On Red Ties Knotted Imperfectly

For years I avoided red neckties, thinking them too banal. But, that said, today I am wearing a red tie with my gray flannel, like the late Duke in the photo. Red, white and gray work pleasingly together in a way that seems fresh to my eye, perhaps because I am so used to wearing blue or black around my neck instead.

Also like the Duke, my tie is knotted so that the rear blade is longer than the front, though not so disproportionately as his. Still, I remember taking great care as a young man to always keep the front blade longer than the rear. That is how the thing is supposed to be done of course, before one comes to realize that one's dress is not supposed to be perfect in every respect and, after approaching as closely to that perfection as possible, intentionally knotting one's tie imperfectly takes some of the edge off the look. That long rear blade is after all considerably less silly looking than intentionally buttoning one's jacket incorrectly a la Montezemolo.

It has been said that most men who pay attention to their dress go through the same cycle. Early on, as their wardrobe and skill grow, they take delight in complexity, in demonstrating their command of dress. And then they go through a phase of conservatism, rejecting complexity in favor of perfectly executed simplicity, before finally coming to rest somewhere in between.

At that latter point, they can wear red ties knotted imperfectly.

The Argument for Several Tailors

The center button has been pulling on the last three or four jackets I have received from Thomas Mahon, and whatever adjustments are being made may not be getting back to my pattern as the next coat in line seems perpetually to have the same issue (no RJ, my weight hasn't changed). As Exhibit A I give you the grayed blue flannel in the photograph.

Now if it were only the button I would simply wear the jacket closed to the bottom for the current season and have it fixed when the weather turns too warm for flannel once again. Unfortunately, the line of the left trouser leg does not seem quite right either, so though we will see what Thomas has to say when he visits next week it seems like the thing should go back to the maker.

That is too bad of course, for nothing shows off a nice pair of suede shoes like flannel in my opinion, I had pulled out a pair of fox colored Edward Green semi-brogues for the trial run, as well as a nailhead shirt and an old unlined sixfold silk necktie. But it will be a while before this combination appears again.

Problems of this sort are easy to fix when a man lives in the same vicinity as his tailor, or has the time and means to travel to him whenever something is amiss. Those of us who rely on visiting tailors unfortunately pay a hidden price in terms of the extra three to six months required to address minor issues. I have written before that the solution I have arrived at over the years is have only one garment in the queue from any maker, and to keep two or three of them working on this or that specialty. It seems as though one of my three always has some temporary thing going on that delays his deliveries, while the other two will be problem free. Were all my custom concentrated in the hands of one of them, whenever something went amiss there would be no new clothes for that season.

Better to have several tailors.

Another Kind of Knitwear

Introducing another kind of knitwear to the ASW store, that being Zimmerli knit cotton lisle underwear. Arguably (someone always wants to argue) the finest knitted underwear in the world, Zimmerli underwear is unquestionably comfortable, sturdy, easy to wash, hygienic, highly absorbent, color-fast, antistatic and a little pricey. It is worth it though.

There are other odds and ends as well. The Taurillon Galuchat belts are back in force, and they are now offered in a new caramel color as well as the larger sizes 46 and 48 in addition to the 32-44s that we started with. And there are a couple of very nice Simonnot Godard cotton squares in blue, as well as a new supply of SWIMS overshoes in an orange that will be highly visible should the rest of you be covered by snow.

Happy shopping.

Views

The days were beautifully autumnal in Manhattan earlier this week, as demonstrated by the view from the 42nd floor of the Four Seasons hotel on 57th Street. This particular Four Seasons may be the only hotel that employs four full-time staff to do nothing but record the preferences of the guests so that their desires can be met before the guest thinks to ask, which is one of a number of things that make it one of the great places to stay in the world.

Another asset of the Four Seasons is that it is directly across 57th Street from what after this coming weekend will be the new home of the New York branch of haberdashers Turnbull & Asser. I stopped in to say hello to Robert Gillotte, the well-dressed man who heads the bespoke shirt department, hoping we could get photos of the new space before it is occupied but, sadly, insurance or the lack of it made that impractical and we are hoping instead that Rose Callahan will be able to give you a first look early next week. The views over there ought to be very good too.

Photo: Bettman/Corbis

Gillotte reminded me that for years he worked with Calvin Klein when Klein was a customer of Anderson & Sheppard, whose book launch party was the reason I was in town in the first place. And it was our view that Klein never looked so good as he did in those days. It all made sense to me then.

A Dispatch from Madrid

Walk down any street in a Spanish city and you’re likely to find a man wearing the original shirt jacket, called a Teba. These are ventless, unstructured, four-button coats of jersey knit, with three patch pockets and square, or “closed," front quarters that fall at or just below the hip, as a cardigan might, if one could find a cardigan that wasn’t disproportionately long in the body. The Teba’s sleeves resemble those of a shirt, as there is a placket and a single working button on the cuff. Spaniards wear them as one does a pub jacket, which is to say to the market, during a post-siesta stroll, or while having a bit of merienda at the café with friends.

