A Good Belt is Hard to Find

A good belt is hard to find. To paraphrase a friend, there is a plethora of inexpensive belts that are the equivalent of white broadcloth dress shirts (yawn) and a number of expensive, somewhat showy exotics (I am thinking alligator and crocodile here). A selection in what should be the belted sweet spot – beautifully made things in tasteful leathers – took me a year of searching.

Introducing the Taurillon Galuchat belts on the ASW store. Straps from the beautifully tanned, lightly textured hides of 20 month-old French bulls are paired with a nickel buckle. Feather edged, 1 1/4" (35mm) wide and with a leather lining so it wears more comfortably than single layered belts. Offered in three colorways.

Reprising the Black Necktie

Even if the photo were not black and white, and even if it were not watermarked with the name of a once widely circulated magazine that has been more defunct than not since 1972, it would be dated by the lit cigar in what appears to be an office, a practice that has been outlawed in most of the West for some time now.

That aside, the cigar smoker in the photo is a man named Alexander Korda, the Hungarian born producer who almost literally was the British motion picture industry for the last twenty-five years of his life. And other than to illustrate his good taste in Cuban tobacco, as demonstrated by the bowl (bowl!) of cigars atop his desk, the purpose of the photo is to show the not-quite-a-legend-but-considered-to-be-very-well-dressed Mr. Korda wearing a black necktie. Now Korda was known to have gray neckties in his wardrobe, unlike contemporaries such as Aristotle Onassis who was quoted as saying he wore black exclusively so his rivals could not guess his mood, but in wearing that lack of color he joined quite a few well dressed men who limited themselves to black knits and black satin neckties for their city clothes.

The wearing of solid black neckties remains a practice that has not dated at all provided one still wears neckties in the first place. It makes particular sense when a man is wearing black shoes with his suit, as he once did exclusively in England and the United States generally. Black satin has a sheen to it that contrasts with worsted jackets, the black silk knit adds texture to ensembles, and both complement polished black leather on the feet in a quiet sort of way.

All this rambling came about because I chose a black knit for myself yesterday, to wear with burgundy monktraps, and my tan Solaro suit. I had not had it out for a while, but it looked good despite relating to nothing else I had on. A black necktie usually does.

Photo: LIFE

The Lighter Blues of Summer

Lighter colors come into their own in the strong light of summer, and I like lighter blues in particular when the weather is warm. A light blue odd jacket, like the one worn in the photo by the author Nick Foulkes, is one of my favorites for the season. Pair one with cream trousers.

Another seasonal use of blue is the royal blue of a linen suit, probably my favorite color for linen since cream is so difficult to keep clean that a man needs several of them so he can wear one. Not for the office but perfectly appropriate for strolling through the lobby of the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, or for City Saturdays in more ordinary circumstances.

Wear lighter blues in summer.

The Smell of a Man, 2011 Version

I stumbled across Perfumes: The A-Z Guide, the well-regarded 2008 book by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez (Viking), the other day and it must have been time to re-think my scent shelf because I have now sent off for several new-to-me decants from The Perfumed Court.

Turin and Sanchez are olfactory scientist and perfume critic respectively and their book is a refreshingly pull no punches review of about 1,500 scents. Turin's preferences are orthagonal to anything I have been exposed to in the past - he thinks Green Irish Tweed OK but despises Creed's Tabarome Millesime and calls Terre d'Hermes mediocre (those have been two of my staples this past year). Somewhat surprisingly given our differences, he does agree that Ormonde Man deserves its five star rating from the critics.

Not altogether unexpectedly given the relative rarity of eau de perfumes for men, the scents the co-authors rate highly are eau de toilettes, which mean they are unlikely to last on the skin as long as those despicable to mediocre things I have been wearing. But still, to deliberately mis-quote Steve Jobs, each journey is a reward in and of itself and I am now awaiting delivery of samples of:

-Eau de Guerlain ($98), their favorite citrus;
-Guerlain's Mouchoir de Monsieur, ($149), citrus and lavender;
-Pour Monsieur by Chanel, ($113), described as the greatest cologne ever released; and
-Timbuktu, a floral vetiver from L’Artisan Parfumeur ($95) that is called a better version of Terre d'Hermes.

Sniffing notes to follow in about two weeks.

