A non-Jewish millionaire in rural England is dictating the yeshivah dress code from Lakewood to Gateshead to Israel
Once upon a simple yeshivah world, the Brits shopped at Marks and Spencer, the Americans favored Brooks Brothers, and the Israelis wore Bagir.
But that was the age of simplicity. Any contemporary bochur will tell you that a white shirt is much more complicated than it looks. There are so many variables: the fit (regular, tailored, slim, and super slim); the collar (cutaway, classic, semi-cutaway); the weave (Oxford, twill, poplin); and the cuff (button cuffs or French). It’s a sugya all its own.
A brochure produced recently for a Gateshead Yeshiva fundraising event shows a series of images of the beis medrash going back to the 1950s. The photos show a world where wearing a tie was the norm, suit styles were markedly different from today’s, and yarmulkes featured gold edging (gasp).
But among all the variation there’s one constant — the iconic uniform of the “yeshivishe velt”: white shirt and dark trousers.
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