Half a century ago, one wasn’t likely to see a Teba in the city. According to Carmen Olave, proprietor of Burgos, the Spanish shirtmaker known for its meticulous hand sewing and royal clientele, the Teba was a shooting jacket, evidence of which is apparent in the jacket’s most common color, hunter green. The jacket also gets its name from a famous marksman, the Count of Teba, who was introduced to an early version by King Alonzo XII during a quail hunt. The Count became so enamored of the ease with which the jacket allowed him to shoot that he had it reproduced by his tailor after it wore out. The Spanish men of the time, not unlike their English and American counterparts, took note of the wardrobes of the aristocracy, and it wasn’t long before the Teba was city garb.

Burgos has been selling Tebas in their Madrid shop for nearly fifty years. On their racks, they have Tebas in navy, hunter green, camel, and a royal blue the Spanish call Azulon. But one can choose from among thirty swatches in wool, a wool and cashmere blend, linen, a linen and cotton blend, and Harris tweed. Burgos even lets their customers choose some features with their ready-to-wear Tebas, including open patch pockets, double or single vents, lapel notches, or lining along the jacket’s back, none of which are standard for a Teba. There is no doubt, though, that ready-to-wear Tebas can be a bit boxy - the lack of infrastructure, the sweater-like length, the closed quarters, all contribute to a squared look. So for the man who wants an improved fit, Burgos offers their Tebas made-to-measure. They come with an increase in price, of course, but more shape through the arms and chest. Like the ready-to-wear version, these Tebas are cut and basted by hand, then sewn by machine in a small workshop in Zaragoza, just a few hours from Madrid. Orders take fifteen to twenty days, and Burgos will ship anywhere. Jersey Tebas are priced at 285€ (approx. $397), cashmere blends at 315€ (approx. $438). Those same jackets made-to-measure are 360€ (approx. $500) and 400€ (approx. $557) respectively.

English speakers should drop by in the morning and ask for Ms. Olave. Or, email her at camiseriaburgos@gmail.com.

Text and photo: A. Eleftherion

Gossip from the Monkey Bar

Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair magazine and author of the introduction to the new Anderson & Sheppard book, threw a party at his Monkey Bar last night in honor of the book. Good journalist that I strive to be, I rarely made it more than six feet from the bar where there were two engaging ladies from Women's Wear Daily, but I did manage to hear that, contrary to the initial announcement made by one of the real estate brokers, the new A&S store on London's Clifford Street will not be offering ready to wear and made to measure tailored clothing but will instead focus on accessories. And, difficult though it may be to believe that a store can exist selling little more than upscale tee shirts and polos, this brought a sigh of relief to the men of my immediate acquaintance who had been concerned that made to measure would hurt the brand's image over time.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

A New York State of Mind

It is cool in Manhattan, where I am headed for a party, and that was cause for the first flannels of the season. Both suit and necktie are a change from the mid-weight worsteds and silk ties that are more appropriate for the last days of our warm California autumn.

The suit is actually related to yesterday's post about Anderson & Sheppard. I started working with Peter Harvey, who made it, after coming to the realization that though the A&S double breasteds are very good the button point on the single breasteds is too damn low and exposes more waistcoat than any reasonable man wants. So for some time Peter has been making my SBs in what the Italians characterize as the hard, military style typical of Savile Row while Thomas Mahon, who learned his craft at A&S, has continued making soft, drapey double breasteds for me.

I don't mind the conflict. It puts me in a New York state of mind. And there is not all that much difference between the two anyway.

Book Review: Anderson & Sheppard

In his autobiography Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, former Sex Pistol John Lydon pauses in his justified excoriation of Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren to note with uncharacteristic offhand awe that “Malcolm McLaren was a real menswear obsessive. He actually knows a lot about the history of menswear. He knows all the looks, the youth cults, and stuff like that. That’s where many of his ideas came from.”

The late Mr McLaren is not featured in the sumptuous new picture book Anderson & Sheppard: A Style is Born, although his near-contemporary in what used to be termed “piss-elegance” Manolo Blahnik figures proudly. But like many another “menswear obsessive,” McLaren was a customer of perhaps the most controversial bespoke tailors in Savile Row. With the publication of this book, Anderson & Sheppard completes its makeover from a close-mouthed and aloof legend to a newly approachable and friendly (publicity- and otherwise) firm. A large part of the book is devoted to photographs of these past and present friends. A Style is Born intimates that these customers have seized onto the timeless elements of style and quality that A&S has preserved while jettisoning past quirks that were more pleasant to recount than to experience.

