I was particularly struck by Winston's harangue of men who wear Printed T-shirts. I have some sympathy for his point of view, but it would be hypocritical of me to fully endorse his stance given, and still do, London.
However, it did bring to the surface my own latent hatred for one item of clothing in particular. No, not those jeans which require your arse to be hanging out over the waistband and the belt ratchet around your thighs to stop them meeting your ankles. No, my own personal loathing is for a garment which many men may already have sitting in their wardrobe.
I'm speaking of cutesy printed ties with animals, plants and all manner of childlike crap upon them; the sort frequently offered up by Hermes, Thomas Pink.
I've always thought of a tie as part tool and part expression of personality. The problem I have is that as a tool to building a look I just don't get the aesthetic, even from a distance. As an expression of personality I'm even more perplexed, just what exactly is it you're trying to say: I'm a child at heart, I like hippos, I'm wacky, my wife buys my ties!
Even as an act of rebellion I'm sceptical that it works. If you care not about fashion, style or dress why not simply wear plain black or blue ties. You can't get much simpler. Ultimately such an excuse is a lie given that these ties are for the most part brightly coloured, and you must possess some interest in clothes to able to match with anything.
I have wondered, given the success of Vineyard Vines in particular, whether there was some cultural significance that I was missing.
There is a respectable tradition in the UK of sporting motifs on ties, intimately bound up in British class consciousness. Typically, patterns incorporate stags, foxes, pheasants, fish and horses, all highlighting country pursuits, and natural accessories to tweeds and country clothing. Good examples of these can be found at the excellent hume with their Atkinsons Irish Poplin.
While this latter illustration is an aesthetic I can appreciate, it isn't one I necessarily practice; and I'm willing to accept that to those living beyond the shores of England it may seem as baffling as Vineyard Vines is to me. But fundamentally, I struggle to understand why a grown man would do such a thing to himself.
If you like to learn more details about custom made shirts and suits, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年6月10日星期四
Bespoke Suits and Cute Printed Ties
I was particularly struck by Winston's harangue of men who wear Printed T-shirts. I have some sympathy for his point of view, but it would be hypocritical of me to fully endorse his stance given, and still do, London.
However, it did bring to the surface my own latent hatred for one item of clothing in particular. No, not those jeans which require your arse to be hanging out over the waistband and the belt ratchet around your thighs to stop them meeting your ankles. No, my own personal loathing is for a garment which many men may already have sitting in their wardrobe.
I'm speaking of cutesy printed ties with animals, plants and all manner of childlike crap upon them; the sort frequently offered up by Hermes, Thomas Pink.
I've always thought of a tie as part tool and part expression of personality. The problem I have is that as a tool to building a look I just don't get the aesthetic, even from a distance. As an expression of personality I'm even more perplexed, just what exactly is it you're trying to say: I'm a child at heart, I like hippos, I'm wacky, my wife buys my ties!
Even as an act of rebellion I'm sceptical that it works. If you care not about fashion, style or dress why not simply wear plain black or blue ties. You can't get much simpler. Ultimately such an excuse is a lie given that these ties are for the most part brightly coloured, and you must possess some interest in clothes to able to match with anything.
I have wondered, given the success of Vineyard Vines in particular, whether there was some cultural significance that I was missing.
There is a respectable tradition in the UK of sporting motifs on ties, intimately bound up in British class consciousness. Typically, patterns incorporate stags, foxes, pheasants, fish and horses, all highlighting country pursuits, and natural accessories to tweeds and country clothing. Good examples of these can be found at the excellent hume with their Atkinsons Irish Poplin.
While this latter illustration is an aesthetic I can appreciate, it isn't one I necessarily practice; and I'm willing to accept that to those living beyond the shores of England it may seem as baffling as Vineyard Vines is to me. But fundamentally, I struggle to understand why a grown man would do such a thing to himself.
If you like to learn more details about custom made shirts and suits, please go to TailorU's website.
However, it did bring to the surface my own latent hatred for one item of clothing in particular. No, not those jeans which require your arse to be hanging out over the waistband and the belt ratchet around your thighs to stop them meeting your ankles. No, my own personal loathing is for a garment which many men may already have sitting in their wardrobe.
I'm speaking of cutesy printed ties with animals, plants and all manner of childlike crap upon them; the sort frequently offered up by Hermes, Thomas Pink.
I've always thought of a tie as part tool and part expression of personality. The problem I have is that as a tool to building a look I just don't get the aesthetic, even from a distance. As an expression of personality I'm even more perplexed, just what exactly is it you're trying to say: I'm a child at heart, I like hippos, I'm wacky, my wife buys my ties!
Even as an act of rebellion I'm sceptical that it works. If you care not about fashion, style or dress why not simply wear plain black or blue ties. You can't get much simpler. Ultimately such an excuse is a lie given that these ties are for the most part brightly coloured, and you must possess some interest in clothes to able to match with anything.
I have wondered, given the success of Vineyard Vines in particular, whether there was some cultural significance that I was missing.
There is a respectable tradition in the UK of sporting motifs on ties, intimately bound up in British class consciousness. Typically, patterns incorporate stags, foxes, pheasants, fish and horses, all highlighting country pursuits, and natural accessories to tweeds and country clothing. Good examples of these can be found at the excellent hume with their Atkinsons Irish Poplin.
While this latter illustration is an aesthetic I can appreciate, it isn't one I necessarily practice; and I'm willing to accept that to those living beyond the shores of England it may seem as baffling as Vineyard Vines is to me. But fundamentally, I struggle to understand why a grown man would do such a thing to himself.
If you like to learn more details about custom made shirts and suits, please go to TailorU's website.
Bespoke Suit with Old Hat
I've hired the jacket and trouser but what I looking to buy was a double breasted buff waistcoat.
A wonderful vintage emporium located, just across Putney Bridge, it's renowned for high quality vintage evening dress and formal wear. They also have an unrivalled collection of vintage Savile Row Tweed jackets and suits. I'm a fan of vintage and own just one Savile Row suit. It fits me like no other garment I own, and comes courtesy of Old Hat.
It always amazes me just how many men known of Old Hat, and how many who still don’t. For one thing the shop is beloved by the men who frequent it, and it doesn't attract your average vintage crowd. Many aren't by nature what you'd call thrifters. But there is something about Old Hat which means once you step inside its hard not to find yourself coming back. For most men that first experience starts with morning tails. In fact enter the premises on any Saturday between May and September and you'd find it hard to move for grooms to be, best-men pending and other honoured guest.
But Old Hat is more than just a great place to go to get around a potentially expensive social life. If anything it's a celebration of classic dressing, an age of craft and quality. Supplying everything from stiff collars to riding boots, Old Hat is about the vision and dedication of one man with an extraordinary love of clothes, the legendary David Saxby. Sadly when it came to my double breasted waistcoat Old Hat had already been cleaned out by Ascot goers, but any excuse to visit Old Hat should be indulged.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU.com.
A wonderful vintage emporium located, just across Putney Bridge, it's renowned for high quality vintage evening dress and formal wear. They also have an unrivalled collection of vintage Savile Row Tweed jackets and suits. I'm a fan of vintage and own just one Savile Row suit. It fits me like no other garment I own, and comes courtesy of Old Hat.
It always amazes me just how many men known of Old Hat, and how many who still don’t. For one thing the shop is beloved by the men who frequent it, and it doesn't attract your average vintage crowd. Many aren't by nature what you'd call thrifters. But there is something about Old Hat which means once you step inside its hard not to find yourself coming back. For most men that first experience starts with morning tails. In fact enter the premises on any Saturday between May and September and you'd find it hard to move for grooms to be, best-men pending and other honoured guest.
But Old Hat is more than just a great place to go to get around a potentially expensive social life. If anything it's a celebration of classic dressing, an age of craft and quality. Supplying everything from stiff collars to riding boots, Old Hat is about the vision and dedication of one man with an extraordinary love of clothes, the legendary David Saxby. Sadly when it came to my double breasted waistcoat Old Hat had already been cleaned out by Ascot goers, but any excuse to visit Old Hat should be indulged.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU.com.
2010年6月6日星期日
Bespoke Suit and Gentlemen's Beach Life
The gentleman exhales with relief “beach life!” He lays himself on the golden sand, glistening from his brief dip in the chilly, turquoise waters, the sound of which he now conceals with a carefully selected playlist, largely populated with Bob Marley favourites. The sun bakes his skin and he smiles, in genuine satisfaction; by the time of his return to a cloudy mother nation, he will be able to crack smiles and admiring glances when wearing his distinctive and punchy tangerine summer shirt. All the appurtenances of a sophisticated hedonist are at his disposal; iPod, award winning literature, chilled caipirinha.
This bourgeois thought does not trouble his sandy head for too long before he remembers that he is lying on one of those feeble, overwashed, crusty room towels that hotels so perversely cherish; small, uncomfortable and barely absorbent, it’s also a rather disturbing off-white which makes it look as though it has been stuck in the pool’s drainage system for the past fortnight. Our gentleman had assumed, like many others, that a private beach and large pool area automatically indicated a supply of towels to rival that of Champneys. Admittedly, a good hotel should provide all linens and towels throughout a stay – one should not have to waste clothing space with lumps of spongy cotton. However, for the gentleman of distinguished taste a decent towel is an essential accessory when ‘swimmy’ and ‘beachy’ frolics are in the offing.
First and foremost, it must be of a sufficient size and quality. Small and fluffless beach towels are heinous. Cotton terrycloth is the only option for a material; stay well away from cheap microfiber towels. Secondly, colour must be considered carefully. Plain white towels, while versatile, are likely to be mistaken as hotel owned and you might have a hard time convincing Fabrizio the pool guy that your own property is mixed up in the mass of soggy suncream n’ sweat soaked cotton that fills a vat of used towels. In fact, anything too ‘plain’ and your towel might be mistaken for an oversized bathmat – pattern is the key to the classic beach towel.
Avoid the vulgarity of advertising your brand allegiance to the helicopters that swirl above; there is no brand display more pathetic than a gigantic name printed across a beach towel. The opportunity of purchasing a towel is an opportunity to express yourself in a way you might be disinclined to with clothing; after all you do not, technically, wear a towel. It is something you lounge on, wipe sunglasses on, cosy up with on the terrace whilst watching the sun set. It belongs on holiday, not at the pub with your drinking mates. Therefore, a little pattern, a little colour, a little design – the sort of thing a gentleman only admits to liking in pillow talk – is perfectly acceptable.
For more details about bespoke suit and shirt, please go to TailorU.
This bourgeois thought does not trouble his sandy head for too long before he remembers that he is lying on one of those feeble, overwashed, crusty room towels that hotels so perversely cherish; small, uncomfortable and barely absorbent, it’s also a rather disturbing off-white which makes it look as though it has been stuck in the pool’s drainage system for the past fortnight. Our gentleman had assumed, like many others, that a private beach and large pool area automatically indicated a supply of towels to rival that of Champneys. Admittedly, a good hotel should provide all linens and towels throughout a stay – one should not have to waste clothing space with lumps of spongy cotton. However, for the gentleman of distinguished taste a decent towel is an essential accessory when ‘swimmy’ and ‘beachy’ frolics are in the offing.
First and foremost, it must be of a sufficient size and quality. Small and fluffless beach towels are heinous. Cotton terrycloth is the only option for a material; stay well away from cheap microfiber towels. Secondly, colour must be considered carefully. Plain white towels, while versatile, are likely to be mistaken as hotel owned and you might have a hard time convincing Fabrizio the pool guy that your own property is mixed up in the mass of soggy suncream n’ sweat soaked cotton that fills a vat of used towels. In fact, anything too ‘plain’ and your towel might be mistaken for an oversized bathmat – pattern is the key to the classic beach towel.
Avoid the vulgarity of advertising your brand allegiance to the helicopters that swirl above; there is no brand display more pathetic than a gigantic name printed across a beach towel. The opportunity of purchasing a towel is an opportunity to express yourself in a way you might be disinclined to with clothing; after all you do not, technically, wear a towel. It is something you lounge on, wipe sunglasses on, cosy up with on the terrace whilst watching the sun set. It belongs on holiday, not at the pub with your drinking mates. Therefore, a little pattern, a little colour, a little design – the sort of thing a gentleman only admits to liking in pillow talk – is perfectly acceptable.
For more details about bespoke suit and shirt, please go to TailorU.
2010年5月31日星期一
Bespoke Suit and Luggage
As a successfully detoxed label-hunter I know full well the apparent attractions of wearing other’s brands; my previous naïveté in this regard is somewhat embarrassing and consistently mystifying. When I rifle through old collections of sweaters at home I cannot comprehend why I purchased so many with emblazoned brands. I remember my mother accompanying me on shopping trips, encouraging me, sometimes imploring me, to purchase alternative items of equal quality but comparative plainness; bizarrely, I went for the billboard.
Ever since I realised my folly, I have been a strong critic of shameless branding, mainly from the point of view of an aesthete. As each year passes I seek greater distance from the brands which I purchase. Not because I am ashamed of my patronage but because the whole point about purchasing something someone else has made is that you are buying an item of quality and/or design that you alone do not have the resources or invention to create. Any quality or design is denigrated by the presence of overt branding. Branding symbolises ownership and alarmingly, it is not that of the wearer but the brander; ranch rules still apply.
Valextra are an altogether different proposition. An old Milanese brand, though not as ancient as Goyard or Vuitton, Valextra was rescued from the unloving clutches of Samsonite by Emanuele Carminati Molina in 2000. Although it sounds more like a patented lab-tested material than a luxury leather goods brand, Valextra has, in the past 10 years, returned to doing to what it does best; simple elegance. The bags are blissfully logo free, beautifully made and extraordinarily exclusive – even the sales assistant at Harrods, their only point of sale in the UK, spoke about the products with a hushed reverence that mirrored the subtlety of the bags’ designs. The leather is stiff, plain and of outstanding quality. Unlike the neo-Edwardian aesthetic of Goyard and Vuitton, the appeal of Valextra is firmly mid-twentieth century; a nod to the birth of air travel. Available in a range of colours including black, bright blue, Hermes orange and an incredibly impractical white, Valextra is almost perfect – until you look inside the pocket for the well-concealed price tag.
Unfortunately, as beautiful as a Valextra is, it isn’t worth the money being charged. I examined the lovely briefcases, laptop cases and overnight bags with care but struggled to see how the breathtaking prices were justified. Leather is by no means a cheap material but nigh on £4,000 for a non-croc leather briefcase is a hefty price; I don’t care how many ‘Italian artisans’ were involved. “Valextra”, as the man in Harrods keenly informed me, “will last longer than Vuitton.” A brave assertion but what, I wonder, could he be referring to? The product itself or the brand? As a brand it is earning itself a reputation as ‘celebrity endorsed’ with Victoria and David Beckham, Katie Holmes, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie as admirers. Whether such associations advance or hinder the brand, in the long run, is unknown.
