Quotation: Selecting Clothes

“What you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blindly unaware of the fact that, in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room.”

-Lauren Weisberger, The Devil Wears Prada, 2003

Gift A Wardrobe for Graduation

Thinking about what to get a man who'll be completing his bachelor's degree this Spring? Consider presenting him with a wardrobe for his first job.

If I ignore their sweats and tee shirts, most young men of my acquaintance enter the work force with a selection of cotton trousers, some sports shirts, casual shoes, and perhaps an odd jacket or two if they're lucky. In other words, they are completely unprepared for the competition on the next stage of their lives. A new wardrobe is a substantial but (barely) affordable gift that will put your professionally attired gift receipient half a step ahead of most of his contemporaries.

I've written elsewhere that there are few jobs for new graduates that require suits every day, however a suit is necessary to obtain most professional positions and periodically needed during a man's first years in the work force. The rest of the time a dress shirt, respectable trousers and leather shoes are all that are required for most entry level analysts, engineers or marketeers. A navy and a charcoal suit, two pair of dress shoes, ten dress shirts and three pair of dress trousers will probably do the trick for $3,000 to $4,000. Let him spend his own money on a couple of neckties.

For most of the items. mid-level clothing from a chain like Brooks Brothers (or any other whose name does not end in Wearhouse) is perfectly adequate. The suits and trousers should be medium weight wool. One pair of shoes should be black punch cap oxfords and the other dark brown casuals that are formal enough for a young man to wear with a suit. When you're done with the shoes and tailored clothing, take him to a modestly priced shirtmaker and get him some shirts that fit.

Unlike the young chaps in the drawing, he won't need a fedora.

A Monk's Tale

Having shoes made to order, bespoke or otherwise, is the only way I know to build a substantial wardrobe of shoe styles. But the experience is not always perfect.

No Edward Green novice, as the rows of shoes in my closets will attest, I ordered a pair of monks from EG's London store in the Fall of 2005. I take a 9D oxford, and, since monks can differ, I had the fit checked at the store beforehand. Of course, I wanted the 82 last for its long elegant toe and there was not a monkstrap in that last available to try. That had never been a problem in the past, so I went forward.

Now the ideal MTO order program would have a supply of trial shoes in every model, last and size at the retailer to ensure proper fit. But that's expensive for the maker and Edward Green does not follow this practice. They should.

Sure enough, when the shoes arrived four months later they were too big. The 82 is a bit longer than the earlier generation of EG lasts and there was a half inch gap behind my heel. I couldn't keep them on during a step. So back they went to the store with a request that they be re-made a size smaller.

Four months later, a familiar brown package was delivered and I was excited as I ripped open the box. My excitement turned to dismay when I found the shoes seemed exactly the same as they had been. No-one knows precisely how this occurred as my email was specific, and this inattention to detail ended my relationship with the London EG store (they had delivered my previous order in dark oak calf instead of dark oak willow grain).

The shoes sat in my closet for a few weeks until I noticed that there would be an Edward Green trunk shoe at Malouf's in Burlingame, California. I drove 75 miles on a Sunday with my monks on the appointed day, where Robert Godley, Edward Green's representative, examined the fit and agreed that I needed a smaller width. After several emails, back the shoes went to England for an "expedited" re-lasting which took the same four months as any other order (another thing that could definitely be improved by the company).

When the shoes arrived for the third time, it was ten months since my purchase (perhaps fifteen months since the order was placed) and the fit was better. There is still a gap behind my heel, and I can still remove the shoes by flexing my foot and stepping out of them. But they are wearable.

Now throughout this series of unfortunate events, Edward Green had its usual commitment to customer service. If I'd been willing to continue to absorb the cost of returning the shoes to the factory each time, I believe the company would have continued trying to adjust the shoes. However, life is too short and I gave up. Shoes are not meant to spend their life sitting at a factory waiting to be re-lasted, and mine are in my closet where I can wear them.

I love the look of the Yardley's long mottled brown hand stitched toe under a pair of grey flannel trousers, but the experience left a lot to be desired. I think of it about once a month when I wear my monks, as I did yesterday.

A Basted Fitting

Peter Harvey of Fallan & Harvey was in San Francisco this week and I had an appointment for a basted fitting. Fallan & Harvey are tailors based on Sackville Street in London, near Savile Row (there is no web site).