In the manner of recent books about tailors and so-called heritage brands, A Style is Born emphasizes the sensuous and the classic: its title itself is a self-conscious wink to the British and American stars of 1930s Hollywood who popularized both Anderson & Sheppard and its soft “drape cut” and hints that, finally, A&S is ready for its close up. As to the sensuous, the book contains page after huge page of images of fabrics (particularly those in elegant patterns exclusive to A&S), garments and tailors in various stages of progress, and A&S’s shop at 32 Old Burlington Street. (I note that “Savile Row” can refer to tailors located not just in the street of Savile Row itself, but in the rabbit warren of tiny streets surrounding it and west of Regent Street.)

A Style is Born also includes a warm introduction by Graydon Carter, who co-founded the American satire magazine Spy and is now editor of Vanity Fair, as well as an engaging history of Anderson & Sheppard and its cutting style by David Kamp. Kamp describes the early history of A&S at a period when Northern European immigrants such as the Dutch Frederick Scholte and his Norwegian undercutter Per Anderson rose to prominence in Savile Row. Scholte, as many readers may know, reputedly invented the drape cut that was characterized by a roomily cut jacket chest and suppressed waist, giving the wearer both an illusion of better proportions and real comfort. As Kamp notes, this style, in its softest and least padded form, was a favorite of the menswear idiot savant the Duke of Windsor, who made it popular. Kamp finally addresses the question those of us who think too much about these things have been wondering, namely how Anderson & Sheppard (founded 1906) became identified with Scholte’s cut, which didn’t become popular until the late nineteen-teens. Unfortunately, Kamp’s answer is that it’s unclear, although he does point out that A&S’s willingness to take clients refused by the famously rebarbative Scholte played a role. From there, in Kamp’s account, the rest was history, and the reader gets a litany of famous clients and their famous referrals.

Kamp continues the sad tradition in menswear writing of setting up a false conflict between the drape cut practiced by A&S and Scholte and the tailoring style of the rest of Savile Row, characterized as sharply cut and mischaracterized as tight and constricting. This canard is used by Italian tailors to demonize all English tailoring as military-influenced and restrictive. Certain other tailors use it right back at A&S to attack its cut and its heritage as promoter of the drape cut, accusing it of inconsistency, imprecision and God knows what else. An A&S director once famously stated that some swear by A&S’s cut, and some swear at it, and this is surprisingly literally borne out by the amount of sniping and grousing (some perhaps justified) about A&S on various blogs and internet forums. Fifty years ago Ian Fleming delivered the best summation of the A&S style I have ever read: “casually well-cut.” At its best, an A&S suit is exactly that: unself-consciously elegant, effortless, discreet, relaxed. Then again, he put that suit on a villain.

A Style is Born also contains a section of more than a hundred pages of photographs of clients past and present wearing Anderson & Sheppard clothing, from Rudolph Valentino, Noel Coward, and George VI to more recent clients posed Slim Aarons-style. (I was hoping for a picture of Pandit Nehru, who was supposed to have been a customer, in his best A&S, but was disappointed.) Pace Lydon, there are no punks, although two enfants terribles of the 1980s literary scene, Jay McInerney and Fran Lebowitz, appear in their grown-up finery. At first thought it may seem a bit self-indulgent to devote this much space in the book to pictures of customers, but on consideration it’s a splendid – and uncommon -- opportunity to see a tailor’s clothes on the real people for whom they were made instead of on a dummy or a model, as in so many other publications. By sheer force of numbers, we can see people of different shapes, walks of life and periods wearing a variety of different bespoke clothing and get our own sense of the A&S cut and style along with inspirations for experimenting with new patterns, colors and weaves of cloth. Of course, bearing in mind the varied dates of the pictures, the reader may attempt to judge for himself whether the A&S drape cut has stayed the same over the decades as A Style Is Born suggests, or whether it has varied in the hands of different cutters over time. And Liam Neeson really looks like he could use a hug.

A section on the A&S shop contains interesting photographs of its former premises at 30 Savile Row, which didn’t look much different in the early 2000s from their 1930s picture in Apparel Arts. In 2005, drastically elevated rents drove A&S out of its old address; Ozwald Boateng moved in. These pictures give a rare look into the era when A&S were famously secretive, its lair closed to inquisitive reporters and writers, and indeed it looks distinctly spare and un-designed, with bolts of cloth heaped on rows of tables. The ineffable magic, the reader presumes, emanated from the cutting rooms. The writers note that the elegant new shop on Old Burlington Street, with its couches and fireplace, recalls a “gentlemen’s club,” and most of us who will never set foot in a West End club can’t disagree. Indeed, the writers don’t mention that the new shop was designed to look like an idealized version of a tailor’s shop by Jérôme Faillant-Dumas’ L.O.V.E. Editions, a reimagining of a tailor’s shop for a generation and class that needs to visualize its myths.

