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A Wisconsin man
wearing a sack suit from c. 1876. WHi(X3)43706 |
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History
of the 1878 Sack Suit and Notes on Late 1870s Men's Fashions
The
men's sack suit pattern was drafted from J.O. Madison's Elements
of Garment Cutting (Root and Tinker, New York, 1878, rev. 1880),
a drafting system designed to be used by professional tailors.
Unlike other systems that relied on proportions or block patterns,
Madison believed in the direct-measure approach which used several
measurements taken directly from the customer's body. According to
Madison, the two most important dimensions were the upper and lower
shoulder, since these "two combined govern the balance [or
hang]" of the coat. He hoped that his approach would provide
"a reform that simplifies and secures accuracy in measuring and
drafting."
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J.O. Madison from
the frontispiece of his book Elements of Garment Cutting,
1878 |
Like
most authors of drafting systems, Madison assumed the reader knew
tailoring construction techniques, including the shapes and
placement of pockets, collars, and belts. For these details we used
a sack suit located in the collections of the Wisconsin
Historical Society and worn by Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the
reaper. McCormick's coat, vest, and trousers told us the shape of
the lining, facing, interfacing, and collar pieces; pocket and belt
placement; and interfacing, taping, and stitching details. Since
McCormick was a large man, close to 300 pounds, his suit could not
be used to draft pattern pieces for an average-sized man.
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Cyrus Hall
McCormick, c. 1870
WHi(X3)47123 |
The sack coat, a loose fitting single-breasted garment without a
waist seam, first appeared in American pattern drafting systems
during the 1840s. By the late nineteenth century distinctive
characteristics of this coat included a small collar, short lapels,
a fastened top button close to the neck, moderately-rounded front
hems, flap or welt pockets on the hips, a welt pocket on the chest,
and a slightly baggy appearance. Our 1878 suit has many of the
typical sack coat features, but Madison's coat pattern buttons
slightly lower and has longer lapels than those pictured in fashion
prints.
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A
Wisconsin man wearing a Prince Albert frock coat from the 1870s.
Lot 537 |
Throughout the nineteenth century, the frock coat dominated men's
wardrobes. Unlike sack coats, the frock had a waist seam, was fitted
at the waist, and frequently padded in the chest. It had five
vertical seams versus the sack which usually had three. The frock
came in many different cuts including the cutaway, tails, or the
Prince Albert. The latter, a knee-length coat with a full skirt, was
especially popular with professional men.
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Fashion
illustration of two men in checked and plaid sack suits, 1880. Lot
4058 |
At first men viewed the sack suit as an informal alternative to the
frock suit that could be worn for sports or leisure activities at
the seaside or in the country. By the 1860s they began wearing it
for day wear. As Harper's Bazar wrote in their April 6, 1878
issue, "Until visiting hours gentlemen of greatest elegance
wear [sack suits], which do not differ essentially from those worn
by travellers and the habitues of the races." Later in the year
the magazine noted that men were choosing the sack suit "for
business, for travelling, and morning wear on the street."
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Below: Wool and linen fabric samples from the late 1890s. Note
that the more expensive suitings have a denser, finer weave than the
cheaper versions.
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Besides the loose-fitting coat, another informal feature of the sack
suit was the fact that all three pieces were made from the same
fabric. Fashion magazines listed plaids, small checks, or narrow
stripes in dark color combinations, especially browns, as the
preferred fabrics for sack suits. In 1875 Tailor and Cutter
wrote that "the leading characteristic is narrow stripes and
small checks," though soft wool Angolas "show a little
more boldness of both colour and pattern, the general tone in the
latter respect being quiet combinations of black, grey, and
brown." However not all men wanted "quiet
combinations," as evidenced when the West End Gazette of
Fashion complained in 1876 that "Our fast young men will
find something to be noisy in, in the shape of loud plaids, the
patterns more striking than tasteful."
By
the turn of the century, sack coats had become the dominant mode of
dress for men, with frock coats regulated to formal occasions. The
introduction of the tuxedo, a formal sack coat, eventually made
frock suits obsolete. As early as 1878 Tailor & Cutter had
predicted this future. They wrote: "We are rapidly degenerating
into a slipshod state of things. After a time Frock coats and even
Morning coats will be entirely a thing of the past and if things
continue on in this way [these coats] will only be seen at museums
where they will serve to amuse a wondering and awestricken group of
sight-seers." Today men wear an updated version of the
nineteenth-century sack suit. |