I'd come to Peter last year on the recommendation of a friend after I decided to find a second tailor, one who would make me single breasted jackets with a traditional three button front. I commissioned a summer odd jacket of ten ounce fresco that will have a minimum of lining for our hot wine country summers.

The jacket, which at this stage is held together with cotton basting, felt as light and airy as I'd hoped it would be when I ordered it. I'll need to be careful putting it on as the unlined fresco grabs at the shirt sleeves a bit, but I elected to experiment with unlined sleeves in the hope that they will be cooler.

Since this jacket is from a new pattern, I expected it to require adjustments and it did. In the first two photos, Peter is noting that the lapels are a bit off at the top and the quarters are too straight at the bottom.The armholes are also too high and in the third photo Peter is marking the adjustment before he removes the sleeves.

Once we were comfortable with the work that is to be done before my forward fitting in London this coming July, Peter let me know that the gilt buttons I'd requested (there will be two gold buttons on each sleeve) are no longer available from Holland & Sherry. In the fourth photo he's showing me substitutes in the same pattern that he'd found from another source.

I've learned the hard way to limit myself to one jacket or suit at a time until a tailor's pattern is perfected but I'm hoping that the coat will need little more than sleeve buttons at the forward fitting so that it can be delivered no later than this Fall. That will be a year after I ordered it. I'm not traveling to Europe monthly any longer and delayed gratification is the new name of the game. It comes from living in a city without much in the way of local tailors, but that's been true all the time I've been living here.

Wrist Watch Parricide

Parricide is the killing of a close relative, which is what we're seeing the cell phone do to the wrist watch these days.

It's interesting that when the watch was new it was considered impolite to carry one in social situations, let alone refer to it. At dinner parties, checking the time was an insult to one's hostess.

Today, it's equally offensive to carry an active cell phone to a dinner party and worse to use one. The distraction of the ring, or the call, is the offense of the newer generation. I'm not aware that anyone has ever done a survey to establish whether the men talking on their phones at a party had fathers who were known for checking their watches while the coffee was being served, but I'll bet there's a correlation.

The wrist watch is definitely dying (as is the camera, but we don't wear cameras). Unit sales have been declining 5-10% annually, principally at the low end, where the cell has its biggest impact, for a couple of years. Why spend money on a watch when you already have the time available from multiple sources? The only justifications are as a fashion statement or as jewelry.

High quality pocket watches have not been worn by the average man for more than fifty years but there is still a market for beautifully made mechanical versions. The same will continue to be true for high quality wrist watches, like the pictured post-War Patek Philippe World Time, for the forseeable future. But the end is in sight.

Working Wardrobes

There are probably three stages of evolution for a professional wardrobe. I think of them as Starting Out, Mid-Career and I've Made It. and they apply to everyone that works in large organizations (there's a completely different track for men whose career depends on standing out, as exemplified by the photograph of English writer Nick Foulkes).

When someone is starting out, dressing for the position he wants instead of the position he has can be an important part of a career strategy. But it’s not simple dressing for success because it's disastrous to overdo it. Trying too hard is counterproductive -it does little good to be well dressed with a back full of arrows from alienated co-workers.

You'd think that dressing for the next level up would be unproductive but it works because surprisingly few people actually do it. Starting Out is when people need to start investing in a sound clothing foundation that will serve them for at least half of the rest of their lives (quality clothing lasts a surprisingly long time). Acquire tried and true basics that don't call attention to themselves so they can be worn repeatedly without anyone thinking "It must be Tuesday. Will's got that cream linen jacket on again." The strategy may sound boring but it's possible to be both well and appropriately dressed in many organizations while wearing nothing more than shirts, trousers and sweaters. It doesn't cost a fortune either.

Mid Career is just more of the same on a bigger playing field. In mid-career, people begin dealing with people from outside their organizations and their wardrobes need to accommodate meetings with people in different environments that may include bankers in London and factory managers in Shanghai as well as the folks they began their career with. This is the time when a man needs a wardrobe full of the equivalent of a gray pick and pick suit, blue end on end shirt, dark brown oxfords, a black grenadine necktie and a white linen handkerchief for his jacket's breast pocket.

Only when a man gets to I've Made It may he be free to really express himself with his dress where he earns a living. That may just mean he wears khakis and polos every day because it's what's appropriate when he's making artisanal goat cheese. It could mean he's the one guy in the company that comes in wearing a Savile Row suit and a bow tie. Whatever his style, it's unlikely that his tweeds are as brightly patterned as those of Mr. Foulkes.