Color in the Breast Pocket

The display of a breast pocket handkerchief is a conscious act of dressing up, and many men fear that it might look pretentious or effete. When a hank appears in a jacket's breast pocket at all, it is usually white (particularly if worn to the office). The challenge of course is that in terms of enhancing the look of the day's clothing the practice has its limits. A white handkerchief really only adds to an ensemble when it is worn with a shirt that has a white ground or white collar. When the shirt is colored, a colored handkerchief simply looks better.

Now I am not about to recommend that every man throw his fears out the window and immediately begin sporting colored hanks for the work day. After all, most shirts worn for business have white grounds, or should, so the practice is hardly necessary. But there are hopefully other times when jackets are worn, with or without a necktie, and since those also tend to be occasions that bring out colored shirts one can think about stuffing a bit of color in his breast pocket without worrying about his rivals putting the knife in as it were.

Now, colored handkerchiefs are usually silk, but not always. Colors look better in silk than in other materials, but the combination of a shiny silk necktie and a silk handkerchief is a bit more contrived looking than a pairing of matte and sheen. When the necktie is silk, colored cotton or linen work nicely. And when the necktie absorbs light rather than reflecting it, whether silk shantung, grenadine, cashmere or some other material, a non-directional patterned silk comes into its own. A tweed jacket with a cashmere necktie and a silk square is a classic of course, but there is much to be said for a matte necktie and silk square worn with a worsted like the tan gabardine in the photo.

Put some color in your breast pocket.
 

Man in Style, Installment VIII

Brown suede cap toed shoes became all the rage for sport and country wear in the 1930s after the Prince of Wales wore them on his tour of America, and André Churchwell uses their relative informality to contrast with his peak lapelled suit and shawl lapelled double breasted vest. The striped shirt with white collar and cuffs, dotted necktie, small red carnation and brown fedora complete the look.

Stroller Season

Easter Sunday is formal day wear season to the extent that formal or semi-formal day wear still has a place in North America. At any rate, if you attend a formal church in a large metropolis, you might not be the only man in a black jacket, striped trousers, dress shirt with a colored body and a white collar and a Macclesfield necktie. Emphasis on the word "might" please.

Strollers are more American than morning coats in my opinion, or at least they were. Other than Easter of course, one might barely be able to wear the black jacket to a funeral without making a spectacle of himself. Past that, unless a man has occasion to attend diplomatic receptions regularly or wears it downtown for no particular reason once in a while, the opportunities are limited to the rare wedding that is formal enough. Which of course reminds me that the Royal Wedding is coming up and the invitations specify "uniform, morning coat or lounge suit." If, like me, your military service days are past, attending the Wedding might give a man reason to break his out. After all, lounge suits are acceptable so surely a stroller would be OK in addition to the specified morning coat. On the other hand, my invitation never arrived so the opportunity will be lost. Oh well.

But Easter is stroller season to the extent we still have one.

Summer Slubs

Slubs, the irregular nubs in woven silk, were once considered a defect in the weave. In neckties, they are now considered an asset, adding as they do texture to ties woven from either shantung or tussah silk, two silks produced using different techniques to achieve a similar end.

Texture of course is one of the things that distinguishes a great tie from an ordinary one, and to my mind slubs are a prerequisite for a great summer tie.

There are half a dozen unlined shantung and tussah neckties with hand-rolled tips on the ASW store this weekend, including the new arrival in the photograph. Try using one to add character to a tropical weight worsted jacket.

Maintenance: Seasonal Clothing Storage

Seasonal storage of clothing not only keeps infrequently worn items out of the way, it prevents damage to things that will not be used for months. And, depending on your local climate, now through May is the time to turn over your wardrobe, putting away (in the Northern hemisphere) heavy tweeds and flannels and taking out linen and tropical weight clothing.

I use a separate closet for seasonal storage but any storage space needs to be cool, dry and airy so it does not develop mildew or odors that spread to everything that is stored there. Getting odors out of clothes can be a nightmare - dry cleaning does not help - so don’t let them get started. Storage areas should be aired out, vacuumed and wiped down at least once a year.

Clothing that is going to be stored should be also be clean, meaning it needs to be washed or dry cleaned before it is put away. Moths and pests of all sorts are attracted to dirt on clothes and in the process of eating the dirt will damage the fibers. This is also a good time to have minor repairs done, while you still remember what is required.

