1960s EDC - What Did a Mid-Century Man Really Own?

Just as men's style has evolved over the decades and centuries, so too has gentlemen's everyday carry. And today, we're turning the clock back six decades to explore a typical gent's EDC of the 1960s. Similarly to the 20s, the 60s were a decade of unprecedented change in both society at large and classic menswear in particular. So in our list of 12 EDC items or groups of items, there are likely to be some that you still carry today and others that you haven't seen except perhaps on shows like Mad Men. Let's jump in with item number one, the wristwatch. In our 1920s EDC video, we mentioned that pocket watches were still a regular sight in that decade but by the 1960s, they were almost extinct. Instead, the wristwatch was by far the most popular way to keep time. These wristwatches were often sleek and not overly large to match the slim and svelte aesthetics typical of 60s suits. In terms of size, this differs from the bigger is better trend that we often see today. But in terms of style, 1960s timepieces actually have much in common with current models. In fact, this was the era that dive watches came into fashion as iconic styles like the Rolex Submariner and Omega Speedmaster entered into the popular consciousness as status symbols with the Submariner 6538 featured in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger being one of the pioneering examples of product placement in film. This sportier watch trend also set the stage for utilitarian dive watches with metal bands, largely replacing leather-banded dress watches that were more popular in previous eras, which still holds true in many cases today. Next, number two, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. It's no secret that many or even most men smoked in this era and did so frequently. But the ways in which they smoked and facilitated smoking had changed dramatically from earlier decades. No longer were metal cigarette cases and a book of matches the go-to options for lighting one up to brood on a cold and stormy evening about the one that got away. By this time, fewer gents were buying specialty cigarettes and storing them in cases as they had in the 20s and earlier. Instead, they were more often relying on mass-produced cigarettes from companies like Camel, Lucky Strike, and Chesterfield. This was partly due to convenience and partly because of the increasing importance of branding for all products, including cigarettes. When bumming a smoke in the 60s, it was common to ask the brand before accepting one. Whereas earlier, the distinction was usually made based on the provenance of the tobacco, American, Turkish, Russian, and so on. Filtered cigarettes from brands like Winston and Marlboro were also gaining popularity. While matches were still perfectly useful for lighting up, portable lighters like the Zippo were now the preferred method for many men, and disposable lighters were coming into fashion as well. Some gents would also have carried rolling papers for rolling their own cigarettes, especially with the increasing social use and cultural prominence in the 1960s of other forms of inhalable substances. And while cigars and other tobacco products were still employed, this is definitively when the cigarette became, far and away, the most popular way that most smokers enjoyed tobacco. Next, number three is the pocket comb. As mentioned in our companion series on what men really wore, the late 1950s and 60s saw radical changes in men's hairstyles, and this necessitated new ways for men to care for their hair. In particular, a more naturalistic aesthetic begot more facial hair and longer hairstyles worn with less product, meaning that A precipitous decline in hat wearing, which we covered in this video, also meant that even hairstyles with product were more set and forget because they didn't require as much reapplying to maintain them. You can't really get hat hair without a hat. This meant that most men would simply carry a comb to readjust their hair if needed, with an increasing emphasis on plastic or metal combs from brands like Goody, Grip, or Metal Flex rather than traditional horn combs. The late 1960s also saw some black gentlemen prominently carrying hair picks to accommodate the increasingly popular afro hairstyle as a general expression of black pride. A plastic pocket comb is still a component of my personal EDC today, as I covered in this video. Another item in my personal EDC is a leather wallet, which also happens to be the next item, number four, on our list. While leather wallets have been the de facto choice for most men throughout the 20th century, their design and functionality have shifted with the times. The 1950s and 60s saw increasing demand for cardholder slots, thanks in large part to the increasing number of paper and plastic cards gents were carrying around. 