Silk And Wool

I've always been hesitant to wear silk pocket squares in the city, preferring the greater discretion of linen. But lately I've been experimenting with squares whose background color is similar to that of my jacket.

In the photo, which we had to shoot several times as yesterday's intense light kept washing out the colors, a navy square provides a bit of sheen against the matte of a navy suit. Not quite as discreet as white linen but not loud either.

Worn with a lavender shirt and a gray grenadine necktie.

Linen Season

Linen season is upon us. Mustard linen suit, checked linen shirt, and an Irish poplin necktie worn with slip-on spectator shoes for an alfresco lunch yesterday.

The secret to wearing linen is that heavier cloth doesn't wrinkle like the lighter weaves. This 14 ounce material just rumples gracefully.

Gray Hair

A man may spend a lifetime learning how to complement his coloring with shirts and neckties, only to see that learning become useless in a matter of months when his hair turns gray. But gray hair is fairly easy to work with. It responds well to a palette of pastels as well as grey, beige, red and white. Indeed, men who always looked washed out in white shirts may find that a bit of white to the face is quite complementary once they've grayed.

There is little to like in this monochromatic cast photo from AMC's Mad Men television series, but it does illustrate a white shirt working with white hair on the man in the double breasted. If only he had swapped neckties with the guy on the far left before he drowned in that marine blue suit. Oh well, I shouldn't get started.

Dressing for the Evening at Six AM

Can a suit-wearing man be appropriately dressed all day and into the evening without changing his clothes? Absolutely, so long as the night's event doesn't require either jeans or black tie. It's just a matter of choosing adaptable clothes in the morning.

Emulate the civilian in the illustration by starting the morning with a plain dark gray or dark navy suit, white shirt with french cuffs, white linen pocket square and black calf shoes (much as I like suede, shoes should reflect light at night). Carry a more formal necktie with you during the day and don it before the evening begins. Personally, I prefer satin in shades of maroon, light blue and gold. And voilà.

Advanced students may choose to carry a change of shirt in addition to a necktie, forgoing the white shirt in daytime for something more flattering. But it's not required.

Peter Harvey's Coming to Town

He's come and gone actually, but Peter Harvey of tailors Fallan & Harvey brought a jacket with him for fitting and that always feels like a visit from Santa even though I pay for it.

I didn't bring anyone with me to take a photo this time so we laid the jacket on a sofa. It's an 18 ounce gun club tweed with crescent pockets and a two button front that will be ready in the summer. Peter makes quite a few crescent pocket jackets for Japanese clients who, like me, are looking for something that evokes the late Duke of Windsor.

The visit also provided the opportunity to start a flannel suit for Fall. It will be made from the London Lounge triple check cloth that's been written about here before, in a three button single breasted that rolls to the center button, with a shawl collared double breasted vest. All in all, a bit of holiday spirit in the midst of Spring.

Prep Gone Wild

The madras shorts suit from Ralph Lauren. Just the thing for a Fourth of July clam bake. I think the necktie might be a bit busy, don't you?

Gray Suits and Black Shoes

Gray suits are the best accompaniment to black shoes, and vice verse.

As I've written many times, I don't like black with blue before six o'clock. That's the time for brown or, better yet, cordovan-colored shoes. But I've half a dozen pair of black oxfords in my closet and gray suits give me the opportunity to wear them.

Gray suits and black shoes. Even Italians like Luca di Montezemolo pair them.

Quotation: Tailored Suits

"Putting on a beautifully designed suit elevates my spirit, extols my sense of self, and helps define me as a man to whom details matter. Well-tailored clothing is a celebration of precision. When I'm wearing one of my custom suits, I'm in harmony with my highest ideals, my worship of great workmanship. In this period of globalization and outsourcing, of voicemail vacuousness and shopping on the Internet, there are few things more gratifying to me than standing in a clothing shop getting a second or third fitting from a tailor who is personally and pridefully engaged in what he's doing."

-Gay Talese in Vanity Fair

Quotation: London, New York and Hong Kong Suits

"The material in all cases will be identical since bespoke tailors the world over procure their suitings from the same English sources, the great woolen merchants of the English Midlands and the equally esteemed weavers of choice fabrics in Scotland. There are almost no other sources of luxury cloth if you except the brief rash of Italian silk suitings which found such favor with American gangster types that they never made an appreciable impression on the market.