For more details about bespoke suits, please go to TailorU.
Ever since I realised my folly, I have been a strong critic of shameless branding, mainly from the point of view of an aesthete. As each year passes I seek greater distance from the brands which I purchase. Not because I am ashamed of my patronage but because the whole point about purchasing something someone else has made is that you are buying an item of quality and/or design that you alone do not have the resources or invention to create. Any quality or design is denigrated by the presence of overt branding. Branding symbolises ownership and alarmingly, it is not that of the wearer but the brander; ranch rules still apply.
Valextra are an altogether different proposition. An old Milanese brand, though not as ancient as Goyard or Vuitton, Valextra was rescued from the unloving clutches of Samsonite by Emanuele Carminati Molina in 2000. Although it sounds more like a patented lab-tested material than a luxury leather goods brand, Valextra has, in the past 10 years, returned to doing to what it does best; simple elegance. The bags are blissfully logo free, beautifully made and extraordinarily exclusive – even the sales assistant at Harrods, their only point of sale in the UK, spoke about the products with a hushed reverence that mirrored the subtlety of the bags’ designs. The leather is stiff, plain and of outstanding quality. Unlike the neo-Edwardian aesthetic of Goyard and Vuitton, the appeal of Valextra is firmly mid-twentieth century; a nod to the birth of air travel. Available in a range of colours including black, bright blue, Hermes orange and an incredibly impractical white, Valextra is almost perfect – until you look inside the pocket for the well-concealed price tag.
Unfortunately, as beautiful as a Valextra is, it isn’t worth the money being charged. I examined the lovely briefcases, laptop cases and overnight bags with care but struggled to see how the breathtaking prices were justified. Leather is by no means a cheap material but nigh on £4,000 for a non-croc leather briefcase is a hefty price; I don’t care how many ‘Italian artisans’ were involved. “Valextra”, as the man in Harrods keenly informed me, “will last longer than Vuitton.” A brave assertion but what, I wonder, could he be referring to? The product itself or the brand? As a brand it is earning itself a reputation as ‘celebrity endorsed’ with Victoria and David Beckham, Katie Holmes, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie as admirers. Whether such associations advance or hinder the brand, in the long run, is unknown.
For more details about bespoke suits, please go to TailorU.
2010年5月26日星期三
Bespoke Shirt of Old Themes
I happen to think that ginghams and checks are a natural fit with a blue blazer as a rule. In my view they’re a less formal type of shirting more fitting to the reduced formality the blazer encapsulates. However, owing to the fact that a couple of years ago they were worn everywhere by everyone I’d tired of seeing them and hitherto banished them from my wardrobe -an error of judgement on reflection. I’m hoping that the combination of coloured but subtle check paired to a subdued tie will provide that sense of relaxed formality which has so far eluded me.
Now, the shirts themselves are from Haroutunian’s off the peg range of formal shirts, which retail for £39 individually or £75 for 3. The made-to-measure are made in the same family owned workshop, and the cloth is 2 fold Egyptian. I have to say pound for pound these are about the best low cost off the peg shirts I’ve yet found.
In fact I’m so confident in my recommendation that I’ve asked the family whether they will manufacturer shirts for my own label. Thanks to the encouragement of Mensflair readers I’ve decided to take the plunge. One of the first projects will be two shirts over which I have a fixation. The first a good cocktail cuff shirt, and a button down oxford in its original form, with no interlining in the collar - a subject on which I’m currently doing some research.
It’s funny how certain themes keep on reoccurring.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Now, the shirts themselves are from Haroutunian’s off the peg range of formal shirts, which retail for £39 individually or £75 for 3. The made-to-measure are made in the same family owned workshop, and the cloth is 2 fold Egyptian. I have to say pound for pound these are about the best low cost off the peg shirts I’ve yet found.
In fact I’m so confident in my recommendation that I’ve asked the family whether they will manufacturer shirts for my own label. Thanks to the encouragement of Mensflair readers I’ve decided to take the plunge. One of the first projects will be two shirts over which I have a fixation. The first a good cocktail cuff shirt, and a button down oxford in its original form, with no interlining in the collar - a subject on which I’m currently doing some research.
It’s funny how certain themes keep on reoccurring.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Bespoke Shirt of Old Themes
I happen to think that ginghams and checks are a natural fit with a blue blazer as a rule. In my view they’re a less formal type of shirting more fitting to the reduced formality the blazer encapsulates. However, owing to the fact that a couple of years ago they were worn everywhere by everyone I’d tired of seeing them and hitherto banished them from my wardrobe -an error of judgement on reflection. I’m hoping that the combination of coloured but subtle check paired to a subdued tie will provide that sense of relaxed formality which has so far eluded me.
Now, the shirts themselves are from Haroutunian’s off the peg range of formal shirts, which retail for £39 individually or £75 for 3. The made-to-measure are made in the same family owned workshop, and the cloth is 2 fold Egyptian. I have to say pound for pound these are about the best low cost off the peg shirts I’ve yet found.
In fact I’m so confident in my recommendation that I’ve asked the family whether they will manufacturer shirts for my own label. Thanks to the encouragement of Mensflair readers I’ve decided to take the plunge. One of the first projects will be two shirts over which I have a fixation. The first a good cocktail cuff shirt, and a button down oxford in its original form, with no interlining in the collar - a subject on which I’m currently doing some research.
It’s funny how certain themes keep on reoccurring.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Now, the shirts themselves are from Haroutunian’s off the peg range of formal shirts, which retail for £39 individually or £75 for 3. The made-to-measure are made in the same family owned workshop, and the cloth is 2 fold Egyptian. I have to say pound for pound these are about the best low cost off the peg shirts I’ve yet found.
In fact I’m so confident in my recommendation that I’ve asked the family whether they will manufacturer shirts for my own label. Thanks to the encouragement of Mensflair readers I’ve decided to take the plunge. One of the first projects will be two shirts over which I have a fixation. The first a good cocktail cuff shirt, and a button down oxford in its original form, with no interlining in the collar - a subject on which I’m currently doing some research.
It’s funny how certain themes keep on reoccurring.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Bespoke Shirt of Old Themes
I happen to think that ginghams and checks are a natural fit with a blue blazer as a rule. In my view they’re a less formal type of shirting more fitting to the reduced formality the blazer encapsulates. However, owing to the fact that a couple of years ago they were worn everywhere by everyone I’d tired of seeing them and hitherto banished them from my wardrobe -an error of judgement on reflection. I’m hoping that the combination of coloured but subtle check paired to a subdued tie will provide that sense of relaxed formality which has so far eluded me.
Now, the shirts themselves are from Haroutunian’s off the peg range of formal shirts, which retail for £39 individually or £75 for 3. The made-to-measure are made in the same family owned workshop, and the cloth is 2 fold Egyptian. I have to say pound for pound these are about the best low cost off the peg shirts I’ve yet found.
In fact I’m so confident in my recommendation that I’ve asked the family whether they will manufacturer shirts for my own label. Thanks to the encouragement of Mensflair readers I’ve decided to take the plunge. One of the first projects will be two shirts over which I have a fixation. The first a good cocktail cuff shirt, and a button down oxford in its original form, with no interlining in the collar - a subject on which I’m currently doing some research.
It’s funny how certain themes keep on reoccurring.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Now, the shirts themselves are from Haroutunian’s off the peg range of formal shirts, which retail for £39 individually or £75 for 3. The made-to-measure are made in the same family owned workshop, and the cloth is 2 fold Egyptian. I have to say pound for pound these are about the best low cost off the peg shirts I’ve yet found.
In fact I’m so confident in my recommendation that I’ve asked the family whether they will manufacturer shirts for my own label. Thanks to the encouragement of Mensflair readers I’ve decided to take the plunge. One of the first projects will be two shirts over which I have a fixation. The first a good cocktail cuff shirt, and a button down oxford in its original form, with no interlining in the collar - a subject on which I’m currently doing some research.
It’s funny how certain themes keep on reoccurring.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年5月24日星期一
Hiring a Bespoke Suit for Horse Racing
I’ve just had confirmation on my tickets for this year’s Royal Ascot, one of the great horse racing events in the flat season.
Our tickets will mean hiring a morning suit and top hat. This strict dress code may appear to leave you little room for individuality or possibility for error, but there are mistakes to be made, and plenty of people make them.
Firstly you have a choice of four types of morning dress; first, a light grey jacket, trousers and waistcoat; secondly, the charcoal grey jacket, waistcoat and trousers; thirdly, black jacket, and light grey trousers and waistcoat. Finally, the most common and most versatile is the black jacket, dove grey waistcoat and black and grey stripe trousers. Any colour variations on these four are an aberration fit only for weddings in Las Vegas.
You’ll find that black and grey top hats are interchangeable with each morning suit choice according to individual taste.
The key to dressing with style at Ascot is (a) not looking like you hired your kit, (b) appearing to be at ease, and (c) using the freedom afforded you. Five tips you may want to remember;
1- Try to avoid the ultra-conservative and traditional single breasted dove grey waistcoat. It makes it look like you hired your suit. Some hire companies offer a single breasted buff waistcoat, and if you’re not looking to spend any more cash, then go for this option.
2- Go for a double breasted waistcoat if you can, and preferably one made of Linen. While bright colours and patterns can work well, try to avoid shiny materials like silk, they’re better suited to evening wear, and can also make you look as though you’ve hired your kit. The best most elegant dressers pick soft pastel colours with a matte finish.
3- Plump for the black top hat. Traditionally, grey is for weddings while black is for Court functions (Investiture, Garden Party etc). Those who really know what they’re doing go black.
4- A formal dress code can be intimidating and lead you to play it safe, through fear of ‘getting it wrong’. Ascot permits a little more individuality than you imagine, so ditch the white shirt. If you want to show yourself truly at ease in morning dress, go for colours, stripes or white collar and cuff with an appropriate tie. However, they should complement, not match, your waistcoat to avoid being OTT.
And;
5- Do not under any circumstances be tempted to wear a Cravat/Ascot. This is a day collar and tie event, lured down any other road and you’ll look like a man in search of a wedding. Despite the similarity in dress code they are not the same thing.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Our tickets will mean hiring a morning suit and top hat. This strict dress code may appear to leave you little room for individuality or possibility for error, but there are mistakes to be made, and plenty of people make them.
Firstly you have a choice of four types of morning dress; first, a light grey jacket, trousers and waistcoat; secondly, the charcoal grey jacket, waistcoat and trousers; thirdly, black jacket, and light grey trousers and waistcoat. Finally, the most common and most versatile is the black jacket, dove grey waistcoat and black and grey stripe trousers. Any colour variations on these four are an aberration fit only for weddings in Las Vegas.
You’ll find that black and grey top hats are interchangeable with each morning suit choice according to individual taste.
The key to dressing with style at Ascot is (a) not looking like you hired your kit, (b) appearing to be at ease, and (c) using the freedom afforded you. Five tips you may want to remember;
1- Try to avoid the ultra-conservative and traditional single breasted dove grey waistcoat. It makes it look like you hired your suit. Some hire companies offer a single breasted buff waistcoat, and if you’re not looking to spend any more cash, then go for this option.
2- Go for a double breasted waistcoat if you can, and preferably one made of Linen. While bright colours and patterns can work well, try to avoid shiny materials like silk, they’re better suited to evening wear, and can also make you look as though you’ve hired your kit. The best most elegant dressers pick soft pastel colours with a matte finish.
3- Plump for the black top hat. Traditionally, grey is for weddings while black is for Court functions (Investiture, Garden Party etc). Those who really know what they’re doing go black.
4- A formal dress code can be intimidating and lead you to play it safe, through fear of ‘getting it wrong’. Ascot permits a little more individuality than you imagine, so ditch the white shirt. If you want to show yourself truly at ease in morning dress, go for colours, stripes or white collar and cuff with an appropriate tie. However, they should complement, not match, your waistcoat to avoid being OTT.
And;
5- Do not under any circumstances be tempted to wear a Cravat/Ascot. This is a day collar and tie event, lured down any other road and you’ll look like a man in search of a wedding. Despite the similarity in dress code they are not the same thing.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Bespoke Suit with Unusual Tie
My dad constantly told me never to purchase a polyester tie. Every time I picked up a promising cheapy, he would look at the label and point to the tiny and disappointing print; “Look; 100% polyester! I wouldn’t buy that.” It was always thus; I would fall in love with a tie and, hearing my father’s voice, I would search through the tie’s lining for the little white labels. It wasn’t until I had amassed a collection of good silks, with a few polyesters (if a tie cost less than a pint, I didn’t care if it was made from seaweed), that I understood why it was that my dad had issued such dismissive noises when confronted with a ‘poly’ tie.
Firstly, silk looks better. Polyester is far better than it used to be in mimicking but it’s still fairly obvious, in the right light, that it isn’t silk. It’s often too shiny. Poly is also stiff and resistant and the fibres don’t grip each other like those of silk which can be a problem in knotting. This was made evident when I used my university ties – I possessed a cheap polyester one in addition to a smarter silk version; I could never produce the same knot or the same tie arch with the poly as I could with the silk. Since that time, I have reverted to my father’s teachings and avoid all polyester ties, however interestingly patterned. A lesson learned.
However, on some days wearing silk just doesn’t feel right. It might be one of those days on which I am wearing a particularly vivid and shiny silk pocket square when the thought of adding more sheen fills me with dread. Those prepackaged tie & pocket square sets from Moss Bros repulse me not because of some dislike for convenience but because they are crafted from the same material; over sheen, overkill. Perhaps, instead of a standard woven style, I should choose a slub silk? Possibly, although these are few and far between. Or, perhaps I could plump for a tie in a fabric that very few people contemplate when searching for neckwear?
Cotton is one of the most commonplace fabrics but it makes a fabulous neck tie. Cotton ties are nothing modern either, as this was the neckwear material of choice in the 18th and early 19th centuries, even for the elegantly attired uber-dandy Beau Brummell. Its matte finish contrasts perfectly with fine wool suits and silk accessories, rendering a complex ensemble of mixed textures, and, less formal than silk, it is perfect for ‘semi-informal’ garden parties, barbecues and al fresco brunches. It is also cheaper than silk too.