Any brand coming out with a book has something to sell, something its product can’t communicate or can’t communicate loudly enough. Sometimes it signifies a sea change, such as with the recent Rubinacci book that accompanied that tailor’s push into retail expansion. In the case of Anderson & Sheppard, even as we read David Kamp’s paean to A&S’ remaining “a single bespoke tailor’s shop” “different from its bespoke brethren” in not diluting itself with “ready-to-wear or made-to-measure,” licenses or “satellite locations,” we can also read in Thursday’s news that A&S has announced it will open a second shop on Clifford Street in Mayfair selling ready-to-wear jackets, furnishings and accessories. We can at least hope that it helps support the survival of the bespoke side of the business.

Full disclosure: I am a satisfied A&S customer, and flipping through prose and pictures as sensuous as the soft Scottish Reid & Taylor cashmere of a recent sportcoat A&S made for me which this book inspired me to wear this morning, I was again tempted to brave the experience and contact them for something new despite the limits of budget, storage and sanity. This is a gorgeous book, and you do not need to be a menswear obsessive to appreciate it. One of its goals is to chronicle the first hundred years or so of Anderson & Sheppard’s existence as a bespoke tailor since its founding in 1906. I hope it helps them stay open for a hundred more.

-Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

A Handle!

I am apparently not proud, and five months of badgering finally convinced Myron Glaser of Glaser Designs to loan me one of his Flaptop Bags to get the bag with handle that I wanted (see A Lot of Work for a Handle from last May) since there appeared to be no other way that I was going to get a handle for my Glaser iPad bag any time soon.

There are several very nice things about this bag other than the handle, which lets me carry it without wrecking the shoulders of my jackets. One is the distressed finish, the result of a proprietary process that Myron has been working on for a couple of years which involves beating on a hide for a couple of days and doubles the price of a standard piece. Another is the size, which means that there is no residual man bag quality to the new one. And those same small briefcase-like proportions are just enough larger than the handle-less iPad bag (see A Project Completed) to hold my Canon so I don't have to lug a separate camera bag. Which I found myself doing most of the time.

But the handle is the best thing, really.

Eschew Black

It was my oft quoted teacher Hardy Amies who wrote that a pair of red socks serves to add interest to an otherwise monotone ensemble, and in the photograph flame red peeks between conservative gray trousers and a newly polished pair of semi-brogues. The socks are new, part of a flood of the world's finest that continued pouring into the ASW store this past week. There were new argyles, Super-140s (including the red) and purple silk for evening. Indeed, so many arrived that we literally had to knock through the wall and set up racks in the space adjoining. And so it is with a full warehouse that I admonish you dear reader to eschew black. Socks, that is. During the day. Take any that you may own in excess of your evening requirements and give them to a good home, so that you may replace them with the brightest of reds, or other colors that may strike your fancy, and make the world a better place.

The aforementioned socks have been joined by other items that may be of interest, including new Cappelli swatches for patterned cashmere neckties, ivory colored barathea braces for evening, the Timbuktu eau de toilette that has been perpetually out of stock, and Simonnot Godard chambray shirtings in pink, peach and light blue. But, I say with tongue only partly in cheek, please make it your priority to replace those black socks.

Just in Time

The start of black tie season found me thinking about shoes for evening, and I asked my friend Stefano to make up a light and comfortable house shoe version of the opera pump.

While he was at it, he also made a black suede version lined with quilted red satin to wear at home or out for the evening.

Just in time for the holidays.

Rushed

Some days are just rushed, and so it was when this photograph was taken. I was running late for a rare one on one dinner with my wife in between travels and house guests. The jacket is a 12 ounce/360 gram Finmeresco blazer with horn buttons that need to be changed for a lighter color. It is worn with damp hair, a pair of my Sloop slip-on shoes, stone trousers, a tan on white striped shirt, a wool and silk pocket square and a bow tie that needs fiddling with.

The trouble with the dark horn is that even with patch pockets the jacket has a bit of an orphaned suit coat look to it. Lighter colored buttons would ameliorate that, which calls for a visit to Tender Buttons when I am in New York next week. Buttoning the coat to the lower button might have helped as well, but I was too rushed.

On the other hand, dinner at Range, a one Michelin star establishment in the Mission District, was excellent.

The Englishman in New York

The classicly suited English visitor brings a style of dress that is not often seen in New York. The elements are common to both sides of the Atlantic, but the ways in which they are combined tend to be unique to London. In the photos, a chalk striped flannel suit, cream double breasted waistcoat, paisley patterned silk pocket square and a satin necktie.

Below the waist, black elastic sided slipon shoes.

The striped suit is classic City business dress, made less formal in flannel but dressed up with a waistcoat and satin necktie borrowed from formal day wear. The shoes are Churchillian favorites, convenient for travel without sacrificing too much formality to obtain their slip-on convenience.

The Englishman in New York.

Photos: Rose Callahan

Suits and Socks, Installment XXX

Light gray cotton socks complement blue-gray high-twist trousers in today's photograph for perhaps the final time this year, though the colors will be kept alive in the form of silver-gray wool socks and my air force blue flannel suit once the temperatures drop a bit. The latter pairing is a little darker, in keeping with the darker season.

