Featured Antique Counter Sign for a Tailor Featuring "The Dude"

Discussion in 'Ephemera and Photographs' started by Bookahtoo, Dec 7, 2023.

  1. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

    I love this advertising sign. It's 13 1/2" tall and has the name and address of a tailor in Wisconsin.

    The young man is dressed in the height of fashion, and below his feet it says "The Dude". I thought at that time that calling a young man a "dude" was similar to calling him a "fop". In other words, uninterested in anything but the latest fashions and pretty useless.
    If that's so, isn't it odd that he would be used for advertising a tailor? His clothes look tasteful and not excessive. He does seem to have every "accoutrement" - monocle, jeweled walking stick, boutonnière, jeweled tie pin, seal, pocket silk, etc.

    What's going on here?

    smallerdude.jpg

    cropupper.jpg
     
  2. wlwhittier

    wlwhittier Well-Known Member

    I dunno...but I like it, too. The exaggerated pose is part of the appeal...tho' I cannot say exactly why. Thanks!
     
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  3. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    A bit like Eustace Tilley, The New Yorker magazine's mascot.
     
  4. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Are the yappy dogs part of the look? Wonder why you have to take off the glove to use your monocle.
     
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  5. wlwhittier

    wlwhittier Well-Known Member

    First time I ever heard that fellow had a name!
     
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  6. pearlsnblume

    pearlsnblume Well-Known Member

    Cool Book. Is that a tear in his clothing near his crotch?
    Maybe that is why he needs a tailor.
     
  7. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    This site is a veritable trove of information! :playful:
     
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  8. bosko69

    bosko69 Well-Known Member

    Bless you Book for bringing some antique advertising to our site !:p
     
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  9. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

    Unfortunately, yes. I'm hoping he's so delightful that someone will want to buy him anyway.
     
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  10. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

    So assuming calling someone a dude was not a compliment, do you think the tailor was saying you'd never look like the dude if you used his services, or, you too can be fitted out with all the newest clothing, or was he just poking fun at the over zealous youth, or drawing some attention to his being able to take a joke marginally about his occupation?
     
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  11. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

    Or make up your own reason. :hilarious::hilarious::hilarious:
     
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  12. pearlsnblume

    pearlsnblume Well-Known Member

    I believe there was a poem called "The Dude" from the 1800's.
     
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  13. Roaring20s

    Roaring20s Well-Known Member

    "Dude" money, is good money! :greedy:
     
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  14. bluumz

    bluumz Quite Busy

    Wikipedia discusses the history of the use of the word "dude". :pompous:

    An interesting tidbit:
    "The term "dude" may have derived from the 18th-century word "doodle", as in "Yankee Doodle Dandy"."
    EDIT: Yet THIS 1883 Chicago Tribune article says that "dude" is a corruption of dodo. :rolleyes:
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2023
  15. moreotherstuff

    moreotherstuff Izorizent

    Dudes, dandies, dashers, and fops.
     
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  16. moreotherstuff

    moreotherstuff Izorizent

    From "The Magnificent Ambersons":

    Trousers with a crease were considered plebeian; the crease proved that the garment had lain upon a shelf, and hence was “ready-made”; these betraying trousers were called “hand-me-downs,” in allusion to the shelf. In the early ‘eighties, while bangs and bustles were having their way with women, that variation of dandy known as the “dude” was invented: he wore trousers as tight as stockings, dagger-pointed shoes, a spoon “Derby,” a single-breasted coat called a “Chesterfield,” with short flaring skirts, a torturing cylindrical collar, laundered to a polish and three inches high, while his other neckgear might be a heavy, puffed cravat or a tiny bow fit for a doll’s braids. With evening dress he wore a tan overcoat so short that his black coat-tails hung visible, five inches below the over-coat; but after a season or two he lengthened his overcoat till it touched his heels, and he passed out of his tight trousers into trousers like great bags. Then, presently, he was seen no more, though the word that had been coined for him remained in the vocabularies of the impertinent.
     
  17. Debora

    Debora Well-Known Member

    That's fabulous. How did you ever find?

    Debora
     
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  18. sassafras

    sassafras Well-Known Member

  19. 2manybooks

    2manybooks Well-Known Member

  20. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

    komokwa and 2manybooks like this.
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