Dust mites can also live in clothes and each month of storage increases the population of mites and allergens significantly. Air out even freshly dry cleaned clothes for a couple of hours before putting them away. Empty pockets before hanging garments up to preserve their shape, button the buttons and zip the zippers. Suits and jackets should be hung on wide, shaped hangers to preserve their shape, and then placed in muslin or canvas bags. Plastic bags are undesirable as they can trap moisture inside and impart a musty smell.

My own process of wardrobe rotation is done two or three items at a time over the course of a couple of months. I start by putting away my heaviest things and taking out regular weight clothes in warm weather colors, like tan gabardine. This weekend begins the task.

Photo: Javabali

Podcast: Alan Flusser on Dressing Well

Being well dressed is a simple matter of wearing things that present the image you want to effect, make people around you comfortable and show a little of your own personality but it's something that takes most men decades of practice to accomplish. That was what I took away from my interview with Alan Flusser the other day.

Flusser is probably the most knowledgeable man I know on the subject of menswear. He is the author of Dressing the Man, the 2002 reference that is probably the definitive American book on classic men’s clothing, He is also proprietor of the Alan Flusser Custom Shop in New York City and a permanent member of the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.

Click on the player to listen to the interview.

Country Club Clothes

There used to be such a thing as country club clothes (heck, there may still be such a thing though you would have to say from the way men dress at my club in California that it is nothing more than shorts and polos no matter what the weather or the time). Country club clothes were the kinds of elegant stuff that too many men inappropriately wear to the office these days instead of suits. The term meant odd jackets for dinner on Saturday nights, either gray or blue in the fall and lighter colors in summer, paired with a good pair of trousers, penny loafers and dark neckties like the one worn in the photo by the late designer Bill Blass, a guy who made his fortune selling country club clothes to women.

Those were different times of course, but I still think there is something to be said for country club clothes, which are the equivalent of what some people consider smart casual and a definite step up from business casual which has after all devolved to little more than "wear anything you want so long as it is not obviously dirty and does not have holes." Country club clothes work well for dinner at all but the most formal restaurants, art gallery openings, or afternoons at a museum that will be followed by a cocktail - any event in fact where denim and a black turtleneck are too little for men who are neither starving artists or technology billionaires and pinstripes too "My life revolves around my work."

Now, given the ubiquity of the navy blazer, most men already own country club clothes but for those who would like to set themselves unobtrusively apart from that crowd, a black and white jacket, perhaps a shepherd's check or a glen check, makes for a nice change of pace in the fall. Pale gray gabardine or tan linen play the same role in spring and summer.

Bill Blass would approve.

Click through to my new post on forbes.com, Being Well Dressed in America.

Rus In Urbe

O Henry named a good short story with the term but I understand that an epigrammatist named Martial coined the phrase rus in urbe early in the first century AD. It means country in the city of course, and when used to describe a man's dress refers to the wearing of country clothing in an urban area, as one might do on a Saturday when accompanying the spouse for some form of shopping where a man might be called on to carry small pieces of furniture or something of that ilk.

Brown cotton moleskin trousers with turnups, a yellow tattersall patterned shirt, my green Belseta waistcoat and a tweed cap accompanied (out of the picture) by a pair of Wolverine's cordovan boots.

Book Review: The Day of the Peacock

Mick Jagger wearing a dress is not a conventionally pretty sight, but it is only one of the images in The Day of the Peacock: Style for Men 1963-1973, a 144 page hardback written by Geoffrey Aquilina Ross. Ross was the first menswear editor of British Vogue and he has reprised the ten year renaissance of dandyism in 'Swinging London' of the 1960s, accompanying it with an excellent selection of new-to-me photos from the fashion shoots he organised in the era. Published by V&A Publishing, the book captures the time, from Tommy Nutter (tailoring) and Vidal Sassoon (hair) to Blades and Mr. Fish (shops).  

The 1960s in England began the transition from what were then known as the multiples, chains of stores offering inexpensive made to meaasure tailoring that once represented 75% of the suits sold in the UK, to the Italian ready to wear brands that dominate the market today. An England that had finally recovered from the Second World War swerved away from conventional dress with a vengeance, as changes in fashion paralleled changes in music and culture generally, and then veered back just as quickly ten years later. Despite all the fuss, in terms of the era's lasting impact on men's clothing I can think only of the turtleneck sweater worn with a blazer, a combination whose popularity at the time was described as turning male gatherings into parodies of German submarine commander conventions. But it was all great fun while it lasted.

