"Goldfinger had made an attempt to look smart at golf and that is the only way of dressing that is incongruous on the links. Everything matched in a blaze of rust-coloured tweed from the buttoned golfer's cap centered on the huge flaming red hair, to the brilliantly polished almost orange shoes. The plus-four suit was too well cut and the plus-fours themselves had been pressed down the sides."
Inexpensive Portuguese imports gave rosé wines a bad name when I was a young man. That's a good thing if the lingering vestige of that reputation holds down demand for summer's best tipple - rosé champagne.
Most shoes, including most of the world's best names in ready to wear, are made by machine. But some makers have a different formula - handmade shoes on standard lasts.
By hand made on standard lasts (the last is the block of wood that the shoe is built around), I mean shoes made for stock or to order in standard sizes. Bespoke shoes are made on a last made for the individual customer, which adds significantly to the cost of the first pair of shoes. Most shoes are made on generic sized lasts, just as most suits are made to fit generic men, and that process offers significant savings that doesn't have to compromise fit if the buyer can find a standard shoe that fits his foot.
When it comes to the hand made part, I mean literally made by hand. Maybe the upper is stitched together by a person using a sewing machine, but otherwise the shoes are constructed with needles and thread just as they were 150 years ago. Hand stitching makes a stronger shoe, and one with more shape. There is still no shoemaking machine available at any price that can construct a waist as elegant as one made by hand.
"To be dressed too well is, perhaps, even worse than to be dressed shabbily. A first-class tailor will always make anonymous clothes for you. They will never be too fashionable, they will never follow the latest craze but their quality and cut will tell even after many years. Clothes should be obviously good but they must not scream: 'Look at me, how elegant I am!' The wearer's personality should always be stronger than his clothes, You should wear your clothes; never allow your clothes to wear you."
From Nate
"I live in Maine, which is a fairly rural state, and I work in an IT environment where the dress code is barely above burlap sacks. Nonetheless, I grew up in a Southern tradition where one's mode of dress and the attention with which one presented oneself was highly valued. I would like to dress and present myself better, without upsetting the applecart of my office too badly.
"That said, I have a limited budget with which to work, and I can hardly afford bespoke clothes or shoes at this time. Are there any wardrobe pieces that are beyond the 'starting out' phase that would be particularly useful for someone like me, in a more casual environment in a rural, woodsy location?
"One other question, can one wear a seersucker suit coat with unmatching trousers, since it comes so close to looking like an odd jacket anyway?"
Jcusey, my fellow moderator on Ask Andy About Clothes, also works in IT and though he loves clothes it would be inappropriate for him to wear a suit every day. Instead, he's developed his interest in shoes, and has some from many of the world's great makers. When I've seen him he's been off duty, dressed in an odd jacket, flannels and a handsome pair of shoes from his collection. So that's something to consider. You could start by getting fitted for some cordovan Aldens and then look for them on sale. Or, the next time you get to Boston, get fitted for some Edward Greens and then wait for the semi-annual sale to buy a pair from the London store.
Taking another page from jcusey's book, you could think about acquiring a tweed jacket and a pair of flannel trousers. Then consider a high quality linen jacket and some summer trousers. When you are off work, they'll give you a way to express your interest in clothing without straying far from what's worn in your part of the country.
Finally, I probably wear the jacket to my seersucker suit with cream flannel or linen trousers more often than I wear it with the suit trousers it came with. So, yes, use it as an odd jacket.
"Having a suit that fits - really fits - is wonderful. And whenever I don it, it will send my posture a couple of rungs up the evolutionary ladder. My life is no longer trainers and dress down Fridays. I now realise that dressing up is actually easier than dressing down. It requires less thought. Even John Cheever prepared for a day alone at his typewriter, in his backyard studio, by putting on a jacket and tie. So, when I have my picture taken at my wedding in December, I'll feel like I'm the best I can be. That's a feeling I've never had before."
