Golf History

1950s Golf Attire
(Gentry Magazine, 1953)

Attached you will find a number of black and white images illustrating the general look for 1950s golfers – and if you’ve been looking for an article that explains the fashion sense of every single retired U.S. President for te past fifty years, you may have found it.

The fashions illustrated herein also provide today’s costume designers with a sense of how retired crooners preferred to look as well.

The Working-Class Golfer
(A and N Catalog, 1918)

The 1920s editors of VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE would never have endorsed this ready-wear golfing jacket, nor would they have thought much of the country club that would permit such togs; but by today’s barbarian standards which decide what passes for acceptable golf apparel, we think it’s pretty nice.

Men’s Golf Suits of 1922
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1922)

A look at some of the ready-to-wear golf suits for the spring of 1922. The chic golfer of that year was seen wearing pleated knickers and a smart action-back jacket sporting cargo pockets (formerly known as billows pockets).

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Golf Accessories
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1915)

If you intend to tarry on the links dressed in knickers, or plus fours, you will be needing a sturdy pair of ‘Scotch wool’ stockings in which to pull the look off; and should the assembled golf ruffians jeer at you from the comfort of the nineteenth hole, you can bludgeon them with your very smart, pleated golf gloves, circa 1915.

Men’s Summer Golf Apparel
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1918)

Attached you will find some kind words promoting brown linen as the preferred fabric for summer golf, yet what is most striking is the accompanying photo of a young rake in his period golf apparel sporting a pair of putees for his time upon the links. It is rare that one finds a photograph of a golfer in putees and one might get the sense that the look never really caught on.

The Action-Back Jacket for the Golfing Man
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1916)

Those young bucks who golfed and participated in other field and blood-sports during the early Twentieth Century were the lads who benefited most from the tailor’s craft. Pictured here are details of the pivot-sleeve (later to be called the ‘action-back’): a four button, deep-vented, self-belted, pleated golf jacket with matching knickers.

Also featured is a terribly natty English cheviot golf hat.

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