Man in Style, Installment VII

There are many tweed patterns to choose from but if you've hit on light green Donegal for your new suit you've picked a classic for country and casual town wear. Here it is seen on André Churchwell as he stands in Nashville's Flying Saucer pub. Notice the touches from Savile Row tailoring: leather buttons on the waistcoat as well as the jacket and the flaps on the waistcoat pockets. The suit is complemented by a brown Trilby and an orange and green checked necktie.

Photo: Michael Thompson

The Size of a Necktie

The size of a necktie is a personal thing constrained by custom and aesthetics. Hipsters wear ties that are 2" (5 cm) wide, when they wear them at all, and some men still wear them 4" (10cm) wide, the fashionable peak width of a decade ago. The mainstream today wears them 3 1/4" (8cm) to 3 1/2" (9cm), about the width of today's jacket lapels, which is as it should be for a tie the same width as the lapel is one of the things that keep a chest in visual harmony.

In addition to width there is the matter of length. The triangle of a necktie's tip is about the height of a trouser waistband, and, when tied, the tip of the necktie should reach the bottom of the waistband like the tie on the man in the photograph. Men of course are not stamped from cookie cutters and differ in length, which makes accomplishing this objective with standard length neckties easier for some than for others. And for those for whom tie length is an issue, there are two customary alternatives. The first is to tie the necktie so that the front blade is the proper length, leaving the rear shorter or longer than the front (and tucking any significant excess length into the trousers). The other is to have one's neckties made to the precise length required. And, generally speaking, men for whom the rear blade is more than 3" (8cm) too long or too short should consider made to order neckties.

There are a few silks for made to order neckties by E&G Cappelli of Naples, one of the world's best tiemakers, on the ASW store this week. The designs have been set aside exclusively for us. They will be offered for about two weeks and then replaced with other choices. And, once gone, they will not be repeated.

Specify the fabric, select standard construction (lined three-fold with tipping and a keeper) or lined six-fold construction for a $30 surcharge if that is your preference, and specify length and width. Your tie will be ready in about six weeks.

And, by the way, there are also two new colorways of my favorite socks, those cotton dress hose with a contrasting vertical rib.



A Bargain of a Sort

Today being the deadline for paying one's income taxes in the United States, the occasion is right for a post on a form of economy. Though I admit that the form in question will be questioned by some, having to do as it does with the useful life of a pair of hand-made bespoke shoes that when new lighten a man's wallet by some $3,400 (£2,100 ) a pair for calf or (much) more if the shoes in question are made from a hide taken from an alligator or other exotic creature.

Expensive though they may be, the best bespoke shoes have a value proposition of their own nonetheless, for the sewing and the materials are the best, and the shoes last for decades. The pair in the photo in fact were recently returned to George Cleverley by their owner, a man who wore them regularly for more than forty years after their construction in 1968 but has finally elected to order a replacement.

Now I will grant you that to American eyes it will appear as though these shoes reached the end of their useful life some time before this. A certain class of Englishman however, including the current Prince of Wales and others who can afford to wear essentially whatever they want, keeps their shoes until holes are worn in the uppers (a custom documented in 1983 in The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook), has them patched and then continues wearing them. But even if we reject that custom out of hand and declare shoes to be worn out when that first hole appears in the upper, the cost of reasonably rotated bespoke shoes is amortized over more than thirty years.

Despite allowing for the cost of two or three new soles during that time, less than $200 a year for a pair of the highest quality leather dress shoes does sound like a bargain of a sort.

Video: Polishing Cordovan Shoes

In this ten minute video (edited from the 25 minutes that were required for the actual shine) KeaLani Lada of San Francisco's A Shine & Co. demonstrates how to polish cordovan shoes or boots.

Following boning, a coat of Renovateur conditioner and edge dressing, the relatively hard surface of cordovan is polished with two coats of wax. Had KeaLani been shining calf shoes or boots she would have used two coats of cream polish instead, or one coat of cream and one wax.

When time is an issue the first couple of steps in KeaLani's shine, boning and conditioning, will produce a reasonable gleam on cordovan that has been cared for regularly. Those two steps can literally be done in five or six minutes.

