John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, had style. I was leafing through a book of photos of his life when I noticed him wearing a 6x2 double breasted jacket buttoned to the bottom button as a young man. Then a jacket cut in the paddock model. And a suit cut the same way. And then another. Here he is as a young man with his mother and sister. Notice the buttons on the jacket.
I'd never seen any man other than the late Duke of Windsor wearing a paddock model coat, a bespoke cut where the jacket carries two buttons that are placed higher than normal because they are both buttoned during wear. One button is about 2" above the waist and the other 2" below it, making the wearer look a bit taller. Kennedy was a six footer, but he apparently liked the illusion of height. Here he is at the White House with his brothers years later. Same style jacket.
As an adult, Kennedy wore conservative Savile Row suits in 10 or 11 ounce worsted, dark neckties, white shirts with french cuffs and discreet cufflinks, black oxfords and a white handkerchief in his breast pocket. Here are the Kennedy brothers again, at Hyannisport. John is wearing an odd jacket instead of a suit, with the same paddock style cut. The man had style. 
Posts
4 comments:
JFK often wore a back brace as he suffered serious injuries in WWII. I wonder if the use of the paddock cut helped to hide the brace.
You could be correct. On the other hand, there are many photos of him sailing where he wears only a polo shirt and no brace is visible.
Doesn't the paddock have an unfortunate tendency to emphasize one's midsection? I'm looking mainly at the photo of the older JFK in the middle, where his middle-aged paunch is visible.
Any single breasted coat will do a bit of that if it's tighter than it should be, particularly jackets with open front quarters.
Post a Comment