And where cotton is spring and summer, wool and cashmere are autumn and winter. Fluffy, cosy-looking and a refreshing break from the glutton of silk contained in tie drawers, woollen ties share the subtle matte texture of their cotton cousins but are thicker and more substantial. The perfect foil for Sea Island cotton shirts and paisley silk squares, a plain woollen or cashmere tie conveys an understanding of texture and subtlety. There’s more to ties than the silk/poly conundrum.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Firstly, silk looks better. Polyester is far better than it used to be in mimicking but it’s still fairly obvious, in the right light, that it isn’t silk. It’s often too shiny. Poly is also stiff and resistant and the fibres don’t grip each other like those of silk which can be a problem in knotting. This was made evident when I used my university ties – I possessed a cheap polyester one in addition to a smarter silk version; I could never produce the same knot or the same tie arch with the poly as I could with the silk. Since that time, I have reverted to my father’s teachings and avoid all polyester ties, however interestingly patterned. A lesson learned.
However, on some days wearing silk just doesn’t feel right. It might be one of those days on which I am wearing a particularly vivid and shiny silk pocket square when the thought of adding more sheen fills me with dread. Those prepackaged tie & pocket square sets from Moss Bros repulse me not because of some dislike for convenience but because they are crafted from the same material; over sheen, overkill. Perhaps, instead of a standard woven style, I should choose a slub silk? Possibly, although these are few and far between. Or, perhaps I could plump for a tie in a fabric that very few people contemplate when searching for neckwear?
Cotton is one of the most commonplace fabrics but it makes a fabulous neck tie. Cotton ties are nothing modern either, as this was the neckwear material of choice in the 18th and early 19th centuries, even for the elegantly attired uber-dandy Beau Brummell. Its matte finish contrasts perfectly with fine wool suits and silk accessories, rendering a complex ensemble of mixed textures, and, less formal than silk, it is perfect for ‘semi-informal’ garden parties, barbecues and al fresco brunches. It is also cheaper than silk too.
And where cotton is spring and summer, wool and cashmere are autumn and winter. Fluffy, cosy-looking and a refreshing break from the glutton of silk contained in tie drawers, woollen ties share the subtle matte texture of their cotton cousins but are thicker and more substantial. The perfect foil for Sea Island cotton shirts and paisley silk squares, a plain woollen or cashmere tie conveys an understanding of texture and subtlety. There’s more to ties than the silk/poly conundrum.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年5月19日星期三
Bespoke Suit and White Jacket
If there is an aesthetic I have no interest or skill in adapting it is that of the 1970s Martini Cinzano man. The gigantic open collar, the hideous golden necklace resting in the unspeakable mound of chest hair and the tacky pastel suits; I find it all disturbingly ugly. Naturally, I recoil from anything that I see that indicates such an aesthetic – items in my own wardrobe. A recent wardrobe carousel revealed to me my collection of summer jackets. I brushed the sleeves in a satisfied manner, like the admiring hand of a collector testing the tangibility of his treasure. However, one item caused my eyes to widen and my hand to slip. It was stark, shocking and rather cheap-looking; a bright white two-button cotton jacket that I had once considered an essential part of my wardrobe.
I took it off the hanger tentatively, slightly blinded by its reflective capabilities in the early May sunshine; “Can I even wear this?” I thought anxiously. When on, it washed all colour from my face and accentuated the uneven blemishes on my late-spring untanned skin. It was too powerful a contrast with the trousers I was wearing, so I took out my selection of paler summer trousers and tried to produce a tasteful ensemble that would avoid vulgarity and banish all thoughts of the nightmare of Martini Cinzano. A pair of navy blue linen trousers, a natural choice, looked undignified and tacky with such a jacket; “Christ!” I thought “Backstreet’s back!”
I tried black trousers, which looked cheap, red trousers and finally settled on avoiding brights and moving towards paler and pastel colours; I had avoided them thus far as I associated pastels with the sweaty nemesis of hairy Martini man. A pair of light blue trousers softened the starkness of the white jacket, particularly when wearing the two with a pastel yellow shirt. Likewise, a pair of light stone coloured trousers quietened the contrast; the problem, I could see, was that white is simply too noticeable and too ‘in yer face’ to wear elegantly with dark trousers. It has the effect of shortening one’s legs.
The other problem is that bright white cotton is associated with the clinical. A bright white jacket, if worn incorrectly, could look just like a doctor’s coat. To avoid all medical connections, any ‘isolation’ of the jacket must be avoided – a white jacket is isolated when its luminosity is all too evident. Pairing it with pastel shirts and trousers as well as carefully chosen accessories should avoid any connotations or suggestions that the item is intended for the strip-lit corridors of the nearest hospital. The other thing I discovered, through experimentation, is that wearing white shoes with the jacket, whilst sporting odd coloured items across the rest of an ensemble, has the effect of splitting the vision between the torso and the feet, to the expense of any detail or colour variation in between.
Finally, the importance of buttons on a white cotton jacket cannot be stressed enough – white is the perfect ‘blank canvas’ on which to show off fine horn. The most important thing to remember when selecting is to choose paler, smaller buttons – dark, oversized buttons are distracting; think peanut butter not mahogany.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
I took it off the hanger tentatively, slightly blinded by its reflective capabilities in the early May sunshine; “Can I even wear this?” I thought anxiously. When on, it washed all colour from my face and accentuated the uneven blemishes on my late-spring untanned skin. It was too powerful a contrast with the trousers I was wearing, so I took out my selection of paler summer trousers and tried to produce a tasteful ensemble that would avoid vulgarity and banish all thoughts of the nightmare of Martini Cinzano. A pair of navy blue linen trousers, a natural choice, looked undignified and tacky with such a jacket; “Christ!” I thought “Backstreet’s back!”
I tried black trousers, which looked cheap, red trousers and finally settled on avoiding brights and moving towards paler and pastel colours; I had avoided them thus far as I associated pastels with the sweaty nemesis of hairy Martini man. A pair of light blue trousers softened the starkness of the white jacket, particularly when wearing the two with a pastel yellow shirt. Likewise, a pair of light stone coloured trousers quietened the contrast; the problem, I could see, was that white is simply too noticeable and too ‘in yer face’ to wear elegantly with dark trousers. It has the effect of shortening one’s legs.
The other problem is that bright white cotton is associated with the clinical. A bright white jacket, if worn incorrectly, could look just like a doctor’s coat. To avoid all medical connections, any ‘isolation’ of the jacket must be avoided – a white jacket is isolated when its luminosity is all too evident. Pairing it with pastel shirts and trousers as well as carefully chosen accessories should avoid any connotations or suggestions that the item is intended for the strip-lit corridors of the nearest hospital. The other thing I discovered, through experimentation, is that wearing white shoes with the jacket, whilst sporting odd coloured items across the rest of an ensemble, has the effect of splitting the vision between the torso and the feet, to the expense of any detail or colour variation in between.
Finally, the importance of buttons on a white cotton jacket cannot be stressed enough – white is the perfect ‘blank canvas’ on which to show off fine horn. The most important thing to remember when selecting is to choose paler, smaller buttons – dark, oversized buttons are distracting; think peanut butter not mahogany.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年5月17日星期一
Bespoke Suit and Belted Style
“If there’s only one thing that ladies find unattractive”, so I have been told, “it’s seeing the vanity of women reflected in men.” Women are apparently happy to admit their own vanity. After all, they claim quite correctly, it’s hardly their fault. For the fairer sex know full well that they are continually judged on the way they look, the way they appeal to the male. What truly irks them is when men enter their domain; “Babe, can I borrow your eyeliner?” is surely one of most dreaded questions for a happily smitten woman. Such a hammer blow can permanently fracture the respect and admiration she had for her beau. She might still love him as a human but her respect for him as a man may be irreparably damaged.
God knows women love a well-dressed man, though not an overdressed one. A mirror gazer is emasculated by his own self-obsession. But it is not only vanity that women recoil from but also the idea of men borrowing from the feminine style book; for many women, skinny jeans on a man are a deal breaker (no matter how good he might look in them). Women who borrow from men, by contrast, are not only acceptable but actually encouraged and enshrined as examples of modernism; the ‘Boyfriend Fit’ jeans in GAP are a classic example. Part of this has as much to do with the masculine idealisation of men as well as the feminine; broadly speaking, women can be boyish and yet attractive whereas girly men are not only unattractive to the female but also vilified by the other males.
I once posited by instant messenger the idea of purchasing a long-belted cardigan to a distant female friend who replied abruptly; “Lol! Woman!” From an aesthetic point of view, I liked the three-quarter length, the cabling and the lazy way in which the belt was tied; I could see it with jeans, smart trousers, crisp shirts and even a merry bow tie but, alas, the only ensemble in which it was ever suggested was, even to me, vaguely feminine – a low v-neck and casual trousers. It seemed to suggest some kind of sartorial cross-dressing Stars In Their Eyes; “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be Gwyneth Paltrow!” Imagination was required to really sell this item as a possibility. In all the pictures I was copying into the messaging window, the men seemed to be wearing a shrunken dressing gown. It was no wonder that the girl who looked at these chiselled, stubbled men was in fits of laughter; they desperately trying to be masculine in a woman’s outfit.
Warm and low maintenance, these cardigans are perfect for lazy Sundays when a man might wish to relax at his homestead, but they need to be taken at face value – a cable cardigan is not a standout item, it is no ‘look-at-me-in-my-Prada-knitwear’ garment. That is the sort of thinking that summarises modern women’s fashion; attempting, in vain, to make the ordinary extraordinary. The deep V for men, by way of example, is something of anathema since it is a design that flatters those with breasts. Instead, the belted cardigan should be thought of as the sort of thing he throws on over a shirt and tie when he gets chilly. It is first and foremost a practical garment of no especial elegance. Everything else a gentleman wears can express his masculinity, such as his tie or his well-ironed trousers. The femininity or masculinity of an item such as a belted cardigan is not inherent; it is in the way it is worn.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
God knows women love a well-dressed man, though not an overdressed one. A mirror gazer is emasculated by his own self-obsession. But it is not only vanity that women recoil from but also the idea of men borrowing from the feminine style book; for many women, skinny jeans on a man are a deal breaker (no matter how good he might look in them). Women who borrow from men, by contrast, are not only acceptable but actually encouraged and enshrined as examples of modernism; the ‘Boyfriend Fit’ jeans in GAP are a classic example. Part of this has as much to do with the masculine idealisation of men as well as the feminine; broadly speaking, women can be boyish and yet attractive whereas girly men are not only unattractive to the female but also vilified by the other males.
I once posited by instant messenger the idea of purchasing a long-belted cardigan to a distant female friend who replied abruptly; “Lol! Woman!” From an aesthetic point of view, I liked the three-quarter length, the cabling and the lazy way in which the belt was tied; I could see it with jeans, smart trousers, crisp shirts and even a merry bow tie but, alas, the only ensemble in which it was ever suggested was, even to me, vaguely feminine – a low v-neck and casual trousers. It seemed to suggest some kind of sartorial cross-dressing Stars In Their Eyes; “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be Gwyneth Paltrow!” Imagination was required to really sell this item as a possibility. In all the pictures I was copying into the messaging window, the men seemed to be wearing a shrunken dressing gown. It was no wonder that the girl who looked at these chiselled, stubbled men was in fits of laughter; they desperately trying to be masculine in a woman’s outfit.
Warm and low maintenance, these cardigans are perfect for lazy Sundays when a man might wish to relax at his homestead, but they need to be taken at face value – a cable cardigan is not a standout item, it is no ‘look-at-me-in-my-Prada-knitwear’ garment. That is the sort of thinking that summarises modern women’s fashion; attempting, in vain, to make the ordinary extraordinary. The deep V for men, by way of example, is something of anathema since it is a design that flatters those with breasts. Instead, the belted cardigan should be thought of as the sort of thing he throws on over a shirt and tie when he gets chilly. It is first and foremost a practical garment of no especial elegance. Everything else a gentleman wears can express his masculinity, such as his tie or his well-ironed trousers. The femininity or masculinity of an item such as a belted cardigan is not inherent; it is in the way it is worn.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年5月16日星期日
Retailer Garment or Bespoke Suit?
I selected a rather nice heavy twill cotton Pea Coat from UK retailer Jaeger. I loved the design and the price was right. However, what wasn’t so agreeable was the additional £20 I had to spend on replacement buttons – that’s not including labour.
Sadly, Jaeger had done what so many brands appear to be doing, which was to over brand their own products. The buttons, perfectly serviceable in all other respects, had the company name all over them. Not so noticeable from afar, it was too obvious up close and personal. They had to go.
This disagreeable trend for retailers to plaster their name and logos obtrusively over products has in recent years become a pandemic. Society in general has moved to a position where style is prized more than substance. And in so many ways much of the public and the mainstream media accept the mere wearing of brand names as a substitute for both. I suspect too that the culture of ‘Bling’ has had much to do with it. This being a direct result of the popularity of Rap, R&B and their like amongst the middle classes; with all its in your face, splash the cash, ‘how do you like them apples’ attitude to money and wealth.
As to the labels themselves, you would have thought they’d know better. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that bloody great labels and logos ruin the aesthetic of a garment, one of the requirements of exclusivity and glamour is subtlety and discretion. It’s the key difference between nouveau and old school. Savile Row tailors are famous for hiding their labels inside the inside pocket of their jackets, and for not advertising. And yet we are in no doubt as to who they are, what they are and their pedigree.
There is another factor to consider and that is the prevalence, even amongst exclusive labels, for outsource manufacturing to low wage economies. Such practises make the high prices charged for their goods ridiculous - if not damn dishonest - in my view. Over branding is perhaps a means for labels to sooth their own consciences, as though it were adequate compensation to the poor trusting punter; “Here you are Sir. Have a little more style by association, on us”.
Curiously, in an age when most brands worry about the ready availability of counterfeit goods, over-branding increasingly makes the real thing look like the fake. The controversy sparked by Ralph Lauren’s dressing of the US olympic team in Beijing is well known. Those jackets looked like cheap knock-offs in my view.
Time to draw stumps on this rant, but I’ll end by saying I object to the fact that having paid for a garment I am then expected to provide free advertising as a human billboard.
The great irony in this particular case is that I really love the phase that Jaeger is going through at the moment; and if anybody were to ask I’d happily tell them where I bought the coat.
I suspect that is true of most people in most other cases.
For more informations about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Sadly, Jaeger had done what so many brands appear to be doing, which was to over brand their own products. The buttons, perfectly serviceable in all other respects, had the company name all over them. Not so noticeable from afar, it was too obvious up close and personal. They had to go.
This disagreeable trend for retailers to plaster their name and logos obtrusively over products has in recent years become a pandemic. Society in general has moved to a position where style is prized more than substance. And in so many ways much of the public and the mainstream media accept the mere wearing of brand names as a substitute for both. I suspect too that the culture of ‘Bling’ has had much to do with it. This being a direct result of the popularity of Rap, R&B and their like amongst the middle classes; with all its in your face, splash the cash, ‘how do you like them apples’ attitude to money and wealth.