In London and in New York the workmanship in each case will be identical; painstaking, expert handcraft performed by an ancient guild whose numbers are shrinking alarmingly in a mechanized world of cheapness and shoddy. The product from Hong Kong will be as skillfully cut and designed as the other two, since Fenwick or any other Hong Kong bespoke tailor will undertake to duplicate any suit that you wish them to use for a model, but the findings, that is to say the stuff inside the pockets, the thread with which the garments are sewn and the buttons attached, the lining, unless you specify a high grade silk at a small extra charge, and the coarse materials used to stiffen shoulders and lapels will be of quality inferior to that used by reputable men's tailors in New York and London."

- The Big Spenders by Lucius Beebe

Photograph courtesy of Desmond Merrion

Do Your Jackets Fit?

More important than silhouette. More important than the quality of the construction. The thing everyone can afford but also, if casual observation holds true, the easiest to get wrong. And that's the fit of a jacket, which should stay where it's supposed to even when it's in an awkward position like the one on Luca di Montezemolo as he points out the body curve on a new Maserati Quattroporte.

Starting from the top, the jacket collar should hug the rear of the shirt collar at all times.

The jacket shoulder should end at the edge of the shoulders, and the armholes should begin no more than an inch below the armpit. High armholes help a jacket to ride properly through a range of motion.

The position of the jacket's buttoning point should be at the natural waist or half an inch below it to keep it from bunching up when the wearer is seated.

The jacket should also be large enough to button without strain - but not too large. There should be no more than three inches of space between the button and the chest.

Jacket lapels should fall straight down the chest without buckling or pulling away from the chest in any other way and the jacket back should not have horizontal creases anywhere along its length. If a coat does buckle or crease it is usually too small, and that's not a correctible problem.

Finally, the sleeves should show half an inch of shirt cuff when the arms are hanging straight down.

A jacket doesn't have to come from Rome's Caraceni Sartoria to fit properly. Do your jackets fit?

You May Not Pass That Way Again

Sometimes I want to kick myself. You see, about two years ago I spotted some Scabal tropical worsted similar to the cloth of the suit on the yachtsman in the illustration. A black, gray and white pinstripe that appeared light gray from a distance, I thought it would make a single breasted summer suit that would look great with spectator shoes. But, since that was not much of a priority at the time, I didn't acquire it.

Of course, when I thought to get it this month it was sold out. The moral of this tale is when you find yourself thinking about something repeatedly, you'd better find a way to get it. For you may not pass that way again.

Flannel Suits and Shoes

I'm wearing a gray flannel suit and quarter brogue shoes today, just as Gianni Agnelli did in this photo. A flannel suit falls between tweed and worsteds on the texture scale and needs a bit of visual interest in the shoes for balance. That interest can be either brogueing or suede in my opinion. I like semi-brogues and quarter brogues for the task as I find full brogues too heavy looking for the city, reserving them for tweeds.

Quarter brogues have a plain toe with a straight row of punches across the cap, another row around the laces, and a heel counter. Semi-brogues, which I think are equally appropriate with flannel, also have a straight row of punches at the toe and around the laces. They have a medallion on the toe, but no heel counter.

The surface interest of flannel makes it, with linen, one of my two favorite suitings. Wear either of them with shoes that complement the look.

Seersucker Accompaniments

As a reader reminded me, it may still be cold in much of the country but in just a couple of weeks Easter will mark the start of seersucker suit season in the southern United States. It's a uniquely American suit, and one that lends itself to pairings with other items that tend to be more common in the States than elsewhere, from white bucks to madras neckties. And, since it's spring, don't forget to wear color.

Around the foot, color can come from a pair of hoop striped hose, or even some polka dots. Accompany the socks with a pair of white bucks, or brown and white spectators if the occasion is a weekend or the race track. In a business setting, turn down the volume with a pair of light tan oxfords like the ones in the photo.

At the neck, seersucker is often seen with a bowtie, in either silk or madras. Madras four in hands work well, as do silk knits and polka dotted silks with spots just a bit smaller than a dime - this is no time for too much discretion.

I believe that a man's shirt should be lighter than his suit, so I pair my seersucker with white shirts, or pale pastels. Depending on the color of the suit, cream, pale blue, gray, pink, and peach shirts can all play very satisfactory roles.

