Hancock is a middle-class clark (clerk in America). This is at the very end of post-war London, and the city, unawares, is about to be convulsed by a vast societal upheaval, Antony Burgess and Mary Quant and Mick Jagger and London swing like a pendulum do.
But this is right at the beginning, when change is about to stir, and in this time, the clarks all wear black suits with narrow lapels and skinny dark ties, and black bowlers and carry black umbrellas. The only color to be seen is grimy boiled-liver grey.