ANON POST: Two 1950s college questions, clothing and ethnicity-related

[kutsuwamushi]

My MC is a young man in his late teens, attending a college that's basically an expy of NYU/Columbia University in the mid-50s. (I'm kind of operating on vague Comics Time here, so apologies for the vagueness of that date!) He's attending on a scholarship, hailing from a (fictional) country in Eastern Europe

Comments

[houseboatonstyx]

Dunno about NYU, but (except for Beatniks) the standard was conformity, trying to look upper class, high society. Gilligan's Island, Fred Astaire. Rebellion was the Kingston Trio in madras plaid shirts with button-down collars, well pressed.

http://www.kingstontrio.com/content/photos1.htm

Iirc there was some sort of issue about a button down collar meaning the wearer was of a new generation who could listen to rock and roll music without getting angry...? I presume that would be early rock, Chubby Checker etc.

There was also an issue about fountain pens in shirt pockets. Some pockets were divided for the pen; more studious men used 'pocket protectors', ie a sort of plastic insert for the pocket.

What would have given me an impression of foreign, especially European, would be the traditional conservative styles, but wider and more pointed horizontals. Wide shoulders with shoulder pads. Wide hatbrims.

Might look at old issues of Esquire or Playboy.

[toastedcheese]

Having his hair a little long in the front (not-quite bangs) would be something he could get away with, but would be a noticeable departure from the norm.

I would definitely decide whether Fictional University is or is not Ivy League.

[nightengalesknd]

My mother attended Columbia Law School in the late 1960s. She has mentioned that the male students always wore suits and ties to class - until the day the draft was announced. Of course, undergraduate and graduate/law school clothing conventions may have differed, but suits may well have been expected for class when your student was there.