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Bib overalls and suit jackets

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My mother's basement
Can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about bib overalls worn with an old sports jacket (or likelier an orphaned suit jacket) that looks oddly "right" to me.

I am reminded of this by photos of one of our own so attired at the Hooverville picnic our Southern California compatriots attended a few days ago.

I assume the "look" came about organically -- a jacket that the missus decided was now worn enough to no longer be her man's Sunday best would be relegated to everyday use, which meant it was worn with other everyday attire, which, for our rural brethren, meant bib overalls. The jacket did what a jacket is supposed to do -- it kept its wearer warmer, and it had the added benefit of at least a couple of extra pockets.
 

Lefty

I'll Lock Up
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I love that look, but there's such a balance between sincerity and costume that it has to be done just right.
 
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^^^^

Yeah, no kiddin'. Most all the photos I've seen of it date from the 1960s at the most recent, and most from well before then.

The picnic photos are of people in costume, which is cool, seeing how that's kinda the point of people in 2010 dressed for a picnic in 1930s attire.

I've seen numerous old photos with neckties added to the overalls-and-suit jacket combo. With the right elements, that can be a way cool look.
 

Lefty

I'll Lock Up
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^Nice.

Famer Lee Jones is based in Ohio and regularly appears as a judge on Iron Chef America. I know I've seen him in a jacket.
Farmer+Jones.jpg
 
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My mother's basement
Wow, 'vic, that's downright precious.

I'd love to see others.

There was a photo essay in The New Yorker several issues back that featured photos from what has come to be called the Civil Rights Era. One photo (circa early '60s, I'd think) showed a youngish marcher dressed in suit jacket and bib overalls.

I'm thinking this was (is) an almost exclusively American look. No? Perhaps the Down Under delegation knows otherwise?
 
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My mother's basement
handlebar bart said:
I am liking this. I wish I knew why the combo looks so good but it does.

I'm thinkin' it might be the length of the jacket balancing the long line of the overalls. [huh]

Whatever the reason, I'm right with you. It does look right.
 

Wolfmanjack

Practically Family
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547
tonyb said:
I'm thinkin' it might be the length of the jacket balancing the long line of the overalls. [huh]

Whatever the reason, I'm right with you. It does look right.

I agree, it just looks 'right.' But I don't think this can be explained in aesthetic terms like, "the length of the jacket balancing the long line of the overalls." I think it looks right because of it's historic meaning as the uniform of a salt-of-the-earth dirt farmer who nevertheless maintained his dignity and honor. He'd keep his word; no matter what.

Look at that guy on the left; I'd trust him with my last dollar.
Lefty said:
Mike Disfamer, Men in Overalls and Hats

1021.jpg
 
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10,561
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My mother's basement
But why the guy on the left and not the guy in the middle? He, too, is wearing bib overalls, but with what looks to be a leather, slightly longer than waist-length jacket. There's lots to be said for that look, too, but to my eye it doesn't look as right as the overalls-and-suit jacket look.

Not to be disputatious, because there is definitely something "salt of the earth" in it, but there is also something that can indeed be spoken of in "aesthetic terms," although it's doubtful that the old-timers who sported that look would have given that much thought at all.
 

Highlander

A-List Customer
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473
Location
Missouri
Great photos, being a farm boy, I've seen many a feller wearin' a jacket over his bibs. Also Lefty, love that Farmall in your photo. We had two "H"s and one "C" for our chore tractor as a kid.
 

vintage68

Practically Family
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959
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Nevada, The Redneck Riviera
Great thread. I feel like I'm coming out of the closet or something by admiting it though lol

I've always liked the look (never attempted it), but was always wondered if I was crazy or what. The overalls need to be worn with a shirt always always buttoned at the collar, otherwise it doesn't look right.
 

AndrewGWU

Familiar Face
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55
Location
The Old North State
There are some great photos of my great great grandfather standing beside a corn field in a pair of overalls and a jacket. He made is living by distilling the product of the corn that was growing behind him and it is one of my favorite photographs in the world. I think it is at my parents, I will have to dig it up, scan it in, and post it here some time soon.
 

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