None of these fellas today....NONE of them, could ever hold a candle to the way wiseguys dressed from yesteryear. Especially guys from New York City! It's not even a contest.
Everybody, not just Mob bosses, dressed better in thr Fifties and earlier. Unless you were a manual worker, you wore a suit, hat and tie to work. Mob guys dressed to the hilt to "fit in" with "legitimate" people and to show "class," which meant something in those days. And, the only men who wore track suits were track runners.
Exactly Turnbull....that is very true. Because it was indicative of society and the times back then. If you look at even regular Joe's back then, it was quite typical to dress in a pair of slacks, white button down shirt, a tie, and quite often a sports jacket or a suit too (depending upon your daily vocation and schedule.)
And wiseguys? Like I said in my earlier posts, they were next level all together...and were usually dressed to the hilt. Not even so much that they wanted to "fit in" with legitimate people, but because most people back then were poor, especially street guys, who generally came from a poorer background. Dressing to the nines and dressing flashy, with diamond pinky rings and diamond encrusted gold watches, silk shirts and ties, expensive suits, etc....well that was a clear sign that you had money, and plenty of it.
For the average wiseguy...it was also showing the world around him that HE had made it!
That was very important to most guys. To show that they were very successful. So much so, that they had money to burn. So, subsequently, being able to dress sharp as a razor and being able to flash a fat wad of cash around, enough to choke a horse, that was key!