The classic summer shoes are the brown or black and white spectator and the white buck. The buck, which comes in tan for wear in cooler weather, is either an oxford or a blucher made from unlined buckskin or reversed calf. The real thing has red rubber heels and soles (mine were purchased from Church's before the disastrous Prada acquisition but since they closed the San Francisco store and took the web site down I have no idea if they are still available).
Now there are other white shoes made with white leather uppers but they are not white bucks. Frankly, most of them should be avoided in my opinion unless they are intended for jogging or the basketball court. This includes those ubiquitous golf shoes made with white leather. We can help improve the taste of the manufacturers' offerings by just saying no.
White bucks are virtually obligatory with seersucker suits. They also pair well with cream or gray flannels, and linen trousers. Or, go sockless and wear them with shorts. But wear them.
Summer temperatures call for fabrics that breathe. The wind shouldn't be whistling through your jacket when the temperatures are below freezing, but mohair, fresco (along with its imitators like Holland & Sherry's CrispAire), and linen help keep a man cool as the thermometer climbs. Each of them will keep you cooler than a tropical worsted, and each has its negatives. So does worsted, for that matter.
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. 
A generation from now, the centuries old art of the Panama hat may have disappeared. Where there once were more than 2,000 of them, today a dozen master weavers, capable of making hats so finely woven that they feel like they are made of linen, remain in Ecuador. And no, the others have not moved to Panama. Panama hats are made in Ecuador.
From Bill
"I will be relocating to Chicago and need an overcoat. I'm interested in Hickey Freeman's camel hair polo coat. Is 18 oz fabric heavy enough for Chicago's winter weather?"
A topcoat is lighter than an overcoat, and it's meant for milder weather. 18 ounce fabric is the heavy end of topcoat cloth. That weight would be OK for brief exposure to the elements but you will want an overcoat if you're going to spend any significant Chicago winter time out of doors.
I actually grew up in Chicago and lived there briefly after I finished school. One winter we had a week of minus 80 degrees wind chill weather and I was walking to my office downtown each day. As soon as possible thereafter my wife and I moved to San Francisco.
Overcoats for winter weather are usually 21 or 22 ounces. They can be even heavier - I believe the old Meltons were 27 ounce fabric. If you'll be outside much, look for something heavier than 18 ounces.
I've seen plenty of photos of Brad Pitt's lounge lizard look (and Matt Damon's prep version of it) in Ocean's Thirteen, the new movie from Warner Brothers. But costume designer Louise Frogley's best work was done for Al Pacino, the inheritor of the overdressed mantle from Carl Reiner, who wore it in Ocean's Twelve.
In the second photo, Pacino's fuschia silk necktie would have been better worn with a blazer at a Sunday afternoon garden party. I believe this scene takes place in the evening, and a solid navy worsted would let him get away with wearing a silk square if he toned the ensemble down a couple of steps. As it his, his clothes compete with the ladies to each side of him. The women win going away.
Some critics have said that the Ocean’s series has had more influence on menswear than any movie since The Godfather. I'm afraid that most of that influence has been for the bad - Pitt sets gangster dress back twenty years - but Pacino is not the principal problem. Here his necktie is once again nicely coordinated, picking up the stripe in his shirt, in an unfortunate color and paired with a flashy square that's too similar. You could wear it, but you shouldn't want to.
Sunglasses certainly made a large contribution to the decline of the hat, fulfilling as they do the hat's keeping the glare from one's eyes duty, in an easier to carry form. Their popularity took off after aviator's glasses were worn by thousands of flying men during the Second World War.
Perhaps the quintessential pair were seen on Cary Grant. He wore the rectangular frame style from France's Francois Pinton. You can too. $330 from Ben Silver.
In 1923, according to a survey of 300 men in Palm Beach, Florida by the now-defunct Men's Wear, 76% wore white odd trousers or plus fours in flannel or linen, 21% wore suits, 1% wore gray flannels and 2% wore knickers in other fabrics. Trousers, particularly the gray flannel variety, have covered a lot of ground in the intervening 85 years, and we've substituted shorts for plus fours and knickers along the way.
