Look familiar? Surgeon cuffs originated in the military. Here, a Foot Private’s tunic, 1865. Fort York, Heritage Toronto.
A sign of a good dresser is the wearer’s attention to detail. When a man cares enough to be mindful of the finer details of dressing, he will insist on surgeon’s cuffs on his suit jackets.
On suits and jackets, there are usually two to four buttons at the lower edge of each sleeve. Off-the-rack jackets have non-functioning buttons decorating the outside of each sleeve, a practice that originated in the military when buttons, or pips, worn at the front of the uniform sleeve indicated rank.
Military pips were worn with regimental lace (braid) stitched and pressed into a faux buttonhole (this page shows how to make your own) has dubious beginnings, but we do know that the cuff decoration began as a deterrent to dirtying one’s tunic. One source claims the sleeve buttons “began as an effort by Lord Nelson to keep young midshipmen and cabin boys from wiping their noses on their sleeves.”
Functioning buttons on the other hand, buttons used as closures with real buttonholes are known as “surgeon’s cuffs”. Nowadays, surgeon’s cuffs are worn for style, but when they were first developed, practicality was at top of mind. The Economist explains the history of the surgeon’s cuff:
Savile Row was inhabited largely by surgeons before the tailors moved in during the 19th century, and their influence can be seen in the “surgeon’s cuff”. On the most expensive suits the cuff buttons, which mirror the pips of military rank, can be undone, allowing the sleeve to be rolled back. This let surgeons attend patients spouting blood without removing their coats—an important distinction that set them apart from shirt-sleeved tradesmen of the lower orders.
In this way, surgeon’s cuffs become an indication of social rank (200 years ago, doctors were “upper class”) and to this day are typically found on higher end, tailored garments.
Holland Esquire jacket with contrast piping and covered buttons.
Philip Zappacosta at Nanni Couture in Toronto says, “surgeon’s cuffs are an indication to others of your refined taste in clothing.”
Philip suggests to leave the bottom 1-2 buttons unbuttoned to showcase the detail on a jacket, and other Italian clothiers I deal with also insist on having at least one button open.
For a more casual look, Philip says, “the jacket cuff can be rolled up slightly to show off more shirt cuff, cuff links, watches, or jewellery.” Revealing the lining, especially if it’s bright and interesting, will also be shown when the cuff is turned back.
Nanni carries beautiful and refined tailored goods like Corneliani, an Italian lifestyle brand, and Holland Esquire, a smaller and unique label designed by Nick Holland, a major UK tailor, who weaves elements of old world tailoring in his modern line. Both lines feature surgeon cuffs on their jackets.
Sporting a surgeon cuff is always fantastic, but remember, once the surgeon cuffs are created on a jacket, the sleeve length should not be altered. Unless you have the arm length for a perfect off-the-rack fit, beware of buying finished surgeon’s cuffs – changing the sleeve length will throw off the proportion of the buttoned cuffs and it will just look silly. Good tailors will not sew in the buttons and buttonholes until the sleeve length is properly fitted to the client – this is optimal and strongly suggested if you want to do it right.
This week, we’re going to test your spacial-temporal abilities and see if you can visualize the gentleman’s coat from the pattern pieces below and match it to one of the coats below:
Your choices:
A. A two-piece fitted doublet with lower tabs worn with “bag breeches” from 1630, Flanders.
B. Men’s frock coat with deep back pleats from the 1830s.
C. The Justaucorps, a French coat from the early 18th century.
If you chose C, you’re correct! The Justaucorps, an excessively pleated, stiffened, and decorated coat of French origin, worn during the late 17th and early 18th century period when aristocratic men were at their fanciest and most extravagant. This period for well-to-do men was completely over-the-top, putting women’s costume to shame in Europe.
This coat was collarless and heavily trimmed in ribbon, braid, and embroidery, and covered with dozens buttons connecting the back skirts, a line in front to fasten the coat, and useless buttons adorned the pocket flaps. The enormous cuffs, running the length the wrist to the elbow, into place on the “pagoda” sleeve.