Today's summer stuff is worn with a pair of Cleverley's banded slipons that will also be going into storage for the rainy season, replaced by boots and rubber soled bluchers for complementing cool weather lounge suits.

Pocket Squares from Holland & Holland

Photo: Reginald-Jerome de Mans

There are only a very few sources for original scarf and pocket square patterns in the world, including Drake's London, Hermes and Rubinacci. Designing prints is expensive, and the cost must be amortized over relatively few units. Besides those famous names, gunmaker Holland & Holland has partnered with Drake's to offer some world class scarves and pocket squares over the years, done in both silk and wool.

Photo: Reginald-Jerome de Mans

Medieval prints like the ones in the photographs can be displayed to complement a variety of ensembles. Only a fraction of the design is visible in the jacket pocket.

Wool or wool and silk squares pair perfectly with silk neckties in fall and winter. The matte of the wool complements the sheen of the silk.

Worn with a tropical weight suit (despite the date, the weather remains warm in California), a knit necktie and dark brown bluchers.

Shopping for Lesser

Jodek International of Beverly Hills is to the best of my knowledge one of two distributors of bespoke quality cloth to tailors in North America (the other is Isles Textiles on Long Island). For years, Jodek's best-known brand was H. Lesser, perhaps the best cloth merchant of all in a qualitative sense. Lesser is gone as of earlier this year, absorbed by Harrisons of Edinburgh, and though Harrison's is an excellent house it remains an open question as to whether it will continue to produce cloth with the qualities that made Lesser greater.

As if that were not enough change, as of mid-October, Jodek's representation of Lesser is ending and Isles, Harrison's North American distributor, will have taken over the brand. Nonetheless, I stopped in to say hello and go through the remains of Lesser's 8/9 and 9/10 ounce books to see whether there remained anything that I might want to order before that justly renowned cloth is gone forever. And though there is still twenty meters of a glen check that I have had my eye on for a few months, the other stuff has been fairly well picked over. Offsetting that disappointment, Jodek's David Douek did introduce me to Draper's, a Biella mill offering some interesting patterns, including the wide stripes in the second photo. Agnelli had a suit in cloth of a similar design that he willed to Lapo Elkann.

I imagine that afternoons spent at fittings and browsing the cloth books with friends have not changed all that much for a century or more, except that in Beverly Hills these days they have cocktail lounges that actually attempt to air condition the outdoors. Remarkable.

Aspire

More ribbed wool socks by Bresciani, in my opinion the world's best maker, arrived at the ASW store this week, just in time for the weather to cool off. Not that it has here in California. But my ribbed socks are still worth a look, coming as they are in new shades of chocolate, dark green, pearl gray and violet to join the six that were already on the site. Violet, as we have seen on ASW recently, works well between charcoal trousers and black shoes.

These are merino wool with 20% nylon to keep the cost down a bit and I have hundreds of them, knitted in a moderate weight that is suitable for indoor or outdoor wear. They are offered in my four standard over the calf sizes 10 1/2 to 12 along with a made to measure option for men taller than 6' 3" (190 cm) that will be online real soon now. And, by the way, pearl gray is especially nice under air force blue.

That brings us to the issue of matching socks and trousers, to which I say don't. Matching socks to trousers is safe, yes, but surely we aspire to be more than safe. The path to greatness passes through safe and goes beyond, to a place where socks complement without matching. Wear socks that pick up the ground in your necktie, or remind the observer of a check in the day's tweed jacket. Wear lighter colors that draw the eye to the ankles as Astaire did, even though you may not dance gracefully. No-one will know. They will see only that you understand socks.

Aspire.

Beverly Hills Bespoke

Shoe seller Leather Soul in Beverly Hills, California is a small shop, and when you enter it is G. J. Cleverley's shoes that capture your attention. Oh, there is a table of Alden and small displays of other brands, but on the day of my visit it was Anthony Cleverley in the center of the ground floor and Cleverley bespoke and Russian calf accessories upstairs on the balcony.

The display of Cleverley bespoke is definitely worth a detour, particularly for shoe-loving Americans on the left coast who may never have seen the company's stuff during one of its trunk shows. After all, bespoke tailoring and bespoke shoes go together. In the context of the axiom that a man's shoes should be the best he can afford, somewhere between 50 and 100% of whatever he spends on his suit is about the right ratio for his shoes. And though the proportion of suit-wearing men in our society may be small, establishments like Leather Soul are making it easier than it ever has been for men to put well fitted hand made clothing into their wardrobe.

Tweeds in the Heat

It was close to 100 degrees (38 C) in Beverly Hills yesterday, so naturally my companions were getting fitted for tweed jackets. The jackets were by Savile Row's Huntsman, and the cloth in question was  Huntsman's 2011 house tweed, which is woven for that firm on Scotland's Isle of Islay. It is 14 ounce 400 gram stuff that is about as light as tweed can reasonably be made and remain authentic, woven in four colorways. Still, give thanks for air conditioning.

