Traditional handkerchief usage

[Mael Coluim]

Not an odd question at all in my book.
Both my English mother and my Virginia born grandmother would keep their hankies in their sleeves. As a youth I was taught to keep a handkerchief in my rear pocket. A habit I kept till my late twenties when I quit as it was considered crass in the Arab world where I worked for four years. That's what kleenexes were for. I do have the urge on when dressing in p**nts to stick a handkerchief back there, but I no longer have a supply. On hot days working outside I usually put a bandanna in my rear pocket to wipe off the sweat. But after reading this thread, I may start putting it in my armpit!

[10buckstew]

There was military leader who insisted that jackets be made with superflous buttons along the cuff to discourage soldiers from wiping their noses on their sleeves.... an historian on this site could probably provide the name--Napoleon?
At any rate, this very same subject came up the other day when I was teaching an insurance class (strange coincidence), and several people said they had them, out of perhaps 25 in the room, maybe three or four. (flu season)

I myself had horrible allergies as a young man, and in springtime I carried hankys, tissue, or bandanas in both sleeves, and socks.

--P.S. On a side note;

Happy to say, after trying everything else, I tried a Chinese traditional medicine practitioner, who gave me some stinky tea; I went through a one gallon batch and got relief, when it came back I drank another batch and have not had allergies for some twelve years now, so for the time being--my sleeves are empty.

[Pleater]

Midshipmen in the British Navy - aka snotties - have a row of buttons on their sleeve cuffs, presumably to discourage the use of them.

I checked in Great Expectations, Jaggers keeps his handkerchief in his pocket - Dickens even emphaises this by calling it a pocket handkerchief - almost as though to distinguish it from other types.

One of the people Pip sees in Jagger's office wipes his nose on his sleeve.

Kimono do not have pockets as such, but the sleeves are constructed so they can be used to hold lightweight items.

The traditional construction of kimono enables them to be returned to straight pieces of material for washing - I suspect that my simple kilt construction method owes a lot to that, and similarity to older kilt making is simply convergence due to having the same job to do.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[davidlpope]

This is similar to where the saying "The Apple of my eye" came from. A gentleman would keep an apple in his armpit and present it to a lady he fancied to sniff. I would guess the same was done with hankies when apples weren't available.

--Chelsea McMurdo--

Don't think this is the case. See link below. It appears that the phrase "apple of my eye" dates to the 9th century in A-S England and has nothing to do with literal apples.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/283546

Cordially,

David

[macwilkin]

According to Alan Flusser in STYLE AND THE MAN, 1996, ( a gift, I swear), England's Richard II, "declared it borrish to blow one's nose either on one's sleeve or on the floor," and thus handkerchief's became "a symbol of gentility and social rank." He also states that World War I officers kept handkerchiefs in their coats sleeves because their uniform pockets were often buttoned down or flapped over, making them hard to open quickly.

I've also read that during many periods, pockets were rare in man's dress clothing, and gentlemen carried small items in their sleeves or in their cummerbunds. And that is why cummerbunds are worn with the pleats open upward.

Is this fashion week on XMTS? First sleeves, now hankies?

That is supposedly why midshipmen in the Royal Navy had buttons on their sleeves, to prevent them from blowing or wiping their nose on them -- it is also the origin of their nickname, "snotty".

EDIT: Apologies to Pleater, as she already posted this.

T.

[ShaunMaxwell]

Here's a photo of the impeccably dressed John D. Burgess originally posted by davidlpope... Notice the handkerchief visible from his left sleeve.

[Lallans]

I think I have come up with a likely answer to Pleater's naval tip off question. My dad was naval and perhaps relatedly had a lot of British 'Boys Own Paper'-type stuff from the 19th century (I've always assumed it was the status of the British navy in those days that influenced his choice of military careers). Anyway a prime offense in those British days of sail (and I believe presently) was for a naval officer or skivvy to place his hands in his pockets, or certainly to be seen with his hands in his pockets- the BOP actually had little cartoons about it (since this was from the days of seriously lurching ships, I got the impression this prohibition was originally for practical, safety reasons.) The other posting that discussed the army use of pocket hankies suggests that parking one in the sleeve was a tip-off that the military person was with the navy. And, no one should dismiss the current use of hankies amongst the British male population- in my experience with them in relation to outdoors activities, they always have a hankie lurking somewhere- which in urgentish medical situations has more than once turned out to be a very good thing, and in fact something I have since tried to emulate. Better if they have not been used for other 'sanitary purposes' of course.

[-B-]

it is done for practical purpose in Europe during the 1700's cities started to become crowded this leads to lot of filth in the streets and lots of smoke in the air. Pollution in the air and the practice of using snuff make for a runny nose. When the industrial revolution came along things got worse and the practice was continued.


Society does not have those problems any further so wearing one( not for use) is noting more than adding to a costume of a period.

[Kilted Rogue]

There was military leader who insisted that jackets be made with superflous buttons along the cuff to discourage soldiers from wiping their noses on their sleeves.... an historian on this site could probably provide the name--Napoleon?
At any rate, this very same subject came up the other day when I was teaching an insurance class (strange coincidence), and several people said they had them, out of perhaps 25 in the room, maybe three or four. (flu season)

I myself had horrible allergies as a young man, and in springtime I carried hankys, tissue, or bandanas in both sleeves, and socks.

--P.S. On a side note;

Happy to say, after trying everything else, I tried a Chinese traditional medicine practitioner, who gave me some stinky tea; I went through a one gallon batch and got relief, when it came back I drank another batch and have not had allergies for some twelve years now, so for the time being--my sleeves are empty.

can I get his name and number?

[Pleater]

My dad, when in the RAF during the Second World War, was once brought up on a charge for putting his hands in his pockets - and got off when he protested that as he was going into the pictures and needed to pay for his ticket there was no other way to achieve this than by putting a hand into his pocket.

I suspect that the derivation of the Air Force from the Senior Service has much to do with that regulation as well as how hankerchiefs are worn.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: