John Henderson
20th February 2025
(This month’s talk was scheduled as “Thomas Glover and Japan” to be presentd by Stephen Thompson. Unfortunately Stephen was unwell and our President John Henderson stepped in at very short notice, to give the excellent talk as below.)
John Henderson gave a talk on the History of Men’s Clothing. He explained that much of what men wear is of relatively modern times, often dating back only to the end of the 19th Century or the beginning of the 20th century. He gave the shirt as an example. Although it has a long history, its modern form can be traced to 1871 when Brown and Davis registered the first shirt with buttons all the way down. Before then shirts had been regarded as underwear. As modern shirts became more popular, a distinction developed with office workers wearing white shirts and manual workers blue shirts, hence the way such workers are often described today. The colour of a shirt was at times used by political movements such as the red shirts of followers of Garibaldi in Italy; and today T shirts often have slogans on them.
The role of Aberdeen was touched on. In particular the Grandholm Mills of the Crombie company which made the iconic Crombie woollen coat bearing that name. A key market which helped the company develop, was for clothes for the military and royalty, including Queen Victoria. Another Aberdeen based company was Harrott and Co., based in Rose Street, who up until 1977 made gloves and woollens, being at one time the largest glove maker in Britain.