Both jackets shown are Huntsman's house cut with single button fronts. They have one piece backs instead of the usual two, so that the pattern is not broken up.

Huntsman cutter Dario Carnera explained that the sleeves on the jacket in the second photo were only hung for the fitting. They will be removed and replaced with the check aligned with that on the body of the coat before the final product is delivered in about two months time.

By then the temperatures may even permit wearing tweed without collapsing from heat exhaustion.

See You Thursday

I bought a bunch of air tickets yesterday. Los Angeles tomorrow. London in November. Florence and Naples in January. None of which has much to do with today's photo save that the friend I am having dinner with tonight in Beverly Hills sent it to me when I had to cancel a trip to Italy earlier this year.

Food is the principal payback for the boredom of travel in my opinion. There is always some umbrella maker that has to get on the schedule, taking over an afternoon that was blocked out to visit some palace. You work and you sit in a seat for a day at a time while being bounced around the atmosphere. Fortunately, Los Angeles is just a short hop, and on the other side I have Cleverley (shoes), Huntsman (tailoring) and Jodek (cloth). That sort of schedule requires a high twist suit that resists wrinkling. I have a couple more pair of high twist trousers in the works at Ambrosi, and a jacket coming from W. W. Chan. And I am thinking seriously of starting one more Finmeresco suit for really hot days, as I encounter more heat in the suburbs than I ever did in San Francisco. But it will be competing with the last of the H. Lesser books for light and mid-weight cloth. Until it is proven that Harrison's, the new owners of Lesser, will be replacing the old inventory with things of equal quality, prudence demands that we stock up. And not incidentally have a good dinner.

I will see you Thursday.

Overcast Dress

We wear darker colors in the fall. They look seasonal under gray skies, and yesterday the rain clouds brushed the ground so that the very air was overcast. I chose one of my darkest suits.

Charcoal gray hopsack suit worn with a light blue nailhead shirt, black on white angora and lambswool necktie with a burgundy overcheck, and an ancient madder pocket square with a dark green ground. Below the waist, black cap toed oxfords and dark green wool hose.

Shoulder Season is for Worsteds

Well, here we are in shoulder season, that time when midweight (10-12 ounce / 300 - 360 gram) worsteds come into their own. Midweight cloth is considered ten month suiting, meaning it can be worn most of the year, and that makes it the heart of contemporary wardrobes. Ask a tailor for a ten month suit and more likely than not those are the books you will be pointed to.

It was not all that long ago that 13 ounce (400 gram) suitings were the heart of those same wardrobes, particularly in London where summer temperatures are about ten degrees (F) cooler than they are in New York. That makes heavier cloth tolerable later into the season there but really it is a seven or eight month weight in either place, being a bit too sweat-inducing when temperatures hit 70 (21 C) or so. But I digress.

When choosing any type of cloth, the best approach in my opinion is to look for designs that typify the type of weave and the best worsted patterns are pin or rope stripes as well as nailheads and birdseyes. Glen checks are better executed as a woolen in my opinion but an under-appreciated relation is the subtle box check, worn in the photograph by style icon Luca Montezemolo whom we have not seen much of lately here on ASW.

Shoulder season is for worsteds.

Book Review: The Savile Row Cutter

There is an ever-increasing number of books about Savile Row tailors. They tend to fall into two categories: the somewhat impersonal vanity history of a firm and the more gossipy personal memoir full of dish about the tailors and their clients. The Savile Row Cutter, by Michael Skinner “in conversation with Hormazd Narielwalla,” doesn’t quite fit either category.

Each chapter is a separate set of vignettes from the life of Skinner, director of the Savile Row tailors Dege & Skinner and himself son and father of cutters. Narielwalla’s writing splices together Skinner’s first-person recollections. The result is curious but uniquely personal, a set of memories from a man indissociably linked with Savile Row, but despite its title, not strictly a book about Savile Row or tailoring.

Due to its structure, The Savile Row Cutter doesn’t purport to contain the authoritative history of the tailoring firm Dege & Skinner. As a memoir, it lacks the narrative arc of another recent book by a tailor, Richard Anderson’s Savile Row Ripped and Smoothed, which sets up Anderson’s coming of age as a tailor at Huntsman of Savile Row against Huntsman’s own transformation. The Savile Row Cutter misses an opportunity to draw the parallel between the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, with which it opens, and Michael Skinner’s ensuing decision to enter the firm his father had run. Lacking such literary devices, Skinner’s book leaves much unsaid.

Those seeking information about the technical side of tailoring will find some interesting tidbits about the courses Skinner took at the Tailor and Cutter Academy and reflections on tailoring for Dege’s various specialties, in particular military tailoring and hunting and riding clothes. Those interested in the history of Savile Row, or of Dege itself, can track Dege’s evolution over the past six decades through the allusions to strategic acquisitions of other tailoring firms (bringing their client lists, royal warrants and in one case, their Savile Row address, into Dege’s fold), to Dege’s forays into American horse country, Gulf state uniform design and, rather oddly, tailoring clothing for the wax figures at Madame Tussaud’s. But the reader shouldn’t expect a sociological study, or even a degree of self-examination from the narrator, about what this passage of time has meant for craft trades and the future of tailoring more broadly.

