There was a piece on penis warmers in one of the fashion sites that I read from time to time (how else to keep up with Karl Lagerfeld?). Penis warmers were apparently worn in the depth of Croatian winters while the predecessors to Mr. James D'Arcy in the photo were dancing the night away in London. And frankly I will choose the dancing every time despite the starched collars of evening dress.
As everyone knows, both formal and semi-formal evening dress have all but disappeared since as a culture we stopped riding horses. Or, for that matter, having dinner at a table with eight to twelve friends and acquaintances, at least one of whom would be obliged to move to the piano afterwards and entertain us with his or her singing. Pianos of course have been replaced by sound systems, and evening dress by considerably simpler clothing to the point that I found myself self-conscious wearing a smoking jacket to entertain at home the other night. My usual evening clothes these days are a white shirt, black trousers and black house shoes.
Our dress of course has evolved rapidly since animal skins became accessories rather than all we had to wear. We have gone from skins to cloth robes to tailored clothing and beyond at an accelerating pace. And despite all that, penis warmers are still knitted in Croatia. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Photo: Tom Munro for W./E.
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6 comments:
While I check in to your blog daily for pointers and tips on dressing well (and developing a interesting wardrobe), the subject matter of this particular post defies all of my attempts at a witty comment. I' stumped.
Best Regards,
Ulrich von B.
Your opening sentence cause caused me to spill a measure (fortunately not too great) of my four and one half to one (Beefeater and Noilly Prat) Martini into my (Unicomp model M) keyboard.
Both I and the keyboard having recovered, I can only say that, having made your bones as a writer, you are faced with the necessity of writing a book. Knowing your admirable tendency towards perfectionism, this may take a couple of years.
Meanwhile we can only await the arrival of the latest line of accessories in the ASW shop. I am sure that your choice of material and coloring will be impeccable.
The matter of sizing may be a bit delicate, but I trust you to be up to the challenge.
@dan: The pen is warmer than the sword, eh?
Presumably,the ASW models will be hand-stitched vicuña, rolled on the thighs of maidens?
@rjmanbearpig: As Byron said: "... The sword outwears its sheath".
dan - sounds like a Samuel Pepys' complaint about his sheepskin-gut 'armour' when he was fooling around with his wife's maids.
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