Wall Street

This vidcap from the film Wall Street makes me imagine a scene that was left on the cutting room floor, where Gordon Gekko calls Alan Flusser, who did the wardrobe for the movie.

"Yeah Alan the cuffs are fine but the collar doesn't fit. Get somebody down here and fix it!"

A Friday Suit

An older 3 roll 2 Alan Flusser suit made from a still older Hunters of Brora 15 ounce dress tweed. Worn without the vest on a dank Friday in San Francisco. Small burgundy on white check on the Turnbull & Asser shirt, pink silk pocket square (also from T&A), Nicky gold on burgundy necktie and Edward Green Rye oxfords in chestnut antique.

Hunters of Brora was a tweed mill in Northern Scotland that began operations in 1901 and enjoyed an excellent reputation. The original mill was shuttered in 1985 in response to a general decline in the European textile industry and the market's move to lighter cloth, and several attempts to re-start the business have enjoyed little success.

This make of jacket, which Flusser advertised as his Anderson & Sheppard influenced model, proved to be not very true to the original and too boxy for my taste. Like the textile market, I have moved on. But I still love this cloth.

Twenty Great Clothing Books

Here is my list of the twenty great books on classic men's clothing and style of the past fifty years. Most of them are out of print but I've found copies and you can too. In no particular order:

• Scottish Estate Tweeds, E.P. Harrison. A history of tweed with photos of the great estate patterns.
• Esquire's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Men's Fashions, O. E. Schoeffler & William Gale. Esquire was once a style leader and the Encyclopedia covers what it thought about every category of men's clothing from the turn of the century through the 1970's. On the required reading list for every budding menswear designer and ferociously expensive.
• Men in Style, Woody Hochswender & Kim Johnson Gross. Learn how men dressed during the Golden Age from these Apparel Arts & Esquire illustrations.
• The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie, Thomas Fink & Yong Mao. Tired of your four-in hand? Here are all the options.
• The Englishman's Suit, Hardy Amies. How the western world came to dress like the English aristocracy, and how it still can. Expensive, if you can find a copy.
• Handmade Shoes for Men, Laszlo Vass. All about shoes made as they should be made.
• The Boutonniere: Style in One's Lapel, Umberto Angeloni. How to wear a flower in your lapel.
• The Elegant Man: How to Construct the Ideal Wardrobe, Ricardo Villarosa & Giuliano Angeli. Interesting overview with perhaps the best section on cloth that's been in print.
• Hatless Jack, Neil Steinberg. What you'll care to know about the hat.
• Eminently Suitable: The Elements of Style in Business Attire, G. Bruce Boyer. Well written and comprehensive look at the suit.
• Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion, Alan J. Flusser. Big and beautiful review of how to dress.
• Clothes and the Man: The Principles of Fine Men's Dress, Alan J. Flusser. The visuals aren't as good as the ones in Dressing the Man but the text is better.
• The Book of Ties, Francois Chaille. Just about all you need to know about neckwear.
• Gentleman: A Timeless Fashion, Berhard Roetzel. Well illustrated. Less on suits and more on a variety of accessories for the gentleman's lifestyle.

What's Style?

What is style? To me, it's not just good taste. A man whose regular garb consists of two button suits in conservative cloth, black oxfords, white shirts and solid neckties lacks individuality, and without individuality there can be no style.

Personal style is a consistent gestalt of individual choices, with the emphasis on individual. Where is the individual in a crowd wearing striped suits, Hermes ties and Gucci loafers?

That said, style can be consistent with business dress. The dress in the photo from Alan Flusser Custom is made up of conservative elements. It's the small touches that add individuality, like the double breasted jacket with a stripe alternating single and double beads. A uniform, but an individualized one.

That's style.