1950 had marked the introduction of the diner's club card, the precursor to modern credit cards, followed in 1958 by the American Express card and the Bank AmeriCard, the forerunner of Visa. Other cards typical of the era included loyalty cards, membership cards for institutions like clubs or gyms, and an increasing array of identification cards for civil and employment purposes. Those cards needed a place to be stored, so wallets began to feature banks of 8, 10, and sometimes even 20 card slots. Our Fort Belvedere wallet line currently features bifold wallets with 8 or 10 slots and slim wallets with 4 slots like mine. But would you prefer we release a wallet with even more? Let us know in the comments. Next is number five, a handkerchief or tissues. Whereas the default in previous decades for most gentlemen was to carry a cotton or linen handkerchief that they could wash and reuse, the increased push toward convenience and consumerism in the 1960s and onwards saw this practice decline. If a gentleman needed to keep up with his hygiene or assist others in need, it was often done with packaged single-use tissues instead. Kleenex had been around since the 1920s, but originally, it was marketed almost exclusively as a makeup remover. By the 1960s, however, it was becoming the new normal when it came to mopping the brow or blowing the nose, due also in part to increasing squeamishness when it came to germs. And it has dominated in this use ever since thanks to increasingly cheaper means of production. Though some men, like me, still appreciate the utility that a cotton hanky can provide. Our sixth item on the list today is a business card case. Cheaper production also had an unexpected impact in another area, business cards. More cost-efficient printing methods meant that a much wider array of men, not just white-collar professionals and society gents, could carry and exchange business cards. However, this necessitated a means to safely carry and store them, and while wallets could hold a few cards, they weren't the best for storing them en masse or for long periods of time. Thus, business card cases started to gain popularity with a larger portion of the population. These cases soon became style statements in their own right, as the carrier could express their personality even further through color and material like leather or metal. Business card cases soon became an even more prominent part of business culture, though not quite to the American psycho levels we'd see in the 1980s. Of course, we proudly offer a selection of card cases at Fort Belvedere and we've produced content on them too, so take a look. Next up, number seven, keys and holders for them such as key rings, key portfolios, or key wallets. As with their cards, men were carrying more keys than ever before in the 1960s. Keys for cars, sometimes multiple cars, keys for doors, deadbolts, and padlocks, keys for their homes, and sometimes keys for their offices. As such, they needed some place to put them. Key portfolios and wallets were a common option, but they could be bulky. Meanwhile, key rings, especially novelty key rings, became more popular in the 1960s, coinciding with the bolder jewelry typical of the 60s and typified by manufacturers like Swank. The 60s were nothing if not bold. Number eight is a multi-tool. Men had been carrying pocket knives of various kinds for centuries, but by the 1960s, actually by the late 1940s, multi-tools that featured knives as well as other implements had gained particular prominence. As men returned from World War II and became accustomed to Swiss army knife style products, this new style of tool was commonly used for any situation that someone would come across in their day-to-day life. So much so that the phrase Swiss army knife is used to describe other resourceful objects and even people almost as commonly as the tool itself. Number nine on the list is sunglasses. As hats waned in popularity, men still needed ways to shield their eyes from the sun's rays. And while sunglasses were certainly around before the 60s, Hollywood's influence from using them on sets, in publicity photos, and in movies themselves beginning in the 1930s meant that by the 60s, they were seen as a chic and practical way to protect your eyes. Furthermore, President John F. Kennedy's frequent use of American optical brand sunglasses during his time in office gave the accessory a further air of respectability and cool. And while sunglasses today no longer use genuine tortoise shell in the name of sustainability, styles of the era like aviators, wayfarers, and clubmasters are still going strong in popularity. The tenth item on the list is the fountain pen or disposable pen. By the 1960s, the fountain pen had been supplanted as the typical writing instrument of the everyday man by the ballpoint pen, often in disposable plastic, which had been pioneered in the 1930s and 40s. And even for the gentlemen who did still carry fountain pens, they were much different than the pen styles from prior decades. For example, the bold and bulky Parker Duo Fold with its curved nib for more refined calligraphy was replaced by the trendier Parker Jotter, which focused more on speed and efficiency over flair. This mirrored the changing values that many men from this era valued most, where progress and