As to the labels themselves, you would have thought they’d know better. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that bloody great labels and logos ruin the aesthetic of a garment, one of the requirements of exclusivity and glamour is subtlety and discretion. It’s the key difference between nouveau and old school. Savile Row tailors are famous for hiding their labels inside the inside pocket of their jackets, and for not advertising. And yet we are in no doubt as to who they are, what they are and their pedigree.
There is another factor to consider and that is the prevalence, even amongst exclusive labels, for outsource manufacturing to low wage economies. Such practises make the high prices charged for their goods ridiculous - if not damn dishonest - in my view. Over branding is perhaps a means for labels to sooth their own consciences, as though it were adequate compensation to the poor trusting punter; “Here you are Sir. Have a little more style by association, on us”.
Curiously, in an age when most brands worry about the ready availability of counterfeit goods, over-branding increasingly makes the real thing look like the fake. The controversy sparked by Ralph Lauren’s dressing of the US olympic team in Beijing is well known. Those jackets looked like cheap knock-offs in my view.
Time to draw stumps on this rant, but I’ll end by saying I object to the fact that having paid for a garment I am then expected to provide free advertising as a human billboard.
The great irony in this particular case is that I really love the phase that Jaeger is going through at the moment; and if anybody were to ask I’d happily tell them where I bought the coat.
I suspect that is true of most people in most other cases.
For more informations about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Retailer Garment or Bespoke Suit?
I selected a rather nice heavy twill cotton Pea Coat from UK retailer Jaeger. I loved the design and the price was right. However, what wasn’t so agreeable was the additional £20 I had to spend on replacement buttons – that’s not including labour.
Sadly, Jaeger had done what so many brands appear to be doing, which was to over brand their own products. The buttons, perfectly serviceable in all other respects, had the company name all over them. Not so noticeable from afar, it was too obvious up close and personal. They had to go.
This disagreeable trend for retailers to plaster their name and logos obtrusively over products has in recent years become a pandemic. Society in general has moved to a position where style is prized more than substance. And in so many ways much of the public and the mainstream media accept the mere wearing of brand names as a substitute for both. I suspect too that the culture of ‘Bling’ has had much to do with it. This being a direct result of the popularity of Rap, R&B and their like amongst the middle classes; with all its in your face, splash the cash, ‘how do you like them apples’ attitude to money and wealth.
As to the labels themselves, you would have thought they’d know better. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that bloody great labels and logos ruin the aesthetic of a garment, one of the requirements of exclusivity and glamour is subtlety and discretion. It’s the key difference between nouveau and old school. Savile Row tailors are famous for hiding their labels inside the inside pocket of their jackets, and for not advertising. And yet we are in no doubt as to who they are, what they are and their pedigree.
There is another factor to consider and that is the prevalence, even amongst exclusive labels, for outsource manufacturing to low wage economies. Such practises make the high prices charged for their goods ridiculous - if not damn dishonest - in my view. Over branding is perhaps a means for labels to sooth their own consciences, as though it were adequate compensation to the poor trusting punter; “Here you are Sir. Have a little more style by association, on us”.
Curiously, in an age when most brands worry about the ready availability of counterfeit goods, over-branding increasingly makes the real thing look like the fake. The controversy sparked by Ralph Lauren’s dressing of the US olympic team in Beijing is well known. Those jackets looked like cheap knock-offs in my view.
Time to draw stumps on this rant, but I’ll end by saying I object to the fact that having paid for a garment I am then expected to provide free advertising as a human billboard.
The great irony in this particular case is that I really love the phase that Jaeger is going through at the moment; and if anybody were to ask I’d happily tell them where I bought the coat.
I suspect that is true of most people in most other cases.
For more informations about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Sadly, Jaeger had done what so many brands appear to be doing, which was to over brand their own products. The buttons, perfectly serviceable in all other respects, had the company name all over them. Not so noticeable from afar, it was too obvious up close and personal. They had to go.
This disagreeable trend for retailers to plaster their name and logos obtrusively over products has in recent years become a pandemic. Society in general has moved to a position where style is prized more than substance. And in so many ways much of the public and the mainstream media accept the mere wearing of brand names as a substitute for both. I suspect too that the culture of ‘Bling’ has had much to do with it. This being a direct result of the popularity of Rap, R&B and their like amongst the middle classes; with all its in your face, splash the cash, ‘how do you like them apples’ attitude to money and wealth.
As to the labels themselves, you would have thought they’d know better. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that bloody great labels and logos ruin the aesthetic of a garment, one of the requirements of exclusivity and glamour is subtlety and discretion. It’s the key difference between nouveau and old school. Savile Row tailors are famous for hiding their labels inside the inside pocket of their jackets, and for not advertising. And yet we are in no doubt as to who they are, what they are and their pedigree.
There is another factor to consider and that is the prevalence, even amongst exclusive labels, for outsource manufacturing to low wage economies. Such practises make the high prices charged for their goods ridiculous - if not damn dishonest - in my view. Over branding is perhaps a means for labels to sooth their own consciences, as though it were adequate compensation to the poor trusting punter; “Here you are Sir. Have a little more style by association, on us”.
Curiously, in an age when most brands worry about the ready availability of counterfeit goods, over-branding increasingly makes the real thing look like the fake. The controversy sparked by Ralph Lauren’s dressing of the US olympic team in Beijing is well known. Those jackets looked like cheap knock-offs in my view.
Time to draw stumps on this rant, but I’ll end by saying I object to the fact that having paid for a garment I am then expected to provide free advertising as a human billboard.
The great irony in this particular case is that I really love the phase that Jaeger is going through at the moment; and if anybody were to ask I’d happily tell them where I bought the coat.
I suspect that is true of most people in most other cases.
For more informations about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年5月14日星期五
Bespoke Suits and 2010 Collection
I was invited to view Ede & Ravenscroft’s Autumn/Winter 2010 collection. Being a favourite retailer of mine I jumped at the chance, and as soon as the pictures are made up there will be a post on it.
I’d also be interested in viewing John Smedley’s collection. To be honest I wasn’t that bothered. I’d heard the name before and knew it was stocked by numerous retailers, and for that reason I assumed they were just another mass production sweatshop knitwear producer. What I discovered was exactly the opposite.
Not only did I love the combination of the timeless and the contemporary, which will be available for Autumn/Winter 2010 – but the firm is everything I usually look for. Most importantly they are not a sweatshop manufacturer. While many UK firms have found it financially expedient to manufacture abroad and simply trade on their name and history, John Smedley’s knitwear has been made and hand-finished at Lea Mills in Derbyshire since 1784. The family run business now employs 440 staff in the UK – some have been with the company for over 50 years.
Now that they are on the radar I’ll be keeping a close eye on their output, but it is odd how a misconception can leave you blind to a perfectly good retailer or manufacturer.
Given the UK’s election results and my own failure to get elected, it appears this recent discovery was the most fruitful thing I’ve done in the last four weeks.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
I’d also be interested in viewing John Smedley’s collection. To be honest I wasn’t that bothered. I’d heard the name before and knew it was stocked by numerous retailers, and for that reason I assumed they were just another mass production sweatshop knitwear producer. What I discovered was exactly the opposite.
Not only did I love the combination of the timeless and the contemporary, which will be available for Autumn/Winter 2010 – but the firm is everything I usually look for. Most importantly they are not a sweatshop manufacturer. While many UK firms have found it financially expedient to manufacture abroad and simply trade on their name and history, John Smedley’s knitwear has been made and hand-finished at Lea Mills in Derbyshire since 1784. The family run business now employs 440 staff in the UK – some have been with the company for over 50 years.
Now that they are on the radar I’ll be keeping a close eye on their output, but it is odd how a misconception can leave you blind to a perfectly good retailer or manufacturer.
Given the UK’s election results and my own failure to get elected, it appears this recent discovery was the most fruitful thing I’ve done in the last four weeks.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年5月11日星期二
Bespoke Suits and Wardrobe Caring
I wake up to find the shirt I want to wear rumpled and the shoes I planned on scuffed, and I wish for a valet. These days are certainly the exception to the rule though. While a hundred years or so ago the idea of a true gentleman polishing his own oxfords would have seemed preposterous, I firmly believe that the modern gent knows not only how to purchase and wear nice clothes, but how to care for them as well.
There should in fact be a certain pleasure in caring for the things one enjoys, even if that care is ironing or scrubbing. Personally, I find polishing my own shoes cathartic, and enjoy the quiet time it give me free from the hustle and bustle of school, friends, etc. Polishing a pair of shoes takes me about thirty minutes if I want to get the toe to a decent level of shine, and I find those thirty minutes immensely relaxing and invigorating, not to mention the satisfaction I get in looking at the gleaming toe-caps the next time I put the shoes on, knowing my labor went to good use.
The other, activities are ironing and pressing. Whether it is getting that perfect crease down the center of a pair of trousers or keeping a shirt wrinkle-free, ironing is a necessary part of getting that clean, crisp look many of us strive for. Now I don’t mean too clean, but not I-slept-in-my-double-cuff-shirt casual either. A good, adjustable steam iron makes this requisite process far less tedious, and the results far better.
If your suits need a bit of help, taking them to a tailor for a steam and adjustment is best, and definitely keep dry cleaning to an absolute minimum. A small personal steamer, or even the steam from your iron, is a good quick-fix, but eventually your suits will need a proper tuneup no matter how well you care for them. A lint brush or roller keeps you from looking like you rolled around on the floor, but it won’t help the shape of a shoulder.
Taking good care of your wardrobe doesn’t just mean active things such as polishing and steaming, but also good upkeep as well. Keeping things on the proper type of hanger, keeping suits and coats in garments bags off season, and hanging your silk ties (rolling knit ones to avoid stretching them out) are easy ways to take a beautifully made piece of clothing and make it last like one. For the modern man, who takes pride and pleasure in cultivating his taste and appreciation of the fine things in which he indulges himself, there seems to me to be no excuse for him to not be his own gentleman’s gentleman.
If you like to know more about taking good care of your wardrobe, please go to TailorU's website.
There should in fact be a certain pleasure in caring for the things one enjoys, even if that care is ironing or scrubbing. Personally, I find polishing my own shoes cathartic, and enjoy the quiet time it give me free from the hustle and bustle of school, friends, etc. Polishing a pair of shoes takes me about thirty minutes if I want to get the toe to a decent level of shine, and I find those thirty minutes immensely relaxing and invigorating, not to mention the satisfaction I get in looking at the gleaming toe-caps the next time I put the shoes on, knowing my labor went to good use.
The other, activities are ironing and pressing. Whether it is getting that perfect crease down the center of a pair of trousers or keeping a shirt wrinkle-free, ironing is a necessary part of getting that clean, crisp look many of us strive for. Now I don’t mean too clean, but not I-slept-in-my-double-cuff-shirt casual either. A good, adjustable steam iron makes this requisite process far less tedious, and the results far better.
If your suits need a bit of help, taking them to a tailor for a steam and adjustment is best, and definitely keep dry cleaning to an absolute minimum. A small personal steamer, or even the steam from your iron, is a good quick-fix, but eventually your suits will need a proper tuneup no matter how well you care for them. A lint brush or roller keeps you from looking like you rolled around on the floor, but it won’t help the shape of a shoulder.
Taking good care of your wardrobe doesn’t just mean active things such as polishing and steaming, but also good upkeep as well. Keeping things on the proper type of hanger, keeping suits and coats in garments bags off season, and hanging your silk ties (rolling knit ones to avoid stretching them out) are easy ways to take a beautifully made piece of clothing and make it last like one. For the modern man, who takes pride and pleasure in cultivating his taste and appreciation of the fine things in which he indulges himself, there seems to me to be no excuse for him to not be his own gentleman’s gentleman.
If you like to know more about taking good care of your wardrobe, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年5月8日星期六
The Contrast of Bespoke Suits
I have never been to expect anyone to follow my advice.
I am one of these people who is confident in dispensing opinion but cynical as to its interpretation and use; I always feel that the majority of people will forget or dismiss what I say as madness or inconsequential. It is not because I do not trust or respect other people, it is simply that sometimes I feel as if I am wandering around in my own little world, firing blobs of advice into Reality that quickly evaporate on entering the atmosphere, thus rendering them utterly useless. I am amazed therefore when friends and acquaintances say to me; “I followed your advice…”, or “You know that thing you said, I decided to try it…” and “You’re not wrong about one thing…” Some of the blobs must have got through.
I was also shocked to see, barely a fortnight after I had advocated such a course on these pages, men filing on and off the Tube and in and out of sandwich shops, cabs and bars wearing contrasting trousers and jackets. As I am a keen observer of other people’s attire, and had seen little of this kind of activity before, I rashly presumed that ‘someone got the memo’. Whatever the reason for such a flurry of experimentation, and I’d wager my words have very little to do with it, the fact that men were trying it – on purpose and with swagger – was greatly satisfying. The only problem was that the crucial point of the exercise had been missed; the contrast was often insufficient, and too far from complementary, to appear intentional.
The problem it seems that men do not possess lighter coloured suits. The silvery classics of yesteryear, like the Prince of Wales check, are just not popular. Darkness reigns in the modern gentleman’s wardrobe. Consequently, the mixtures that I bore witness to were low on contrast – mid-grey with mid-to-light grey, black with very dark grey etc. In a darkened room, they looked like they were wearing a suit; in the bright sunshine, the difference between the fabrics was more obvious – and decidedly unattractive. The lesson from this, for me, is that I should not base my advice on what is contained within my own wardrobe but what hangs in the wardrobes of my fellow men.
If many men are not willing to purchase a lighter coloured suit, they should look into purchasing a couple of pairs of lighter trousers and maybe a couple of lighter coloured odd jackets – seersuckers and linens for summer, maybe a woollen houndstooth for winter – to maximise the utility from their other suit items.
The safest choice for trousers, affecting the classic ‘stroller’ look, is a pair of classic houndstooth trousers, with the timeless black and white houndstooth pattern, which from a distance looks like a very light grey. This option goes perfectly with navy blue, charcoal grey and many other popular colours of suit; the contrast created is striking and tasteful. The thing to always remember is that if you are staying within the same colour spectrum, the contrast must be exaggerated, otherwise you will look like you fished your outfit from a public waste bin.
For more information about custom made suits, please go to TailorU's website.