Blame Bryan Ferry

The PR rep for Ormonde Jayne, the London perfumery, had been promising one of that firm's new perfume travel kit for a couple of months to no avail. The kit, consisting of four individual 10ml (an OK for air travel third of an ounce) sprays of the Ormonde Man eau de parfum to which I had been previously addicted, seemed to be continually out of stock, a state she blamed on Bryan Ferry, who apparently kept telling friends and acquaintances about it (he apparently has a lot of scent-wearing friends and acquaintances).

All of course is well that ends well and the kit eventually arrived safely. The scent is as good as ever and here I am telling my friends and acquaintances about it.

My first post on forbes.com, Reports of Its Death Are Exaggerated, can be found here.

The Knit Tie Worn Pinned

I wear my knit ties pinned these days. I am not one for the American custom of wearing a tie bar, however the silk knit tie is narrower than other neckties and leaves a man little choice but to pin his if he does not care for the blades blowing in the breeze. There may be a maker who sews one but I do not know of a knit with a keeper, that piece of silk that holds the rear blade in place on well-made conventional neckties, and too many maker's labels, which can sometimes perform the same trick even though they are usually attached too haphazardly to do it for long, are actually sewn on sideways. Fortunately, the knit tie itself is a loosely constructed thing and a gold safety pin will slide through front and back without damaging the silk. The same pin can be used to pin a shirt collar of course, which is handy, and only one is necessary in the jewelry kit as a pinned shirt collar with a pinned necktie would be too much.

Those readers who never get enough of ASW may be interested to know that I will be writing two pieces each week for the Lifestyle section of Forbes online. One regular post day will be Saturday and I am open to suggestions as to the other. I will provide a link when the first one is up later this week.

Guest Post: Rubinacci and the Story of Neapolitan Tailoring

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

It is only to be expected that following the recent publications of James Sherwood’s lavish books on Savile Row tailors (The London Cut, 2007, and Bespoke: The Men’s Style of Savile Row, 2010), Italian tailoring would riposte with their own. As the most successful of the Neapolitan bespoke tailors, Mariano Rubinacci leads this thrust with the new book Rubinacci and the Story of Neapolitan Tailoring, written (mostly) by Nick Foulkes, who between writing entertaining books on Count d’Orsay or pre-Waterloo English society has written vanity histories for a number of other luxury brands – Turnbull & Asser, Dunhill, Tag Heuer, Mikimoto pearls and even the Carlyle Hotel. In contrast with earlier, drier monographs on the tailors Gieves & Hawkes (1985) and Henry Poole (2005), this tailoring history’s extensive set of photographs of Rubinacci clothing and its past and present wearers, both unforgettable (Agnelli, Vittorio de Sica, Bryan Ferry) and forgotten (various ebullient Italian grandees) appeal evocatively and sensuously to lovers of beautiful clothing and those of us who maintain a fantasy, however irrational, with a bygone era of sepia-tinted luxury.

And what an era it was! Foulkes is at his sparkling best describing how wealthy silk merchant Gennaro Rubinacci founded his eponymous tailoring shop in 1932 on a lark as London House, an inside joke to his friends and fellow aficionados of Anglophile bespoke. With this beginning, both Gennaro and Foulkes, on parallel journeys through the tailoring shop separated by seventy years, are both able to explore the lush names, textures and colors of cloths (cheviots, saxonies, flannels) and the opulent flourishes Rubinacci’s tailors added to their clothing: even the descriptions of Rubinacci’s pockets veer to the prurient, from the pear-shaped pignata pregnant with promise to the boat-shaped barchetta along the breast. No less opulent was the clientele of international nabobs which came, and the author’s descriptions live up to their lifestyles. Foulkes sketches out the intervening history of the house, including stints by Attolini (now known as a luxury ready-to-wear manufacturer) as cutter and what the canny reader may perceive as an interregnum in bespoke interest in the 1970s and 1980s when London House retailed Hermès and focused on ready-to-wear clothing. Most recently, of course, Foulkes describes the triumph of Mariano and his charismatic son Luca in re-establishing Rubinacci as the pre-eminent Neapolitan bespoke tailors, and a household name to the small population of men which buys bespoke clothing or at least talks about it online.

