With any written advice on the subject of dress and how it will affect our potential to ascend in society , earn more money or be more attatctive to the opposite sex , it is wise just to check the veracity of the data and the motivations of the author or commissioner of the information.
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Pink Shirt was centre place in this
Jermyn Street shop window in 2012 |
Stephanie Thiers-Ratcliffe, International Marketing Manager for
Cotton USA, has recently commissioned a study this year into shirt colour and fabric :
'You can tell a lot about someone
by the colour they wear.’
Such opinions were as
prevalent in the first Elizabethan period as well as in our own.
In retro die ( back in the day) [scroll down to 2012 if history is not your
thing]
The colour of dress mattered both in the costumes of the
theatre players as the colour and fabrics of the audiences in Shakespeare’s day.
‘Twelfth Night’ is
being played this Autumn 2012 with an all-male cast at London’s Apollo theatre has Stephen Fry
playing the role of Malvolio.
Malvolio is the very
ambitious steward whose excessive social climbing aspirations get the better of
him. His adversaries set a trap by dropping a
letter supposedly written by the Countess
Olivia.
Malvolio is tricked into wearing yellow stocking and cross gartering
which he thinks will help him climb further up the social ladder – but these
are fashions that the lady Olivia actually hates.
Dress and fashion in Shakespeare’s day was ‘regulated’
Only people of a certain class were allowed to wear silk.
The Government of England and Wales 1571 issued a statute that every male of six
years and above who was not a gentleman would wear a woolen cap. It had to be worn on Sundays and holidays.
Indeed there a records of Shakespeare's Uncle being fined for refusing to wear his cap. This was probably as much to do with a protest against the enclosure of farmland as a revolt against wearing the cap.
The Elizabethan government had an investment in what people
wore. These laws would usuually tell you what you should not wear.
In 1597, for example, Queen Elizabeth issued a proclamation ordering people of
lower social orders not to wear various kinds of clothing or trim limited to
those above their social station. This was a way of visibly creating, or
reinforcing, social divisions.
Such laws were meant to ensure that
when you walked down the street you knew who was your social superior and who
your inferior.
 |
Statute Cap Typical woolen had that the Groundlings
at the Globe might have worn |
In specifying what you should wear, instead of what you
shouldn’t or couldn’t, the ‘statute cap’ is an exception to that.
The cap is
the only sumptuary law we know in which the government said you are going to
wear this on Sundays and holidays – and obviously not everybody liked that.
It help the wool industry that had experienced a drop in sales by
forcing poorer people by statute to wear a woollen cap. The Groundlings who stood in the pit of the Globe theatre
would wear woollen caps.
Such a cap was
displayed at the BP sponsored Shakespeare Staging the world exhibition at the
British Museum this summer part of the Culture Olympics .
www,bbc.co.uk/radio4/Shakespeare
In later times many street sellers adopted to wearing
a kerchief around their necks as much as a provocation to the officers of the law (the Kingsmen) as well
as denoting their status street sellers.. The word "kingsman" is a slang term
for the large kerchief worn by costermongers or street sales people used to wear ( origin
of costermonger coster = a type of apple monger =seller therefore Apple seller BSJ before Steve Jobs!)
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| Old 20th Century advertsing poster and slogan to promote hats |
I wonder whether hats will make a comeback in business. Certainly the hat is making the news of late
Gary Oldman is besporting a hat in the O2 ads for its Priority
Moments Ads, X factor’s
Olly Murs is often seen in a hat and F1’s Lewis Hamilton
in a Pirelli labelled Stetson after winning a Grand Prix in the USA.
Although the Stetson was worn with more style by the
sadly missed Larry Hagman as JR !
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Christmas 2012 Window of Bates of Jemyn Street
Can you identify the Homburg, Bruand, Faena,
Gatsby, Tall Top Hat, Jermyn, Poet and Bowler? |
Back to 2012 and the power of pink shirts
'Pink is a colour more men have been embracing recently and
it's encouraging that they are not afraid to experiment with brighter
colours” says Stephanie
Thiers-Ratcliffe, International Marketing Manager for Cotton USA,
'We spend most of our days at work and it's good for company standards,
our own confidence and work ethic to remain smart, but that doesn't mean you
have to be boring.”
A typical pink shirt
wearer earns £1,000 more a year than those who opt for other colours, the poll
of 1,500 male office workers found.
The power of pink
Men who wear shirts of that are pink earn £1,000 a year more than those who don’t.
Men who wear pink
also tend to be
confident and get more
compliments from female colleagues.
Pink shirt wairers are
better qualified than those who favour traditional colours such as
white or blue, it has emerged.
25% of men feels more
attractive in a pink shirt
One in ten male pink shirt wearers having a PHD.
Men who wear pink are also twice as likely to have a Master's degree than those who favour white shirts
Pink shirt wearers on the other hand are more likely to
have a low carbon footprint as half of them
insist on taking public transport to work.
White shirt
Punctual: Men who opt to wear white shirts to work tend to be the most punctual, research suggests
Men who favour shirts with green tones are the most likely to be late for work,
Blue
those in blue have the least work romances
Purple Shirts
those who frequently
wear purple or lilac have the most office romances. And if you are trying for
a promotion then it's best to dress in a purple shirt, it emerged.
In the last five years men who are likely to wear purple
shirts have had the most pay rises,
so it's no wonder that one in twenty of them drive a car that's worth £20,000
or more.
'Men appear loyal to cotton when it comes to fabrics, but
with colours and styles of shirts, men can experiment just as much as women
can.
'Colour aside, clothing material is also an important factor
for what you wear to work.'
(N.B. Remember who commissioned the research !)
5%One in twenty of those polled said there was rivalry
between the male members of staff over
who looks the best and well over half said they like to make an effort with
their image.
Ironing
42 % of men
said they ironed their own shirts but
one in 20 pays
someone to do it for them.
Over a quarter have their shirts ironed for them by their
wife or girlfriend,
13 % still
rely on mum to press their clothes.
More than half of men polled said ironing shirts was an
irritating job, with the average man spending 24 minutes every week on making
their shirts crease free.
Stephanie Thiers-Ratclifee added “ A crease free shirt is
crucial to looking smart and professional, ironing can be a laborious task –
making easy iron 100% cotton items increasingly popular.
N.B. Remember who commissioned the research and avoid yellow stocking cross gartered.
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