Can you date these for me? 2 Suits: 1 DB 1930s, 1 SB 1940s?

[Martina]

Hello.....
I have 2 suits that I would like you guys to take a look at.
The spots that you see are from the camera's flash -sorry, due to
all the gray skies and snow here, it's too dark inside to take a photo
that shows up well.

The first is a suit from the estate of a southern judge
(my Father-in-law finds me everything!) You can see the
weaving of the wool's threads very easily. It has the jacket and
two pair of pants.

That's a metal Talon zipper and a slide, and an inside button -you can get
a good view of the fabric here too.

The other one is this blue suit, which I think is from the 1940s or even the
1930s. Inside there are two buttons; the top one actually has to be buttoned
through the underside of that long lapel! As you can see from the outside,
you can't even see one of the 6 buttons! Anyway, the fabric has these neat
diamond shapes in it. I think this is called a Gaberdine wool suit.
My other question is about the size for this one.. the coat is 46" pit to pit
but the pants have a 42" waist, after being let out almost 4" in the back,
and only a 29.5" inseam. Doesn't that make them unsually wide?

That one lapel is so wide, it hides the button! Also, look how slanted the
chest pocket is!

I read something on here about the dropped shoulder seams in the back
(I think it was something of Baron's but I'm not sure) . I know it related
to the date though....

This one has the metal Talon zip and a top button, plus inside suspender
buttons.

Well, now I'll admit that I didn't know what this was when I first saw it!
Yeah, I looked at it and thought "Sheesh, those are some big lapels, even
for the 70s!" Then I thought...... Eegad, look at that textured polyester!
Then when I felt it, I knew... WOOL! It was then that I remembered all the
posts from here about the wide lapels, buttons up to the nipple, dropped
shoulder seams etc...... and suddenly, the suit looked gorgeous to me!
So you are educating me..... slowly but surely. And the truth is, the more
I learn, the more I love it and am pationate about it!
Thanks again for your help,
~Martina~

 

[Senator Jack]

The black one looks mid-60s to me. Three-button narrow lapel was popular in the 50s, but that lapel looks too narrow for 50s. The weave also says 60s to me. Is there a single pleat on the trousers? For some reason, after the flat-fronts of the Continental, the single pleat came back into style.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Fletch]

DB suit

I'm gonna say mid 40s-early 50s on this one. This was a popular style for many years, but more likely to have a button fly pre-WW2 and a zipper post-war.

The textured weave probably makes it not-gabardine. At least classically, gab is a very smooth and slightly stretchy twill.

Determining a date would be easier if we could see it on a dummy or live model whom it fit well. A lot is in the shape, drape, height of notches and buttons and such. These things changed every few years.

Do you "have" these as investments, for a store, or for a special guy, or to possibly flip? The larger size DB would be a hot item for a lot of us (I'm thinking here primarily of myself ).

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I wanna see:

1) the label on the inside of the DB jacket. Also, are there any labels inside the inner pocket?

2) A really good, non-blurry photo of the fabric of the DB. I'm guessing this suit is 30s - button stance very high to be 40s/50s, but ya never know. but the fabric is remarkable for a 30s suit. Almost like a diamond seersucker. Crazy.

3) Do the trousers have pleats?

ditto Senator Jack's comments re the date of the SB.

bk

 

[Martina]

SB Fabric

Thanks all for answering!
I'll go ahead and get a close-up of that blue suit fabric for you...
and get tag info AND for the brown and black striped suit that Baron asked about too.

As for the Gaberdine being a very smooth stretchy twill, I'm not so sure I agree with that; I had a 1940s/50s Gaberdine shirt a while back, with the tags still on it, and it was not smooth or stretchy.
If you remeber my saying, that at first glance, I thought this was polyester mainly due to the diamond pattern. Baron is right though, it looks like a diamond Searsucker fabric. It's very unique!

What did I get that suit for Fletch?
Well.... just call me IHOP
I'm working on learning enough about this stuff to make an actual living
at it.... then again, who needs to learn everything! But I am trying my hand at buying some, on top of ALL the stuff I get 'gifted' from relatives!

Be back in a bit with some more photos.
~Martina~
PS: What's with the Avatar thing and where do I go for help! I already have looked all over the FAQ area. I made one up, a little animited one -only 21 KBs-, using an old photo from my Grandmother-in-law's store. It's uploaded to photobucket but when I try to set it as my avatar, I get a message saying that it's not a valid URL AND I can't upload an animated avater using the 'upload from your computer' option.