All of the above is also documented in lavish photographs, along with pictures of the Rome, Milan and London satellites of Rubinacci. Pictures are worth a thousand words, which may be why this book is so short: at 112 pages and a retail price of 100 euros, one is paying more than a dollar a page. However, it’s my guess that Rubinacci knows the audience for this book. From its title onwards the book attempts to situate Rubinacci in the forefront of a rich and time-honored tailoring tradition, thereby mining the two veins of potential buyers – collectors – of such a book: luxury brand enthusiasts and those that are interested in the history of clothing. For the latter, the book contains an essay on tailoring at the court of Naples by Nicoletta d’Arbitio, with interesting images of the statues of former rulers of Naples ensconced in the wall of the royal palace there, from Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire to Napoleon’s minion Murat to the first king of the unified Italy, Victor Emmanuel of Savoy. However, the main attraction of this book is for the luxury tailoring enthusiasts for whom Rubinacci is already a known name. Those who are seriously interested in how clothing is put together will likely be disappointed by the superficialities about high armholes, double-stitching and the false dichotomy between soft, sensuous Italian tailoring and stiff, structured Savile Row.

Peeling away the Naples travelogue, the arguments for its exceptionalism, and brand-building prose such as “the magic of Naples that inhabits every garment,” what does stand as a truth is the excellence of Rubinacci’s bespoke tailoring, which still attracts the fabulously wealthy as well as the new breed of bespoke customer: young, obsessed with details and quality, fastidious and obsessed with the best. Rubinaci remains Naples’ most noble practitioner of bespoke and the envy of his colleagues there – some of whom are also among the best anywhere, for what has kept Naples a center of bespoke tailoring is the cheapness of its labor coupled with an uninterrupted tradition of men who enjoy wearing clothes and having their clothes made. Of course, it is no accident that sprinkled among the exquisite photographs are pictures of various of Rubinacci’s ready-to-wear accessories – ties, scarves and a painted porcelain vide-poches/cigar ashtray resembling those sold at Hermès, and indeed this book is one more step in creating the Rubinacci mythos, which can be imparted to a jumper at Harrods or a tie sold at the Carlyle gift shop without the need for multiple visits to the shop on via Filangieri.

The limited press run of 1,000 copies is available at the Rubinacci locations in Naples, London and Milan as well as online at the Rubinacci store.

Photograph: Rubinacci



Man in Style, Installment VI

There are still men who dress to brunch, and André Churchwell is one of them. On this occasion he is  wearing a tweed jacket with side vents in a small checked pattern that is popular now in unusual colorings.  Light yellow gabardine trousers, olive vest with lapels and flapped pockets, denim shirt, hunting pattern necktie, tasseled slipon shoes and a pinched crown porkpie hat complete the outfit.

Photo: Nicole Gagliano

Perfect for Spring Mornings

New on the ASW store this week is an extraordinary light olive green quilted Belseta® High Tech vest with a cantaloupe-colored cotton lining, slanted side pockets and two zippered interior pockets. Featherweight, windproof and breathable, Belseta is an extremely fine synthetic microfiber that causes water droplets to bead up and roll off, which makes it perfect for chilly mornings on the course or in the field. Made in Italy.

Suits and Socks, Installment XXIV

Much of the time I wear socks that are different in texture but similar in color to my trousers. Most of the rest of the time I choose socks with a lot of contrast and on still other occasions an in between feeling takes over. This was an in between day.

Fox suede elastic sided slipon shoes worn with a tan glen check suit and merino wool socks in a blue/gray/tan melange that complemented the out-of-the-photograph light blue glen check shirt and dark navy grenadine necktie.

Podcast: Michael Drake on Neckwear

The masses may have abandoned it but men are buying as many hand-made neckties and other accessories as they ever have. So sayeth Michael Drake to Will in his ten minute interview on the state of neckwear for men.

Drake founded Drakes London as a scarf maker in 1977. Today it is the largest independent producer of handmade ties in England, exporting to major menswear countries from Italy to Japan to the United States.

Click on the player to listen to the interview.

Photo: Drakes London

The Necktie as Branding

When San Francisco-based graphic designer Kevin Roberson went into business for himself, he knew he needed something to set himself apart. And, being a man who loves clothes (it is no coincidence that his portfolio includes work on the web site for The Armory, Hong Kong's newest men's store), it occurred to Kevin that wearing a necktie in a profession dominated by men in black turtlenecks and denim trousers might do the trick. It seems to have worked.

