This Week in Amherst History
By Kelly Theim, Features Editor
Sixty-five years ago this week, a local dealer in men's clothes, Tommy Walsh, noted that Amherst men dress unusually conservatively, only accepting new trends a year after surrounding schools, on average.

"Amherst is usually a season or two behind Williams, Dartmouth and Princeton in accepting new styles," said the article. "Ski boots, popular at Williams last season and at Dartmouth for two years, have been in demand in Amherst for the first time this winter, and it was some time before students here would accept fancy back coats."

Amherst students reaped the benefits of their caution with regard to style, as they ended up finding suitable quantities of the clothes they desired while paying much lower prices for the same fashions that other colleges had picked up over a year earlier.

Walsh recalled that the very popular combination of odd coat and trousers, for instance, was on display in his shop for two years before Amherst students began to buy them. In his keen fashion analysis, Walsh additionally predicted that patterns and tweeds would be among the most popular fashions for the upcoming season.

Issue 18, Submitted 2001-03-07 16:45:39
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