I am one of these people who is confident in dispensing opinion but cynical as to its interpretation and use; I always feel that the majority of people will forget or dismiss what I say as madness or inconsequential. It is not because I do not trust or respect other people, it is simply that sometimes I feel as if I am wandering around in my own little world, firing blobs of advice into Reality that quickly evaporate on entering the atmosphere, thus rendering them utterly useless. I am amazed therefore when friends and acquaintances say to me; “I followed your advice…”, or “You know that thing you said, I decided to try it…” and “You’re not wrong about one thing…” Some of the blobs must have got through.
I was also shocked to see, barely a fortnight after I had advocated such a course on these pages, men filing on and off the Tube and in and out of sandwich shops, cabs and bars wearing contrasting trousers and jackets. As I am a keen observer of other people’s attire, and had seen little of this kind of activity before, I rashly presumed that ‘someone got the memo’. Whatever the reason for such a flurry of experimentation, and I’d wager my words have very little to do with it, the fact that men were trying it – on purpose and with swagger – was greatly satisfying. The only problem was that the crucial point of the exercise had been missed; the contrast was often insufficient, and too far from complementary, to appear intentional.
The problem it seems that men do not possess lighter coloured suits. The silvery classics of yesteryear, like the Prince of Wales check, are just not popular. Darkness reigns in the modern gentleman’s wardrobe. Consequently, the mixtures that I bore witness to were low on contrast – mid-grey with mid-to-light grey, black with very dark grey etc. In a darkened room, they looked like they were wearing a suit; in the bright sunshine, the difference between the fabrics was more obvious – and decidedly unattractive. The lesson from this, for me, is that I should not base my advice on what is contained within my own wardrobe but what hangs in the wardrobes of my fellow men.
If many men are not willing to purchase a lighter coloured suit, they should look into purchasing a couple of pairs of lighter trousers and maybe a couple of lighter coloured odd jackets – seersuckers and linens for summer, maybe a woollen houndstooth for winter – to maximise the utility from their other suit items.
The safest choice for trousers, affecting the classic ‘stroller’ look, is a pair of classic houndstooth trousers, with the timeless black and white houndstooth pattern, which from a distance looks like a very light grey. This option goes perfectly with navy blue, charcoal grey and many other popular colours of suit; the contrast created is striking and tasteful. The thing to always remember is that if you are staying within the same colour spectrum, the contrast must be exaggerated, otherwise you will look like you fished your outfit from a public waste bin.
For more information about custom made suits, please go to TailorU's website.
Bespoke Suits with Technology
I suggested that men were allowed certain accessories, namely; a watch; cuff links; a tie clip; belt or braces; and a wallet. In my own list I would add a pen and a cigarette case, and others wisely advocate a key holder. What links all these things is that they fulfil a practical function.
All these items also represent a pre-technology life we men once lived. I don’t know about you, but these days I rarely leave the house without my mobile and ipod. Indeed, these days even a wallet is excess bulk, requiring just my electronic Oyster travel card and debit card, a simple card holder is all that’s required.
Technology has quite an impact on our sartorial lives. At the macro level, it has made the World our department store, and allows websites like this, where people can exchange ideas and insights, to exist. At the micro level, life is increasingly dominated by those pieces of technology that help it run smoothly. So to me anyway, it makes sense to invest in apparel that allows that tech to blend elegantly and unobtrusively into my wardrobe.
So this week I’ve been looking into something practical and elegant to carry my ipod, mobile, laptop and other items. Many of the old school leather goods and luggage merchants have been a bit slow to cotton on to the necessities of modern life. A young company, it was founded in 2004 by Howard Harrison, Benoit Ruscoe (Creative Director) and Alastair Hops. Based in Great Titchfield Street London, where all the creative designing takes place, the company was set up precisely to produce bags and accessories to carry laptops with a mix of practically and stylishness. The name Knomo comes from combining the words, ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Mobility’ –hence the ‘K’ is silent. The company say they work closely with tech manufacturers in order that their bags and accessories fit the most popular shapes and sizes.
If you like to learn more about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
All these items also represent a pre-technology life we men once lived. I don’t know about you, but these days I rarely leave the house without my mobile and ipod. Indeed, these days even a wallet is excess bulk, requiring just my electronic Oyster travel card and debit card, a simple card holder is all that’s required.
Technology has quite an impact on our sartorial lives. At the macro level, it has made the World our department store, and allows websites like this, where people can exchange ideas and insights, to exist. At the micro level, life is increasingly dominated by those pieces of technology that help it run smoothly. So to me anyway, it makes sense to invest in apparel that allows that tech to blend elegantly and unobtrusively into my wardrobe.
So this week I’ve been looking into something practical and elegant to carry my ipod, mobile, laptop and other items. Many of the old school leather goods and luggage merchants have been a bit slow to cotton on to the necessities of modern life. A young company, it was founded in 2004 by Howard Harrison, Benoit Ruscoe (Creative Director) and Alastair Hops. Based in Great Titchfield Street London, where all the creative designing takes place, the company was set up precisely to produce bags and accessories to carry laptops with a mix of practically and stylishness. The name Knomo comes from combining the words, ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Mobility’ –hence the ‘K’ is silent. The company say they work closely with tech manufacturers in order that their bags and accessories fit the most popular shapes and sizes.
If you like to learn more about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年5月4日星期二
Bespoke Suits for Professor
I am shocked most days when I venture onto campus for class. The number of people who look like they have either just come from the gym or rolled out of bed with no time to put actual trousers or jeans on is staggering…and somehow it never ceases to amaze me. Wearing a tie usually gets me asked “Oh, do you have a presentation today?” or the occasional “I didn’t know you work at the law school?” When did the campus change from go-to-hell heaven to a pit-stained purgatory?
But, not everyone falls into this category, and there are still quite a few more well dressed people on campus than off. Most of the people I see consistently well put together in fact are professors. It’s a bit stereotypical and cliche, I’ll admit, but there is something wonderful about walking into English class and wondering where the professor got his tweeds. There is a professor in particular I am thinking of who exudes the aura of “Professorhood” from his pink button downs to chestnut long-wing brogues, and does so completely unselfconsciously. In fact, he would I’m sure be amused and a tad embarrassed if I told him he was being written about.
Even with its more unusual variations, the “Professor” look is unmistakable - almost always a tweed coat, corduroy, moleskin, or flannel trousers as the weather permits (and linen in the summer), foulard, knit, or paisley ties, always loafers or brogues, and the inevitable plethora of oxford cloth button down shirts. Although many of my peers would judge this look to be stodgy or boring, I find it to have an invigorating mix of self-control and whimsy. I would never expect to walk into a lecture on Virginia Woolf and find my instructor in pinstripes, but a flamboyant mix of pink, green, yellow, blue, and brown would be nothing out of the ordinary.
I would like to see it trickle back down to the campuses themselves. Reading a book on the quad in a colorful sweater, rolled up chinos, and sockless loafers is a great feeling, trust me.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
But, not everyone falls into this category, and there are still quite a few more well dressed people on campus than off. Most of the people I see consistently well put together in fact are professors. It’s a bit stereotypical and cliche, I’ll admit, but there is something wonderful about walking into English class and wondering where the professor got his tweeds. There is a professor in particular I am thinking of who exudes the aura of “Professorhood” from his pink button downs to chestnut long-wing brogues, and does so completely unselfconsciously. In fact, he would I’m sure be amused and a tad embarrassed if I told him he was being written about.
Even with its more unusual variations, the “Professor” look is unmistakable - almost always a tweed coat, corduroy, moleskin, or flannel trousers as the weather permits (and linen in the summer), foulard, knit, or paisley ties, always loafers or brogues, and the inevitable plethora of oxford cloth button down shirts. Although many of my peers would judge this look to be stodgy or boring, I find it to have an invigorating mix of self-control and whimsy. I would never expect to walk into a lecture on Virginia Woolf and find my instructor in pinstripes, but a flamboyant mix of pink, green, yellow, blue, and brown would be nothing out of the ordinary.
I would like to see it trickle back down to the campuses themselves. Reading a book on the quad in a colorful sweater, rolled up chinos, and sockless loafers is a great feeling, trust me.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年4月29日星期四
Bespoke Suits and White Jeans
“White jeans on a man? Awful!” Being a man who wears, and enjoys wearing, white jeans I was rather put out. Never a man to back down from a conflict I asked why, in the wonderful but also rather terrible world in which we live, men in white jeans should be the subject of especial disgust. White being an increasingly common tone for attire, particularly in the spring and summer months, I was curious as to the distaste for white denim. Was it the case, I asked, that women in white denim caused similar feelings of revulsion? Apparently not. It was not, they meandered, “…something about them getting dirty” it was that men belonged in dark trousers; “If a male friend of mine tries on a pair of white jeans, I reject them immediately.”
White trousers have also been the subject of debate on my own blog where some have commented that I should not wear them in winter or, irrelevantly, “before Labor day.” Firstly, a bright, rainless winter’s day is a perfect opportunity to wear white trousers or denim and secondly, not being an American, ‘Labor Day’ is about as important to me as the breakfast of the tenant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. What I am interested in is style and, believe it or not, I happen to think that white trousers and yes, white denim, are handsome, striking and if worn correctly, flattering. White reflects heat and light which is why it is used so enthusiastically in the warmer periods, making it a sensible choice too.
The problem my companions had with jeans was unfathomable but I could only conclude that they had not seen them worn properly. Unlike classic indigo jeans, I believe white denim should be worn in a fitted style – baggy legs, baggy seat and excessive length are bad enough attributes without adding the eyecatching brightness of white. The second problem is that men, generally, wear jeans in a very casual context – T-shirts, trainers, hoodies etc. Again, adding such items to an ensemble is counterproductive; trainers in particular make almost any outfit look repulsive. White is a colour of respectability and nobility. Clean white cloth was one of the clear differences between a gentleman and the rest. It has always been worn by the wealthiest patrons of male fashion who, particularly in the early twentieth century, paired their white trousers with blazers and buck shoes.
Jeans are certainly more contemporary but that does not mean they will look wrong in such a context; a smart navy blue linen jacket worn with a sky blue shirt, rolled-up white jeans and brown driving shoes is a practical and stylish look for a warm day – a look utterly ubiquitous at Pitti Uomo.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
White trousers have also been the subject of debate on my own blog where some have commented that I should not wear them in winter or, irrelevantly, “before Labor day.” Firstly, a bright, rainless winter’s day is a perfect opportunity to wear white trousers or denim and secondly, not being an American, ‘Labor Day’ is about as important to me as the breakfast of the tenant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. What I am interested in is style and, believe it or not, I happen to think that white trousers and yes, white denim, are handsome, striking and if worn correctly, flattering. White reflects heat and light which is why it is used so enthusiastically in the warmer periods, making it a sensible choice too.
The problem my companions had with jeans was unfathomable but I could only conclude that they had not seen them worn properly. Unlike classic indigo jeans, I believe white denim should be worn in a fitted style – baggy legs, baggy seat and excessive length are bad enough attributes without adding the eyecatching brightness of white. The second problem is that men, generally, wear jeans in a very casual context – T-shirts, trainers, hoodies etc. Again, adding such items to an ensemble is counterproductive; trainers in particular make almost any outfit look repulsive. White is a colour of respectability and nobility. Clean white cloth was one of the clear differences between a gentleman and the rest. It has always been worn by the wealthiest patrons of male fashion who, particularly in the early twentieth century, paired their white trousers with blazers and buck shoes.
Jeans are certainly more contemporary but that does not mean they will look wrong in such a context; a smart navy blue linen jacket worn with a sky blue shirt, rolled-up white jeans and brown driving shoes is a practical and stylish look for a warm day – a look utterly ubiquitous at Pitti Uomo.
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年4月26日星期一
Bespoke Suits and Colors
Summer begins to creep into our lives. The fresh, light colors of spring get a bit more intense and any outfit lacking in a dash of color seems out of place. But, that dash can be anything from a pink sportcoat and some go-to-hell trousers, to something as small and simple as shoelaces.
There has been quite a bit written lately in the Men’s Style blogosphere and magazine world about these bigger dashes. Fabulous articles on vibrant prep attire and succinct pieces on lightening up abound, but I want for a moment to focus on the smaller things one can do to add a bit of color to life. Don’t get me wrong, I love a pair of loud trousers in the heat of summer just as much as the next guy, but on those days dominated by creme colored linen, I still yearn for a bit of saturation.
Coming back quite strongly these last few years has been the nylon watch strap. Available in any color combination imaginable - from the dull grey and black NATO stripes favored by 007 to neon fluorescents that make checking the time almost painful - these straps can be had from any number of trade brands, J. Press, Brooks Brothers, and J. Crew all carrying quite a variety of both classic and modern patterns. If you want school or regimentals though, I cannot recommend Smart Turnout highly enough. For me, swapping out my black leather strap (which usually by springtime smells strongly of my winter fragrance) for this lighter, more breathable option is one of the first rituals of springtime; I think of it almost as a ribbon-belt for my wrist.
For an even smaller spit of color, the oft-forgotten shoelaces, almost always relegated to black, brown, or white, can be spruced up making a tiny change into a dramatic one. Taking the black laces out of your oxfords in favor of some blue, purple, or red ones may seem a bit silly, but takes a pair of business shoes and makes them a fun alternative for off-duty hours. Brown brogues look fantastically whimsical with hunter-green or red laces in them as well.
While you may not want to do something quite so bold as sporting a peacock blue watch strap or kelly green shoelace, there are ways to playfully update classics with a bit more color than usual, keeping things looking businesslike but with a hint of color. My two favorite examples of this are the tipped pocket square and the brightly stripped repp tie. The ever-appropriate and elegant white linen pocket square looks great in a summer blazer or sportcoat, but I like it even more when the edge is tipped in light blue or burgundy thread - just a small touch of the unexpected to accompany the expected. The same goes for repp ties: always classic, always seen in blue, red, and other primary/secondary colors, but also always available in brighter colors as well. Maybe wear a navy tie with pink stripes in place of plain navy, or lighten up the gold to canary yellow.
These may all seem like small matters, but that is just the point. Looking like you are on your way to a clam bake on The Cape is certainly not a bad thing, but adding some color and excitement to your wardrobe does not require anything this drastic. Now if you did all of these things at once though…
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
There has been quite a bit written lately in the Men’s Style blogosphere and magazine world about these bigger dashes. Fabulous articles on vibrant prep attire and succinct pieces on lightening up abound, but I want for a moment to focus on the smaller things one can do to add a bit of color to life. Don’t get me wrong, I love a pair of loud trousers in the heat of summer just as much as the next guy, but on those days dominated by creme colored linen, I still yearn for a bit of saturation.