Kevin is found in tailored clothing four days a week, dividing his time about evenly between casual suits and odd jackets. In the photos he is wearing a tan silk and linen 3 roll 2 odd jacket tailored by Napoli Su Misura, light gray trousers and suede oxfords. With a necktie, of course.

Preppy Spring

He is younger than I, but my collecting friend RJ, who recently declared himself a kindred spirit to Fenwick and Husselby, authors of Einstein's Watch, also grew up in a time when "prep," the state of life defined by Birnbach and her co-authors in The Official Preppy Handbook, was a reality in parts of the United States. RJ wrote yesterday that he did not care for the prep ethos. Nor did I, though I loved the clothes. Brooks Brothers in the 1960s was a shrine, and I hope there is a special place in some afterlife for the managers who ruined the place in the following decade, not far from the people who destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

That said, one of the special characteristics of prep was the quirky use of color, which is captured true to life in Sergei Sviatchenko's photo in the spring/summer 2011 edition of his Close Up and Private.  Green, orange and purple. Brilliant. I think RJ will approve.

Photo: Sergei Sviatchenko

Man In Style, Installment V

Despite the fact that current fashion seems to sanction the wearing of casual clothes almost everywhere during the daylight hours, there are occasions like shopping when a man should be slightly more dressed up. In the photo, taken at J. Michaels Clothiers in Nashville, André Churchwell wears a tan 3 roll 2 Prince of Wales check suit of cloth from W. Bill that was tailored by Leonard Logsdail. Solid colored accessories are usually the best complements to a suit with a big pattern, and his blue shirt picks up the overcheck in the cloth, as does the Pacific blue necktie.

André's brother Keith wears black chalk stripes, also by Logsdail, with a dandy's cream wool odd waistcoat, a white shirt, a gray bordered white pocket square and gray necktie. He carries a black trilby.

Photo: Michael Thompson

The Faintest of Flannel Checks

Spring may be springing but this is the season to worry about tailored clothing for fall, as I was reminded when Davies & Son's Peter Harvey brought a checked flannel suit to San Francisco for fitting. One of the early offerings from Michael Alden's Cloth Club on The London Lounge, the cloth for this suit sat in a closet for several years until the gray flannel in my active rotation began showing signs of wear.

As checks go, this one is about as faint as they get (the visible white on the jacket is basting thread that will be removed). The light blue and cream overcheck is barely noticeable even when the photograph is enlarged, or, in life, in bright sunlight. And since it is replacing a solid gray, faint is a good thing.

Flannel is the best of the cold weather suitings to my way of thinking, but since the woolen stuff cannot be woven in lighter weights the selection is suffering from the market's tendency toward year-round cloth. There are flannel stripes and solids aplenty in the cloth books but I know of only one stock checked flannel that differs from the usual shepherd's and glen checks, that being Fox Brothers's 370/400 gram (13/14 ounce) mid-gray with a cream windowpane (ignore the lighter weight worsted version in that same bunch as it is quite fragile and prone to a short life).  So if you are a flannel lover and happen upon a length in a more interesting pattern, purchase it immediately even if the pattern is faint. Its like may never come again.

Oxford Weave Neckties

Solid color neckties are the core of any well dressed man's necktie wardrobe, and the slightly lustrous Oxford or basketweave necktie is perhaps the most visually interesting of the solid silk necktie family. Oxfords are well behaved members of one and two pattern ensembles with texture that is not as striking as a Garza Fina grenadine but is still evident to an observer standing at arm's length. Wear them with striped or checked suits and solid shirts, or solid suits and striped or checked shirts.

Oxford weave neckties in navy, coral and navy and soft green highlight half a dozen new silk four in hands by Michael Drake in the New Arrivals section of the ASW store.

The Lord's Hat Arrives

The brown Leon Drexler lord's hat that Stephen Temkin has had in the works arrived the other day. A lord's hat of course is a homburg, the most formal felt after the top hat, made less formal in brown felt with bashes and an unbound brim. The proportions are perfect. Richard Merkin would approve.

I took the hat for a ride in the country yesterday and will be wearing it out and about San Francisco today. If you are in the City and see a man wearing a brown homburg-shaped hat, it is most likely me. Say hello and I will tip or doff my hat to you.