Sometimes life is truly bizarre. I’m named after my maternal grandmother whose sister migrated to the United States in the 30s, following her husband and brother-in-law (originally from Bucchianico, in Abruzzo, Italy) who had left before her.
After passing through Ellis Island, the two men first arrived in Philadelphia and then moved to Baltimore where they worked as tailors.
Decades after all this happened, I met in Philadelphia with relatives I had never seen before (the highlight of my trip – now I also have a distant cousin who has turned into my younger sister!), reminiscing, trying to put together some pieces of the puzzle and understand where and how we lost touch.
The main words that could be used to summarise this piece of family history – emigration, Philadelphia, tailoring – could also be used to describe one very interesting exhibition currently on in Philly.
Entitled “Tailoring Philadelphia: Tradition and Innovation in Menswear”, curated by H. Kristina Haugland, Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles and Supervising Curator for the Study Room and Academic Relations, and organised in the Costume and Textiles Study Gallery on the second floor of the Perelman Building, part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this exhibition features suits from the museum’s rich collection of menswear and focuses on the art of tailoring, “one of Philadelphia’s most important industries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries”, as the displays explain.
The 19th century brought indeed important changes in men’s styles: a new masculine ideal was created and emphasis was given to the tailoring of men’s clothes.
Simpler styles and sober colours prevailed and the focus moved onto precise cutting and construction.
The evolution continued throughout the 20th century, helped also by the industrialisation and by the fact that menswear is usually easier to standardise than womenswear.
Philadelphia boasted one of the earliest clothing factories that manufactured men’s uniforms for the War of 1812.
In the 1840s the factory turned into a major producer of men’s ready-to-wear for the wholesale and retail markets.
Small businesses also flourished and, by 1914, the Philadelphia Directory featured around 2,400 tailors, including many immigrants who transmitted their skills and passion for craftsmanship to the next generation (fascinating, isn’t it? I actually think this part should be investigated further).
As the decades passed, menswear kept on evolving and a new trend arrived, individuality.
Philadelphia responded with the innovative work of tailors such as Francis Toscani who pushed the boundaries of traditional tailoring, becoming one of the most successful local designers.
Francis D. Toscani (1915 – 1973) had learnt his tailoring skills from his Italian-born father and, as a young man, he worked part-time in the city’s factories.
He made his first suit when he was 16 and, a year after, he started a custom-tailoring business, establishing himself as a designer by 1950.
Toscani was employed as chief designer from 1959 to 1969 at H. Daroff and Sons of Philadelphia, founded by Harry Daroff (who had emigrated from Russia at the end of the 1800s).
The company soon turned into one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of men’s apparel, producing more than a million men’s suits each year under labels such as Botany 500 and Worsted-Tex.
Toscani received numerous awards and also worked for the International Association of Clothing Designers, becoming its president in 1965 and later on chairman of the association’s Task Force, a group focused on predicting menswear trends.
Philadelphia in the meantime remained a leader in menswear, producing nearly a third of men’s top fashion garments in the United States in the late 60s (looks like there is enough material here for a couple of books and for a documentary/film as well…).
“Tailoring Philadelphia” (on until next Summer) features over fifteen garments by Toscani and opens with a selection of classic menswear and eveningwear employed to illustrate the traditional forms of men’s suits in the early to mid-twentieth century.
Among the other garments in this section of the exhibition there are a sack suit from 1952 with no waist seam and a lose silhouette; a wool herringbone twill single breasted morning/cutaway coat (from 1933) matched with a jacket, waistcoat and trousers by D.W. Scola (Domenick Scola (1875-1963), who emigrated from Italy to Philadelphia in 1889 and established his tailoring business in the mid-20s at 1827 Chestnut Street); a 1905 frock coat – a standard daywear item with double lapels (one set of lapels in silk – fourth image in this post) and a knee-length skirt; a tuxedo by A.B. Kirschbaum and a 1940 tailcoat (fifth image).
The 60s are introduced via a jacket with a detachable overcoat (1966-67) created by Swedish designer B. Larsen for H. Daroff and Sons (sixth image in this post – first coat on the right).
The interesting thing about this item is that it functioned as an overcoat and a sports jacket with zippers under the jacket front.
Zippers turned into a popular and useful feature in the 60s: in Italy, Rome-based tailor Angelo Litrico took inspiration from astronauts’ suits incorporating zips into his designs, though the king of zippered menswear designs in Europe remained Pierre Cardin with his zippered "cosmocorps" suits.
Toscani created in 1967 an ivory silk slubbed plain weave safari jacket for the Worsted-Tex brand with an insertable pocket flap and a removable peplum (sixth image in this post – the jacket in the centre).
