Quotation: Looking Smart at Golf

"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."

-Ian Fleming, Goldfinger

Lifestyle: Summer's Tipple

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.

Rosé Champagne is a veritable baby among wines, having only been around since the 1960's. The good stuff is made by the saignée method, where the must, or juice, is left in contact with the skins of Pinot Noir grapes for several hours during the initial fermentation process in order to allow the color to develop. The methode Champenoise is followed thereafter.

I can't take Louis Roederer Cristal or Dom Pérignon Rosé lightly enough to quaff them liberally at $200 and up a bottle. Still expensive but considerably more affordable is Veuve Clicquot Brut Rosé ($50). It's dry and full bodied, with red fruit and citrus flavors and a creamy-yeasty finish.

Also worth considering is the best selling rosé in the world, Laurent-Perrier NV Brut Rosé ($75). It's bright and fresh, with notes of strawberries, raspberries and black cherries.

Finally, for a special occasion, you owe it to yourself to taste Nicolas Feuillatte's 1999 Rosé. A bit less than $200 when you can find it and for at least one fleeting moment you'll think about selling your portfolio to buy up all you can lay your hands on.

A Visit with Sam Malouf

I recently spent an hour with Sam Malouf, the family member that manages Malouf's of California. Malouf's is one of only two Bay area representatives on Esquire's Retail Top 100 Menswear Specialty Stores list (the other is Wilkes Bashford).

Malouf's is an unusual specialty store in that half of its business is men's wear and half is for women, and rarer still in that it emphasizes made to order clothing. I was happy to learn that Sam and I share the belief that most men would be better fitted if they chose made to measure shirts and tailored clothing over ready to wear, and the rest would benefit from the greater choice available.

Sam happily articulated the reasons he offers half a dozen made to measure lines of shirts alone, including Geneva, Talbott and Charvet. The store's made to measure tailored clothing lines includes Brioni, Oxxford, Zegna and Samuelsohn. There are also half a dozen shoe lines, topped by the only inventory of Edward Green in California aside from Polo's private labelled offerings (I originally learned of Malouf's from EG's Hilary Freeman).

That's not to say that Malouf's doesn't have a variety of sportswear. Any clothing specialist in the Bay area needs a great selection of casual clothing. Outside of a few pockets in the City of San Francisco, the local culture is tie-less - even the bankers wear neckties only when they are raising money. When they're meeting with people looking for investment, they wear odd jackets with open shirt collars. Sam told me he sells an odd jacket or blazer for every suit, and that sports shirts and trousers are his most popular work wear items.

But Malouf's also has the lines it needs to sell classic business clothing at several price points. There are three full-time tailors and a seamstress on site, and two men on the sales floor that are trained to measure customers. Even that is sometimes not enough when the store has an event that might be attended by half a dozen area CEOs who each expect individual attention. Right now.

Some things are the same in every city.

Rumpled in the Country

Linen jacket, linen shirt and linen trousers in the country this past weekend. As I've written before, I really like the drape of 14 ounce linen as well as its wearability in the summer heat despite its weight.

Hand Made Shoes

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.

Among hand made shoes, the differentiators are price, styling, and the degree of customization offered by the maker. Some start with a range of models in various shapes and let the customer pick the color, the type of leather and the style of sole. Other makers will also change features of the design, adding or removing punches or customizing toe medallions upon request. Still others will make anything. For the man with an extensive shoe wardrobe, more flexibility is better.

There are literally dozens of providers of hand made shoes on standard lasts, most of them very small operations. Probably the best known name, and certainly the most accessible, is Kiton. A basic set of Kiton models is available in the United States at Nieman Marcus stores in most major cities. It's a very good shoe with some machine sewing and a great finish. Unfortunately, the line is significantly over-priced at $2,500 a pair - several excellent makers of fully bespoke shoes charge less - and a customer can only obtain what Nieman Marcus carries in inventory.

Towards the other end of the hand made spectrum is Laszlo Vass of Budapest, which offers a superbly made traditional shoe starting at about $900 a pair in the United States (less if you travel to Hungary). The company doesn't allow much in the way of modification to their standard designs and it's somewhat difficult to obtain them in North America. Prospective customers either need to visit Budapest to fit the first pair or contact Gabor Halmos, the U. S. representative, to see if they can arrange to try a sample shoe.

I'm currently most excited about the demi-measure shoes of Parisian Dmitri Gomez (that's a version of his Richelieu, above). Gomez will hand make just about anything a customer can conceive on a standard last starting at about $1,600 per pair. That happens to be roughly the same price as a pair of Top Drawer Edward Green, a fine shoe whose make is not in the same class. The negative to Gomez is that you have to travel to Paris to be fitted, and, unless you have a friend that owes you a favor, travel there again to pick them up. He's too busy to ship shoes and a look at his work explains why.

Satin Ties for Evening

David Hober of Sam Hober sent me this photo of a gold herringbone last week and it reminded me of the pleasures of satin neckties for evening. I know that's not necessarily a logical connection. A herringbone is not a satin. But it's bright enough to fill the same function - I wore a close relative of this tie to dinner at Le Gavroche in London not long ago with a navy mohair suit and a white shirt.

A lounge suit with some sheen to the fabric combined with a white shirt and a satin tie are about as formal as you can get without packing black tie, and, at least for that trip, black tie would have required lugging an additional suitcase.

The Hobers expanded their offerings of solid ties in silk failles (grosgrain), royals & satins last month. I prefer my satins in dark red, gold and Pacific blue but the slate, copper and forest green versions might be a bit more off beat. Secondary colors tend to make more interesting neckties. Worth a look.

Gray Suit, White Shirt, Black Tie and Black Shoes

Gray suit, white shirt, black tie and black shoes. I dressed for a funeral this past Friday for the first time in many years. Hopefully it will be many years before I have to do it again.

See you on the other side Michael.

Quotation: To Be Dressed Too Well

"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."

-John Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford and member of Vanity Fair's Best Dressed Hall of Fame, The Duke of Bedford's Book of Snobs

Sources: Four In Hand

I discovered Jonathan Fischer's Four In Hand site when I was searching for one of Begg's paisley cashmere scarves for my wife. Alex Begg Scottish cashmere scarves are among the very finest I've ever seen but the patterned versions are hard to find. FIH had several.

That led me into a series of emails with Jonathan, the entrepreneur behind the site. I like his assortment of linen pocket squares with hand rolled edges ($24), the selection of Marinella neckties ($155) and the variety of short (56") neckties that accompany the more common regular (59") and long (63") lengths.

My first order was processed the same day and sent by DHL, Four In Hand's preferred shipper, with a tracker.

The company will accept neckties back within 14 days of receipt for a full refund of the merchandise price. Suits and outerwear can be returned within ten days for a full refund of the price paid for merchandise, and up to 14 days for a store credit. Unless otherwise arranged shipping costs are not credited.

Classic Style Magazine

If you don't already know about Classic Style Magazine, look for the Summer issue at U.S. bookstores. Better yet, go to the web site and subscribe.

The October/November issue will mark an increase in frequency from quarterly to every second month. That's a good sign....

Restraint

One thing that well dressed men have in common is a well developed sense of restraint. Take my friend Matt, for example. He wears clothes with a Neapolitan cut, and combines them with shoes that are too informal and too light in color to be appropriate by English standards. But the combinations work on him, and the reason is his restraint.

You see, when Matt dons an aggressively colored pair of shoes, he typically combines them with a solid colored suit, a shirt with a simple pattern and a conservative necktie. He'll show no more than a quarter inch of plain white pocket square. Instead of being supporting elements for the kind of ensemble you might find on Domenico Vacca, for example, where everything is often a bit short, or tight, colorful or otherwise noticeable, the shoes blend in. That's restraint.

I think restraint may be the most difficult thing to learn about dress because there's such a fine line between too loud and too boring. Clothes have to have a bit of color and cut or they're too dull. They have to have pattern, but get the combination wrong and suddenly they are too loud.

The boater hat on the man in the illustration would probably be over the top worn with a brighter necktie, patterned waistcoat and chestnut shoes the way you might see it on Mr. Vacca. But the hat band is bringing most of the color to the man's clothes and in that restrained context, it works. I don't think Matt would wear it though. He's not a hat guy.

Summer Socks

Last week, Alex Kabbaz and Joelle Kelly of CustomShirt1.com launched a major upgrade to their shopping site with a new checkout system that includes a member rewards program. Each purchase earns reward points equal to 10% of the purchase and once a member's account reaches 1,000 points they can be exchanged for merchandise.

Rewards are all the more reason to be pleased that the selection of cotton socks for summer has expanded dramatically this year. Readers may recall that I've complained about the dearth of striped socks available to those of us who have to do much of our shopping on the Web. Kabbaz and Kelly have eased my pain with new offerings from Pantherella and Marcoliani.

I don't generally care for many of Pantherella's color combinations, but their Sea Island stripes (the center photo) and solids are just fine and the quality is excellent. The Marcoliani offerings (top and bottom photos), on the other hand, are made from a humbler cotton and nylon combination but whoever designs the line has a great eye for color. In fact, the Bordeaux and the pine green colorings in Marcoliani's Merino wool dress hose are as close to perfect as I've seen in a sock and it doesn't get better than that.

Planning Your Wardrobe

The photo above was taken in one of the late Duke of Windsor's dressing rooms before the auction of his estate. He was a man whose clothing appetite had few constraints. Most of the rest of us have to make choices, and men who have to make choices should have a wardrobe plan to help them make the most of their limited resources.

