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Subversive Performances, Masculine Pleasures
their taste in the first decade of the twentieth century. MacQueen Pope credited
the shift to the popularizing effects of theatre and the rise to prominence of the
matinee idol, though he was probably simply witnessing the symptoms of sartorial
trends that could trace their antecedents back to the establishment of a recognizable
suburban culture in the 1870s:
Sir George Alexander . . . was one of the leaders of male fashion, but he never went to
extremes. He was always, of his time, the most perfectly and correctly dressed of men.
So when he made a tentative start with a soft collar in “John Chilcote MP” there was a
considerable flutter. And when he wore it again in “His House in Order” the deed was
done! Men who might have been chary of this informal innovation hesitated no longer.
What was good enough for Alexander was good enough for them. The double fold soft
collar swamped the shops of 1906 and sold like wildfire. It was flannel when it first came
in and striped . . . held together in front by the lower corners being linked by a gold safety
pin . . . it made no pretence to match the shirt. It was, however, never worn in town. It
was for home or country only. 25
Pope’s last line was telling. While perhaps the new informality of a look indebted
to a suburban taste for pleasure was impermissible in the work environment, such
indictments did nothing to curb its popularity. Suburban outfitters directed much
of their energy to the promotion of soft collars and sportswear during the period,
basing their advertisements on the style’s suitability for leisure pursuits, allying
their fashionability to the modernity of rowing, cycling, and flying. What was
significant about the figure of the suburban masher was not the obvious affront
his image offered to the desk-bound paterfamilias, but the roots of his wardrobe
in a masculine celebration of the domestic sphere, its alliance with the sentimental
and romantic features of the heterosexual suburban imagination and its concordance
with the “wholesome” sporting atmosphere of an idealized suburban life. It
was indeed a choice “for home . . . only,” but “home” didn’t necessarily imply a
negation of modernity or fashionability, rather the opposite. In the end though,
behind the negligent laid-back surface, the final point of reference for the
fashionable young suburban still remained in the mocking guise of his cosmopolitan
counterpoint. Keble Howard represented the two models with a savage wit.
At the Surbiton Rowing Club Ball, where the hero Jack was attempting to impress
his future wife, the example of the bachelor dandy and the suburban swell clashed
with devastating results:
As for the rival suitors . . . there was a disparity in their attire that made poor Jack feel
sick at heart. For Harry, that cunning one, had taken every possible advantage of his
superior means. His dress suit was new enough to be in the very latest fashion, yet not
so new as to look uncomfortable. His pumps were of the shiniest, his socks in the most
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