Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-12-30
WHERE MEN DRESS WELL

have all sorts of things happen to me If
said this over in the big town, but 1 can
name you at least four American cities the
men of which are better dressed, year in
and year out, than the men of New York. "
said a man who travels for New York
merchant tailor's supply house. and whose
territory is the whole continent. 'Tll
name them in the order of their stand
ing as communities inhabited by the
best-dressed men: Denver, San Francis
CO, Chicago and Washington. How do l
figure it? Just according to the rule of
sight, that's all. 1 don't profess to know
much about Egyptology, but 1 do know a
well-dressed man when l see him. Mind l
don't say that all of the men of those four
cities are better dressed than al of the
men of New York; but l do maintain, and
any impartial man who knows the four
towns mentioned as they are now will up
hold ME in maintaining, that in ratio to their
respective populations the men of Denver,
san Francisco, Chicago and Washington are
very much better dressed than are the men
of New York OF course, this has been the
case only in very recent years. New York
was. until, say, five years ago, away ahead
OF all its rivals as city, of the best dressed
men: AT that time. if you wanted to see
hundreds of perfectly dressed and perfectly
groomed men engaged in doing business all
you mad to do was to take elevated
O'Clock in the morning, and watch the men,
young, middle-aged and old, who boarded
the train for the downtown financial dis
tr1ct But the financial men don't seem to
De gong IN for clothes so heavily as they
used 10. OF course, you'll still sac s,eWs of
thoroughly gotten up men down in the
financial district of New York. but not so
many by 20 per cent as formerly. On show
occasions. such as Easter Sunday after
noon, New York will still turn out a finely
ciao patch of men, but I'm not ia king
ABOUT show occasions now. I'm talking
ABOUT men who are well-clad year in and
year out, and 1t is in this respect that New
1ork has fallen into the also ran 1ist
Nhen you meet, uptown in New York. a
genuinely sWagger mdn-not a fashilv
dressed man, but one who is thoroughly
anu properly rugged out from his hat to his
shoes-you are liable to turn around tn oct
a rear View of him; and then the fact is
ilaple TO be slowly borne in upon Won that
LIS He Is some member of the theatrical pro-
to ", whom you have seen upon the stage
Ihere are still plenty of fashilv dressed
men circulating around New York. but a
diasnlly dressed man never will be a we'll
1.-The reason whv tho ,,o, 80 r>
such well-dressed lot isn't entiraIv c1aar
70 me II can't be especially because there
are so many well-off men in that town
i Ee' SI mere are myriads of well-off men
III We" YORK. Maybe it is because in pro-
portion to the population, there are mon
AMY more men with large Incomes in Dem
yer IMAM in any city on the continent not
diA..tfpl.ns 1elena, that used to bear that
ostihcLon- You scarcely ever see a badly
dressed or an over-dressed man in Denver
Siidpoy men there are in plenty, of course.
out don't call a shabby man a badly dress
su man A badly dressed man is one who.
WINE having plenty of means to equip him
sell with good makeup hasn't the taste
10 DO 1t, and. therefore, makes his appear-
ance as slouch-that's the word for if
slouch A shabby man Is sjmply a man
md ,,nIrx
tensions The clerks and other men of
very moderate incomes in Denver-men who
can "a AFFORD TO Keep in the push as far
as correct dressing goes-don't make anv
eiiort Whatever to tog themselves out in
cheap dismal imitation of the men with
plenty OF money; but. like the young Wo-
man IN the song, they always dress in
black. 1t is rare to see a Young fellow
in Denver office in anv other sort Of "
makeup than a neatly made black suit
OF varying weights to fit the seasons The
business men who run plants of their own,
however, seem to pay just as much atten-
ton to the job of getting themselves ready
Tor business on weekday mornings as they
DO TO the task of arraying themselves for
social functions or evening appearances
1ou IL always see a strapping finely ar
rayed lot of men on the thoroughfares of
Denver at any hour of the day or night
Denver men are a distinguished looking
lot' dhyhoW, matter which probably
accounted Tor by the fact that a large per
centage of even the young men of the
town are gray haired to some extent
There's some quality in the clarified air
OF Denver that makes the hair of the folks
that live there turn gray, along with add
ing breadth to their shoulders and spring.
ness to their gaits
Fasteners who have gone out to the
coast nave often commented upon the
sweetness of the average well-fixed San
Francisco man in the matter of clothes
The San Francisco man with an income
certainly gets himself up proper as we
say, and he's got the right kind of a make
up for every occasion. Take the race
tracks around San Francisco, for example
Every man who goes to the races out there
goes in a regular racing rig, from pad
dock coat to field glass and from the top of
his ffat-crowned derby to the soles of his
Downs bOots-and so do the Frisco
women, for the matter of that. Another
thing: III venture to assert that nine out
OF ten men in San Francisco whose incomes
are 5000 year or over rig out in even
ing clothes every night in the year, sum
mer included. A great many more men of
moderate incomes in Washington don
evening clothing than men Of similar in
comes in New York. The men of Wash
ington dress with singular neatness, many
with quite notable elegance. The excel
lence of the Washington average, l sup
pose is to be accounted for by the alb
sence of a large laboring class here"