For the first time in fashion history men’s would wear casual shirts. 1950′s casual shirts replaced the mandatory 3 piece suit or shirt and vest combination that were require fashion for men for over a two hundred years. Finally men could wear short and long sleeve shirts alone and enjoy the coolness of new materials that came about after WW2.
American young men wore their shirts untucked, a style that was despicable to European men. The french and English designers came up with a compromise the shirt jacket. Many shirt jackets were button ups with 4 sets of buttons and narrow lapels. Shirt jackets had ribbed cuff sleeves and ribbed cuff waistbands. Pastel colors of mustard yellow, dark green, ivory and medium blue were the most common. 1950′s Men embraced color to the fullest!
A similar shirt to the shirt jacket was a basic pullover shirt. They were made of knit material and featured scenes of sail boats and other leisure activities. Pullover shirts looked a bit like t-shirts with wide elastic waist bands, left pockets or no pockets, and round, collarless, v neck, or long pointed collars. Shirts were either tucked in or worn untucked if they had elastic bottoms.
Sport Shirt
The 1950′s sport shirt is similar to men’s button down shirts today. They were made of the new rayon and gabardine materials that were light weight and breathable. The difference between 1950s sports shirt and today’s men’s shirts were the pockets. Nearly all 50′s shirts had double pockets on the right and left chest. These pockets could have flaps, no flaps, with or without buttons and they came in solid colors, very wide horizontal stripes, small checks, or subtle two tone vertical stripes. Shirts always had pointed collars that varied in length and width depending on the year. Very long pointed collars are associated with the 1950′s in the early years. Collars that button down were know as Ivy League shirts and were mostly worn by college men in the late 1950′s. The most popular and collectible color combination of the 1950s were pink and black sport shirts. Other colors were red, mid greens, navy, maroon, mid blues, and mustard yellow.
1950's Western Shirts
Another popular variation on the sport shirt were western shirts. There was a big pop culture following for western movies, country music, and the birth of Rockabilly with a mix of rock and country. Plaid western shirts, with double pockets, and piping detail were worn by men and boys of all ages. Paired with dark blue jeans and thick leather belts they were a fashion trend iconic of the 1950′s youth culture.
For dressier occasions like working at the office men’s shirt typically were long sleeve solid colors or white with light stripes and dots. They still featured the double pockets but usually did not have pocket flaps.
1950s Camp Shirt
Camp shirts and Hawaiian shirts were the most casual shirts worn in the summer months. They both shared the same cut with an open collar and button down design that usually was worn tucked in. Hawiian or Carioca shirts were introduced after WW2 and the bombing of pearl harbor. They featured artistic pictures of exotic fruits, flowers, women and underwater marine life. They were made of the new Rayon material.
Camp shirts featured two color blocks of vertical stripes. Common color combination were black/red, black/pink, black/tan, black/white, and navy/white. Solid color camp shirts were worn too. They are often called Bowling shirts because many uniforms work and leisure used the camp shirt style for their team uniforms. Teams decorated the back of shirts with their logo.
Many 1950′s shirt styles have stayed out of fashion since the 50′s only experiencing a small come back in the late 80′s. Here are a few shirts and other 1950s inspired men’s clothes for your retro meets modern wardrobe:
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