And then there's trouser support, which should be striped in my opinion. Whether barathea braces or surcingle belt, a little more color never hurt seersucker.

Unfortunately, for most of us it will be several more weeks before the weather warrants seersucker accompaniments.

A Button Too Far

Several buttons too far actually. Not content with the decoration provided by his cuff, Yann Debelle de Montby of Berluti has five buttons on his jacket sleeve, and leaves three of them open. I think this crosses the line separating venial sins from mortal ones.

Aside from the unforgiveable, his look would be fairly classic. I can forgive the silver headed cane in a man who is obviously trying too hard and his combination of blue suit, white shirt and silver tie is one of my personal favorites - I wore a navy suit and silver blue twill necktie yesterday with a shirt that had a gray twill body and white collar and cuffs.

I wonder if he has met Snoop Dogg.

Hickey Freeman Moves West

Hickey Freeman opened its third company store a few weeks ago, in the Four Seasons Hotel complex on Market Street in San Francisco. The American suit maker's new store follows two Manhattan outlets and is to be followed in turn by a Chicago location this year.

I haven't owned any HF clothing since I was a young man but I've kept a soft spot in my heart for the brand. And you can see why from the display of clothes for boys. It almost makes me wish I had a child the right age for that stuff. Almost, but not quite.

I was a little disappointed in the selection. I know the company makes some great looking tweed suitings but what was evident instead were the same racks of year-round clothing that they sell at Nieman Marcus. But I guess I can't blame them for stocking what sells, and there was a good looking seersucker in the store window.

I wish the new store well and I'll definitely be back to window shop. Turns out there's a delightful little cream puff store a few doors away that's also nice to window shop.

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.

Gray and Green

I might never have considered the combination of bottle green with gray flannel had I not read about it in one of Alan Flusser's early books. But I tried it, liked it, and I've been wearing it ever since. And it seems particularly apropos before Christmas.


It's a combination that benefits from socks that complement the necktie. And semi-brogue shoes. In my opinion, a flannel suit needs either brogueing or the texture of suede to balance the look.

Reader Questions

From Bill

I am looking to have made a blue chalk stripe suit, 2 button, single breasted, with ticket pocket. The trousers will be rather high waisted and pleated, with cuffs, without belt loops, to be supported by braces, as are often wonderfully depicted in your own photos. It will be for city or formal wear.

Previously, I have only had the standard single breasted 6 button vest. However, I have seen recent pictures and commentary on double breasteds and vests with lapels. What is your opinion on the most traditional choice?

Country suits often have lapels on the vests. The most formal city suits can have a DB vest. And well dressed men sometimes add country details to city suits.

The only caution I'll add is that a ticket pocket and a double breasted vest together might be a bit busy on a suit for formal occasions.

From Mark
I need to get a new trench coat and am looking for something hyper-durable and ideally not too light in color (I find the traditional tan to be a stain magnet, which as an agribusiness executive who travels frequently in India/Africa, comes with the job).

Any suggestions on brands and colors? I was thinking brown or very dark khaki, but perhaps olive green would work as well. I need something that goes with a standard navy/grey suit palette however.

Aquascutum or Burberry will have what you're looking for and both will be on sale after the holiday. I'm currently wearing a Burberry microfiber trench that doesn't stain and it's closer to taupe than it is to khaki. It works well for me.

Dressed for Gardening?

It's not timely, but the photo is too good to waste. Sir Roy Strong is a long-time dandy whose 6x3 double breasted suit, tailored by Blades in 1968, is displayed in the UK's Fashion Museum (he's also a writer, broadcaster, historian, diarist and gardener, former director of The National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and High Bailiff of Westminster Abbey).

In the picture, Strong is dressed for gardening supervision in a double breasted cotton suit and ventilated shoes. It's hard to recommend cotton suits for anything other than July afternoons in the garden - linen is usually a better choice. But Strong definitely looks seasonally appropriate even though none of his clothes are to my taste. Well, maybe the hat.

The Shirt as Background

Complementing last week's essay on the shirt as the centerpiece of the day's clothes, here's an example of the shirt used as as a neutral background.

Tan glen check worsted with an orange overcheck, cream shirt and blue ancient madder necktie with light blue, green and orange paisleys. The pocket square is navy silk and, for someone will surely ask, the shoes are chestnut semi-brogues.