# When did colored shirts with suits become acceptable? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 2, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025 "2015-03-02T17:17:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/1 "2015-03-02T17:17:19Z")
I’d wager that most guys own a white and probably a blue dress shirt, and it seems that back in the 50’s everyone wore the whites. When did other colors become more common to wear with suits, or have they always been so? ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/2 "2015-03-02T17:21:45Z")
It’s fairly recent. I’d say within the last 10 years or so. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/3 "2015-03-02T17:25:19Z")
More than that. In 2009, Regis Philbin hosted _Who Wants to be a Millionaire_, dressed in shirts with ties of the same color. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/4 "2015-03-02T17:26:19Z")
I started seeing them in the 70s. It was a slow process – one or two people would wear a shirt with a little bit of color and gradually more would follow. People who were used to wearing white shirt often didn’t switch over. When I was working at a stock broker in the 80s, there were more colored shirts than white ones (including those with a colored shirt and white collar). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/5 "2015-03-02T17:34:27Z")
I’d say 70s as well. All the older fashion codes were breaking. Most offices were far more conservative than the fashion magazines and older men, probably most people over 40 or even over 30, stayed with white a long time. Not hitting 30 until 1980, I wasn’t part of that group. I never wore a white shirt and nobody every said anything to me about dressing more formally. Not wearing white goes back a lot further if you go outside the office. The 20s were like the 60s in breaking older codes. Fashionable dudes always wore coats and ties, but their shirts were in a wide variety of patterns and colors. I think the Depression tamped down that kind of colorful expression - those years really were in black and white - and it took time for the fashion to swing back. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/6 "2015-03-02T18:03:24Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > More than that. In 2009, Regis Philbin hosted _Who Wants to be a Millionaire_, dressed in shirts with ties of the same color. I remember that; I wondered back then if it was a “cool” look and if I should adopt it. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/7 "2015-03-02T18:08:44Z")
It was in the 60’s. [Carnaby Street fashion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnaby_Street#20th_century) was an adjunct of the British Invasion, and non-white dress(y) shirts became popular with the young crowd. During that era my mom worked at the local NBC affiliate and noted that the newscasters wore pale blue shirts, which while appearing white on TV looked better than actual white shirts. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/8 "2015-03-02T18:08:59Z")
Another vote for the '70s as the time that colored dress shirts became mainstream. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/9 "2015-03-02T19:00:48Z")
Johnny Carson was doing it in the 1970’s, which made it pretty much acceptable for non-business occasions By the time newscaswters like [David Brinkley](http://www.dougquick.com/nbc_chethuntley.jpg) started wearing them, the walls were coming down. Of course, IBM didn’t really relax their “blue suit, white shirt” dress code until the 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/10 "2015-03-03T00:27:24Z")
Blue shirts became popular because you couldn’t wear a white shirt on early television - it reflected too much glare. Perhaps that had something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_Cello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/11 "2015-03-03T01:54:59Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > More than that. In 2009, Regis Philbin hosted _Who Wants to be a Millionaire_, dressed in shirts with ties of the same color. Regis started hosting in 1999, not 2009. > **[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (American game show)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Wants_to_Be_a_Millionaire_%28U.S._game_show%29#Hosts)** > > Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (colloquially referred to as simply Millionaire\[d\]) is an American television game show based on the format of the same-titled British program created by David Briggs, Steven Knight and Mike Whitehill and developed in the United States by Michael Davies. The show features a quiz competition with contestants attempting to win a top prize of $1,000,000 by answering a series of multiple-choice questions, usually of increasing difficulty. The program has endured as on... ---
**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/12 "2015-03-03T02:54:03Z")
The [Duke of Windsor](http://life.time.com/history/duke-and-duchess-of-windsor/#1) has been rocking blue shirts since the 1940s, if not earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/13 "2015-03-03T02:58:52Z")
> [@Clark\_Cello](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > More than that. In 2009, Regis Philbin hosted _Who Wants to be a Millionaire_, dressed in shirts with ties of the same color. > > Regis started hosting in 1999, not 2009. > > [Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (American game show) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Wants_to_Be_a_Millionaire_%28U.S._game_show%29#Hosts) You’re right. I forgot which decade we’re in. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/14 "2015-03-03T03:20:57Z")
> [@dofe](#): > > The [Duke of Windsor](http://life.time.com/history/duke-and-duchess-of-windsor/#1) has been rocking blue shirts since the 1940s, if not earlier. I thought it was the brown one he really admired. ---
**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-colored-shirts-with-suits-become-acceptable/714025/15 "2015-03-03T03:44:45Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > I thought it was the brown one he really admired. 😃