This heavily-adorned, deeply-pleated coat topped a long, stiffened, skirted sleeveless waistcoat – the first three-piece suit! Shirts made of linen or silk had showy lace cuffs, worn with a loosely knotted 7 -8′ long neck cloth (forerunner of the tie). Sometimes a sash tied around the waist. Breeches and hose covered the trunk and on the gent’s feet were heeled shoes or boots with red soles and heels. Men wore long, curly wigs and carried tricorne hats (with three points) under their arms because the tall, curly wigs prevented the hat from sitting firmly on the head.
Men carried ribboned walking sticks and took to wearing fur muffs to keep their hands warm in cold weather, often with little pockets inside to carry their snuff boxes. Colours of the period were bright – yellow, green, and red, getting away from the dark, dull colours of the Commonwealth era.
Both men and women painted their faces with powdered lead and/or arsenic to make their skin white, and applied rouge and lipstick – sometimes a false beauty spot was applied to the face for ornamentation and in some cases, to cover facial scars from ailments like small pox. Whitening the skin signified the class of the wearer – the aristocracy didn’t work / didn’t outside where his skin would have become darkened by the sun’s rays. However, a pristine, lily-white face didn’t come without a price.
Although this era was known as the Age of Enlightenment, most fashionable men and women poisoned themselves with red and white lead make-up and powder. The make-up they used caused the eyes to swell and become inflamed, attacked the enamel on the teeth and changed the texture of the skin causing it to blacken, it was also not uncommon to suffer baldness… It was known that heavy use of lead could cause death. (Source.)
The simple two-button suit that modern men wear is an extremely boiled-down version of the grossly elaborate 300-year old suit that required assistance to put on. Attendants dressed the gentry in coats and waistcoats made of heavy satin, silk, and velvets which I imagine must have weighed a ton and no doubt affected the joints of the wearer.
In the modern era, we might have our wardrobe problems, though they’re miniscule compared to the lengths that men of the early 18th century went to in showing themselves and their wealth off. The excessiveness of this period is a shining example of the human ego knowing no bounds.
Note – Immediately following this post, In the Key of He is scaling back posts to release every two weeks.
Flemish painter, Anthony Van Dyke, originator of the Van Dyke whisker style.
If you lived through the 90s and were old enough to grow facial hair, chances are, you wore a wrap-around mustache/beard combination and you probably called it a goatee. You might be shocked to know that in the modern era, this facial hair style, mistakenly called a goatee, is actually a 400 year old Flemish (Dutch) style called a Van Dyke.
Author, Victoria Sherrow, explains both types of facial hair in her historical study of appearance in For Appearance’s Sake:
Goatees are tufts of hair on the chin, trimmed to look like the beard of a male goat, which give them their name.
Some men wear a mustache along with this type of beard. Variations of this look include the Van Dyke beard, which was named for seventeenth-century Flemish artist Anthony Van Dyke (1599 – 1641), whose portraits showed men wearing goatees.
Men like King Charles I of England. Charles usually sported a long chin beard and mustache combo, and commissioned many Van Dyke portraits. Shown here, Charles I from Three Angles by Van Dyke, was created as a guide for Italian sculptor, Bernini, commissioned by Pope Urban VIII to make the bust of the king. (Bernini is the famous sculptor of the period who did breathtaking work with marble and created such pieces as The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, David, and Apollo and Daphne. See images of his work here.)
This style comes in many forms from the complete, solid wrap-around, to various detached mustache and chin beard combinations of various shapes and styles that go in and out of fashion. During the Grunge period of the 90s, for example, every guy I knew who could grow a beard wore a closed Van Dyke (but called it a goatee).
The great musicians of the period wore them well – Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, and sometimes Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. The Van Dyke is a strong characteristic feature of the 90s and it was a good look at the time, but that was 20 years ago (!). Gents, if you haven’t changed your facial hair since 1994, I strongly suggest you modernize and shave off or reshape your whiskers – there are many variations of the mustache-chin beard style and lots of style experimentation to do that won’t make you look like you’re clinging to your youth.
The face is like a canvas; women change their looks by applying cosmetics, men by shaving, growing, and shaping their beards.
Heavy Van Dyke fans
Founding Pantera guitarist, the late Dimebag Darrell.
Pantera's Vinnie Paul
Metal musicians seem to like the Van Dyke, and lots of rockers come to mind. The two different Van Dyke styles shown here are worn by Pantera members: guitarist, Dimebag Darrell, wore a long mustache, grew his chin beard out and dyed it red. Ian Scott, the guitarist from Anthrax, also has a long chin beard that he sometimes colours red (not sure which came first), but he wears it alone without a ‘stache. He also shaves his head which makes his goatee more prominent and obvious.
Darrell’s brother and drummer, Vinnie Paul, wears a closed Van Dyke style with fancy chops. Shown here, his cool three-section chop sets off his Van Dyke.
Goatee
Pan, the ancient Greek deity of the woods, shepherds, and flocks, among other things.
The goatee proper, is simply chin whiskers, as Sherrow says, so-called because of its similarity to the chin hair of the billy-goat. The origin of goatee beards is thought to have originated in ancient Greece, where Pan, god of the woods, of creativity, music, poetry, and sexuality, is usually depicted wearing a chin beard.
Over time, this image of a goatee-d deity morphed into an image of the occult, known as Baphomet, illustrated in Eliphas Levi”s Dogmas and Rituals in High Magic (below). According to Secret Arcana, a website devoted to occult symbolism, Baphomet is symbolic of alchemy “where separate and opposing forces are united in perfect equilibrium to generate Astral Light.”
This Baphomet image has become synonymous with Satan and associated with sin and darkness. If one thinks along extreme lines and decides to split the world into good and bad, embracing the dark, bad side is, in a sense, a way to thumb one’s nose at the “good” establishment. Not surprisingly, many rock and rollers have embraced the bad-ass, bad-boy image associated with darkness and the rebellion against the mundane.
Metallica's James Hetfield
Metal musicians who favour the goatee include Metallica singer and guitarist, James Hetfield, who sometimes wears a long, two-piece goatee, and bassist and vocalist for Slayer, Tom Araya, favours a long one-piece goatee.
Tom Araya of Slayer (Photograph by Steve Appleford)
Abe Lincoln was known to sport a goatee, as did the beatnicks of the 1950s. When Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher, Joel Hanrahan, shaved off his chin beard, it was an event – read this hilarious tribute to Hanrahan’s dead goatee here. And let’s not forget the most famous cartoon goatee of them all, the chin beard of Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, slacker and suspected stoner on Scooby-Doo.
For this post, it was simply my intention to clarify the Van Dyke and the goatee confusion, but what I found in the research is amazing to me. The historical, artistic, and occult lore of facial hair runs deeper than I realized and I am led to one conclusion: no matter how much things change, the more they stay the same.
During February, we looked at black America during the rock and roll period, focusing on music and style. We watched black expression and black identity blossom, echoing the civil rights movement as black people demanded more rights, freedom, and respect. This post is a follow-up to the Black History month series that will discuss black dandyism.
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon his physical appearance, showy clothing, refined language, and leisurely hobbies. It is a term that originated in Britain during the late 18th century (think Beau Brummell) and carried on into the 19th (Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron are famous dandies of the period).
French poet, Charles Baudelaire (1821 – 1867) defined the dandy as one who elevates aesthetics to a living religion, and “contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of his mind.” (source)
In another age, philosopher, Albert Camus (1913-1960), had his own opinion about dandies, saying, “The dandy creates his own unity by aesthetic means. But it is an aesthetic of negation. “To live and die before a mirror”: that according to Baudelaire, was the dandy’s slogan. It is indeed a coherent slogan. The dandy is, by occupation, always in opposition. He can only exist by defiance.”
Between these two, dandyism comes across as snobbery and aesthetic spite. But does dandyism still exist, and if it does, what does it look like?
Dandy lions
There is a movement among some urban African-American men who embrace 18th century dandyism and mix it with their African roots. These “dandy lions” express a modern version of black dandyism.
