He claimed in his autobiography to have much less, but according to Patrick Grant of Norton & Sons the late Duke of Windsor's wardrobe was fairly large at the time of his death:
-55 lounge suits
-15 evening suits
-3 formal day suits
-more than 100 pairs of shoes
Now far be it from me to say that any contemporary man has too much or too little but once he exceeds twenty or so suits, a dinner jacket or two and a pair of shoes for each jacket his wardrobe may properly be classified as adequate to any likely occasion. Not that he is likely to win any awards at that level - the founder of Revlon died with more than two hundred navy blue suits after all - but any more and he has entered the territory of the clothing hobbyist whether he cares to admit it or not.
Personally, I was glad to see that the Duke had more than he let on about. It gave me license to think about shoes again.
Photo: LIFE
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4 comments:
Remarkable use of patterns by the Duke in this photo. As I recall Will , didn't you have a post referring to a Gentleman's ability to wear a patterned suit successfully without appearing loud or ostentatious?
Something for me to aspire to!
You, on the other hand, may have already arrived!
One of the problems of ordering bespoke clothing and the enormous choice that it implies, is that conservatism takes over, and you tend to be drawn repeatedly to similar things. As your wardrobe grows, it becomes a greater challenge to order something significantly different from what you already have. I shouldn't be this way of course, but the conversation with the tailor always goes the same way: It starts with "I'm here to order a gray POW flannel, because I don't have one," to "Hey! What's this over here?" to "That's absolutely great and I must have it, even though it looks a little like the last one."
Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon to whom you refer, not only left a legacy of two hundred blue suits, but has been widely quoted on his menswear color preferences:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81651224@N00/2237085508/
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