Reader Questions

From Sam

"Since my lifestyle does not require me to wear a suit on a daily basis, I find odd jackets to be more useful and versatile than suits. I prefer a 1-button jacket a-la Huntsman style and will most likely commission a notch lapel jacket with patch pockets and side vents from my tailor. What would you say is the quintessential fall jacketing?"

Since it's for Fall, the jacket should probably be tweed (like the one on the Prince of an actor in the photo) unless you've already got an abundance of tweed jackets.

Gray Harris tweed (or a black and white houndstooth) is useful if you're going to wear the coat principally while earning a living. If it's for the country, or for a campus, consider a Breanish or a Donegal in tan or orange (like the ones from Andrew Elliot Ltd).


From Raymond

"I thought that perhaps you could help me navigate a situation. I ordered a few made to measure shirts from a well known artisan and the sleeves are simply too short. Everything else is great. Is this a do over? Or are shirtmakers able to simply make new sleeves? Should I insist on new shirts?"

First order? Since you didn't mention it, I presume there was not a sample shirt made before the rest of the order to get the fit right. In that case, if you did nothing to cause the sleeves to be too short, the maker should fix them at its expense. Reputable shirtmakers will do so, and hopefully you are dealing with one of them.

If they do agree to fix the problem, how they fix it will be up to them. They should be able to replace the sleeves without you being able to tell any difference.

Quotation: Keeping Up Standards

"He went into his room where his things were as neatly laid out as if he had an English valet, undressed, and, walking down the stairs to the bath-house, sluiced himself with cool water. The only concession he made to the climate was to wear a white dinner-jacket; but otherwise, in a boiled shirt and a high collar, silk socks and patent-leather shoes, he dressed as formally as though he were dining at his club in Pall Mall. A careful host, he went into the dining-room to see that the table was properly laid. It was gay with orchids, and the silver shone brightly. The napkins were folded into elaborate shapes. Shaded candles in silver candle-sticks shed a soft light. Mr. Warburton smiled his approval and returned to the sitting-room to await his guest. Presently he appeared. Cooper was wearing the khaki shorts, the khaki shirt, and the ragged jacket in which he had landed. Mr. Warburton's smile of greeting froze on his face.

"Halloa, you're all dressed up," said Cooper. "I didn't know you were going to do that. I very nearly put on a sarong."

"It doesn`t matter at all. I daresay your boys were busy."

"You needn't have bothered to dress on my account, you know."

"I didn't. I always dress for dinner."

"Even when you're alone?"

"Especially when I'm alone," replied Mr. Warburton, with a frigid stare."

-W. Somerset Maugham, The Outstation

Gabardine: Spring's Silky Sheen

Spring has sprung, and the first sunny day after any remaining snow has completely melted should find men reaching into their clothes storage bags for the quintessential suit of the season - the tan gabardine, preferably, in this man's opinion, double breasted.

According to cloth merchant Holland & Sherry, gabardine is "a fine steep twill effect (approximately 60 degrees) on account of the predominance of the warp over the weft." The cloth is usually woven in a 12 ounce/370 gram weight (H&S also makes a too light 9 ounce Super 150 version), and it's a tight weave so it wears warm. That means gabardine feels best between 55 and 75 degrees farenheit. Any warmer and I sweat.

Tan gabardine may be the best foil for a black silk grenadine necktie but it's well behaved with just about item of clothing that complements either blue or gray suits. Wear it with shoes in hues of brown as well as brown and white spectators. Men who appreciate gabardine's crisp good looks will often add a second suit in navy, odd trousers in olive and shades of brown, and perhaps one of the belted back odd jackets we mentioned the other day.

Maintenance: Wool, Wrinkles and Steam

It takes constant vigilance to keep tailored clothing looking as good as that worn by the late John Russell, the 13th Duke of Bedford and one of the best dressed men of the twentieth century in the opinion of Vanity Fair magazine.

With proper care the natural qualities of wool clothing can be maintained for years. Wool garments should ideally only be dry-cleaned at the end of each season, preferably immediately before storage to remove any dirt that might be attractive to moths. Avoidance of dry cleaning (the chemicals are not wool friendly and accelerate ageing) requires other kinds of care before and after wear.

Once a wool garment is worn, it should be stored on a shaped or padded hanger to rest for at least 24 hours (for worsteds; flannels and tweeds should rest for at least two days). Give it a good brushing, empty the pockets, remove belts and hang with closures zipped or buttoned. Many wrinkles that developed during the wear will fall out of their own accord overnight.

Before wearing the garment the next time, remove remaining wrinkles, and any new ones that developed during storage, with a steamer. Steam relaxes the fibers and, unlike ironing, will not scorch them.

Founded in 1940, Jiffy Steamer is the oldest U.S. manufacturer of steaming equipment for wrinkle removal. According to the company, Jiffy manufactures over 16 fabric steamers and clothes steamer models.

The Jiffy J-2000M Steamer ($189 from the company) is the model the company recommends for home use on clothing. I have one at home and it wipes wrinkles away quickly and easily with a continuous flow of steam. I also pack Jiffy's Esteam travel steamer ($69 from the company) when I'm going on the road. It weighs a few pounds but is much more effective than the irons found in even the best hotels. Turning on the shower in order to fill the bathroom with steam has never successfully removed clothing wrinkles for me and frankly it bothers me to use so much water for so little reward.

Wearing Odd Jackets

Until the introduction of the Norfolk in 1918, there was no such thing as a sports jacket. At resorts, men sometimes wore their suit coats with trousers (often white flannel) from a different suit. But once the Norfolk became popular for shooting, the odd jacket took off. What we would consider a standard three button jacket was ubiquitous in the well-provisioned wardrobes of the mid 1920's and the Norfolk was followed by jackets specific to other sports, the source of the wealth of details that differentiates odd jackets.

Most odd jackets have long been blue (the ubiquitous blazer), gray (usually combinations of black and white that appear gray) for city wear, and tan or brown for the country. The most important fabrics are tweed, flannel and linen followed by gabardine (usually with a belted back). Pattern is found most frequently in the tweeds.

The principal differences between suit and odd jackets should be in the details. Avoid odd jackets that have been made with suit coat features, saving the maker money at the expense of style. Instead, revel in patch pockets, slanted hacking pockets, bellows pockets, pleated backs, and half and full belts. Though hopefully not all at the same time.

Every wardrobe should have a solid tan and a solid blue jacket in summer cloth, and a blue jacket and a tweed or two for winter. You can combine them with fresco, gabardine and flannel dress trousers as well as more casual linen and cotton corduroy, moleskin and drill. If you wear them with a neckties, think of cashmere and linen solids in season as well as silk ribbon stripes and bar stripes. Gummed twill paisley makes a beautiful Fall necktie if you can find it.

The rules for mix and match separates are simple. Wear dark trousers with a light jacket, and light trousers with a dark one. And if either jacket or trousers is patterned, the other piece should usually be a solid.

Personally, I believe that odd jackets are not ideal for business. Business clothes are supposed to fade in to the background, and an odd jacket that doesn't stand out is neither fish nor fowl. When you need neutral clothes, spend your money on a suit. For travel or leisure, wear a tan fresco jacket with patch pockets and gilt buttons in summer. Or a three button gun club tweed with leather buttons, lapel extension and bellows pockets in the Fall. The bolder the better!

Walk A Mile on These Soles

A day spent walking the streets of any city as a tourist calls for comfortable shoes. For seeing the sights, I like crepe soles on open laced shoes, so when I wore mine out a while ago I determined to replace them before this year's tourist travel.

My first stop was Edward Green, which doesn't offer crepe soles because, according to managing director Hilary Freeman, "crepe is sold in sheet form and we are left with material which becomes rigid before we are able to use it all." She prefers Dainite, and though I like that material as well I already have a pair. My goal was crepe.

I like crepe because it's soft and cushiony, and provides good traction on wet or dry concrete and bricks. There are a couple of downsides - natural crepe is plantation grown rubber and will become temporarily rigid if frozen or very soft if left in the heat. The cure for rigidity is a minute in a low oven and to fix softness, just sprinkle talcum powder on the soles.

My second stop was Gaziano & Girling, which it turns out does offer crepe. I'm hoping that my crepe soled Wells in chestnut pin grain arrive in time to walk around Glasgow this Fall.

Photo: Gaziano & Girling

Fashion in LA

Not knowing what to expect, I registered to cover the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Los Angeles this week. The LA version apparently doesn't get the well-known names that the New York show attracts in the Fall and that means the PR people have to work a lot harder. So far I've received attractive email invitations to the premier of not one but two lines of multi-cultural clothing printed with messages of unity, a rock concert for a maker of torn tee shirts and ripped jeans and an exciting new line of sexy men's underwear. 1% of all proceeds seem to be going to one charity or another. And there are more than a dozen brunches and runway shows for undescribed things I haven't heard of and can't Google because the sponsors don't seem to have web sites. I've never understood how companies can stay in business when they don't tell people what they do.

Anyway, if I don't include the sexy underwear there's apparently no classic men's clothing on display at Fashion Week and the best dressed men on site will apparently look something like the guy in the photo to the left. That's not for me. Though one invitation almost got me to the airport despite all, and that was to the TART Fall 2007 Runway Show - The Vamp, The Vixen and La Femme Nikita. I've always been a sucker for a woman with an automatic weapon and I know an editor at a gun magazine that might be interested in joining me.

But in the end I decided to hold out for the Milan show next January. You may want to enjoy the party as well, all expenses paid. DETAILS magazine is running a drawing with a grand prize that includes a 3-day, 3-night getaway for two to Milan with round-trip airfare, accommodation, and tickets to Dolce & Gabbana's fashion show, including a trip backstage to meet the designers.

After the fashion, we can go over to Caraceni and take in some style.

Quotation: Dress and Manners

"To be well-dressed gives one an ease of manner that is agreeable to all. The consciousness of being well-dressed gives a self-possession that no one can enjoy if he feels that he is shabby-looking or that his clothes are unbecoming. He forgets self in the first instance; in the second he cannot banish self."

-Annie Randall White, Polite Society, At Home and Abroad, 1901

Pinned Shirt Collars

In his day, columnist Herb Caen was arguably one of San Francisco's best dressed men (I say arguably only because of his penchant for unfortunate neckties) and a good customer of Savile Row's Henry Poole. As I leafed through a collection of his work last week I was struck by how often he was photographed wearing pinned collars. Good for him.

Like a tab collar, the virtue of a pin is that it raises the necktie knot. Though some deem it a little fussy or a little flash, it's better than a tab because when you remove the pin and necktie, you're left with an ordinary shirt collar. At least you are if you haven't indulged in one of those shirts that's got little holes sewn so you don't have to put the pin through the cloth. I consider that unnecessary as the weave will close up again during laundering, whereas pre-sewn eyelets mean a shirt is unwearable if you don't feel like pinning it that day.

Collars for pins come in two styles. There's the straight collar, usually about 3" long, and the rounded corner club (Brooks Brothers calls it the golf). I like to pin my club collars if I'm wearing them in the city, and I leave them unpinned in the country. That means I probably pin an individual shirt perhaps twice a year, so any damage caused by the pin is hardly a factor in the shirt's longevity.

If you're looking to acquire a pin, the safety pin style should be about 2" long or a little longer. Broderick has them in 14 carat gold for $180, and in gold plate or sterling for less than $30.

Sources: J & J Minnis - John G. Hardy

If you want one of the world's best trouser makers, such as Naples' Salvatore Ambrosi, to make for you, you have to provide the cloth. Unlike most of the suppliers to bespoke tailors and high end ready to wear clothing manufacturers, royal warrant holders J & J Minnis - John G. Hardy sell some of the best cloth of their types directly to retail customers.

Minnis and Hardy are the two trading names for English cloth merchants Hunt & Winterbotham of Huddersfield, England. Though they have many other offerings, Minnis is particularly known for its flannels and frescos (the term fresco was patented and trademarked by the company in 1907), and Hardy holds up its end with a range of 12 ounce Venetian, Gaberdine, Whipcord, Bedford Cord and Cavalry Twill fabrics. The two also offer good quality tweeds and worsteds.

Retail pricing for this stuff is steep. A pair of my high waisted trousers requires two meters of cloth starting at £30.00 per meter for cottons and £60.00 per meter for gabardine and fresco (including VAT that is deducted from the price paid by buyers from outside the UK). Customers can order directly off the web site, which has photos of all the cloth.

On the negative side, the photos are dark and don't show detail. A 3% surcharge is added for credit cards, which I believe violates the Visa and Mastercard merchant agreements. The company doesn't respond to emails (I had an answer to one inquiry out of four). And what I dislike most is the company's insistance on sending parcels to the States by UPS. Unlike the Postal Service, UPS adds to the shipping charge an exorbitant fee for clearing the parcel through customs. But the flannel, in particular, is probably worth dealing with those irritations.

The Smell of a Man

According to Esquire's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Men's Fashions, Puritan-influenced American men didn't wear scent a century ago. That made them late to the party as the great perfume houses were founded earlier than that. Creed, for example, has been owned by the same family since 1760.

Despite of America's late start, or perhaps because of it, film star Rudolph Valentino's masculinity was questioned during the 1920's because, among other faults, he wore a citrusy cologne. Fortunately, that implied connection had disappeared by 1965. Products for men went through an "It's OK if it smells like it came from a barber shop" phase followed by near complete acceptance.

Scents have a vocabulary all their own. Topnotes are the first smell that registers with the brain. Mid notes follow. They are the body of the scent that takes over after the initial smell dissipates. Finally, we detect the base, which is comprised of the fixatives used to hold and boost the strength of the earlier notes. Base notes are typically rich and slow to emerge. They evaporate slowly, and are responsible for the lingering scent of the fragrance.

My personal favorites include Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet for day wear ($90 for 100ml). It is delicate, with citrus and lavender on top, pine in the middle and a woody base. The scent is gone by end of day, leaving your skin ready for something else.

For evening, I like Creed's Green Irish Tweed (about $100 for four ounces - four ounces are about the same as 100ml - from various web sites). GIT has a base of ambergris and sandalwood, a middle of iris and violet, and a top of lemon and verbena. Technically it's a perfume and much more concentrated than a typical cologne, which may account for its more enduring scent.

Whatever scent you wear, it should be noticeable only inside an area extending about two feet around your physical self. If you are one of those men who can't smell himself when he's that discreet, sprinkle a drop or two inside your handkerchief at the beginning of the day and you'll get a reminder whenever you raise it to your face.

Reader Questions

From Jess

"I am eyeing a pair of very dressy burgundy wingtips but I don't want to blow my money on them if I'll never wear them. I don't wear a suit more than once every few months, though I dress pretty nicely (sweaters, button-down shirts, slacks) day to day. So I guess my question is whether this kind of shoe is good with anything other than a suit, and if so when. I guess I'm a little gun shy here because they're so much dressier than any shoes I've ever had."

Brogues are the least formal oxford and though they are perhaps not the ideal shoe to wear with worsted suits they do pair well with tweeds and flannels. That said, I think you'd get more wear from a pair of bluchers with open lacing, like the pictured shoes from Gaziano & Girling. The less formal bluchers can be worn anywhere that the brogues are appropriate and they work better without a jacket.

Quotation: Sports Jackets As Business Attire

"Last Friday, His Worship the Mayor warned his vassals that those who report to work in jeans, tennies, T-shirts or any combination thereof would be sent home to change their clothes and be docked for the time thus wasted. This, mind you, from the same mayor who showed up the day before at the Chamber of Commerce's grand annual luncheon at the Fairmont, wearing a light tan sports jacket instead of a dark business suit of whatever make. This is to let the fashion arbiter know that a sports jacket is permissible business attire on only two weekdays: on Monday, to indicate that you just returned from your place in the country, or on Friday, to show that you are about to depart for a weekend..."

-Herb Caen, San Francisco Chronicle, February 6, 1996

Umbrella Etiquette

Umbrella wielding gentlemen like the ones pictured to the left have an obligation to their fellow pedestrians. In Tokyo, umbrella etiquette extends to holding yours open while the person disembarking from the bus behind you gets his deployed. According to a poster on the Craigslist forum, New York City's rules of umbrella etiquette are more basic:

1. Please leave your patio umbrellas in storage or attached to said patio table. You egomaniacs do not need to take up a 10 ft radius of dry space.

2. If you choose to ignore Rule #1, please have the common courtesy to raise your patio umbrella when sharing sidewalk space with other umbrella-carriers. Not doing so will result in umbrella fender benders and will block traffic behind you, causing both coffee and people to spill.

3. If wearing a rain parka, hat, and a hood, please leave your umbrella at home. Once again, dry space is limited and you have already established your necessary space.

4. If it is determined that you need an umbrella, please do not then hog overhangs or awnings. Once again, you have a f#!%*~g umbrella, so please reserve limited dry space for the poor shleps who do not.

5. Please, for the love of god, if you have spiky metal points shooting outof your umbrella, use extra caution when cutting people off, etc. or just f#!%*~g buy a new $3 umbrella - they are everywhere.

If these rules are not followed, then any fellow New Yorker has the right to take your umbrella, patio or otherwise, and beat you with it.

Of course, New York is not the only place that gets wet. Given the climate, the English had incentive to perfect the umbrella and the firm of Swaine Adeney Brigg & Sons has come close to achieving that high standard. A Brigg umbrella is usually made of a single piece of wood, and the handle crook is bent by hand using steam. The frame is made from oil tempered steel, the springs are individually crafted from nickel silver and the ribs and stretchers are hand wired together to add strength. Finally, the umbrella canopy is made from waterproofed silk. The result costs considerably more than $3.

Style Icons: Charlie Watts

Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones, is on Vanity Fair's international best dressed list and deservedly so. Charlie dresses the opposite of most men. When he’s working, he’s wearing a colored cotton tee shirt and trousers. On his own time, when you see him on a London street, he’s wearing a Savile Row suit sans necktie. And they are very nice suits, with a relaxed, comfortable feel to them, in solid colors like khaki and pastels in addition to standard English pinstripes. It’s a look that has taken him a couple of decades of dedicated shopping to perfect and it works well for him.

One of the things I admire about Charlie's style is that, unlike George Clooney, he usually manages to avoid the unfinished open collar look whether or not he's wearing a necktie. Charlie wears shirts buttoned to the neck, mock turtlenecks, and, one of my personal favorites with an open dress shirt, a scarf tied in a loose four in hand with the end thrown over the top of the knot. Out of the ordinary and familiar at the same time, it's a well dressed look that's been used successfully for 75 years.

Contrast Collars

Contrast collar shirts are a look that goes back to the time when shirt collars were separate from shirt bodies. Prior to 1920, if you owned a striped shirt body you probably didn't own a matching collar and so you wore white. Today, the collar is sewn on. The collar should be spread and cuffs should be french and, while the cuffs don't have to be white, I think the shirt looks better that way.

Many contrast collar shirts began as conventional solids and stripes. Visible wear happens first at a shirt's collars and cuffs and it's just good sense to return them to the shirt maker for new ones. Since the fabric of a colored shirt will often not match the original bolt after fifty or a hundred launderings, the shirt maker replaces the worn collar with white. That's how most of my contrast collar shirts came about.

White collars on colored shirt bodies are not for the insecure. The combination is seen reasonably often in London and Manhattan but it's a definite standout once you leave those islands of formality. Wear it with dark suits and discreet neckties. Plain white linen pocket squares pick up the white collar perfectly.

Edward Green Top Drawer

Hilary Freeman (the lady in the photo), Managing Director of shoemaker Edward Green, is currently on a trunk show tour of America. She has a sample of the new Top Drawer model with her and I was able to examine it last week.

Top Drawer models feature a hand shaped fiddleback waist, the buyer's initials on the sole by the heel, a built-up not-quite-Cuban style heel, a spade shaped sole edge, and a handwritten sock with the buyer's name. They receive special attention during polishing and are shipped with specially shaped shoe trees. At least on the sample I saw, the stitching around the sole is very well done.

Top Drawer orders are clicked and closed like regular Edward Green shoes and then lasted by a team of four craftsman who each specialize in one part of the shoe. The result looks every bit as good as my bespoke Cleverleys.

The pricing, which in the United States will be roughly $1600 through EG distribution and $1900 through Polo, is comparable to John Lobb Prestige. That's a stiff premium over Gaziano & Girling's ready to wear, however I believe the G&Gs will go up rapidly in price once they are actually delivering shoes. Top Drawer shoes are finished better than Lobb Prestige, though Lobb's models are exclusive to the Prestige line. That's an advantage on the Lobb side of the fence.

Japan is EG's most important market and the price is likely to find less resistance there than it will in the U.S. Further, Hilary told me that if you have an Edward Green bespoke last made while Tony Gaziano was working there, EG will make your Top Drawer shoes on that last. She said the same to two friends that went to see her separately.

There are several hundred men for whom that offer will be an outstanding bargain. 80% or better of a fully bespoke shoe at half the price.