The Savile Row Cutter contains many images from Mr Skinner’s collection and the Dege archives of sketches, tailoring patterns, and family pictures. In fact, this book succeeds on an engaging and personal level as a family album: a family whose lives have been intertwined with the tailoring profession, but for whom the equestrian world, the Virginia hunt clubs, the sales trips and the command visits to Oman have been the meaningful scenes of a family as it grows, and evocations of a deceased sister and a late wife accompany the beginning and end of this book. Perhaps the best parallel to The Savile Row Cutter in the infelicitous world of men’s clothing books is not the dedicated histories or tell-alls about tailors, but Stanley Marcus’ rather wonderful Reflection of a Man: a collection of photographs taken over the course of a career capturing moments and images personally important to the author on a human level. It is a generous offer to share glimpses of the author’s life, and the reader can sympathetically step into his shoes.

- Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

Photo: Peter Ward

Cashmere and Cables

Hardy Amies, the articulate Englishman who was arguably the first menswear designer, wrote that his favorite clothing for leisure was a cable knit cashmere crew neck sweater over a silk shirt and flannel trousers, worn with moccasins and a neckerchief. I could not agree more, and new on the ASW store this week are two new versions of those sweaters: a brown version of my quintessential two ply and a lightweight single ply in navy.

The navy in particular deserves a few words for where two ply cashmere is comfortable for most indoor/outdoor wear it may be a little heavy to wear under a jacket. That is where the single ply comes in, for it is the perfect weight for channeling one's inner Agnelli by pairing it with a flannel suit and leaving the front blade of one's cashmere necktie outside the sweater.

The navy has the further distinction of being the first of my cashmeres to be offered in European sizes 38 and 40 (Extra Small and Small) as is the gray flannel version of its two ply relation (those sizes may not be on the store quite yet but rest assured that they will be before the end of the weekend).

Back to Amies. On tieless days, either sweater will pair wonderfully with one of my Dame a la Licorne squares folded into a neckerchief.

I hope to see you on the store.

A Man Has to See

Reading glasses are an essential for many guys who need a little help seeing the finer print once their eyes get a few miles on them. The challenge is finding something worthy. We who need them use them after all in places both private and public, which leads to more than one strategy for their acquisition and deployment.

Reading glasses in one's private life are the easiest of course. When the only people around are used to seeing us at our worst, we need care only that our reading glasses magnify properly. And, since it is less than convenient to carry the things about in a state of dishabille, a strategy of scattering relatively inexpensive glasses wherever they might be required has its merits. The Cinzia Editorials in the photo (about $60) might qualify for this duty. They are reasonably attractive, well constructed and will provide much more reliable service than the kinds of things seen on those revolving racks at the neighborhood chemist.

The question then becomes what to do in the public part of one's life. Nothing wrong with the Cinzias of course. Optical quality metal and all. But they may be lacking just a little style for the pickier of us, who may prefer something a little more individual and, unsurprisingly, a little more expensive.

Imitation tortoise frames from genuine plastic may be a reasonable step up for glasses to be worn to read contracts at the office, menus in restaurants or programs at the opera. High quality plastic from a European maker costs perhaps five times the price of the Cinzias. That is wince-inducing indeed but the easy way to get over any sticker shock associated with plastic is to begin looking at frames made from natural materials. Real tortoise is probably not going to be on that list as it is no longer imported legally into the United States, and though there may be small stocks still around a pair of tortoise frames are likely to cost in the low five figures and that is far too rich for my blood. About as nice looking and far better priced are horn frames, which are very attractive and much less dear being priced from around that same $250 for glasses from Southeast Asia and increasing to $1,000 for something made by the Germans. And at that latter amount one might as well consider surgery. At least he would be done with the problem.

In the end though, compromise is likely to prevail and that might mean a couple pair of metal readers for reading at home, a pair of faux tortoise for the office and a pair of horn for for the jacket pocket. After all, a man has to see.

It's Not for Footballs

Pigskin is not for footballs and never has been. Long before vulcanized rubber took over that game, the term was adopted as a polite way to avoid directly acknowledging that in the 19th century American football was played with air-filled pig's bladders.  Instead, the stuff makes a soft upper for a casual shoe with some texture that becomes more visible as it is polished.