Coming back quite strongly these last few years has been the nylon watch strap. Available in any color combination imaginable - from the dull grey and black NATO stripes favored by 007 to neon fluorescents that make checking the time almost painful - these straps can be had from any number of trade brands, J. Press, Brooks Brothers, and J. Crew all carrying quite a variety of both classic and modern patterns. If you want school or regimentals though, I cannot recommend Smart Turnout highly enough. For me, swapping out my black leather strap (which usually by springtime smells strongly of my winter fragrance) for this lighter, more breathable option is one of the first rituals of springtime; I think of it almost as a ribbon-belt for my wrist.
For an even smaller spit of color, the oft-forgotten shoelaces, almost always relegated to black, brown, or white, can be spruced up making a tiny change into a dramatic one. Taking the black laces out of your oxfords in favor of some blue, purple, or red ones may seem a bit silly, but takes a pair of business shoes and makes them a fun alternative for off-duty hours. Brown brogues look fantastically whimsical with hunter-green or red laces in them as well.
While you may not want to do something quite so bold as sporting a peacock blue watch strap or kelly green shoelace, there are ways to playfully update classics with a bit more color than usual, keeping things looking businesslike but with a hint of color. My two favorite examples of this are the tipped pocket square and the brightly stripped repp tie. The ever-appropriate and elegant white linen pocket square looks great in a summer blazer or sportcoat, but I like it even more when the edge is tipped in light blue or burgundy thread - just a small touch of the unexpected to accompany the expected. The same goes for repp ties: always classic, always seen in blue, red, and other primary/secondary colors, but also always available in brighter colors as well. Maybe wear a navy tie with pink stripes in place of plain navy, or lighten up the gold to canary yellow.
These may all seem like small matters, but that is just the point. Looking like you are on your way to a clam bake on The Cape is certainly not a bad thing, but adding some color and excitement to your wardrobe does not require anything this drastic. Now if you did all of these things at once though…
For more details about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年4月23日星期五
Bespoke Suits of Horizontal Stripes
Bespoke clothing is the opportunity to do something truly individual, even original. When I once commissioned a shirt, I relished the opportunity of ordering a horizontally striped shirt – an eyecatching rarity these days – as I had always liked the idea of a ‘hooped’ chest and had begun to appreciate uncommon aesthetics in reaction to the dull uniformity I bear witness to each. I had always thought that this was a step far enough; diagonal stripes on a shirt would be a pretentious disaster and would not flatter the aesthetic of the classic symmetrical human form and costume – with stripes, it was only the purely horizontal and the vertical that could seriously vie for elegance. And so, the horizontally striped shirt remained as my favourite example of doing something a little differently whilst avoiding vulgarity.
Months past, the seasons changed; a peak lapelled, ticket pocketed, horizontally striped suit. It sat there, amongst the ‘senior citizens’ choices, brash as anything, unaware of the rumpus it was causing. Despite being slightly disconcerted, I began to admire what was essentially an entertaining creation of whim. It was a beautiful risk taker, a daring thing that would doubtless have cars swerving and gentlemen stumbling as it moved through the metropolis.
Tommy Nutter, who along with Edward Sexton dominated the Savile Row scene in the early seventies. Despite this historic dedication, the suit did not appear to be some Jagger-esque relic of the twentieth century’s seventh decade. Though a head turner, it also had an elegant presence that antiquated many of the more conventional suits lined up next to it. It was dynamic and rather dazzling; the kind of suit to wear to a garden party at Elton John’s. My only annoyance is that I did not get to see it worn by the lucky commissioner.
Naturally, one man’s meat is another man’s poison; I wouldn’t have to look very hard to find a gentleman who would think that such a violently unconventional use of a bespoke tailor is a sartorial abortion that requires the potential institutionalisation of the commissioner; “Fattening” they say when I mention my fondness for the horizontal stripe. This, they claim, is in contrast to the vertical stripe which slims a gentleman down. Though I do not currently have the funds for such fun, a horizontally striped suit has shimmered into view; a rare moment has inspired me to dream.
For more details about custom suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Months past, the seasons changed; a peak lapelled, ticket pocketed, horizontally striped suit. It sat there, amongst the ‘senior citizens’ choices, brash as anything, unaware of the rumpus it was causing. Despite being slightly disconcerted, I began to admire what was essentially an entertaining creation of whim. It was a beautiful risk taker, a daring thing that would doubtless have cars swerving and gentlemen stumbling as it moved through the metropolis.
Tommy Nutter, who along with Edward Sexton dominated the Savile Row scene in the early seventies. Despite this historic dedication, the suit did not appear to be some Jagger-esque relic of the twentieth century’s seventh decade. Though a head turner, it also had an elegant presence that antiquated many of the more conventional suits lined up next to it. It was dynamic and rather dazzling; the kind of suit to wear to a garden party at Elton John’s. My only annoyance is that I did not get to see it worn by the lucky commissioner.
Naturally, one man’s meat is another man’s poison; I wouldn’t have to look very hard to find a gentleman who would think that such a violently unconventional use of a bespoke tailor is a sartorial abortion that requires the potential institutionalisation of the commissioner; “Fattening” they say when I mention my fondness for the horizontal stripe. This, they claim, is in contrast to the vertical stripe which slims a gentleman down. Though I do not currently have the funds for such fun, a horizontally striped suit has shimmered into view; a rare moment has inspired me to dream.
For more details about custom suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年4月20日星期二
Bespoke Suits and Shoes Lesson
Varying levels of knowledge about the product to be purchased that assure the purchaser, so the best situation to be in is to be purchasing a product, say a pair of shoes, that you have already seen ‘in the flesh’ as it were; you know what the product looks like to the naked eye, so the pictures online need not be pored over or the description re-read with any degree of concern – if you were happy with what you saw, you probably will be when the shoes are delivered.
If however you haven’t seen the product in the flesh, and are not particularly trusting of marketing photography, you are buying with a degree of blindness; I have experienced this horror and have ended up paying a hefty postage for the return of unwanted items that did not live up to expectations. Ever since, I have been rather uneasy with buying ‘blind.’ However, a recent experience with Herring Shoes provided me with a rather different ‘blind’ experience.
Herring have two retail stores, one down in Devon and one in Herefordshire; both are too far away from London to merit a visit from myself. Herring also have an online boutique that retails shoes from the likes of Church’s, Barker, Loake, Cheaney, Trickers and Sebago, in addition to their own lines. However, whereas I can toddle down both Bond and Jermyn Street and see many of the other brands that Herring offers for sale online, I cannot see any Herring shoes; London does not know Herring.
While pleased that such shoes are clearly lacking in mass market appeal, I was considerably disgruntled that I could only view a photographic representation and not touch one of their shoes before purchasing – a purchase which might lead to disappointment and the loss of a small sum on returns. Despite this disappointment, I simply could not be deterred from the appeals of the product; Herring shoes are classically designed, Goodyear welted and honestly priced. They might not be as grand as some of the bespoke names often mentioned on this site, but they cater for men on a certain budget very well indeed.
Herring Shoes are helpfully divided into six main categories; the Classic Collection, the Premier Collection, the Graduate Collection, the Country Collection and the Italian Collection. The other helpful point about this categorisation is that it makes sense; the names signify the standard and style of the shoes therein. Hence, in the Graduate Collection one finds classic ‘straight out of University’ shoes priced for young, loan-repaying graduates; the Country Collection has a lot of brown brogues and substantial soles and the Premier Collection offers shoes of a higher category of design and material for a little extra. The pair I selected, some tan tassel loafers, were selected from the Classic Collection. Payment is simple and delivery (within the UK only) is free.
The packaging, as you can see from the photos above, was faultless. The shoes were boxed inside a cardboard box and hand delivered. Inside the shoe box, aside from the shoes, you could find a travel size shoe horn, tin of polish and travel bags for each shoe. For a delivery that did not cost me a penny, it was highly satisfactory. The most worrying thing about the purchase was the fit as it has been my experience that some shoe manufacturers have very different ideas about what a correct size 8 actually is. Relieved with the fit, I examined the shoes and the leather carefully, checking for flaws. My beady eye satisfied, I settled down to polish the shoes for the first time, happy in the knowledge that my next Herring purchase will not be one so affected by concern; this ‘blind buy’ had been a lesson.
For more information about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
If however you haven’t seen the product in the flesh, and are not particularly trusting of marketing photography, you are buying with a degree of blindness; I have experienced this horror and have ended up paying a hefty postage for the return of unwanted items that did not live up to expectations. Ever since, I have been rather uneasy with buying ‘blind.’ However, a recent experience with Herring Shoes provided me with a rather different ‘blind’ experience.
Herring have two retail stores, one down in Devon and one in Herefordshire; both are too far away from London to merit a visit from myself. Herring also have an online boutique that retails shoes from the likes of Church’s, Barker, Loake, Cheaney, Trickers and Sebago, in addition to their own lines. However, whereas I can toddle down both Bond and Jermyn Street and see many of the other brands that Herring offers for sale online, I cannot see any Herring shoes; London does not know Herring.
While pleased that such shoes are clearly lacking in mass market appeal, I was considerably disgruntled that I could only view a photographic representation and not touch one of their shoes before purchasing – a purchase which might lead to disappointment and the loss of a small sum on returns. Despite this disappointment, I simply could not be deterred from the appeals of the product; Herring shoes are classically designed, Goodyear welted and honestly priced. They might not be as grand as some of the bespoke names often mentioned on this site, but they cater for men on a certain budget very well indeed.
Herring Shoes are helpfully divided into six main categories; the Classic Collection, the Premier Collection, the Graduate Collection, the Country Collection and the Italian Collection. The other helpful point about this categorisation is that it makes sense; the names signify the standard and style of the shoes therein. Hence, in the Graduate Collection one finds classic ‘straight out of University’ shoes priced for young, loan-repaying graduates; the Country Collection has a lot of brown brogues and substantial soles and the Premier Collection offers shoes of a higher category of design and material for a little extra. The pair I selected, some tan tassel loafers, were selected from the Classic Collection. Payment is simple and delivery (within the UK only) is free.
The packaging, as you can see from the photos above, was faultless. The shoes were boxed inside a cardboard box and hand delivered. Inside the shoe box, aside from the shoes, you could find a travel size shoe horn, tin of polish and travel bags for each shoe. For a delivery that did not cost me a penny, it was highly satisfactory. The most worrying thing about the purchase was the fit as it has been my experience that some shoe manufacturers have very different ideas about what a correct size 8 actually is. Relieved with the fit, I examined the shoes and the leather carefully, checking for flaws. My beady eye satisfied, I settled down to polish the shoes for the first time, happy in the knowledge that my next Herring purchase will not be one so affected by concern; this ‘blind buy’ had been a lesson.
For more information about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年4月13日星期二
Bespoke Suit Fabric- Wool
I saw a suit in a fabric I had not seen since I had ventured into the loft at the old homestead many years ago when I was searching through my parents disused clothing for items of curiosity. Among the items of forgotten fashion I found, ransacking the hampers of garments from the last four decades of the twentieth century, was a suit in flecked wool; a dark grey with a textured pattern of white blimps. The suit in TopMan was almost identical in fabric, although rather different in cut; its reappearance was sadly only an accident of the high street store’s manufacture of 1980s nostalgia.
Flecked wool was not a 1980s invention, however its similarity to television static has earned it a closer connection with the era of televisual technology. Although it is difficult to find an exact history of the fabric’s origins, it has been in the swatch books of sartoria for nearly one hundred years as there are significant examples of flecked wool suits from the 20s and 30s that I have previously seen. The most popular period for the first ‘fashion’ flecked wool suits appears to be the 1950s. A recent viewing of Shutter Island, a psychological thriller set in the middle of the twentieth century, affirmed this view; Mark Ruffalo, chewing up the windswept scenery, wandered around in a trilby and a flecked wool suit.
It strikes me as a rather casual fabric, similar to tweed in texture and appearance. Younger people seemed to be rather averse to it, describing it as ‘rough’ and ‘looking like an old sack.’ I remember adopting such a viewpoint myself when all my clothing depended on trend – anything from the recent past was perversely horrible to my eyes; ‘It’s SO 80s!’ was a phrase that I was overly generous in distributing to worldly goods that did not meet my approval. Despite the fact that flecked wool was a fabric popular in the 1980s, I have somehow shaken off my dislike of it as I perceive the rough texture of the wool, and the rather distracting flecking, to be a perfect foil for smooth cotton shirts, rich silk ties and linen pocket squares.
I imagined the turned up flecked trousers flopping onto a pair of richly polished tan shoes, a pair of Wayfarers in the breast pocket of the jacket and a freshly ironed shirt underneath it all. There was something rather cool about it; something rather Gary Cooper.
The tragedy is that it isn’t much available anymore, at least not in ready-to-wear. I don’t imagine a huge amount of it is available at the tailors either as flecked wool is long out of vogue and it wouldn’t make sense to keep books of fabrics that just aren’t going to sell. When available, it is usually in a country colour such as a green or brown or in the more conventional town colour of mid-to dark grey. I think there is space in any gentleman’s wardrobe for this cool, characterful cloth.
If you like to learn more about bespoke suits and shirts, please come to TailorU's website.
Flecked wool was not a 1980s invention, however its similarity to television static has earned it a closer connection with the era of televisual technology. Although it is difficult to find an exact history of the fabric’s origins, it has been in the swatch books of sartoria for nearly one hundred years as there are significant examples of flecked wool suits from the 20s and 30s that I have previously seen. The most popular period for the first ‘fashion’ flecked wool suits appears to be the 1950s. A recent viewing of Shutter Island, a psychological thriller set in the middle of the twentieth century, affirmed this view; Mark Ruffalo, chewing up the windswept scenery, wandered around in a trilby and a flecked wool suit.
It strikes me as a rather casual fabric, similar to tweed in texture and appearance. Younger people seemed to be rather averse to it, describing it as ‘rough’ and ‘looking like an old sack.’ I remember adopting such a viewpoint myself when all my clothing depended on trend – anything from the recent past was perversely horrible to my eyes; ‘It’s SO 80s!’ was a phrase that I was overly generous in distributing to worldly goods that did not meet my approval. Despite the fact that flecked wool was a fabric popular in the 1980s, I have somehow shaken off my dislike of it as I perceive the rough texture of the wool, and the rather distracting flecking, to be a perfect foil for smooth cotton shirts, rich silk ties and linen pocket squares.
I imagined the turned up flecked trousers flopping onto a pair of richly polished tan shoes, a pair of Wayfarers in the breast pocket of the jacket and a freshly ironed shirt underneath it all. There was something rather cool about it; something rather Gary Cooper.
The tragedy is that it isn’t much available anymore, at least not in ready-to-wear. I don’t imagine a huge amount of it is available at the tailors either as flecked wool is long out of vogue and it wouldn’t make sense to keep books of fabrics that just aren’t going to sell. When available, it is usually in a country colour such as a green or brown or in the more conventional town colour of mid-to dark grey. I think there is space in any gentleman’s wardrobe for this cool, characterful cloth.