But this essay is on trousers and there are two basic types with countless variations. For my taste, the dressier of the two are high waisted English style trousers cut to be worn beltless, with side tabs or braces (the straps that Americans call suspenders), and pleats in the front and cuffs on the bottoms. Braces let trousers hang straighter and don't require adjustment during the day. They are dressier because the high waist sits above a mature man's paunch and lets the trousers hang in a straight line to the shoe. Needless to say, this allows for a sleeker appearance than does a suggestion of stomach protruding over a belted waistline. The negative is that they should be covered by a vest or jacket at all times even if your name is Larry King.
Button cuffs may be the most obscure trouser detail. Instead of stitching the turned-up cuff to the trouser leg, the tailor sews a button to the inside of the cuff and a buttonhole on the seam of the pant leg. Each cuff has two buttons, one on each side. This feature can safely be left to men who commonly need to brush debris out of their trouser bottoms.
Finally, we should consider the fly, and that's usually closed by a zipper, a relatively modern invention that no longer jams like it used to. The older alternative is the button fly, normally eight buttons that pretty well guarantee that a man will be fumbling with himself at a urinal long enough to draw nervous glances from those around him. The Duke of Windsor preferred the zipper and that's good enough for me.
Trouser fabrics are widely available in much more variety than was seen in Palm Beach those many years ago. Flannel, linen, corduroy, cotton drill, and fresco are some of the common odd trouser types. For some thoughts on an odd trouser wardrobe, see my January essay here.
Looking at photographs of the heads of state of the Group of 8 nations has convinced me that we will learn little from looking at the dress of political men anywhere. So I am not going to repeat this type of essay for a while.
Nor am I going to waste our collective time bemoaning the lack of white linen in our leaders' breast pockets as our global challenges go deeper than that. Just as England's Prince Charles is photographed in jackets whose collars stand away from his neck now that he's switched to made to measure suits from Turnbull & Asser, the leaders of the free, semi-free and not so free world appear to have a disinterest in tailoring except as it fulfills its role as a uniform.
The poorly fitted collar tradition is honored by Vladimir Putin (right), whose statesmanlike dress could be improved by showing some shirt cuff and improved still more if he switched to a better tailor.
Canada's Stephen Harper shares Mr. Putin's fit problems but is at least showing a bit of cuff in this photo.
A lot has been written about Tony Blair's contribution to the decline of the British clothing industry. By global leader standards he's not terrible (on the right in the photo), but I don't understand why no-one on Savile Row has convinced him to switch from ready to wear suits so he could get rid of the roll of cloth behind his neck when he's seated. His trousers and his coat sleeves could stand to be shorter, he should save his black slip-ons for his off duty hours, and for god's sake get rid of the jacket with five buttons on the sleeve.
Posterity will remember George W. Bush for a number of things, among the the least of them the black boots with the presidential seal that he wore in the photo with a dinner jacket. He's usually respectably done up in suits but his evening clothes argue for addition by subtraction.
Nicholas Sarkozy's clothes (left) seem to suit him a bit better than the others we've seen so far. He pays homage to the French gabardine tradition with a two piece that's a lighter gray than is customarily seen on politicians of any nationality. And his shoes have tassels! That's fairly radical politics for a conservative.
I like most of what I see from Shinzo Abe. He seems representative of the many Japanese men that have paid more attention to Western dress traditions than their peers from the countries that originated it. That said, the photo is of his well turned out predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.
Italy's Romano Prodi honors his country's clothing industry with suits that actually appear to fit him, in subdued patterns that add a bit of interest compared to the sea of navy blue that will surround him at the G8 meeting at Heiligendamm this week. And the pale blue shirt is a better idea than politician white.
