I rather like those too. Press them and sort out the break & they have quite a nice cut to them.
Early 1930's they say. Who'd have thought? Obviously this pre-dates the Bills' 1940's GI Joe cut and just shows that there is no 'traditional' cut set in stone for these things. In fact this early '30's cut is closer to the Ivy Boom years kind of slimmed-down cut than the baggy Bills look.
Interesting!

That was all a part of The Look & was accepted as such. Many other shirts as you say were cut closer to the body, Troy, Sero, Hathaway, etc., but Brooks was THE shirt. And very few people had them.

English copies of American shirts all lack the full cut (I think) which probably shows where mainstream Anglo taste in shirt fit lies. Certainly Ben Sherman's copies of the shirts he bought from John Simons' Squire and Ivy Shops all had (& still have today) a much trimmer cut than the American originals.

J. Simons and The Ivy Shop used to sell an imported 100% cotton, USA made, OCBD called "Geoffrey Scott" (amongst many others) which was totally US, but the cut & collar were slimmed-down making them more Anglo-friendly. They used to be the 'entry-level' US OCBD at JS in our eyes. A sign that you had gone up a notch in the style was that your shirts got fuller and the collars had more roll.

I mail ordered my first ones from Brooks within days of my first visit to JS. The dollar was around 1.64 back then.

J.

Last edited by Russell_Street (2008-05-25 02:00:52)

The trou. were never baggy over here, nor the jackets, but the shirts could be to show off their imported status I think. Trou. & jackets were not super slim either - They just used to fit.

In the US I'd question the baggy trou. & jacket look as being another OPH creation. TNSIL as I knew it in the US used to fit the wearer.