“To escape jury duty in England, wear a bowler hat and carry a copy of the Daily Telegraph”. John Mortimer.
The bowler-hatted businessman is imagining a world without The Times and John Menzies. Other newspapers and newsagents do not exist, it would seem. Same with business women, or black businessmen. Even in 1984.
When I first moved to London, a couple of years after this advert was published, there were still a few bowler hat wearers, although they were on the way out.
This is the second square of a patchwork of so-called men’s stuff. It is made from discarded books, magazines, postcards and junk mail. There are sixteen squares in total. You can see the whole piece here.
The square was cut from a John Menzies advert from 1984. The photographer is uncredited. Taken from The Times, Past, Present and Future.
All of my work is individually numbered, this piece is 799. It can be found in my shop.
My goodness, how times have changed. Imagine this guy in business casual.
I think he probably dresses like this all the time 🙂
The thing is, I remember seeing people dress like this all the time. Not the hat, though, usually the other style whose name I can’t remember (I think of it as typical businessman hat of the 50’s). The lady who would be accompany him would be wearing a girdle.
Oh dear.
Yes, must be awful to wear a girdle. Tights are bad enough :)))))
Fortunately this has never happened to me and I hope it never does because it seems to be bad in so many ways!
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