Finally, Angela Merkel of Germany (center, in blue). Jackets and trousers done reasonably well but in this daytime photo she'd have done better to choose a pair in charcoal rather than black. Hillary Clinton, please take note.
From Josepidal
"Does everyone have trouble completing an ensemble around spectator oxfords, an extremely casual color combination on an extremely formal shoe?"
Laced spectators are usually paired with light colored suits, or odd jackets and trousers. Cream or tan, light gray and light blue are all fine complements and I've worn a chestnut and pearl pair effectively with chocolate linen as well.
On the other hand, spectators are a bit too elegant for chinos and denim, and I don't think they work with dark suits.
From Andrew
"I recently had my first bespoke suit made and was so pleased with the results that I commissioned another. However, it is the selection of material that has given me the most trouble. I have a very difficult time selecting from the samples. It is very dificult to envision how an entire suit will look, how the fabric will drape, how the light will reflect off of it, and, quite frankly, what the color really is. Marching in to a local retailer is not much help either. While I might find a material I like, there is no guarantee my tailor will be able to match it. The best solution would seem to be to go to Savile Row where they can show me a bolt of cloth, or send me around the corner to Lesser or W. Bill. Failing that, what would you suggest?"
The first-time customer who is shown several hundred fabric books and asked to choose is going to be over-whelmed. No two ways about it.
Visiting cloth suppliers where you can see bolts will help, and that can be done in the U.S. and continental Europe as well as the UK. But it's also important do some research in advance and decide what you are seeking before you visit your tailor. If you know your next purchase should be a Fall weight navy suit with a little pattern, you eliminate the irrelevent 80% of the choices.
While you're learning, the best advice I can give you is to stick with the better suppliers. You are unlikely to be disappointed in the realization of a choice from sources like Lesser and Harrisons.
Good luck!
"Bond concluded his inspection with Drax's clothes which were expensive and in excellent taste, a dark blue pinstripe in light-weight flannel, double-breasted with turnback cuffs, a heavy white silk shirt with a stiff collar, an unobtrusive tie with a small gray and white check, modest cuff links, which looked like Cartier, and a plain gold Patek Philippe watch with a black leather strap."
In the United States, society today is in favor of each of us dressing as he pleases without consideration for any larger group norm. Most restaurants no longer have dress codes and evening dress is not prescribed at the opera.
But in those parts of the business world that still hold with conservative business dress, and that's most of Europe and Asia as well as midwestern and Northeastern cities in North America, there is still a dress standard.
Meeting expectations is important. The wrong clothes can get in the way of ordinary business transactions by diverting attention or sending signals that a person "is not one of us," particularly among bankers, civil servants, and people in professional services (excluding IT where it's only slightly unfair to say that the standard of dress is execrable everywhere in the world).
The photograph was taken last year at an investment conference in a resort hotel in France in the summer, and everyone is wearing a suit although they are at the seaside.
Imagine the surprise of a first-time attendee whose U.S. conference experience led him to expect a group dressed in polos and trousers. When visiting an unfamiliar place on business, there are only five things to remember in order to stay safely in the club:
Business dress conformity doesn't mean expensively dressed. Most of the suit-wearing people in the world wear inexpensive clothing, but the uniform can be spiffed up in subtle ways. For example, white shirts are a bit bourgeois during the day. Substitute cream with a navy suit and light blue with a charcoal suit. Add a solid navy tie with the gray suit, a charcoal tie with the navy, and show a quarter inch of white linen handkerchief in the jacket's breast pocket for a more sophisticated look that still won't raise any eyebrows.
Never underestimate the power of the suit. Here's one man's story:
"I was in a meeting room in Ludwigsburg, Germany with 150 other American managers of a German automaker. I was the only American wearing a suit and tie. Our host, a member of the Vorstand (Board of Directors) enters, surveys the room, walks over to me, introduces himself by first and last name, omitting his honorific ‘Doktor,’ and spends the rest of the evening talking to me. It shows you what a suit is worth in Europe."
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