Shantrelle P. Lewis, curator for the photography and film exhibit, “Dandy Lion: Articulating a Re(de)fined Black Masculine Identity,” explains to The Root DC, the African-American blog on the Washington Post site, that a “dandy lion” is “a new statement on black masculinity within a contemporary context. He is a man of elegance, an individual who remixes a Victorian era fashion and aesthetic with traditional African sensibilities and swagger.” Have a look at some examples of dandy lions here to get a sense of their wonderful styles here.
Ms Lewis says that the universal image of a black male is negative and not reaffirming, and there needs to be more expressions of black masculinity available.
You don’t have to be thug or an athlete or dress like everyone else with the sagging pants, exposed boxers and oversized white tees to be a man. Express creativity and individuality. That’s what dandy lions seek to express, especially to a young generation that’s also paying tribute to the older generation.
It’s interesting that this dandy movement, now over 200 years old, has changed with the times and been embraced by new generations of people. Its current resurgence comes at a time when world economies are sluggish and the brightly-coloured suits, flashy socks, and silk hankies seem ironic, but as Ms Lewis points out, a popular trend is to dress well in inexpensive vintage clothes. Modern dandyism borrows from the past to create a new expression of the present.
“Younger men who are opting out of the traditional form of hip-hop fashion are creating a new expression of hip-hop aesthetic,” she says.
Ghetto Rags
I have been a fan of Big Rude Jake, a fantastic Toronto swing band, for many years and I was lucky enough to be a member of the audience for their recently recorded live album. For that show, Jake wore a long, flashy 3-piece suit, gooey with fabric, and oozing with style. When I asked him about it, Jake told me that when he tours the U.S., he likes to shop in men’s apparel stores that cater to the black community, and that’s where it came from.
Jake in "ghetto rags".
He tells me that these shops are frequented mostly by poor and working class black families, and the clothes that these shops carry are known as “ghetto rags”.
“The fabric on these suits are not the best material,” he says, “but the styles are always wild and the colours are bright and fun. Same with the shirts, socks, and shoes. There is a strong retro feel to the designs, and a kind of cool, jaunty elegance. The feedback I get when I wear one of these numbers is alway positive. People rave about them!”
One thing I learned from doing the Black History month series is that the civil rights movement had one goal: freedom, and this came in many forms. Part of the freedom people worked for was freedom of expression through music and through style, and this molded African-American identity. During the 60s and 70s, African-Americans embraced their African heritage through style, bright colour, and clothing, and the modern black dandy, in his fancy suits in vivid colours, also reflects an African influence.
Jake makes an interesting point in that “Wealthier black people often adopt the dreary fashion statements of the dominant white culture, which, these days, tends to favour drab colours over sharpness and pizzazz.”
He says that the truly impoverished make an effort to look glamourous with bright colours and fancy suits when the occasion calls for it. In many ways, this is about self and cultural respect, and it’s no surprise that the people most amazed by Jake’s brilliant stage clothes are white people. “They just never get to see a man in a purple double-breasted suit!”
Homophobia
When people think of dandyism, Oscar Wilde may come to mind. Wilde was a brilliant author and playwright of the 19th century who loved to dress in fancy clothing and happened to carry on an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, but his dandyism and his affair with Bosie, as Wilde called him, is purely coincidental.
Through her exhibition, Ms Lewis confronts the homophobia that exists in the African-American community because “many people attribute dandyism with sexuality and homosexuality. Just because someone dresses well doesn’t mean they are gay, and just because someone is gay doesn’t mean they dress well.”
The dandy lion exhibition seeks to confront homophobia, breaking any links between taking pride in oneself and sexual orientation (much like the modern urban metrosexuals who despite their good taste in clothing, culture, wines, and grooming products, are straight and proud of it).
“All it takes sometimes is exposure to an idea to be picked up and embraced by young people,” Ms Lewis says.
A range of role models is absolutely to the benefit of black youth throughout the US, challenging the sweeping negative stereotypes of black men so often supported and sustained by the US media. With any luck, the modern dandies, the dandy lions, are breaking that mold and offering a more positive cultural identity to black men in the US and abroad.
It’s February, the month where we celebrate the lives and times of African-Americans that have changed the historical landscape. During February, In the Key of He will recognize some of the greatest and most stylish black musicians of the modern era.
Our musical journey through the decades wouldn’t be complete without a look at funk and the contributions of George Clinton, founder of P-Funk, one of the most influential groups to come out of the late 60s.
Clinton’s groups, or rather, his funk collective, shaped the world of dance music, hip hop, and disco to a mind-blowing extent – Clinton has enormously affected the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, and Prince to name only a few huge names in the music industry.
Clinton’s artistry is bizarre and drug-drenched, and his music blends funk, psychedelic rock, blues, soul, and doo-wop. And it will make you shake your rump.
P-Funk, the Godfathers of Funk
The Parliaments, George Clinton’s original group (that later became “Parliament” due to contractual difficulties) modeled themselves after Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers (Frankie Lymon really could sing and dance - have a look: ”Why Do Fools Fall In Love?” ), but began to weave in some early soul and funk into their doo-wop sound. By “…1967, Clinton began experimenting with new sounds, rhythms, and harmonies that would mark the transition from his Motown barbershop-quartet [The Parliaments] to more extended improvisation around a central rhythm.” (source)
It’s that central rhythm of the bass and drums that make funk what it is. Funk takes the spotlight off of melody and harmony and emphasizes the rhythm of the music. It has roots in West African music and grew out of soul, jazz, and r&b, first done by Little Richard and his 1950s r&b road band, James Brown insists, then molded by Brown who worked the downbeat, handing it off to Sly and the Family Stone who built on that and created their own funky groove with a great horn section. Enter Clinton’s Parliament, with a funk/r&b sound (think Sly Stone + Motown), and also his group, Funkadelic, a funk sound spiked with psychedelics and psychedelic rock (Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Led Zeppelin) eventually melded together and became P-Funk. There have been dozens of artists between and within these two groups over the last 40+ years, some attracting more attention than others (hello Bootsy Collins*), but all contributing to the funky sound that changed the world.
“We were the loudest group,” Clinton recalls during a 2007 GQ interview, ”They used to call us ‘the Temptations on acid’ or ‘James Brown on angel dust.’ “
In an interview with himself, George Clinton explains that the psychedelic sound was a response to being “too white for black folks and too black for white folks.”
My interpretation: anyone with a funky bone in their body would dig this groove. Clinton’s funk back in the day was not classified, it was free to take any shape it wanted to. P-Funk is about freedom and fun, about letting your guard down, feeling the groove, and having a good time no matter what colour you are or what cultural background you come from.
Watch this P-Funk appearance on the David Letterman show where, within 45 seconds, George has the entire audience full of awkward white tourists up on their feet dancing, and two minutes into the song, dozens of them are dancing on stage with Clinton and the P-Funk – amazing!
“I have never seen a goofier bunch of white people in my life,” David Letterman says at the end of the video. He couldn’t be more right, but that’s the cool thing about P-Funk – it makes everyone happy. George Clinton and his P-Funk All Stars, like all of our other musicians in this Black History month series, bridged the colour gap and brought this wonderful, rump bumpin’ groove for everyone to enjoy.
“Funk is fun. And it’s also a state of mind…”
George Clinton really got into the hippy thing during the late 60s. He embraced the freedom of love and peace so much that he “wore a sheet and nothing else in the wintertime.”
I came across a really good blog called Undercover Black Man who posted an interview he did with Clinton from 1997, when George explains the beginning of the costumes: “[We] played pregnant… wigs and shit like that… So we had all of that covered. So when we had to change to Funkadelic, all we had to do was… turn the amps up real loud, put on some robes.”
Robes… an understatement? A euphemism? Clinton and the rest of P-Funk adopted amazing colourful costumes that got weirder and weirder - platform boots, multi-coloured dreadlocks, crazy, oversized hats, colourful, outlandish costumes, and at least one band member wearing a diaper. An amazing display, very theatrical – a super funked up version of Kiss, laced with LSD.