This trick allowed the wearer to convert the garment via a waist zipper into a formal mess-style coat. Toscani often employed zippers in his designs, such as his 1969 suit with broad shoulders and trim waist (eighth image in this post – suit in the centre).
The designer kept on experimenting along these lines, adding details to his jackets that could alter their looks and allow the wearer to create two different designs.
A good example of this trend is the jacket Toscani designed in 1968 for Botany that was characterised by free-hanging pockets that provided extra space. The jacket could be worn as a high-buttoned tunic or with the lapels buttoned back (seventh image in this post).
Some of the pocket panels integrated in Toscani’s designs were also attached by Velcro strips and could be removed to convert a coat into a short jacket, allowing the wearer to quickly change his look.
When Toscani arrived on the scene the tailoring industry was going through some major changes.
Individuality and attention to details became fundamental points and a new revolution was brought on by those designers who had until then focused mainly on womenswear like Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, André Courrèges, Valentino and Ken Scott, who suddenly turned to the menswear market.
Like many of his colleagues, Toscani wasn’t too convinced by this switch in interest since he strongly believed that men’s apparel designers had to be well-focused “creative engineers”, as the notes to this exhibition explain, “overseeing production details, ensuring quality and fit, and gauging market timing”.
All the pieces Toscani created were based on the highest tailoring skills and characterised by versatility and unusual elements and colours, like his jacket from 1960 in summery fabric, with welted seams running diagonally down the sides and vertical pockets (tenth image in this post), his revolutionary short-sleeved jackets from the same year designed for Botany, his 1968 suit with a rounded collar, oval waist and futuristic lines or his Nehru coats that featured architectural lines.
In some cases ideas for new designs came to Toscani from the most unlikely places, including the American West and the Colt .45 that inspired a 1960 jacket in whipcord twill, or geometry, as proved by a jacket featuring diagonal lines extending from underneath the collar and converging on the front and by a suit made in 1968 and showcased in Stockholm that included an unusual closure, front seams and pockets.
Another interesting aspect of Toscani’s work was the way he recreated a tangible history of the evolution of menswear in his suits in which he fused two styles from different decades such as the 50s and the 60s or the 40s and the 60s to show students (he taught at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science) which parts of the suits had dramatically changed as the years passed.
In his “Half and Half” Suit (c. 1962–65) Toscani fused the style of the early 1950s, in pale grey, with the cut and details of the early 1960s, in dark brown, but he also recreated a golf suit in 1928 style to illustrate the evolution of sports clothes (fourteenth image in this post - suit on the left).
Among the highlights of the exhibition there is also a black pinstriped wool suit from the early 60s in the style of the “zoot suit”, with a longer jacket with padded shoulders, nipped in waist and tapered trousers (fourteenth image in this post - suit on the right).
There is definitely nothing ordinary in the designs included in this exhibition, all the details are indeed very modern and prove that Toscani had a terrific eye for details and a passion for versatility, two things that not many young designers seem to have nowadays.
Trend agencies forecast a new revolution in menswear every season and, while season after season we have seen interesting collections on our runways, there have been very few signs of real changes in attitude.
Last year menswear also suffered a significant decline even in strong markets like the Middle East (read: Dubai), balanced by the vitality of the Asian market.
New projects, collaborations, websites entirely dedicated to menswear turned 2010 into a brighter year for the “monde au masculine”.
Yet I do feel that successfully re-launching the menswear market also means to rediscover lost gems such as the designs featured in the “Tailoring Philadelphia” event.
Indeed Toscani gave through his work an “invaluable contribution to the art of tailoring” and I genuinely think there are still many things his creations can teach us about fashion design, history and menswear.
For further inspirations about menswear designs and Philadelphia, check out George Cukor's classic The Philadelphia Story (1940).
The film mainly features Katharine Hepburn wearing lavish gowns by Adrian (and I will hopefully investigate them in another post...), but with Cary Grant, James Stewart and John Howard as the male protagonists, there are plenty of menswear designs to keep an eye on.
With many thanks to Kamira, who works at the Perelman Building and suggested me while we chatted about the museum and our mutual artistic ambitions, not to miss the exhibition on the second floor.
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My grandfather emigrated from Villamagna - a town which is on the next hilltop over from Bucchianico - and worked as a tailor in Philadelphia. He became John Wanamaker's master (and personal) tailor. Despite the fact that I'm descended from about 4 generations of tailors in Italy, I will put out my eye if I so much as pick up a sewing needle, so I regret that I didn't learn more about my grandfather's artisan craft while he was alive. This show fills in some of the blanks. Thanks for posting.
Posted by: Barbara deCerchio | March 29, 2011 at 07:55 PM