Distribution of Some of the Death Clothes

[ReignetteC]

(12-02-2012 02:03 PM)Jim Garrett Wrote:  

(11-30-2012 10:45 PM)ReignetteC Wrote:  Thanks for a very stimulating post. As a tenured employee of Brooks Brothers, the iconic American clothier of presidents (including Mr. Lincoln), I am especially curious about the history of the "shirt bosom." Thus I quickly checked our archives and found a reference to the shirt bosom in a pamphlet Brooks Brothers published in 1905 called “Clothes and the Hour.”

I P.M.
White shirts made of long-cloth with linen bosoms, or all solid linen, cuffs either round or square corners, two stud holes, ready made or to measure. Open front and, for those who like them (and they are many), cut coat wise, to open all the way down the front, to be put on like a coat.Theoretically all shirts are supposed to be made with collars and cuffs attached. Practically most of them are made with cuffs attached, and with collars separate.


On another note, Brooks Brothers published the pamphlet “Chronicles:1818-1909: Being a Record of Sundry Happenings.” It describes a gentleman’s dress during the early 1860s. I trust you’ll find it to be of interest.

“At that time a man's occupation could almost be told by his dress, for professional characteristics were still very noticeable. The clergymen of all denominations wore black "dress" coats with much white neckerchief folded around their high standing collars. The successful lawyer dressed after the style familiar to us in portraits of Daniel Webster, blue coat with brass buttons, Nankeen waistcoat and trousers, and an amply frilled shirt front. The doctors dressed plainly, but always in black, and carried, almost invariably, the professional gold-headed cane. Merchants and bankers wore the skinned coats of brown, blue or black which were to develop during the next decade into the frock-coat of today.

“The high silk hat was the almost universal wear. Shaven faces were the rule and a beard the exception, while the mustache was the sign of the gambler or" Sporting man."

I'm sure you already know about the customer made Brooks Bros. overcoat with the lining embroidered with a giant American eagle with the motto, "One Country One Destiny".

You bet I do! I've been researching "the world's most expensive overcoat" for several years. I am writing a book about the coat and expect to publish it next year.