Even their stage shows were weird – sometimes a “mothership” landed on stage and out would step Clinton in a freaky costume. They did bizarre record covers and named their albums strange names like “Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow” (1970) and “Maggot Brain” (1971). Let’s be clear – among other things, George Clinton took a lot of acid and smoked a lot of crack in his life.
“You know, when you take acid for the first time—I just thought it was heaven,” he says.
Through new musical genres, drugs, and a hippy culture, Clinton opened the door to an artistic freedom that had not previously been enjoyed. Experimenting with sound and drugs made for really interesting music, and the groove that came out of P-Funk made a deep and everlasting imprint on modern music.
It’s funny that I’m writing about George Clinton this week because as of Tuesday, according to allaccess.com, George Clinton, Godfather of Funk, has “fallen on hard times”. He’s trying to save his recording studio and pay legal fees to win rights to his own songs. If you can help him out and “help preserve the Mothership and prolong it’s journey”, here is the link.
Over the series for Black History month, we’ve noted how black music and style provided the sights and sounds of the civil rights movement, profoundly influenced modern music, and touched each and every one of us. From super talented artists like Nat King Cole and Miles Davis who were made to blend in with white society, to Motown, the new and powerful black sound of the 60s, to the period when African-American people and artists shaped their own identity and embraced their African heritage, to the creation of new genres of music through the blending of nascent musical styles that transformed modern music, these African-American musicians and artists have changed our lives, brought us freedom, brought us joy, made us sing and made us move.
Without the contributions of these fantastic artists, my life would be pale, my ears empty, and my soul hollow. I cannot thank them enough.
*The fabulous Bootsy Collins toured and recorded with James Brown in 1969-70, and was a member of Browns’ original J.B.s. Before joining up with Funkadelic and adding the unmistakable funk bassline, Bootsy featured on such James Brown hits as “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine” and “Super Bad”.
With his ever-present star sunglasses and an exaggerated hat, Bootsy has played in both Parliament and Funkadelic with Clinton, and with many other funk projects over the years, working closely with artists as far apart as Snoop Dogg and the Soup Dragons. Funk brings people together!
Bootsy just can’t keep the funk to himself and decided to create a way to share. Funk University, or Funk U, is an online school for bass players to learn from the master.
Here is Bootsy’s Funk Formula for you aspiring bass players out there – enjoy!
It’s February, the month where we celebrate the lives and times of African-Americans that have changed the historical landscape. During February, In the Key of He will recognize some of the greatest and most stylish black musicians of the modern era.
Last week, we discussed the champions of Berry Gordy’s Motown Records in their matching skinny suits, glorious harmonies, and tight choreography. This week, we’ll have a look at conditions that shaped the style of this period of social turbulence that turned everything upside down and inside out.
The Black Power movement of the late 60s raised social and cultural awareness and motivated people to change. With a new consciousness of who they could be as a people and what kind of role they could play in society, African-Americans got organized and started talking, supporting leaders who helped spread the message of freedom. The movement was political, and as it goes with any political movement, ideas about what “Black Power” was and how to achieve it splintered and collected in opposite corners – the non-violent movement associated with Dr. King on one side, and the armed and angry Black Panther Party on the other.
Stokely Carmichael, an organizer of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), in line with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and Dr. King’s stance on peaceful protest, civil disobedience, and integration, coined the “Black Power” phrase, describing it as “black people coming together to form a political force and either electing representatives or forcing their representatives to speak their needs.”
This side of Black Power sang We Shall Overcome in solidarity with all people, supporting full integration of non-whites into the then-segregated society.
The other side of Black Power supported conscious segregation from whites, the “oppressors” of blacks. Some argue that the Black Panthers responded with violence to the violence that they experienced in their neighbourhoods at the hands of white police officers. Black Panther spokesman, Eldridge Cleaver said, ”…these racist Gestapo pigs [the police] have to stop brutalizing our community or we’re going to take up guns, we’re going to drive them out.”
Panther members were out to protect their community. They fashioned themselves as their own Black Panther army in black berets and hip-length black leather coats, and toted guns. Their first platform point reads, ”We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities. We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities.” (source)
In between these two extremes was every other political opinion, but everyone had freedom and the right to their own identity in common. In 1966, Carmichael said, “We must wage a psychological battle… for black people to define themselves as they see fit, and organize themselves as they see fit.”
