History of suits
This evolution is seen more recently in British tailoring's use of steam and padding in moulding woolen cloth, the rise and fall in popularity of the necktie, and the gradual disuse of waistcoats and hats in the last fifty years.
The modern lounge suit appeared in the late 19th century, but traces its origins to the simplified, sartorial standard of dress established by King Charles II of England in 1666.
[3][full citation needed] In this regency period, the predominant upper-class clothing introduced by Brummell for day wear was a tightly fitting, dark coloured tailcoat with non-matching (usually pale) trousers, pale waistcoat, white shirt and cravat and tall boots.
Towards the start of the Victorian period and the Gilded Age, the frock coat, initially not just black, became popular, and quickly became the standard daily clothing for gentlemen.
[6] Towards the end of the 19th century, the modern lounge suit was born as a very informal garment meant only to be worn for sports, in the country, or at the seaside.
The 'dress lounge' slowly became more popular for larger events as an alternative to full evening dress in white tie.
[7]: 115 The beginning of the Edwardian era in the early 20th century brought a steady decline in the wearing of frock coats and the birth of the suit that is recognizable today.
Meanwhile, the morning suit rose in relative formality, first becoming acceptable for businessmen, then becoming standard dress for upper classes.
In North America, for evening occasions, the short dinner jacket virtually replaced the long "full dress" tails, which was perceived as "old hat" and was only worn by old conservative men.
Reflecting the democratization of wealth and larger trend toward simplification in the decades following the Second World War, the suit was standardized and streamlined.
Cloth rationing during the war had forced significant changes in style, contributing to a large reduction in the popularity of cuts such as the double-breasted suit.
Flannel had humble beginnings — the name is reputedly derived from "gwlanen," Welsh for woolen cloth — and was used for underwear in the 19th century.
When the Prince of Wales wore gray flannel trousers on his 1924 trip to America, they were aped by collegiates on both sides of the Atlantic.
The archetypal square of the postwar era was later described by Esquire's style encyclopedia as 'a neat, circumspect, conservative man who carried an attaché case and regarded a pink button-down shirt as his one sartorial fling'[10]In the late 1960s and early 1970s the Nehru jacket, an Indian style featuring a mandarin collar, was introduced by entertainers such as Johnny Carson and The Beatles, and saw a brief surge in popularity across Western Europe and the United States.
This new three-piece style became closely associated with disco culture, and was specifically popularized by the film Saturday Night Fever.
Fashion brands such Haggar meanwhile started to introduce the concept of "suit separates", a production innovation that reduced the need for excessive customization.
The late 1990s saw the return to popularity of the three-button two-piece suit, which then went back out of fashion some time in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
The earliest women's suits were riding habits, which consisted of a tailored coat or jacket and matching skirt from the 1660s.
A white-collar woman's suit of skirt, tailored shirt, and floppy tie evolved in the 1970s and 1980s, as documented in the 1975 book, Dress for Success.
