Next Stop Cumbria

Photo: 1280x1024desktopwallpapers

I'm headed to the UK for a week beginning today. I will be driving to Sharrow Bay in the west of England lake country and using it as a base while I visit a couple of textile mills and try to find my way to Thomas Mahon's digs. I will also be seeing new and old friends in and around London.

The trip will mean altogether too much car time but hopefully there will be enough light for photography. The post schedule should continue uninterrupted.

Resort Clothes

Photo: LIFE

The clothes I've seen pushed as resort wear this season are disappointing to say the least. One well-known specialty store's recent selection can be summarized as a couple pair of linen trousers, a couple of square bottomed shirts and a couple of bathing suits. Of course, if the occupancy rates at warm weather resorts this season look anything like that of San Francisco's hotels (where one of the City's well known properties was only 6% full earlier this week), then this post loses much of its already limited relevancy.

With retailers failing to lead the way, Mr. Obama's relaxation of the White House dress code is just another predictor of a further decline in dress at our already casual vacation resorts. On the one hand, perhaps we truly are headed for all workout clothes all the time. On the other, perhaps there's an opportunity for someone to offer holiday packages with bundled appropriate clothing.

Irrespective of these musings, note that the late Duke of Windsor chose spectator shoes and a light gray double breasted for a sunny day in Portugal before the War.

Let the Shirt Do the Work

Some days the shirt can do most of the work. Here, a maroon and gray stripe does the heavy lifting in combination with a navy serge suit, a blue grey ottoman necktie and a white linen pocket square. Worn with cordovan colored shoes.

A Sunday Ascot

Here's another attempt at encouraging the odd piece of silk to close the neck. Scarf, necktie or ascot makes no difference. They are all good.

The mid blue ascot in the photo is worn to Sunday brunch with a tweed jacket, royal oxford shirt and silk square. Below the waist, navy wide wale cords and chestnut monkstraps.

The Paddock Coat

A reader wrote asking about paddock coats the other day and I thought a couple of Apparel Arts illustrations might be of general interest. The paddock, shown on the right, is a traditional design for a formal overcoat, one that I've never seen on the street. It would have to be made bespoke today.


There are several unusual features to the paddock's design, including the pleated rear vents and the button stance.

Men in cold weather countries that see themselves attending a series of formal daytime affairs in the coming years might consider it, but only if they have a tailor who owns one of the nineteenth century tailoring references that illustrate how to cut and sew one.

Thanks to Ed Tuttee for pointing me to the visuals.

A Summer Scarf

I first saw examples of Drake's summer scarves in the Drake's lookbook for the coming season, and Michael Drake was kind enough to send me the sample in the photo.

Made from Drake's new desert cloth, a blend of modal and silk, the scarves are exceptionally light and airy, and they can absorb a bit of sweat without marking. They give their wearer a way to put some color around his neck in warm weather, particularly along the coast where the temperature cools off considerably after sunset, and they're the right length to be tied in a braid. Think dashing World War II era British commandos in North Africa rather than middle-aged clothing writers.

To be available at Barney's from Spring '09 and in summer colors on the Drake's web site beginning mid-February.

Wear Report: The Suitable Slip-on

Photo: von Span

I've been wearing them for a couple of weeks now and I have to report that the ASW Suitable Slip-ons have become my favorite casual shoe to accompany a jacket and trousers. Gaziano & Girling's MH-71 last just conforms much more closely to my foot than the elastic sided pair from another maker that I've been wearing for years (I wore one pair out and am working on their replacements), and that's the look to strive for in a shoe.

This will be the pair that are on my feet for my flight to London next week.

The President's New Tuxedo

Photo: Hartmarx Corp.

The newest President of the United States caused a stir with the way he accessorized his new tuxedo at the Inaugural balls a couple of days ago, but it was nothing that shouldn't have been anticipated. He dressed the same modestly unconventional way he has been dressing for these things since he came to Washington. He was photographed wearing a black suit with a white shirt and silver tie at the black tie Legends Ball in 2005, for example, and he wore a dinner jacket with a black four in hand at the NAACP Image Awards in 2005.

If his dress was unsurprising, it was also disappointing. Mr. Obama invoked John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address, a man whose inaugural dress is remarked upon four decades later. Obama has a shape that looks good in clothes and he had the same opportunity, but he failed to take advantage.

He failed to take advantage because all minor modifications to black tie reduce the formality and elegance of the clothes. The President would have looked outstanding in a classic black and white ensemble, but chose to wear a white bow tie inappropriately to some events and a black four in hand to others.

