everytime u see a old photo of a snazzy 1920s dude in a suit remember what lurks beneath
okay why are you guys reblogging this and tagging it as reference do you plan on drawing 20s gangsters in their underwear i better see these
I couldn’t help myself
To be fair, underwear that fully covers the body from neck to knees makes a lot of sense when you’re wearing a dry-clean-only suit as your everyday outfit; it prevents sweat from soiling the garment’s inner layer, and thus lets you go longer between launderings. The development of modern underwear tracks pretty much directly with the shift to washable daywear, which removes much of the need for such extensive protection.
The part that makes least sense is how it’s sleeveless and thus doesn’t protect suits from armpit sweat. Surely the armpit is one of the most important places to put this kind of undergarment? T-shirts were originally designed as an undergarment that does protect clothing from armpit sweat, but they weren’t popularized yet in the 20s.
Most union suits did indeed have full or partial sleeves; the ones pictured in the original post are more fashionable than functional, probably intended to be worn with eveningwear.
Wow this was informative
Eveningwear? So… this is 1920s men’s lingerie. GTK
random thing but i realized it might be helpful for some people so uh. theres this thingy where you can upload an image and it gives you a color palette based on it !
heres an example
and it also gives you the hex code values for them too its p neat !