practicality took priority over tradition and pop, making the pen a far more utilitarian EDC item. Our penultimate list item is number 11, the umbrella. Historically, umbrellas were seen as more of an investment piece that could potentially double as a walking stick than as a disposable consumer item. This style of umbrella was and is typical of heritage brands like James Smith & Sons, Swain Adney Brigg, and Fox Umbrellas. However, the mass manufacture of synthetic fibers, coupled with improvements in water-resistant materials and coatings, meant that umbrellas had become far cheaper and more widely accessible to the general public by the 1960s. Shedrain, an American company founded in the 1940s, boomed during this era for precisely that reason. The 60s were also a boom time for telescopic umbrellas, which could be easily carried to and from someone's car and be put into a bag or otherwise stored as needed, especially when compared to more traditional styles. The German company Knirps, essentially meaning little thing to emphasize portability, became known for telescopic umbrellas, which it still sells today. Finally, we come to number 12 on the list, the portable camera. This one is something of a bonus item as it wasn't necessarily carried by a majority of men. However, amateur photography as a hobby was booming in the 60s and the decade was a golden era for portable cameras, with major brands launching models that made photography more accessible than ever. Kodak dominated casual photography with the smash success of its Instamatic series introduced in 1963, simplifying loading and popularizing the 126 film cartridge. Canon, with its DEMI half-frame and FTQL SLR camera, and Nikon, especially with the legendary Nikon F SLR introduced in 1959, quickly became top choices for enthusiasts and professionals. Minolta's SR and SRT series, Olympus Pen, and Pentax Spotmatic also emerged as innovative compact 35-millimeter options. Polaroid revolutionized snapshots with instant cameras like the Model 900, making same-day prints a household phenomenon. German brands like Leica, Zeiss Icon, and Agfa continued to produce compact, high-quality rangefinder and viewfinder models, widely used by both professionals and serious hobbyists. The competition and creativity among leading brands in the 1960s not only democratized photography but also established the foundation for portable, casual image-making for generations to come. Right up to today, when we all have smartphone cameras in our pockets. As with our 1920s EDC video, some of the typical EDC items for a gentleman of the 60s have commonalities with those of today and some are quite a bit different. Are there items you think belong in this list that we neglected to include or some that you don't think were as widespread as we suggested? We'd say it's a safe bet that more of our viewers lived through the 60s than the 20s, so we'd like to hear from you in particular in the comments. And let us know which decades EDC you'd like for us to cover next. In today's video, I'm wearing an outfit largely inspired by early 1960s ivy style and in grayscale tones. That is white, gray, and black. The central element is my tweed sport coat in a herringbone pattern which is overall in a gray shade but, if you look closer, actually features tones of gray, black, brown, and even green. I'm wearing it over a plain white French cuffed shirt from Charles Tyrwhitt and into the cuffs, I have inserted a vintage pair of silver-toned cufflinks from Swank. These are part of a set from the late 1950s or early 60s and they harmonize with the small tie bar that I'm also wearing. Speaking of, that tie bar is holding in place a tie from our own brand, Fort Belvedere. This is a knit silk tie predominantly in black with thin white horizontal stripes. Also from Fort Belvedere are my two-tone solid socks in black and white and my white linen pocket square that features a contrasting edge. My trousers are in plain black as is my black leather belt with a silver-toned buckle and my shoes are black derbies with a cap toe. I'm also wearing a wristwatch today as it was one of the items on our list. This is a vintage model from the American brand Benris, specifically the model 3081. This one, I believe, dates to the late 1950s or early 1960s so it was period appropriate and the colors of the leather band and the face itself also match the color palette of the outfit I'm wearing. Also in line with 1960s hair care trends, I've left all product out of my hair for a more natural look and, of course, I've been sporting a beard for a while now. Rounding things out is the fragrance I'm wearing from the Roberto Ugolini collection. This one is derby. It seemed an appropriate choice because I'm wearing derby shoes and also because the black bottle happens to harmonize with my outfit. So, for the socks, tie, pocket square, and fragrance that I'm wearing, as well as a wide array of other classic men's accessories, corduroy trousers, and other Ugolini fragrances, you can take a look at the Fort Belvedere shop here. ♪ The Gentleman's Gazette theme song ♪