What exactly was the ragtime life? At one time the term was used to describe a particular generation of young people. Much like any musical style that came after it, older folks didn’t approve of what it was doing to the youth. All of the same arguments against the emerging jazz style of the 1920s were used against ragtime nearly 30 years earlier. Many songs and novels spoke of this new lifestyle, but it’s not often that we actually hear of what it consisted of.
Just like the flappers of the 1920s, ragtimers had their own sense of style. While it could be argued that the unusual way of dress to become associated with ragtime started in the 1880s, it didn’t start to really come into form until the middle 1890s. Songs such as the 1884 hit, “A New Coon in Town” illustrated this particular style of dress. In the 1880s, men’s clothing could be very tight and form-fitted, something that would soon become signature to the fringe young men in the next decade.
Bright colored ties with a very broad knot came in around the early 1890s, and by the mid to late 1890s, most ragtime men could be seen with these types of ties. Photos such as the one of “Mississippi Rag” composer William Krell provide a great example of this tie style. What some may not know about these broad ties is tha
