There are two occasions when the blazer comes into its own, and those are the off duty lunch and late afternoon/early evening social events when an odd jacket is not quite enough and a suit a little too formal. It helps that blue jackets are at their best in the sunshine and after dark.
The look of a blazer can be varied quite a bit by its accessories, particularly trousers and shoes. In summer they are best complemented with lighter-than-the-usual-gray-flannel trousers. Try wearing cream or pale gray, and set them off with brown slip-on shoes or spectators during the day. Evening on the other hand is the one time any man can wear a bow tie with confidence, and look good in the process.
In the photograph, two Churchwell brothers in light colored trousers for Saturday lunch. André wears his with a knit top and a neckerchief while Keith is in a dress shirt and a summer necktie.
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33 comments:
good post will but I just wrote a post on why bow ties are no no's, a cravat is more manly , more style. the bow tie belongs in public memory to men with problenms as regards personality I think. I want to ask a question what do you think of blazer badges? I think a blue blaze can be worn at any time, in summer they are great with unlined insides plus double breated
There is something not quite right with Keith's trousers from my perspective - perhaps my browser is misinterpreting the color or pattern or my eyes are completely shot.
I'm not a fan of the embroidered badges on blazers. Of course, if you've been awarded some military medal, in keeping with the blue blazer's derivation from military uniform, by all means wear it, but it seems a bit over-the-top or "costume-y" - all that lacks would be the yacht club commodore's white cap with 'scrambled eggs' for the complete effect.
As to bow ties - I couldn't disagree more with Superchick. Of course, bow ties are de riguer with dinner jackets, so a blanket elimination of them won't pass muster. While I certainly admit to personality problems, I enjoy the facial framing and acceptable non-conformance of a bow tie. How bland a life it would be with only four-in-hands? Cravats, scarfs and ascots have their place, but not in my regular wardrobe. I wouldn't wear anything but a four-in-hand for city business, but for after-hours, country activities, or a weekend, they're just the right note.
I actually would ask a bloke to take off his bow tie if he turned up for a date wearing one, I think they are embarrassing at least in Italy but everyone to their own of course. I also think that men who wear them are finecky, is that the right spelling? Whereas the cravat signifies a man who knows who he is and doesn't give a damn if you dont know, in the 20's A double breasted suit was worn with a cravat a lot of times.Honestly matt I've never met a man in a bow tie who wasnt slightly cranky but I may have met the wrong people. When reading your post I laughed as it brought to mind Joe E Lewis in "some like it hot". Lol
There's no point in attempting to write-off bow ties. Until very recently it was the cravat that was condemned as only fit for retired colonels, yet now women think them sexy - especially since David Beckham sported one. Fashion tastes are no measure for classic apparel.
Matt, if you zoom the original photo Keith's trousers are striped. They always play havoc with a lens.
@superchick: Removing clothing at the outset of a date? I like your thinking! If that was sure-fire, then more men would be wearing the little devils...hmm.
@RvdV: I agree with your sentiments on the classics. Now I see the stripes in the photo. Its no wonder that politicians and those in front of cameras avoid them - very disconcerting.
Men dress so badly today that anyone in a blazer is immediately better dressed than the vast majority of those around him.
i dont know one woman in italy who would go out with a man in a bow tie, they are deeply uncool, yes it was true about the cravat but not always sooooo true i saw this young geezer bout 12 years ago dressed fantastic in rome, he wore an oatmeal sports jacket with a very light sky blue shirt ans a paisley lemon cravat, his strides were light grey and he wore nice tan slip on shoes, very dark hair and tanned skin, yeh that was when cravats were out but he was the business, bow ties nah, believe me unless its a formal dinner you look silly
Humphrey Bogart carried off bow ties often and well and so did WSC and British televison interviewer Robin Day; Cary Grant sometimes wore one too.It all depends whether the tie suits the individual. There is a problem when the tie is so prominent a feature that it is wearing the man. If Superchick, you are dating men who are overwhelmed by a small piece of clothing, you may be dating the wrong men in the first place!
Blazer badges are an area of contention. I guess that club\regimental buttons and tie are subtler. However, Benson & Clegg (Tailors By Appointment to Geo VI and the current PoW) do a big range of blazer badges, so they must be arguably OK - but not with a club-coloured blazer and, I have to say that, although a family member has a blazer with a college badge, I wouldn't wear one - but that's just a personal choice.
Superchick,
Fortunately, we do not have to rely upon Italian women when deciding upon our choice of attire.
Old School - I am amazed that any woman would be remotely interested in a man who would meekly change his clothes, to her demands, on a first date! Surely, he's the type with the 'personality problem'.
So much contrversy over the bowtie! While they are not very popular amongst those who prefer the "Continental" style of dress favored by Italian men, they retain a good deal of popularity in the US and UK. There is a degree of confidence required when wearing one as they are considered different despite their long history. But a man who can wear a bowtie with confident nonchalance will see that confidence emerge in other areas...
Dr. Andre looks unbelievably good.
I wore bow ties for years. Never got approached by an Italian girl, I don't think. Now I know.