And so began a new self-appointed black identity in the United States.
The echo of society
African Kente cloth
The prescribed formality of the early 60s was abandoned for freedom of movement, expression, and identity, especially in Black America, where the shape of beauty, sculpted by white hands, was being smashed apart. In black America, African-Americans began to look like African-Americans – men began to abandon hair straighteners to make them blend into a white society (read about the “conk” in the first post of this series), opting instead for the natural afro – big, beautiful, and quintessentially black. Traditional African garments like flowing caftans were popular and African textiles like woven cotton Kenta cloth from Ghana were worn with pride.
In New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975, William Van DeBurg explains clothing style in the 1960s and 70s as an expression of Black Power. “Though many of the popular trends of the movement remained confined to the decade, the movement redefined standards of beauty that were historically influenced by Whites and instead celebrated a natural “blackness.””
As Stokely Carmichael said in 1966, “We have to stop being ashamed of being black. A broad nose, thick lip and nappy hair is us and we are going to call that beautiful whether they like it or not.”
As the civil rights movement settled in and a black aesthetic took root, black art, sport, and music became more political. The poetry and theatre of Amiri Baraka, Black Power salutes at the 1968 Olympics, and the black anthems like James Brown’s “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud) continued to inspire Black America and lead the people towards freedom. This gave recording artists loud and lucrative voices, giving them better control of their public image and their artistic craft.
Dr. Gregg Akkerman, professor of Jazz at the University of South Carolina Upstate explains in his Youtube lecture series that Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder were among the first musicians who broke away from Motown’s artistic and commercial control:
Stevie Wonder in corn rows, bracelets, and caftan, 1972.
“Stevie Wonder renegotiated his contract with Motown to get complete artistic control over his music, and this was a big thing for Berry Gordy to hand over. He created music that addressed real-life black issues but crossed over pretty well to white audiences… He broke away from Gordy’s control of using songs written by Gordy’s songwriters and playing with his house band, only to develop a sound that had never been heard before - Stevie wrote the songs, sang the songs, and played all of the instruments on his early albums.”
In the 70s, Marvin ditched the formality of the suit and took on the ease and playfulness of the 70s, getting funky here.
Like Stevie, Marvin Gaye incorporated his own African-American opinion into his music, giving us 1971′s wildly popular “What’s Going On?” album. Interestingly, this album was released on Motown’s subsidiary label, Tamla – Gordy was sure the record would nose-dive. It was Marvin’s first self-produced record, an early concept album with songs running together, told from the point of view of a Vietnam war vet, coming home to injustice and suffering (Marvin’s brother served in the US army in Vietnam for three years). It is the record that gave us wonderful and emotional songs like “Mercy, Mercy Me” and “What’s Going On”.
Both of these artists experienced the restrictions of segregation and artistic control in their early careers, only to work toward the common goal of freedom and an African-American self-appointed cultural identity. Through music, they broke through racism and oppression and challenged artistic boundaries. Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye went from the restrictive “white” standards of neat suits and cuff links to a full transformation that embraced their African past and symbolized the magnificent strides that the Black Power movement took.
It’s February, the month where we celebrate the lives and times of African-Americans that have changed the historical landscape. For the next four weeks, In the Key of He will recognize some of the greatest and most stylish black musicians of the modern era.
This week, we begin at the beginning: jazz.
Nat King Cole was a very stylish performer with a smooth, deep voice. He wrapped himself in suave style, wearing sleek, structured suits of the period, cuff links, and always a hankie in his breast pocket.
Nat "King" Cole in houndstooth check.
A true gentleman entertainer and the first African-American to host his own television program, The Nat “King” Cole Show. He wore thin ties, cool cardigans, and short-brimmed hats, and he did the best rendition of “Route 66″ anywhere.
Askmen.com says “…this style icon understood the art of fine masculine dressing, but he also knew how to carry himself so that he wore his clothes rather than the other way around.” The site explains “the soulful crooner’s penchant for polished looks included cropped haircuts and clean shaves.”