The tasseled pigskin in the photos is very nice as it is but is supposed to be mid-brown once it is colored and attached to soles in a couple of months. The model is a bespoke version of the de Rede, for the late Baron who was such a good customer that he had a model in George Cleverley's line named after him. This was all before the French began emulating the Americans and taxing everything they could get their hands on of course, but according to Cleverley's George Glasgow the Baron had fifty pair of bespoke evening slippers alone, and fifty more pair of patent pumps, an appetite exceeding even Bernie Madoff's taste for Belgian Shoes. Of course, that may have been in part because the senior Glasgow is quite a salesman. If only he had not been so persuasive about how well alligator makes up as a banded slip-on...

Suits and Socks, Installment XXIX

Years ago Alan Flusser wrote something to the effect that in his opinion socks should always be patterned, and I took his words to heart. I kept a few pair of cashmere solids around but otherwise went systematically about filling my drawers with patterned hose. These things being cyclical, some years later I began noticing that Cary Grant is not wearing patterned hose in any of the photographs I have that show his ankles, and the pendulum began to swing back to the point where I am wearing solids as much as patterns. With a twist of course.

Mr. Flusser's point was that one should not have a black hole between trouser bottom and shoe, and a dandy way to fill the space is with a pair of colored hose that complement but do not match the rest of the day's clothing. Lighter shades are especially effective. I like beige for the task, and light blue and silver gray. Darker colors work as well, including teal and wine, though the latter may be done a bit too often. And then there is plum, which does an excellent job of filling the space between charcoal trousers and dark shoes, to the point that it goes unnoticed unless one happens to be looking directly at it and then there is just the slightest shock of recognition.

In the photograph, plum Bresciani socks are paired with elastic sided slip-ons and the trousers from a mid-weight double striped suit.

I Need a Valet

I was corresponding with André Churchwell the other day and he mentioned that he lays out his clothes for the next day before he goes to sleep for the night. Great minds think alike, says I.  After all, assuming a man has no-one to do it for him, and who does, choosing one's clothes the night before saves time in the morning. It is not so much that the time required can mean a missed flight. No, the important thing is that one never has to spend the day grumbling under one's breath over a not quite right necktie that there was no time to change.

I begin the process by choosing my tailored clothing based on the most formal thing I will be doing the next day. The choice is a function of rotation more than anything else. The season's suits are on a closet bar with the most recently worn on the right. Odd jackets are on a separate bar. If it is a suburban day, for example, choosing something is just a matter of pulling an appropriate item from the far left on the bar and hanging it on a valet so I can choose accessories. That is where the trouble comes in.

Choosing accessories basically means I have to decide whether the day will feature a tie or a shirt. If I have a new necktie that I want to wear, for example, then the shirt has to complement it. Or, I may want to try a particular shirt with the jacket, and need a necktie that works with the two of them. Selection of the primary accessory generally takes no time to speak of. Deciding on the other is the hard part, usually requiring me to look through every option I own. Sometimes more than once.  Sometimes a lot more than once. I am a case study in how long it can take to decide on a black knit necktie but things are all downhill after that.

Shirt and tie in hand, it is just a minute more to choose a pocket square in a different texture than my necktie. Shoes follow, then socks that complement without matching, braces and cufflinks if I will be wearing them.

Trust me, this is all better done the night before. One needs time for jacket steaming and shoe brushing in the morning. I need a valet.

Photo: Luciano Barbera

Nonchalance

In the photograph, a pair of wine colored hose adds a little nonchalance to a Sunday ensemble, for one should never take one's clothing too seriously.

Above the waist, a yellow oxford shirt provides a background to the yellow and navy necktie that complements the jacket and its buttons in an otherwise too consistent sort of way. The navy silk pocket square has a bit of gold and a bit of wine but there is no other excuse for the socks.

Suits and Socks, Installment XXVIII

Some fabrics just go together better than others. Cotton for example is perfect with cotton trousers and fine next to linen but during the day it is not matte enough for my taste when worn with wool trousers. I am happy when the temperature declines a few degrees and wool hose come back into their own.

Light gray suit of H. Lesser 9/10 ounce cloth worn with espresso brown shoes and Bresciani's mid-gray Super 140s hose with black clocks (did you know that the technology for knitting socks with clocks was lost for half a century or so and only recently re-invented?).

Of Socks and Gilets

Pearl gray socks, that's the ticket. And they are new on the ASW store this week in a luxurious blend of cashmere and New Zealand wool that is ideal for weekends around your own home or, like Mr. Grant, someone else's. Also in beige and a particularly nice version of plum, and joined by two other new styles of wool dress hose including ribbed solid color stuff and Super 140s with clocks.

In addition, by the way, if you are headed out of doors and the temperature is cooling off, you might also take a look at my two new quilted waistcoats. Waistcoats or gilets worn over a sweater keep your core warm while leaving the arms free for raising a gun, swinging a club or just carrying a little something in from the car. And, this being A Suitable Wardrobe, these are not ordinary waistcoats. One of them is dark green Belsetta, the wind and water resistant wonder fiber with a suede-like texture. The other is dark brown suede, also with a suede-like texture. Both have orange wool linings and a plethora of pockets and you can't go wrong with either of them.