If you like to learn more about bespoke suits and shirts, please come to TailorU's website.
2010年4月11日星期日
Importance of Bespoke Suits
The highest compliments one can pay a man of style is to say he wears his clothes well; that is, however tasteful and interesting each individual item he is wearing might be persued, the overall effect is that much greater for his having worn them with such panache.
It is interesting therefore to consider certain men who have attained lofty cultural status and are recognized as style icons despite – or perhaps because of?
French singer-songwriter, actor, and director and all-round flâneur, Serge with long lank hair, shirts unbuttoned almost to the waist, the signature cigarette smoke framing his disreputable-looking face, and his favourite accessory, English model, Jane Birkin, serving as arm candy, Monsieur Gainsbourg always cool.
He has really mastered the art of looking good without giving the impression that he has made an effort. It is not simply that he makes no effort – for he clearly does. His clothes fit him well, compliment one another, and act as good ambassadors for his persona: any unacquainted observer would be bound to say that he has something of the aesthete and rake about him, whatever else they might pick up upon from his dress sense.
Most of the time I do not even like what Serge wears: his jacket may be too short or the stripes too loud but this does not detract from my admiration for his style because he always looks like he is having fun with what he is wearing.
It reminds me of a book I read a while ago which was a collection of photographs that people had nominated of themselves to show the moment when they were the brightest spark in the room and felt like they were the height of fashion. The pictures varied hugely in terms of what people were wearing, how old they were, and their location; most of the people looked objectively awful in clothes which mostly served to illustrate the difference between fashion and style i.e. the former does not age well! Yet each of the subjects makes a great impression because they radiate confidence and are having fun with what they are wearing.
Too often stylish men are effete: overly fastidious in choosing what to wear, preening themselves in the mirror or worrying unduly about how a pocket square sits in their jacket et cetera. Far better to throw clothes on and forget about them, confident in the knowledge that you do look great. That is what seeing photos of a guy like Serge Gainsbourg says to me: clothes can only do so much, you have to wear them with attitude, too.
For more information about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
It is interesting therefore to consider certain men who have attained lofty cultural status and are recognized as style icons despite – or perhaps because of?
French singer-songwriter, actor, and director and all-round flâneur, Serge with long lank hair, shirts unbuttoned almost to the waist, the signature cigarette smoke framing his disreputable-looking face, and his favourite accessory, English model, Jane Birkin, serving as arm candy, Monsieur Gainsbourg always cool.
He has really mastered the art of looking good without giving the impression that he has made an effort. It is not simply that he makes no effort – for he clearly does. His clothes fit him well, compliment one another, and act as good ambassadors for his persona: any unacquainted observer would be bound to say that he has something of the aesthete and rake about him, whatever else they might pick up upon from his dress sense.
Most of the time I do not even like what Serge wears: his jacket may be too short or the stripes too loud but this does not detract from my admiration for his style because he always looks like he is having fun with what he is wearing.
It reminds me of a book I read a while ago which was a collection of photographs that people had nominated of themselves to show the moment when they were the brightest spark in the room and felt like they were the height of fashion. The pictures varied hugely in terms of what people were wearing, how old they were, and their location; most of the people looked objectively awful in clothes which mostly served to illustrate the difference between fashion and style i.e. the former does not age well! Yet each of the subjects makes a great impression because they radiate confidence and are having fun with what they are wearing.
Too often stylish men are effete: overly fastidious in choosing what to wear, preening themselves in the mirror or worrying unduly about how a pocket square sits in their jacket et cetera. Far better to throw clothes on and forget about them, confident in the knowledge that you do look great. That is what seeing photos of a guy like Serge Gainsbourg says to me: clothes can only do so much, you have to wear them with attitude, too.
For more information about bespoke suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Famous Brand of Bespoke Suits
The most clothing enthusiasts are familiar with the “usual suspects” in the shirt making industry, e.g., Barba, Finamore, Borrelli, the list can go on and on. There are plenty of smaller camicerias all over Italy that have been crafting handmade shirts to rival and even supersede the aforementioned brands.
Mazzarelli was started by Marino Mazzarelli in 1951 as a cobblery shop. In 1960, Marino made a seamless transition from supple footwear leather to exquisite shirt fabrics. Now, fifty years later, the third generation team led by Domenico Mazzarelli is in charge of the company’s day-to-day operations and set to uphold the family tradition.
Each shirt is independently manufactured in the facility in Castellana Grotte in the province of Bari, and each individual component is cut and shaped by hand.
Shirt collars, sleeves, plackets, and mother of pearl buttons are all sewn by hand. Even with this degree of attention to detail and production standards, it still came as a surprise when Mazzarelli received an order for three shirts for Pope Benedict XVI.
Ready to Wear shirts fit slim but not tight: high in the armpits, tight around the shoulders, with tapered waist. Shirts are comfortable with minimal neck space to make sure the tie “sits” properly. Sleeves are just right while cuffs are somewhat narrow around the wrist, with enough space, however, to wear a watch. My Mazzarelli shirts are composed from a blend of cotton, nylon, and elastane. The aforementioned combination is sturdy while pliable, and provides the wearer with great comfort. This “marriage” of old-fashioned tailoring and high-tech, progressive concepts is something that Mazzarelli wants to expand on in the future.
While Mazzarelli is not “officially” sold in the United States, the company has a domestic representative, Giacomo, who can be reached by e-mail.
If you like to learn more about custom-made suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Mazzarelli was started by Marino Mazzarelli in 1951 as a cobblery shop. In 1960, Marino made a seamless transition from supple footwear leather to exquisite shirt fabrics. Now, fifty years later, the third generation team led by Domenico Mazzarelli is in charge of the company’s day-to-day operations and set to uphold the family tradition.
Each shirt is independently manufactured in the facility in Castellana Grotte in the province of Bari, and each individual component is cut and shaped by hand.
Shirt collars, sleeves, plackets, and mother of pearl buttons are all sewn by hand. Even with this degree of attention to detail and production standards, it still came as a surprise when Mazzarelli received an order for three shirts for Pope Benedict XVI.
Ready to Wear shirts fit slim but not tight: high in the armpits, tight around the shoulders, with tapered waist. Shirts are comfortable with minimal neck space to make sure the tie “sits” properly. Sleeves are just right while cuffs are somewhat narrow around the wrist, with enough space, however, to wear a watch. My Mazzarelli shirts are composed from a blend of cotton, nylon, and elastane. The aforementioned combination is sturdy while pliable, and provides the wearer with great comfort. This “marriage” of old-fashioned tailoring and high-tech, progressive concepts is something that Mazzarelli wants to expand on in the future.
While Mazzarelli is not “officially” sold in the United States, the company has a domestic representative, Giacomo, who can be reached by e-mail.
If you like to learn more about custom-made suits and shirts, please go to TailorU's website.
Bespoke Suits and Bespoke Shoes
You needn't pick a former English teacher and a former PR executive both with a love of Radio 4 as revolutionaries, but that is the impression I got of Deborah Carré and James Ducker.
Perhaps it would be better to call them small ‘s’ subversives. Other than an obvious dedication to the artistry and craft of English shoe making in its purist form, nothing about Deborah and James is what you’d expect from bespoke shoemakers, and to my mind that is a positive.
To begin with, Carréducker shoes is based in the Cockpit Arts studios in London’s Holborn, run by the local authority. Not a flash store in an off-Bond St. Arcade, Cockpit is a Creative Arts Incubator and a hive of artistic and creative activity. Carréducker shares its studio space with a jeweller and a musical instrument maker. The first thing that struck me was the wonderful smell of wood, glue and smelted metal, which if they could bottle would put an end to the need for chemical sleeping aids. You soon notice the wooden lasts hanging on the walls and then the small knee high table and stools on which Deborah and James work. Relaxing and down to earth you really get a sense of collaboration between yourself and the people creating your shoes. I imagine this engenders an appealing bond between customer and patron and makes it especially easy to communicate what you want.
Not that talking to Deborah and James would be difficult. Patient, friendly and down to earth, we had never met before but chatted for some hours over what they did; and they showed the greatest patience in the face of my ignorance on the matter of bespoke shoemaking. Any type of bespoke clothing represents a considerable investment and no one likes to feel intimidated or at the mercy of the people you’re asking for help.
But then I suspect this easy approach is in part down to Deborah and James’ backgrounds. Neither has what you’d think of as a traditional apprenticeship. James started his career as an English teacher in Spain. Having done a few evening classes at the guild of shoemakers in Barcelona, he met a shoemaker who allowed him to use his workshop to make shoes for himself and friends. It was this knowledge base that made him appealing to John Lobb who took him on and sent him on an apprenticeship. Deborah by contrast initially went into Public Relations, but caught the shoe making bug undertaking her degree in fashion. She decided to pursue her interest first via night classes at Cordweiners, and then, as a Quest Scholar, on the same apprenticeship as James. It was here that they met, and having remained friends after their training later decided to establish Carréducker shoes.
As to the shoes themselves, they certainly have the feel of an English bespoke shoe. But you only have to look at the mix of textures, colour and the use of shape to see there is something original and refreshing about Carréducker that sets them apart in my view.
Deborah describes shoemaking as “the mixing of hand and head. So much of bespoke shoe making is about problem solving. With women’s footwear anything is possible. There aren’t as many limitations and I liked the idea of working within quite defined rules, and pushing those rules just a little bit –not too far just a little bit”. It’s a philosophy James echoes; “Men’s styles evolve very slowly, which is part of what we like about it, it means you can speed up that evolution just slightly and introduce changes and see how it goes from there. For example, the lizard skin boots, we’ve introduced the piping in another colour. It’s just a subtle detail but it alters the shoe markedly. Those are the kind of things we try and do”.
They‘re certainly not afraid to experiment, and this makes them rather an exciting brand. It certainly contributed to some recent successes. Not only is their trunk show hosted by renowned NY footwear emporium Leffot, but last year they were awarded Selvedge Magazine’s Excellence in Textiles award.
Bespoke service aside, Carréducker offer a range of limited edition off the shelf shoes in two designs know as the half-cut and Extreme Brogue. Made in batches of 100 in each colourway they’re manufactured in Northampton to their own specifications. A little more affordable than the bespoke service they none the less give an insight into the mix of traditional craft and modern design that is, to my mind, the hall mark of Carréducker.
I’ll confess that at this stage in my life bespoke shoes are only an aspiration, but as soon as the funds allow I’ll be making an appointment with Deborah and James.
For more details about bespoke suits and matches of clothes, please go to TailorU's website.
Perhaps it would be better to call them small ‘s’ subversives. Other than an obvious dedication to the artistry and craft of English shoe making in its purist form, nothing about Deborah and James is what you’d expect from bespoke shoemakers, and to my mind that is a positive.
To begin with, Carréducker shoes is based in the Cockpit Arts studios in London’s Holborn, run by the local authority. Not a flash store in an off-Bond St. Arcade, Cockpit is a Creative Arts Incubator and a hive of artistic and creative activity. Carréducker shares its studio space with a jeweller and a musical instrument maker. The first thing that struck me was the wonderful smell of wood, glue and smelted metal, which if they could bottle would put an end to the need for chemical sleeping aids. You soon notice the wooden lasts hanging on the walls and then the small knee high table and stools on which Deborah and James work. Relaxing and down to earth you really get a sense of collaboration between yourself and the people creating your shoes. I imagine this engenders an appealing bond between customer and patron and makes it especially easy to communicate what you want.
Not that talking to Deborah and James would be difficult. Patient, friendly and down to earth, we had never met before but chatted for some hours over what they did; and they showed the greatest patience in the face of my ignorance on the matter of bespoke shoemaking. Any type of bespoke clothing represents a considerable investment and no one likes to feel intimidated or at the mercy of the people you’re asking for help.
But then I suspect this easy approach is in part down to Deborah and James’ backgrounds. Neither has what you’d think of as a traditional apprenticeship. James started his career as an English teacher in Spain. Having done a few evening classes at the guild of shoemakers in Barcelona, he met a shoemaker who allowed him to use his workshop to make shoes for himself and friends. It was this knowledge base that made him appealing to John Lobb who took him on and sent him on an apprenticeship. Deborah by contrast initially went into Public Relations, but caught the shoe making bug undertaking her degree in fashion. She decided to pursue her interest first via night classes at Cordweiners, and then, as a Quest Scholar, on the same apprenticeship as James. It was here that they met, and having remained friends after their training later decided to establish Carréducker shoes.
As to the shoes themselves, they certainly have the feel of an English bespoke shoe. But you only have to look at the mix of textures, colour and the use of shape to see there is something original and refreshing about Carréducker that sets them apart in my view.
Deborah describes shoemaking as “the mixing of hand and head. So much of bespoke shoe making is about problem solving. With women’s footwear anything is possible. There aren’t as many limitations and I liked the idea of working within quite defined rules, and pushing those rules just a little bit –not too far just a little bit”. It’s a philosophy James echoes; “Men’s styles evolve very slowly, which is part of what we like about it, it means you can speed up that evolution just slightly and introduce changes and see how it goes from there. For example, the lizard skin boots, we’ve introduced the piping in another colour. It’s just a subtle detail but it alters the shoe markedly. Those are the kind of things we try and do”.
They‘re certainly not afraid to experiment, and this makes them rather an exciting brand. It certainly contributed to some recent successes. Not only is their trunk show hosted by renowned NY footwear emporium Leffot, but last year they were awarded Selvedge Magazine’s Excellence in Textiles award.
Bespoke service aside, Carréducker offer a range of limited edition off the shelf shoes in two designs know as the half-cut and Extreme Brogue. Made in batches of 100 in each colourway they’re manufactured in Northampton to their own specifications. A little more affordable than the bespoke service they none the less give an insight into the mix of traditional craft and modern design that is, to my mind, the hall mark of Carréducker.
I’ll confess that at this stage in my life bespoke shoes are only an aspiration, but as soon as the funds allow I’ll be making an appointment with Deborah and James.
For more details about bespoke suits and matches of clothes, please go to TailorU's website.
2010年4月8日星期四
Bespoke Suit Offer
I asked for your support and we certainly got it. We've been inundated with wonderfully kind request to take part in our apprenticeship scheme. As I'd hoped we've had more offers than we can accept. In fact without doing a mass email it'll take us a long time to reply to everyone who kindly wrote to us.
I hope you can accept our sincere gratitude by thanking you on English Cut. So many people seem to be ideal for Ethan that we've basically decided to put all the names in a hat and draw out the lucky four people. I'm sorry if this seems a little peculiar but it seems the fairest and most straight forward way.
