A few days ago, a conversation came up at work, in which a coworker mentioned a dickey. Another coworker, unfamiliar with the term asked, “What’s a dickey?” We briefly explained what one was, in the modern sense. However, that raised a question for me: “Where did the term originate?” So, I did some digging…
Dickey
noundick·ey\ˈdi-kē\
pluraldickeysordick·ies
Definition of DICKEY
1: any of various articles of clothing: as
a: a man’s separate or detachable shirtfront b: a small fabric insert worn to fill in the neckline
That much – at least, Definition 1b – I knew. But I wanted a little more than that. So, I kept looking. I found this:
A dickey (alternatively written as dickie or dicky;[1] sometimes known in American English as a tuxedo front or tux front) is a type of false shirt-front – originally known as a detachable bosom – designed to be worn with a tuxedo or men’s white tie, usually attached to the collar and then tucked into the waistcoat or cummerbund. Better dickeys have a trouser tab at the end to secure them down, preventing the dickey from popping out. The rigid plastic dickey came into fashion in the latter years of the 19th century, and was one of the first successful commercial applications of celluloid.
Advertisement for a false shirt front or “dickey”, 1912 (Source: Wikipedia)
The invention of the dickey was to make the bosom front of a full dress shirt a separate entity in itself, like the detachable collar, so it could be laundered and starched more easily than a traditional shirt with the bosom attached. The use of the dickey was considered bad style by traditionalists and had fallen out of use but shirts with an attached bosom are now rare in themselves since traditional evening dress is no longer regularly worn.
With regards to the first quoted paragraph, I had a frame of reference stretching back to my youth: In old movies and even some cartoons, there were visual gags of men’s shirt fronts flapping up and often striking them in the face. While I didn’t know it at the time, those shirt fronts were dickies.
The ones that I have been, personally, more familiar with are the cloth dickies, as described below:
Cloth dickeys simulate many different styles, some often seen examples include dress shirt front and collar, formal frilled shirt front (popular in the mid seventies with powder blue tuxedos) and most commonly in modern times as false turtleneck sweater fronts. Cloth dickeys are also often used in marching band uniforms.
A little more looking brought me to this fashion history lesson:
In the boomer years of the 1950s through the 1970s, fashion trends came and went. One that survived those decades in various forms, though, was the dickey. Literally a false shirt front, dickeys have been around at least since the 1800s, and possibly back as far as the mid 1700s. A dickey is a meant to add a layered look or complete the look of an outfit, for either men or women.
No one knows exactly when the practice started, or why this garment accessory was called a “dickey.” In the 1800s, dickeys for men were primarily meant for tuxedo shirts. They were one of the first fashion items to be made from celluloid — the earliest form of plastic — and looked like a “bib” that was worn over the neck and under a shirt.
For men and boys in the boomer years, dickeys could be made of knit material, cotton or polyester fabric. They were primarily turtleneck or mock turtleneck styles. They could be worn under shirts or sweaters to give the appearance of another collared garment under the first. As far as Mister B knows, the only real practical reason for men to wear dickeys other than pure fashion sense was to have another layer of neckwear without the added bulk or warmth of another full garment under a shirt or sweater.
For women and girls, dickeys completed necklines in dresses, shirts and sweaters. They sometimes had embellishments like bows, buttons, lace or even complete collars. Like the male counterparts, they could be made from knitted, cotton or polyester fabrics.
And there you have it: That’s what a dickey was and is.
