, Jill Greenfield, Sean O’Connell, and Chris Reid offer a fascinating study of Men Only, a British monthly that premiered in 1933.Valerie Steele cites Adam: La Revue de l’Homme, an upscale French magazine “devoted to men’s sartorial style, with an emphasis on custom tailoring and fine accessories” that was popular from the 1920s through the ’50s (Steele, 81). Christopher Breward agrees that fashion magazines for men...