Since power is associated with money, I will focus on what the bankers have worn since the banking profession was invented.
According to an article written by Stephen G. Cecchetti of Brandeis University, while the history of banking dates to Babylonia in the second millennium b.c., we can trace modern-day banking to practices in the Medieval Italian cities of Florence, Venice and Genoa. Particularly the Bardi and Peruzzi families were dominant in Florence in the 14th century and established branches in other parts of Europe to facilitate their trading activities.
I will start my journey with the 14th century bankers. Below is a painting depicting the bank of the 14th century:
Note that the bankers are wearing draped clothes, consistent with the Mediterranean school of clothing we covered in Module 4.
According to the Swiss Private Bankers Association (SPBA), in the 15th century, Cosimo de' Medici, during the Council of Basel, set up one of the first banking houses. Below is a portrait of Cosimo de' Medici painted by Agnolo Bronzino located in the Uffizi gallery in Florence.
Perhaps it is not coincidental that this man of power is depicted in an armor.
With the increased merchant trading in the 16th and 17th century, banking centers moved close to these trading outfits. The British Empire had a prominent role and the historical Banking London Royal Exchange was established in 1565. This represents the origins of what is now referred to as Merchant Banking. In the 17th Century London's importance as a trade center led to an increasing demand for ship and cargo insurance. Modern Western economic and financial history is usually traced back to the coffee houses of London. Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House in 1688 established the beginning of Lloyd’s as an insurance pioneer (source Llyods web site).
As we again saw in Module 4, in the Northern European School of Tailoring, French and English tailors and couturiers’ work is internationally recognized by its perfect measures, cut, fit, and stitching work.
Below is an image from Lloyd’s archives depicting the bankers with top hats, scarves and tailored pants and jackets, styles of the Northern European School of Tailoring.
According to David Kuchta in his book titled The Three-Piece Suit and Modern Masculinity,”… in 1666, King Charles II felt it necessary to reform Englishmen's dress by introducing a fashion that developed into the three-piece suit. Between 1550 and 1850, English upper- and middle-class men understood their authority to be based in part upon the display of masculine character: how they presented themselves in public and demonstrated their masculinity helped define their political legitimacy, moral authority, and economic utility…”
Hence the beginning of the power suit.
Here we see J. Pierpont Morgan wearing the three-piece suit. He founded J.P. Morgan & Co. with Anthony Drexel in New York in 1871 under the name Drexel, Morgan & Co.
In 1878, J. O. Madison created a drafting system that made it easy to manufacture custom measured sack-suits.
According to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, " the men's sack suit pattern was drafted from J.O. Madison's Elements of Garment Cutting (Root and Tinker, New York, 1878, rev. 1880), a drafting system designed to be used by professional tailors. Unlike other systems that relied on proportions or block patterns, Madison believed in the direct-measure approach which used several measurements taken directly from the customer's body. “
Below is an image of the 1878 sack suit.
Today men wear an updated version of the nineteenth-century sack suit.
If we fast forward to today, Brooks Brothers is the supplier of Wall Street bankers’ outfits. Below is an image from The Madison 1818 collection.
The Madison 1818 collection is tailored from elegant wool woven in Italy, favored for its relaxed fit, natural shoulders and easy fitting trousers, and is fully lined. You can see the entire collection here.
Below are their Madison Shadow Stripe 1818 (left) and Madison Two-Button 1818 (right) suits.
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