A good plan begins with an annual clothing budget. Once you've determined spending level that's right for you, review your existing wardrobe and determine both your needs as well as any options that would add to your sartorial happiness. Calculate what you think you can spend per item without exceeding your budget - if you're budget constrained, and few of us are not, one way to arrive at amounts is to set aside about 80% of your funds for a pair of dress shoes and four suits, overcoats or jackets and trousers each year (if you consistently acquire clothing at that rate you will eventually have a respectable medium-sized wardrobe with roughly eight or nine pair of shoes and as many suits or jackets and trousers for each season). The amount available for each item determines whether you are thrifting, haunting the sale racks or getting fitted for bespoke clothing.

With budget in hand, review your wardrobe. For example, I am concentrating on summer suits this year as several of mine are coming due for replacement. Look at the patterns and colors in your closet, compare what you have to what you should have, and you'll soon know exactly what you should be looking for. If, like me, you're buying summer suits, you'll understand that you need to pass on that 13 ounce air force blue flannel suit in favor of something more seasonally appropriate. Your plan will also help you realize when you've over-weighted gray and need to add some blue or have too many solids but not enough stripes. In short, it's the difference between a balanced wardrobe that makes it easy for you to look good every day and a closet full of clothes.

The Cut of Your Shirt

Only a bit of a shirt shows at your wrists and below your neck, which is why the collar is the most important part of a shirt. Consider poor Stanley Tucci here, unbecomingly costumed for his role in The Devil Wears Prada. The fit of his collar is classic, with what appears to be just enough room to insert a couple of fingers between shirt and neck and about a half inch of shirt above the back of his jacket. But the proportion is off - the points of his collar are too long for his head.

Proportion isn't difficult to achieve with a couple of simple rules of thumb. Men with round faces should wear longer collars and men with long faces, wider collars like the spread. A long neck requires a collar with a higher band and vice versa. The average man's straight point collar should be about 3" long, plus or minus a quarter. Larger men can add another quarter inch and smaller ones subtract it.

But for the collar, only a couple other elements are important for shirts that will live under jackets all the time. For one, the shirt tails should be long enough so that they stay tucked in. That requires about six inches of fabric below the trouser waist. And for another, the shirt cuffs should fall to the base of the thumb (if a man's jackets are cut to end at this wrist bone, this dimension will produce the requisite half inch of visible shirt cuff between jacket and hand).

The thumb actually gives the lazy shirt maker a way an easy way to achieve fit as he can (and usually does) simply make the sleeves a bit long knowing that the width of the hand will make the fit appear fine. This is so easy to achieve that when a man appears in a jacket that shows no shirt cuff, as did the Princes of England at the recent Combined Cavalry Old Comrades Parade, it merely points out the unforgiveable sloppiness of their tailor.

Reader Questions

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.

Quotation: A Suit That Fits

"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."

-Richard Johnson, The Guardian

White Bucks

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.

A 'Tropic-Aire' Fedora

Art Fawcett is one of a handful of bespoke hatmakers remaining in the United States. Based in rural Oregon, his VS Custom Crafted Hats web site is more proof that great craftsmen can use the web to attract a clientele from all over the world.

My colleague AlanC recently took delivery of one of Fawcette's first 'Tropic-Aire' fedoras in natural felt. Unlined, it has a weight of just 3 ounces (a third lighter than standard). The high crown complements his face perfectly.



Hatmaking is a labor of love for Fawcett. He pays about $100 for a hat body and it takes him 8-10 hours to block and hand finish a $300 felt, so he's earning about $20 an hour. He uses nothing but pure beaver felts, new high grade leather sweats and pre-war vintage ribbon made from wood pulp instead of synthetics so it conforms closely to the shape of each hat. He starts the process by sending his customer a "conformer" device that gives him a precise measurement of the to-be-hatted head. And when he's done, he signs each hat by hand. Recommended.

Fabrics for Summer

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.

Mohair is the hair of an Angora goat. It's got a bit of sheen to it, which makes it a good fabric for a warm weather dinner jacket or a navy blue suit, and a tendency to crack if it's not blended with wool, but it stays crisp in the heat. Ten ounce cloth that's 30% or 40% mohair makes a cool wearing suit that drapes well. Higher proportions of mohair may show an ufortunate tendency to wilt in the rain.

Fresco is a rough-to-the-hand open weave worsted that's trademarked by the parent company of weaver J&J Minnis, provider of the good stuff. 14 ounces used to be the weight of a standard summer suit fifty years ago. Today I like ten, though it's available in eight (the eight doesn't drape as well, wrinkles more easily and is only a touch cooler). If you're a fan of high Super number worsteds, fresco may feel a bit rough until you get used to it but in compensation it has the additional benefit of rubbing any excess hair from your legs so you look better in a bathing suit.