"but I just wrote a post on why bow ties are no no's, a cravat is more manly"
Actually I'd say this was a reversal of reality. While accepting that the bowtie is not to everyone's taste or even mildy eccentric, the cravat is definitely a more or less obsolete or at least comical garment because of the Thurston Howell III associations. The bowtie on the other hand requires a bit of sprezzatura to bring off but no more than say spectators surely. They shouldn't be worn with DB jackets or check suits of any sort but there's no doubt they give a lift to most outfits. As to taking orders from one's partner on what to wear, I'll forbear to comment.
I don't know Thurston Howell III and, frankly, I'd be even less inclined to be uinfluenced by his blight than by the diktats of a first date!
If she doesn't like what you are wearing and starts to call the shots - ab initio - then: sling her over your shoulder and take her back to your cave; in some place where they know what's what and that the best advantage of Woman is nice presentation of herself and a closely-guarded tongue; especially around the Med.; where my recollection is that they best understand these essential truths! Yo! Bros! Superchick - you need some education, Babe.
Former haberdasher Harry S Truman and one-time prison camp escapee Winston Churchill were two men who wore bow ties with double-breasted suits.
I'd say that bow ties don't go well with any jacket, double-breasted or otherwise, with a low button stance, but can look good with one that has a higher closure. And let us not forget the double-breasted option for black tie.
We are far enough away from Gilligan's Island to be able to wear cravats/ascots again—if we're man enough, that is ;-P
Horatio:
"Former haberdasher Harry S Truman and one-time prison camp escapee Winston Churchill were two men who wore bow ties with double-breasted suits."
I don't recall ever seeing a picture of Churchill post WW 1 wearing a bowtie with a DB suit apart from sometimes with a frock coat which is technically double breasted but this had disappeared by the early 20's. Truman certainly did but then he also wore pocket hankerchiefs protruding from his breast pocket with his initials embroidered on them.
NJS
"I don't know Thurston Howell III"
Symbolism....he's merely a stereotype of the comedic territory into which the cravat has been pushed....along with monocles and spats.
Btw before I upset too many people with my comments about the cravat, I have no problems with neckerchiefs as worn superbly by Andre Churchwell...no doubt I'm picking pepper out of fly poop here but there just exists (in my mind at least) a undefinable distinction between the two.
Sounds good, Joe.
I'd say the difference between a cravat/ascot and a neckerchief is the shape (long with pointed blades for the former, square for the latter) and the resultant necessary difference in how they are tied and worn. The latter have more bulk, too.
Dr. Churchwell's neckerchief looks good, and he looks good in it. I'm not sure that I would try it, but then again, I never thought I would wear ascots, so who knows what the future may bring?
On a side note, I really have come to prefer the stuffed pocket square to the folded one, though I think I would fold for a funeral.
Horatio - Funerals are all about folding!
you might date american women with a bow tie but not in italy, this is a good post because we all buy clothes out of a deep freudian responce to the libido
lol, did you get approached by mrs marple types cos they like bow ties
Ive never seen an italian man who was normal wear one, the only ones ive ever seen are those who want to achieve some kind of simpatico scattiness or eccentricity, they are viewed as poverini (poor souls)
but i have noticed that bow tie wearing men arsìe very often encouraged to think it shows intellect= believe me it doesnt. It shows a kind of tom woolf type eccentric overdressed and trying to get attention because mummy didnt love him enough as a child, I really think that could be the connection. Its the most horrendous unfathomable thing, its like socks that match nothing the trousers or the shoe or fancy waistcoats or single breasted suits in black or blue. all terrible but hey everyone can do what they want.
robin day was exactly the kind of "old lady" im talking about
bogart, a tough hombre but looked silly in his bow tie
grant=see above
by the way if you remember the film gatsby then youll remember redford dressed in a suit with cravat, looked great, it took away the formalness of a suit
Ahem! There was nothing remotely old-ladyish about Robin Day. He was actually built like a tank and when a group of youths once tried to rob him in the street he beat them up. He was the originator of the intellectual television debate and, according to Joan Bakewell, a 'social menace' with the ladies.
"He was actually built like a tank"
Day was built like a tank, small but tankish. I met him on one occasion in the seventies. Then of course there was A. J. P. Taylor and his three wives and two coincident families. Andre Malraux, Ian Fleming, Billy Wilder, Erich von Stroheim, FDR, Churchill, then those two noted swordsmen F. E. Smith and David Lloyd George, Freddie Ayer who had more wives and girlfriends than I can count. Who knows maybe Mussolini wore one occasionally. The wearing of bowties does not necessarily imply any lack of appeal to the fair sex, it depends entirely on the neck they're suspended around.
Coincidentally, I also met Day in the 1970s. I remember that he was tank-like, as we agree although I do not recall his height. Pop Larkin in the tv series of H E Bates' 'The Darling Buds of May' often wore a bow tie and the ladies flocked around him.
robin day could have been the circumlocutory core of the bow tie soul
it Italy it does
and Italy is the last word on fashion
well he came over as a total old lady and honestly he was no sway a hard man, you understand that the moment he opened his mouth God rest his soul
Superchick - Day will, if for nothing else, be remembered for his hammering of John Nott and his 'here today gone tomorrow politician' remark. He'll be remembered more than most and, Babe, just watch this space.
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