The ‘Gay White Way “Jazz” Suit’

Charles Williams stores, ca 1927

Item B on this page is the The ‘Gay White Way “Jazz” Suit’ – a men’s 3-piece suite that is “real snappy and full of pep” and priced at under $16 . I don’t think Men’s Wearhouse has suits like this.

Although the pages is promoting suits, once can’t help but notice the hats, and our Jazz lover isn’t wearing a one, which confirms him as rather young, daring, and modern – ready for a night at the speakeasy. The sly “Campus Model” at lower right is also hatless, but the rest have ‘20s-era straw boaters, a fedora, and one terribly serious bowler hat (accompanied by a suspicious pencil-thin mustache)

The copy points out how Rayon is really “artificial silk”, how these are really popular New-York Fifth Avenue styles, and I also like how several of the vests are reversible.

This 1927 Charles Williams catalog included several other spectacular color layouts, mostly for fashion…but also for linoleum and a fancy new radio set, on which you could presumably listen to Jazz music that was “snappy and full of pep”.