If he wanted to make a statement about Change with his dress, as would have been his right, I believe he should have discarded black tie altogether and worn a plain black suit with a white shirt and a black satin necktie. It would have been a more powerful look, and though I would have mourned if he did to dinner jackets in this country what John Kennedy did to the hat, this President's inaugural images might also have been viewed across the decades.

Opportunity lost.

Cashmere Updated

Photo: Marc Guyot

To most of us clothes are a mystery, brought complete to the point of sale for our consideration and with the design and production process invisibly conducted by third parties.

A smaller group of men have their clothes made by suppliers that provide materials and tailoring. The maker has a house style and usually resists deviation, so garments tend to vary in just a few areas: cloth, jacket buttoning and the style of the details such as the pocket and lapel designs.

From Beau Brummel on, the handful of men that have been considered very well dressed in modern times have been the designers, or at least the general contractors, of their own wardrobes. Whether to make a living, like Hardy Amies and Alan Flusser, or for their own account, like Cary Grant and the late Duke of Windsor, they've studied style, sought out their own fabrics, and created clothing based on their own taste and ideas.

One of these men is the French designer Marc Guyot, who continues to update the classics from Paris. Here, his made to measure four ply cashmere pullover in a beige chevron print. Expensive, and unique in the world.

Packing a Man's Suitcase

Esquire's 1936 tips for packing a man's suitcase are still worth reading today. Combine them with this list of what to take on trips of three to five business days.

• Odd jacket, slip-on shoes, shirt and trousers for travel days when there's no meeting before or after the flight
• Two suits for three days or three suits for up to five days
• One dress shirt for each day plus one white shirt for each evening event
• One necktie and pocket square for each day plus one for spare/evening
• Two pair dress shoes and belts or braces
• Underwear and socks for each day plus one spare set
• Sleep wear for each night
• One sweater or knit polo

Personally, I prefer to pack only gray suits for day wear, though I will substitute navy when there is an evening event. Gray simplifies my shirt and tie choices, and lets me stick to black shoes.

When there is black tie on the agenda, the aforementioned navy suit with a white shirt and a black bow tie makes a passable substitute without adding to the packing burden. Carrying the real thing is overkill unless a man is a speaker, honoree, or has a reasonable liklihood of a romantic evening.

The entire process should take no more than ten minutes.

Agnelli's Style Legacy

Photo: LIFE

Yesterday's photo of Luca di Montezemolo reminded me once again of the style debt we owe his mentor Gianni Agnelli, who died in 2003. One of Esquire's five "Best Dressed Men in the History of the World," Agnelli is the source of much of Montezemolo's style, from his conservative Caraceni suits to the deliberate errors he introduces to demonstrate sprezzatura, or nonchalance. The trick to these small idiosyncracies in dress is to work just one of them into an otherwise conservative ensemble.

Agnelli's idiosyncracies were perhaps his greatest contribution to men's style. In addition to the wristwatch worn over the shirt cuff, he was known for wearing:

• unbuttoned buttondown collars
• buttondown shirts with double breasted suits
• one random open jacket sleeve button
• knit ties with worsted suits
• wool ties with worsted suits
• brown suede half boots with suits
• necktie blades outside his crewneck sweater

Not even Montezemolo uses Agnelli's entire bag of tricks. No man alive today could routinely adopt the entire set of Agnelliisms without looking hopelessly derivative. Some borrow one or two. Others refuse to use any, and are poorer for it.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Photo: Dolce Vita

Consider the contrast between style icon Luca di Montezemolo and a man I believe is Kimi Räikkönen, one of the Ferrari Formula 1 team drivers. The two wear clothes of comparable color and cost but that is as far as the similarities go.

Next to Montezemolo, the other man's aggressively patterned suit, flashy shoes and trousers puddling on his shoe tops finish a distant second.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Combining Jacket and Trousers

It is not ready to wear quite yet but the cloth in the photo will be transformed for next fall. On the bottom is a 14 ounce Shetland jacketing in a dark and light brown herringbone with overchecks in navy and tan. It will go to Peter Harvey of London's Davies and Son in February to be made into an odd jacket.

Resting on the tweed is a swatch of a 13 ounce rust-colored gabardine that appears to bring out the tan overcheck. I'm going to see what that color looks like made up into trousers.

We often see cavalry twill or whipcord trousers with a tweed jacket and gabardine is in that same twill family. Jacket and trousers will be close enough in weight to be worn together and the tightly woven gabardine will add visual interest next to the roughness of the tweed.

Repeating a secondary color of a jacket in the trousers can make for harmonious combinations just as it does with shirts and neckties. The palette of rust, brown, tan and navy blue should provide plenty of opportunity to wear it with interesting shirts and neckwear.

The Scarf Worn Braided

Photo: Koenraad De Smedt

Norwegian reader Koenraad De Smedt reminded me that I've been too obsessed with silk scarves to illustrate the warmest way to wear a wool or cashmere version. That's the braided knot, as seen in the photo of Mr. De Smet himself, a symmetrical masterpiece that stays reliably in place.

The difficult to describe braid takes a little practice but once achieved it's easy to remember. Leave the short end of the scarf to dangle on your left side and wrap the long end around your neck. Bring the long end over the short end in front of you and wrap it around your neck a second time. Pass the remains of the long end between the two wraps so that it hangs in front of you.

You may need to experiment until you get the two ends to be approximately the same length.

Choosing A Necktie

Yesterday I was looking for a necktie that combines well with this new shirt and a navy jacket, and if I have found one in the photo it is certainly not a conventional pairing.

The shirt is a small yellow-green on white check with an unexpectedly indigo overcheck that I thought was navy when I ordered it from Joe Hemrajani (in a swatch it appears navy until placed next to a navy jacket and then it looks like electric indigo). My thought was that it would be interesting with a blue blazer.

Now my semi-automatic routine for choosing a necktie that pulls a new shirt and a jacket together is to experiment with ties that repeat the secondary shirt color in the ground. Unfortunately, that was not an option as my closets do not hold any neckties with an indigo ground. And dark blues, like a midnight blue satin, looked boring with the jacket.

I went next to the colors of the color wheel. Blue-violet is across from orange-yellow, so that combination has some small justification. But, looking at the result, I may wait until spring when I can wear the shirt with my green natte weave. I love that tie.

Dressing to Watch History

Men headed for President-elect Barack Obama's Swearing-in ceremony and Inaugural Parade next Tuesday are going to have to survive for hours in damp, near-freezing temperatures.

Even the somewhat prepared gentlemen in the Esquire illustration are likely to be uncomfortable. For one thing, those umbrellas are prohibited security risks that will likely become assets of Homeland Security. And the cold is going to penetrate their shirt fronts while they are being detained.

Hat, gloves, a cashmere or wool scarf, overcoat and the heaviest suit in the closet are all called for this year. Ear muffs should not be totally out of the question either.

There's no rain in the forecast at this time, but the well prepared will also pack a lined raincoat and a waterproof head covering. After all, it is better to bring too much than too little on any major expedition. Men who are not dressed for the weather will lose their opportunity to observe history in the making.

Lifestyle: Enjoy More Fruit

Fresh fruit, cognac and champagne are good friends at any time of year. Here's a fall and winter champagne cocktail with cognac and pear.

Dice a ripe pear and place a few 1/4" cubes into the bottom of a champagne flute.

Pour 1/2 ounce Francois Peyrot Poire Williams Au Cognac into the flute and fill with chilled champagne.

More than thirty pounds of pears go into each bottle of the pear infused liqueur (about $40 per). Enjoy.

It's Not Just For Work Anymore

It's been said that every couple of generations the most formal garment in the men's clothing hierarchy disappears and is replaced by what was the second most formal garb. It happened to nineteenth century court dress like that in the photo, it happened to white tie, and it's happening to black tie.

None of this happens smoothly of course, and buried within that trend is an interesting counter-trend that I've noticed these past few months. For generations, most suit wearing was by men going to the office and that is a practice that is unquestionably dying out.

But just as the suit is losing its place as business dress, I have been meeting a remarkable number of men who are having their shoes and suits made just because they like it. One guy wears tee shirts and jeans to his cubicle at a technology company and changes into bespoke suits and shoes for concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. Another wears polos and dress trousers during the day but keeps two pair of bespoke shoes and two bespoke suits because he enjoys dressing up on his own time.

Now this trend, if it is one, is not going to return the tailoring profession to its former glories, such as they were. In fact, the sum of this sort of activity may not represent as much clothing as my father's generation kept for evening dress. And if that's the case, the factories that once hummed with ready to wear will continue to close. But the rise of the bespoke hobbyist gives me cause to hope that the current generation of apprentice tailors and shoemakers can look forward to reasonable order books in their lifetimes.

Bespoke is not just for work any more. And that's a good thing, in my opinion.

Getting Clothes that Fit

Photo: Life

I spent about an hour with a man in a final fitting the other day. He was frowning with concentration like the actor Gregory Peck in the photo as the tailor marked trouser cuffs, jacket sleeves, and assorted adjustments on several suits. Fittings of course are the only way a man can have clothes that fit, and fit should be the principal goal that anyone has for their clothes.

Men who buy ready to wear clothing that doesn't quite fit should seriously consider spending a bit less on their clothes and a bit more on their tailoring. That's because a man in inexpensive clothes that fit him is going to look better than a man wearing expensive ready to wear garments with a big ripple behind his jacket neck, sleeves that hang down to his knuckles and extra trouser cloth puddling on his shoes. And, unfortunately, ill-fitting clothes have become the norm. Too many clothing sales people know much less than they should about the products they sell and leave fit to the customer, who usually doesn't understand it either.

This general lack of information or plain disinterest in fit seems to continue in store alterations departments. In-store tailors, who may sometimes be the only people in the process that understand what the clothes are supposed to look like on the customer, have to live with the store's salespeople every day. It is just human nature for them to share the salesperson's desire to get a sale rung up and out the door.

So what can a man do to get fit off the rack? He needs to take responsibility for buying the right size in the first place (the key in my opinion is to stick with a maker once it is established that that maker's clothes are complementary). And then take the stuff to an independent alterations tailor, preferably an older European from somewhere in the south who has been doing the work for thirty or forty years (racial profiling works in this case).

Now I can almost hear the readers thinking to themselves that this is not an easy fix, and they are correct. Unfortunately, there are no easy fixes. Getting clothes that fit takes more work every year, and there will be failures along the way.

But the end result is worth the effort.

The ASW Winter Boot

Third in the series of collaborations between shoemakers Gaziano & Girling and A Suitable Wardrobe is this pair of oxblood colored cordovan winter boots (also available in black). The ASW version is a classic galosh with punches instead of stitching around the shoe.


I call these winter boots because the cordovan skin makes them nearly as water resistant as a pair of ugly rubber overshoes in rain and light snow (do keep the overshoes for days when the snow is high enough to soak trouser cuffs).


English shoemakers have for years been reluctant to work with cordovan but there's no natural material that is better for walking in the wet. And here we have a great combination of weather resistance and shape, working together in the most elegant machine-made footwear that I know of. Order now to have them for next fall. $1,600 for a pair.

By the way, beginning with today's post I'm going to use Saturdays for commercial announcements so readers who aren't interested can avoid them if they wish. Though hopefully many will find them interesting in their own right.

The Continental Scarf

Photo: Luciano Barbera

The glint of a silk scarf worn to fill the vee of a jacket is a very continental look that I'd like to see more often in other parts of the world. Particularly useful when the wearer has an open shirt collar, a length of silk closes the neck while it protects the chest from the chill.

White dots on blue silk is probably the most useful combination, white dots on olive can be interesting and there are a plethora of compatible paisleys. I like to knot my silk like an ascot, which is to say that I tie it like a four in hand but throw the front blade over the knot instead of pulling it through.

This is a look for moderate winter days instead of the Siberian variety as silk isn't as warm as cashmere or wool. Not as warm but better looking. Isn't that one of life's daily trade-offs?

Try the scarf worn continental style.

Any Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes?

Otherwise conservative Gaziano and Girling models Warwick and Cambridge on the traditional round last, unexpectedly in Bordeaux calf. Cambridge, on the right, is a cap toe, while Warwick is a galosh with a line of punches around the sides.

I particularly like this shoe color when it is worn with blue suits, as the pairing is more complementary to my eye than either black or brown with blue.

Polish red shoes with a coat of black followed by two coats of oxblood each time, to darken and antique the finish over the years.


Anglelic.

The Suitable Slip-On Arrives

Yesterday's Gaziano & Girling shoe delivery included these elastic sided slip-ons in polo suede. The design is a collaboration between G&G and A Suitable Wardrobe.

The elastic sided shoe is probably the most suitable slip-on style for wear with a suit. They look like oxfords but slide on and off, which is a considerable boon to the airport security process. And I think the shoe's elegant waist and soft square toe add up to the best machine-made shoe shape available today (click on the photo to enlarge it). But then I admit I am prejudiced.

Available by special order (allow five months) in any G&G skin. Email me for pricing information.

Iconic Clothing: The Camel Hair Overcoat

Whether a wrap coat polo style or just a classic double breasted, the camel hair overcoat is the coat to have if a man is only going to have one. As appropriate with a dinner jacket as it is with the checked suit in the Apparel Arts illustration, I can only guess that the reason the polo is not ubiquitous is that camel hair costs a bit more than wool.

Of course, the best camel hair coats are half wool anyway, as 100% camel tends to wear quickly. An equal amount of merino takes care of that problem and softens the cloth as well.