And finally there's linen, woven from the plant. I prefer the Irish version in 14 ounce weight. Holland & Sherry makes some of the best. The negative to linen is that it rumples, though the heavier weights work to minimize that. Better suited for a walk through the park than a seat in the board room.

JFK's Paddock Model Jackets

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.

Ecuador Hats

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.

Weaving a quality Panama is slow, difficult work and a man (or woman, but the weavers tend to be men) can weave only enough tequila palm fibre for half a dozen Montecristi Finos in a year. Which is why the very best hats sell for upwards of $10,000 each. Fortunately, reasonable quality hats that less time to weave are obtainable for $350-$500. High quality Superfines run about $1,500 apiece.

Panama hats are ideal for summer as they keep the wearer shaded, weigh little more than a pair of sun glasses, and have an open weave that promotes air flow and cooling. There are many styles but the classics are the Optimo, with a rounded crown like the hat in the drawing, and the fedora/trilby, in a variety of brim sizes. They typically have a black ribbon.

B. Brent Black is the proprietor of the Panama Hat Company of the Pacific, located in Kailua, Hawaii. Black is a specialist in Montecristi Fino quality Panamas and his web site has a wealth of information on the hats, the weavers, the weaving process and the area. He also offers a wide variety of styles in every shape under the sun and dealing with him gives the buyer some guarantee that he is getting what he is paying for. Since there is no formal grading system for Panama hat quality, it's not surprising that there are many more sellers of “Super Fino” hats than there are weavers of Super Fino hats. Some of them don't even come from Ecuador.

Reader Questions

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.

Quotation: Future Formal Dress

"If the path of fashion follows its usual course, predictions for the very distant future might well include a further elevation of bomber jackets and work-trousers into conventional formal dress for both sexes alike, to produce a new standard adult costume in the practical androgynous mode that has been unnoticeably evolving from innocent infant wear.... In the fullness of time, the Senate floor may eventually have the same look we see at the museum or the coffee-shop or the ballgame, only smoothed out, toned down and clarified. Just as in the case of the lounge-suit, such a move would still not be an innovation in form, since the most basic designs for those work-jackets and work-trousers, just as for jeans and tee-shirts, have already been around for more than a century."

-Anne Hollander, Sex and Suits

Ocean's Thirteen Pacino Style

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.

Pacino, who plays the evil casino head, is clad head to toe in Battaglia, apparently a personal favorite of his. There's a lot to like about his clothes, or there would be if he wore each piece separately. Pinstriped suits are powerful day wear by themselves. Adding a white collared shirt is risky but doable. A paisley tie and silk square put it over the top even though they are interesting pieces that bring their own colors while relating well to what's already there. Changing the silk square for plain white linen would help a lot.

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.

Not So Cheap Sunglasses

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.

Footwear for the Beach

Espadrilles are the summer shoe of the Spanish coastline and great footwear for the beach anywhere. They are typically made with a cotton canvas upper that's stitched to a jute espadrille sole with a rubber coating to reduce wear.

The best place I know to get a pair of espadrilles is the aptly named Espadrilles, Etc., with about nine models for men sold in multiple colors. The pictured Serge model ($63.00), available like the original Model T Ford in any color so long as its black, has the traditional Basque laces that tie around the ankle.

Pricing for purchases direct from the company in Spain range from as little as $30 to about $100 a pair, plus shipping by UPS that includes package tracking. The shipping cost is $18.95 for the first pair and $12.95 for each additional pair on the same order and it's just two days transit time to New York. There is a reasonable exchange policy to accommodate fit and other issues.

Some Trouser Details

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.

The back in the photograph so eloquently illustrating trousers with a English, or fishtail, back, is provided by critic Francis Bown, whose website Bown's Bespoke periodically covers aspects of the bespoke tailoring arts. The fishtail originated with Scottish trews (trousers that may be worn with a short jacket) and keep a man's shirt covered below his waistcoat when he leans forward (shirts are underwear, after all).

The other principal type of trouser is flat fronted, cut to be worn belted on the hips, and usually without cuffs. This style was originally laborer's garb but it's been elevated to the status of art by continental tailors who prefer it for suits cut for men with trim figures. It's a fine look as long as the wearer is careful that the open quarters of his jacket don't expose his belt buckle and blind pedestrians with the flash.

I prefer high waisted trousers with suits but either belted or beltless trousers are reasonable choices with odd jackets and for more casual wear. There are several options for keeping up beltless trousers, including side straps instead of tabs, and the DAK waistband, however these are usually difficult to find ready to wear.

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.

Dressing in the Free World

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.

Reader Questions

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!