Silk Underwear for New York Swells in the Age of Victoria

By

Diane Maglio

 

 

            A writer for The American Silk Journal described the late Nineteenth century as an age of silk. He observed men with “tastes more costly than those of women…[wearing] underwear of the softest, richest knitted silk.”[1] The desire to wear this luxurious and sensuous fabric earned men the title “Swell,” a person conspicuous for fashionable clothes.[2] I have examined the silk underwear that New York Swells wore under their sturdy and sober suits. The study is limited to the textiles used, not the styling of the garments. Silk underwear was not only valued as an aesthetic expression of fashion and taste but also for its healthful attributes. An article in the American Silk Journal reported: 

Experience has demonstrated that silk underclothing

will in some cases cure, and in all mitigate the pains

of rheumatism, neuralgia and nervous diseases of many kinds,

[exacting] an influence that is very beneficial in giving increased

vigor to the patient.”[3] 

A fashion writer for Vogue in 1897 acknowledged the businessman “must attire himself in a sensible way. He cannot afford to be elaborate or effeminate in his dress,”[4] at least in clothing that was visible. But under the sensible outerwear stylish men wore silk while adhering to seasonal color palettes. The owner of a large and fashionable New York gentlemen’s furnishing establishment had “customers as exacting in the shades of their silk underwear as an old maid is in the trimming for her Spring bonnet. This year purple is the new and favorite color.”[5]

Whether Swells chose thin silk for summer or silk-fleeced and silk plush for winter warmth, ultrafashionable men indulged their love of luxury and concern for health by means of the silk underwear they wore.

 

 

Diane Maglio: Menswear clothing historian with an MA in Museum Studies: Costume and Textiles from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is a teacher of fashion, an international lecturer, and merchandiser for Viyella men’s sports shirts.. Her most recent publication: “Luxuriant Crowns: Victorian Men’s Smoking Caps,” Dress June 2001 was presented as an illustrated talk at Oxford University, England for the Costume Society symposia 2001. Diane Maglio was the special editorial consultant and contributor to “A Century of Men’s Fashion” published by DNR. She was a speaker at “Hollywood and Fashion” seminar presented at the Black Bear Film Festival, Milford, PA.