 

[Orgetorix]

PS: What's with the Avatar thing and where do I go for help! I already have looked all over the FAQ area. I made one up, a little animited one -only 21 KBs-, using an old photo from my Grandmother-in-law's store. It's uploaded to photobucket but when I try to set it as my avatar, I get a message saying that it's not a valid URL AND I can't upload an animated avater using the 'upload from your computer' option.

Hm, I'm not sure, but I bet JamesPowers could help you if you send him a PM. He's a moderator and he has an animated avatar.

 

[jamespowers]

Hm, I'm not sure, but I bet JamesPowers could help you if you send him a PM. He's a moderator and he has an animated avatar.

Sure just single me out.
I might be able to help if you PM me though. It might cost you the blue suit though.

Regards,

J

 

[Orgetorix]

Sure just single me out.
I might be able to help if you PM me though. It might cost you the blue suit though.

Regards,

J

I couldn't remember anyone else with an animated avatar.

 

[jamespowers]

I couldn't remember anyone else with an animated avatar.

See? Now that is why I never change my avatar. Its memorable.

Regards,

J

 

[Orgetorix]

See? Now that is why I never change my avatar. Its memorable.

Regards,

J

Oh...I thought most people remembered you for your scintillating personality.

 

[jamespowers]

Oh...I thought most people remembered you for your scintillating personality.

Yeah that too.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

As for the Gaberdine being a very smooth stretchy twill, I'm not so sure I agree with that; I had a 1940s/50s Gaberdine shirt a while back, with the tags still on it, and it was not smooth or stretchy.
If you remeber my saying, that at first glance, I thought this was polyester mainly due to the diamond pattern. Baron is right though, it looks like a diamond Searsucker fabric. It's very unique!

Neither of those suits are gabardine (well the blue one might be, but i doubt it - close-up of fabric!!). Gabardine has one diagonally ribbed side, and the other side is smooth. The ribs are generally at 45 degree angle to the selvedge.

bk

 

[Martina]

More pics of the BLUE SUIT

Ok, you guys are torturing me with this one! Gaberdine or not, I LOVE it!
Here are some more pictures I took. The color is navy, more like the pants.
The jacket photos were taken with the camera's flash and the pants were
shot using the camera's fill-in flash.

Yeah, yeah, here's the close-up! Neat, eh?

Here's what I found out about this label: ONE Google only, of a man's
obituary who had worked as a tailor here. He was born in 1891, married in
1914 and retired in 1972 (he worked as a tailor for a place called Webb's
Men's Shop also but I can't find anything on them.

These probably are not hanging correctly, due to the fact that the dress form
that they're on has a 29" waist and I had to practically fold them in half to
make them stay up. Hopefully the other photos will help though.

Here are some specifics: The pants have no pleat but they DO have a watch pocket on the front right side, just below the waistline. The right outer jacket pocket has an inner smaller pocket (ticket pocket?) . Inside the jacket, there is only one chest pocket.

I have one more cool photo to show you of an ad I found but I'm up to my
10 photo limit with this post, so I'll do one more titled Blue Suit Ad.
Thanks again guys!
And I will be PM'ing James Powers. I remembered that I had seen an animated avatar around here somewhere of dancing men!

 

[Martina]

Blue Suit Ad

One other tidbit of information about that suit, which led me to this ad:
In the upper chest pocket of the jacket, there was an old Robt. Burns
cigar band. In Googling that, I found this! It was on a university
History Project website and according to that, there is no copyright
owner of this so it should be safe to 'borrow'. It's a 1930s ad. Is that
MY suit? The lapels look more narrow though... but the fabric looks
textured or am I seeing things?

 

[slicedbread]

the weaving style on this suit reminds me of this thread:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=10865

 

[Martina]

The weaving looks very similar, however that tan suit looks like the pattern is raised, where as the blue one is practically, if not totally, flat. I think it's the pattern on the blue one that gives the illusion of being raised.
....oh Darn! Now I have to go and feel it again!!! I guess I'll post later and let you know for sure!

 

[Martina]

Yep, there is no raised 'grain' so to speak. If you closed your eyes and felt the wool, you would have no idea that there was any pattern to it at all!
Take a look at this photo... the color is off but as you can see, looking at this from an angle, the pattern is not raised.

 

[Fletch]

Great look - thanks for the new pictures 'tina.

I guess I'll recant my earlier answer and say late '30s-mid '40s, basically due to the stance of the middle buttons and the slight curve to the outer lapel blades.

 

[Martina]

Thanks Fletch! Hey, is that 'odd' fabric pattern a good thing or not so good, since it is uncommon?

 

[Fletch]

It might not pull bids from eBay kids who are looking for VINTAGE SWING EMO ROCKABILLY MOD GANGSTER PINSTRIPES. But some folks (oh....say, me??? ) would love it.