Cropped haircuts, eh? The writer of this piece misses a very important grooming practice by African-American men from the 1920s to the 60s – the “conk”.
Conks were a method of straightening kinky hair with lye as the active ingredient. Lye is a corrosive alkaline, also known as “caustic soda”, and it can eat through skin. Lye was mixed with eggs and potatoes and applied to the hair which burned the scalp, but the longer as you could stand it, the straighter your hair would be.
I first read about a conk years ago when I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X. Mr. X explains the experience and the social significance of his first conk:
“This was my first really big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man’s hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that the black people are “inferior”—and white people “superior”— that they will even violate and mutilate their God-created bodies to try to look “pretty” by white standards.
“The ironic thing is that I have never heard any woman, white or black, express any admiration for a conk. Of course, any white woman with a black man isn’t thinking about his hair. But I don’t see how on earth a black woman with any race pride could walk down the street with any black man wearing a conk — the emblem of his shame that he is black.”
Nat was made to carefully balance his career and indeed “suffered the indignity of being “whited up” for some of his TV performances, to make him more “accessible” to a white audience,” according to PBS. A sad reality of his times, but conks aside, it is truly delightful to watch Nat sing because when he does, it’s clear how much he loves to.
Watch this delightful Technicolor clip of Nat in a wonderful blue shark skin suit with a white shirt, thin black tie, and a linen hankie – a perfect picture of the 50s. (Tailoring note – Nat’s sleeves should be longer. Just saying.)
Our second African-American exuding great style is one of the coolest jazz players of all time, Miles Davis. Miles was a jazz pioneer, he personified cool – so simple, so low-key, dressing in basic, uncluttered pieces punctuated with unique details. He wore turtlenecks with trousers, ascots and scarves with his shirts, Brooks Brothers and custom-made Italian suits, and drove a white Mercedes-Benz.
A style blog I happened upon describes Miles’ style: “…classic dress shirts, unbuttoned just so, and sunglasses lent a fresh air of mid-century cool to the developing jazz scene of the 50s, a genre that had been historically linked to the full-suited look.”
If you take a GQ magazine perspective of the world, Miles has been voted him one of the all-time 20 Black Style Pioneers.
“He exudes that confidence and swagger that was characteristic of many of his peers on the scene, but puts his own twist on everything that was going on at the time. He’s really distinct from everyone on our list… We like that he wasn’t always suited up; he’d go casual, playing with scarves, with polo shirts, with khakis. And he evolved over time in a way you just couldn’t predict.”
And so did his music.
I talked to Jamie Stager, a trombonist and PhD candidate in Musicology about Miles and his musical style. Jamie explained that in the late 1940s, musicians Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, in reaction to the restrictions of swing and popular dance bands, began to create fast, angular melodies that were hard to “get” and certainly difficult to dance to.
“These bebop musicians were the “cats” that spoke in their own secret language, in a code that distanced them from the masses,” Jamie says.
Miles learned and played bebop, but he took it and made it into something else. In 1949, he ushered in a new jazz aesthetic with the recording of Birth of the Cool, a slower and more melodic version of the bebop he was weaned on.
“This new “cool jazz” has more players, it is more orchestrally conceived, more arranged, and there is more “space” in the music,” Jamie says.
Miles’ sound during this period is relaxed, open, and spacious – characteristics that stayed with him during his musical evolution. Miles says so himself: ”I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a round voice with not too much tremolo and not too much bass. Just right in the middle.”
Just right in the middle. Subtle, quiet, understated.
Miles Davis as a man and as a musician is an understatement. Isn’t that what cool is all about?
urgeon cuff is always fantastic, but remember, once the surgeon cuffs are created on a jacket, the sleeve length should not be altered. Unless you have the arm length for a perfect off-the-rack fit, beware of buying finished surgeon’s cuffs – changing the sleeve length will throw off the proportion of the buttoned cuffs and it will just look silly. Good tailors will not sew in the buttons and buttonholes until the sleeve length is properly fitted to the client – this is optimal and strongly suggested if you want to do it right.