Camel hair coats come in a variety of designs. I'm not a fan of the wrap coat, preferring the classic double breasted, with or without a half belt. Patch pockets reduce formality, while the conventional kind are complemented with a ticket pocket. And the sleeves should have turnback cuffs.

Whatever the style, the important thing to remember is that they are obnoxious beasts and half a camel is better.

Iconic Clothing: The Gray Flannel Suit

Photo: Life

If cream linen is the iconic suit of summer then oxford gray flannel is its cool weather counterpart. Here it is, paired with a light blue shirt and a dark blue necktie by the late Gianni Agnelli.

Now when I first thought about gray flannel I questioned whether it met the criteria for inclusion as a clothing icon. I defined icons as things most men would recognize but few of them wear for one reason or another. But as I thought about it, familiar though gray flannel is, I couldn't recall seeing many gray flannel suits worn by other men. Chalk stripes of all kinds of course, as well as some checks, but few plain grays. Perhaps it's the feeling that every man has one, so few acquire them.

Whatever the reason, a properly mottled gray flannel is my favorite cloth, and my choice if I could have just one suit. My own is H. Lesser's Lumb's Golden Bale, about a 12 ounce weight of merino wool. It can be dressed up with a white broadcloth shirt and a solid navy necktie, or down with pink oxford cloth and a black grenadine.

I give you the gray flannel suit.

Iconic Clothing: Reds

Photo: Take Ivy

Iconic red cotton trousers of moleskin, drill or corduroy are one of the few exceptions to the general rule that men's jackets and trousers are always neutral colors (though I once saw a bright red cotton suit in Madrid). Reds, as they are known, are seen most often in New England, where their likeness to the color of tree leaves in the fall gives them some provenance.

Reds are worn with blue oxford cloth buttondown shirts, white cotton turtlenecks, tasseled loafers and other traditional clothing of what used to be known as the eastern elite. They are often found in the closets of Ivy and Ivy emulating undergraduates, hanging next to their pink and madras summer counterparts, and like those counterparts they tend to arouse deep seated negative reactions in midwesterners.

Iconic Clothing: The Cream Linen Suit

Photo: Esquire

I thought it might be interesting to periodically post photos of what I consider iconic items of clothing. I think of iconic items as those that every man might have, but most wouldn't dare. And here is the first of them: the cream linen suit as worn by artist Richard Merkin.

This particular rendition is slightly flawed in that the trousers are uncuffed, a minor sartorial sin with a double breasted lounge suit. On the other hand, the jacket sleeves are cuffed, and that is a masterstroke in this context.

Mr. Merkin, one of New York's foremost flaneurs in his man about town days, is particularly well turned out in brown slip-on kilties, green socks, gray necktie, gray shirt with a very elegant white club collar worn pinned, and a pink carnation.

Thanks to reader Johnny for the source of the photo.

A Basic Principle

About a third of the men at the San Francisco Symphony's New Year's Eve Gala were wearing evening clothes the other night, and to my eye too many of them had forgotten one of the basic principles of dress. And that is the one about accessories.

You see, it's a waste of budget to acquire any item of tailored clothing unless it's going to be properly accessorized. Elegant accessories can make an inexpensive garment look good, but the best tailored clothing will often leave a poor impression when the accompaniments are not up to par.

Shoes were the most obvious shortfall. Imagine my dismay at the sight of dinner jackets worn with brass buckled kiltie loafers. Indeed, no more than half the evening clothes in sight were accompanied by well polished black oxfords and they are the minimum standard for that dress.

Men who care that they are properly attired should own a complete set of accompaniments for black tie before taking that show on the road. If the kit is missing a piece or two, wear something less formal but complete.

It's a basic principle.

Plan Your Purchases

I'm rather proud that I've resisted all the sales so far. Not that it's been easy. There's been a pair of navy and white oxfords in my size at Edward Green London that are 50% off. And a twill Arnys Forestiere jacket at Maus & Hoffman that is also half off. Between the two I could 'save' about $1,200, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

Of course, saving $1,200 would mean I've spent $1,300 and I don't have the money for things that aren't on my list.

You see, I plan my shoe and tailored clothing purchases a year or two in advance, and I consider the funds committed whether I've ordered the items in question yet or not. Sometimes I leave room for unexpected finds (like those navy and white oxfords) but not this year. This year I am spending the entire budget on tailored clothing while the English pound is temporarily trading at $1.50.

So I could have had the shoes and the jacket (Sigh, I do love the Forestiere) but that would leave me without the budget I need to have the cloth that's already sitting in my office made up.

That's what I call planning my purchases until it hurts.