Quotation: Tell Them Who's Boss

"My late husband, David, and Fred Astaire went to the same little Italian tailor in Beverly Hills, up on Little Santa Monica. One day David came in to pick up a new suit, and there was Fred. The tailor comes out of the back room with Fred's new suit on a hanger and hands it to Fred. Fred takes the suit off the hanger, rolls it up, and throws it against the wall. David said, 'What are you doing?' And Fred answered, 'The way to wear clothes is to tell them who's boss in the beginning. Then they fit you.'"

-Danvi Janssen quoted in Fred Astaire: his friends talk, by Sarah Giles

A Pork Pie for the Car

I drive a convertible and the top is open unless it's raining cats and dogs. But sunglasses leave a glare gap above the lenses and don't do any good at all when it's sprinkling. So, in the car, I'm a hat wearer.


Inspired by a photo of Fred Astaire, I recently commissioned a light-weight beaver felt pork pie for days when a standard felt is too warm and a straw too out of season. Here's the result of my day dreams in light gray, thanks once again to Art Fawcett of VS Custom Hats. The shape proved unexpectedly elegant in person and has quickly become my favorite.


A hat in the car keeps a man stylish, dry and nicely shaded, without the "no place to put it" annoyances that crop up if I'm walking around town. I'll try to have action photos for next week.

When It's Warm in Autumn

There's so much fuss about putting summer clothes away after Labor Day, and very little information about what choices are appropriate when it's still blistering hot in mid September. But this is one question that's thought about quite a bit in Northern California. Away from the coast, it's warm here until sometime in November.

So, what to wear? The Rules have us storing our seersucker, white bucks, and straw hats after Labor Day, but they say nothing about summer clothes in general. Transitioning from hot weather clothes is a process rather than an event, a process that begins with the removal of obviously summer items like white linen from the active wardrobe. Continue to wear darker summer items, such as navy mohair, until the temperature calls for heavier cloth. But put away the lighter colored suits and shoes. That dove gray tropical suit and the light tan shoes should be replaced with a charcoal mid-weight that's worn with dark brown shoes.

Complement the color scheme like Fred Astaire, with a mid-toned hat. Straws are no longer appropriate, but there are felts and then there are unlined ultra light-weight felts (like the one by Art Fawcett in the photo) that are almost as cool as a straw.

Photo courtesy of AlanC

In a word, keep the weight light and darken the mix of colors.

Quotation: Dress and Manners

"To be well-dressed gives one an ease of manner that is agreeable to all. The consciousness of being well-dressed gives a self-possession that no one can enjoy if he feels that he is shabby-looking or that his clothes are unbecoming. He forgets self in the first instance; in the second he cannot banish self."

-Annie Randall White, Polite Society, At Home and Abroad, 1901

Pants Across the Sea

We know that HRH Edward, the Duke of Windsor, had his trousers made in New York while his jackets were cut in London. He called it pants across the sea. I don't have a figure as trim as the Duke's but my solution also crosses the Atlantic.

Trousers cut to ride on the hips, the intended location of American ready to wear models, have a disturbing tendency to accentuate a pear shaped form. Fortunately, there are other styles of trousers. Note the long fall on the high waisted trousers of the man in the illustration, or look at photos of Fred Astaire wearing trousers with high waistbands in the book Fred Astaire Style by G. Bruce Boyer.

For me, those high waistbands are just the ticket. High waisted trousers fall straight down my front, creating an illusion of slimness that I hope is successful. Their height is also a better match for waistcoats and sweaters as there is no danger of a distracting glimpse of shirt above the trousers.

It's difficult if not impossible to find high waisted trousers ready to wear any longer, and this is where the across the sea part comes in. First, I order corduroy, moleskin, linen and other odd trouser fabric from a London merchant such as Beazley's Fine Cloth or John G. Hardy/J & J Minnis.
http://www.hollandandsherry.com/beazleys/
http://www.hfw-huddersfield.co.uk/hardyminnis/index.asp

About a week after ordering, the cloth arrives in San Francisco. Four times a year I pack it up and send it to Michelle at Martin Greenfield Clothers of Brooklyn, New York, asking for so many of this and so many of that. And then three months later I get a box of unfinished made to measure trousers that go in turn to a San Francisco alterations tailor for final adjustments and cuffs.

I'm looking forward to my next pair of high waisted trousers in 12 oz. charcoal whipcord. Only four months and ten thousand miles to go.