We'll be in touch within the next few days to let our four patrons arrange a convenient time to be measured.
As I said we're soon to have a little makeover which we hope you'll like. However I though it only fair to introduce you to Jamie and Ethan who are of course part of the future of English Cut.
After the response for our discounted suits it's obvious that there are a lot of people who want to take a step up the sartorial ladder but can't quiet financially stretch that far just yet, especially with Savile Row pricing. Thank you all once again for your support for the crafts future. With so little time and so much to do we'll say adieu and talk soon.
If you like to learn more about bespoke suit and shirt, please come to TailorU's website.
I hope you can accept our sincere gratitude by thanking you on English Cut. So many people seem to be ideal for Ethan that we've basically decided to put all the names in a hat and draw out the lucky four people. I'm sorry if this seems a little peculiar but it seems the fairest and most straight forward way.
We'll be in touch within the next few days to let our four patrons arrange a convenient time to be measured.
As I said we're soon to have a little makeover which we hope you'll like. However I though it only fair to introduce you to Jamie and Ethan who are of course part of the future of English Cut.
After the response for our discounted suits it's obvious that there are a lot of people who want to take a step up the sartorial ladder but can't quiet financially stretch that far just yet, especially with Savile Row pricing. Thank you all once again for your support for the crafts future. With so little time and so much to do we'll say adieu and talk soon.
If you like to learn more about bespoke suit and shirt, please come to TailorU's website.
Skilled Hands of Bespoke Suit
The truth is most of us would love that luxury, especially me. But as I've said before I'm too busy looking after everyone else's sartorial dreams to fulfill my own. Sadly, God never made enough time for tailoring beautiful clothes. The answer of course is to make time by finding extra skilled hands. This as you can imagine is the problem. We're a rare bunch us tailors and we're a long time in the making.
However, I have three good bits of news for you. Firstly our trouser apprentice has completed her first year working with Peter who makes 99% of my trousers. This he makes a beautiful job of if I say so myself. Secondly, I am on my third apprentice vying to take over my shears and dare I say it, this may be third time lucky.
My good friend has heard me lament over the years about my search for someone to take up the shears.
When we last met for a good drink and catch up he listened to me, then rummaged in his bag and presented me with this fantastic cartoon. As Hughe's famous for he got it straight away and this said it all. This is a lovely business but the hours locked in the workroom have dashed the hopes of many people who only want the glamorous side of the business and want it quick. Learning something that's initially lowly paid and very hard work does not sit well on today's young shoulders.
All joke's aside we can only make the craft survive if we invest in it. Now this I'm quite obviously doing because apprentices simply cost money and you hope you'll have your return in some distant future. Now I'm going to ask you, to be exact only four of you to invest in the crafts future also.
You may be wondering how the unknown fab four will be able to do this? Well I did say that I had three bits of good news, Well here's the plan.
In future I hope I can tempt my Atlanta and Chicago clients to meet me in New York or San Francisco.
Many people panicked because they thought that I said that I would not be traveling to the US any more.
However I said I will be continuing to travel regularly to the US but on shorter trips concentrating on my existing clients.
Now this is how you can help. I know that our clothes are worth every penny and by all accounts our prices are very reasonable. However to commission a bespoke suit is a serious investment. To put it simply most people can not yet afford the cost of such luxury no matter how good an investment it may be.
What I'd like to offer is four suits to be commissioned, two in San Francisco and two in New York.
These four suits will be offered at the very heavily discounted price of £1450.00 ($2,238.00 approx).
These will be cut and made here in our workshops using the same quality of workmanship and materials.
However the only difference is that these will be measured and cut by my apprentice. The coat will be made by Paul and the trousers by Jamie our other apprentice. I will of course be overseeing this every step of the way and the lucky individuals will have a very beautiful suit to wear for years to come.
Normally apprentices are kept hidden away and then sprung on an unsuspecting full price paying client when they think they're good enough or even worse if they think they can get away with it.
Now I'm sure we'll have plenty of takers for this but to be fair apprentices are young and ideally I'd prefer someone who was also new to the world of bespoke. Hopefully this could be the start of a long relationship. We don't want any deadlines. This is for people to learn, both student and client. As I always say this is a process to be enjoyed and not rushed.
So if you want to be one of these young guns first clients drop us a line and we'll fit you in.
Remember this isn't just a discounted suit. This is the real deal every step of the way but you'll be investing in the crafts future and the possibility of me putting my feet up one day.
If you like to learn more about bespoke suit and shirt, please come to TailorU's website.
However, I have three good bits of news for you. Firstly our trouser apprentice has completed her first year working with Peter who makes 99% of my trousers. This he makes a beautiful job of if I say so myself. Secondly, I am on my third apprentice vying to take over my shears and dare I say it, this may be third time lucky.
My good friend has heard me lament over the years about my search for someone to take up the shears.
When we last met for a good drink and catch up he listened to me, then rummaged in his bag and presented me with this fantastic cartoon. As Hughe's famous for he got it straight away and this said it all. This is a lovely business but the hours locked in the workroom have dashed the hopes of many people who only want the glamorous side of the business and want it quick. Learning something that's initially lowly paid and very hard work does not sit well on today's young shoulders.
All joke's aside we can only make the craft survive if we invest in it. Now this I'm quite obviously doing because apprentices simply cost money and you hope you'll have your return in some distant future. Now I'm going to ask you, to be exact only four of you to invest in the crafts future also.
You may be wondering how the unknown fab four will be able to do this? Well I did say that I had three bits of good news, Well here's the plan.
In future I hope I can tempt my Atlanta and Chicago clients to meet me in New York or San Francisco.
Many people panicked because they thought that I said that I would not be traveling to the US any more.
However I said I will be continuing to travel regularly to the US but on shorter trips concentrating on my existing clients.
Now this is how you can help. I know that our clothes are worth every penny and by all accounts our prices are very reasonable. However to commission a bespoke suit is a serious investment. To put it simply most people can not yet afford the cost of such luxury no matter how good an investment it may be.
What I'd like to offer is four suits to be commissioned, two in San Francisco and two in New York.
These four suits will be offered at the very heavily discounted price of £1450.00 ($2,238.00 approx).
These will be cut and made here in our workshops using the same quality of workmanship and materials.
However the only difference is that these will be measured and cut by my apprentice. The coat will be made by Paul and the trousers by Jamie our other apprentice. I will of course be overseeing this every step of the way and the lucky individuals will have a very beautiful suit to wear for years to come.
Normally apprentices are kept hidden away and then sprung on an unsuspecting full price paying client when they think they're good enough or even worse if they think they can get away with it.
Now I'm sure we'll have plenty of takers for this but to be fair apprentices are young and ideally I'd prefer someone who was also new to the world of bespoke. Hopefully this could be the start of a long relationship. We don't want any deadlines. This is for people to learn, both student and client. As I always say this is a process to be enjoyed and not rushed.
So if you want to be one of these young guns first clients drop us a line and we'll fit you in.
Remember this isn't just a discounted suit. This is the real deal every step of the way but you'll be investing in the crafts future and the possibility of me putting my feet up one day.
If you like to learn more about bespoke suit and shirt, please come to TailorU's website.
Calmness and Unflapppable Patience on Bespoke Clothes
Tony has made for many clients who have recognised his wonderful skill in making their clothes over the years. Recently you may remember the beautiful jackets that Tony made for some of my clients. I hope our friends who were fortunate enough to own some of these pieces will treasure these truly rare and outstanding garments. These of course were only a tiny example of Tony's huge contribution to this very special trade.
One look at some of our friends work confirms the outstanding beautiful skill that so much reflects the man. Tony's calmness and unflappable patience has helped not only myself but everyone who was fortunate enough to know Tony.
We have all lost a wonderfully kind and witty man who will be extremely missed by all who knew him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this sad time.
For more details about custom-made suit and shirt, please come to TailorU's website.
One look at some of our friends work confirms the outstanding beautiful skill that so much reflects the man. Tony's calmness and unflappable patience has helped not only myself but everyone who was fortunate enough to know Tony.
We have all lost a wonderfully kind and witty man who will be extremely missed by all who knew him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this sad time.
For more details about custom-made suit and shirt, please come to TailorU's website.
Bespoke Suit Matches Hat (1)
We all know the lyrics conjured by Ira Gershwin, famously touching upon that aspect of headgear so often overlooked; the way a hat is worn. So out of touch are we with the practice of wearing a hat that many gentlemen forget that there is as much art in putting a hat on as there is in manufacturing it.
During the time when everyone wore headgear, the man who stood out from the crowd generally wore a hat that was not only of the highest quality but also of the most individual and flattering aesthetic.
Gentlemen reading these words may perceive this concern to be small beer; after all, how difficult can it be to wear a hat well?
If the few men who march around in fedoras and trilbies are anything to go by, it appears to be a problem for the majority. The assumption, it seems to me, is that a hat should do all the work. Some men merely plonk a hat on their head expecting a Bogart visage to appear in the looking-glass; hand-hat-head-front door seems to be the sequence in their minds. Unfortunately, a little more effort is required to achieve the best effect from an item of headgear. And this consideration of how a hat will appear should always be addressed at the milliners.
For more details about custom-made suit, please come to TailorU's website.
During the time when everyone wore headgear, the man who stood out from the crowd generally wore a hat that was not only of the highest quality but also of the most individual and flattering aesthetic.
Gentlemen reading these words may perceive this concern to be small beer; after all, how difficult can it be to wear a hat well?
If the few men who march around in fedoras and trilbies are anything to go by, it appears to be a problem for the majority. The assumption, it seems to me, is that a hat should do all the work. Some men merely plonk a hat on their head expecting a Bogart visage to appear in the looking-glass; hand-hat-head-front door seems to be the sequence in their minds. Unfortunately, a little more effort is required to achieve the best effect from an item of headgear. And this consideration of how a hat will appear should always be addressed at the milliners.
For more details about custom-made suit, please come to TailorU's website.
Bespoke Suit Matches Hat (2)
The way some gentlemen wear their trilbies, you’d think they’d bought their hat from a blind man and dressed in the dark; the brim is often flat, shapeless and dull, the profile utterly unremarkable.
Their mistake is in believing that, merely by having a piece of felt on their heads, they are a pure example of bygone elegance. The shame of it is that if they’d paid more attention to the mirror at the milliners, they wouldn’t be in this situation.
When I try a hat on, I do so not only for size but for aesthetics; hats rarely look the same on two people, so a sensible amount of posing (and possibly a tasteful shopping partner) to determine whether a prospective item of headgear looks ‘right’ on a gentleman is vital. Wandering out into St James muttering to yourself that you simply ‘must have a Homburg’ at all costs is misguided; the Homburg looks a fright on certain people (those of narrower shoulder and shorter frames). Hats must be chosen and scrutinised with the utmost humility. The next thing you must do when you have found a flattering design that suits your face and build is to put it on correctly.
For more details about tailor-made suit, please go to TailorU's website.
Their mistake is in believing that, merely by having a piece of felt on their heads, they are a pure example of bygone elegance. The shame of it is that if they’d paid more attention to the mirror at the milliners, they wouldn’t be in this situation.
When I try a hat on, I do so not only for size but for aesthetics; hats rarely look the same on two people, so a sensible amount of posing (and possibly a tasteful shopping partner) to determine whether a prospective item of headgear looks ‘right’ on a gentleman is vital. Wandering out into St James muttering to yourself that you simply ‘must have a Homburg’ at all costs is misguided; the Homburg looks a fright on certain people (those of narrower shoulder and shorter frames). Hats must be chosen and scrutinised with the utmost humility. The next thing you must do when you have found a flattering design that suits your face and build is to put it on correctly.
For more details about tailor-made suit, please go to TailorU's website.
Bespoke Suit Matches Hat (3)
The aforementioned correctness isn’t to do with a dusty old rule, nor the dictat of some style sage but simply to do with the way the object appears; I wear driving and Gatsby caps a little to the side but I vary how much of my forehead I reveal depending on style. I think a slightly downward pointing peak on a flat cap looks more rakishly metropolitan, whereas a more upward pointing peak on a Gatsby, accompanied with a smile looks easy-going and bucolic – echoing a setting sun across a golden meadow.
As minute as some might think these differences are out of context, in an outfit they can make all the difference.
If you watch certain film noir, there are characters who have a style of wearing trilbies and fedoras that is seen little nowadays; some fedoras are pushed back on the head with the brim pulled down over the eyes; some trilbies are worn jauntily, a la Mr Sinatra, revealing more of one side of the face than another; a few pinched hats are snap-brimmed with the characteristic flick up at the back brim and the downward pointing front brim. Rarely, in such pictures, are they worn without any consideration for the aesthetic of wearing a hat. For a hat, properly worn, is not an object merely to be secured to the temple, parallel to the brow; it is as much a stylistic expression as a stuffed pocket square, four-in-hand or a Club collar. When you try a hat on, be bold – express, be theatrical, try to frame yourself with the item; wearing a hat properly, as Frans Hals understood, is worthy of art.
TailorU will tell you more about bespoke suit and shirt.
As minute as some might think these differences are out of context, in an outfit they can make all the difference.
If you watch certain film noir, there are characters who have a style of wearing trilbies and fedoras that is seen little nowadays; some fedoras are pushed back on the head with the brim pulled down over the eyes; some trilbies are worn jauntily, a la Mr Sinatra, revealing more of one side of the face than another; a few pinched hats are snap-brimmed with the characteristic flick up at the back brim and the downward pointing front brim. Rarely, in such pictures, are they worn without any consideration for the aesthetic of wearing a hat. For a hat, properly worn, is not an object merely to be secured to the temple, parallel to the brow; it is as much a stylistic expression as a stuffed pocket square, four-in-hand or a Club collar. When you try a hat on, be bold – express, be theatrical, try to frame yourself with the item; wearing a hat properly, as Frans Hals understood, is worthy of art.
TailorU will tell you more about bespoke suit and shirt.
Belt and Bespoke Suit
I love the internet – who am I kidding, it’s the thing I love – is the fact that my wardrobe is opened to the possibilities the World has to offer.
The Wiley producing hand made belts brothers grew up on an active horse farm and it is from the craftsmanship involved in the making of equestrian tack and harnesses that they get their inspiration, for both for the materials used and the belting designs. For example the hoof pick belts go through a detailed 15-step process ranging from cutting and sizing to burnishing and stitching. Made of vegetable-tanned English bridal leather, Marcus tells me it’s sourced from the West Midlands and was “absolutely the best I could find”. Indeed, I have been told by those whose knowledge I trust, that English bridle leather is about the best there is for belting.
Made to order they have a fully commercial website and ship internationally. You choose your colour for the leather, from black, dark Havana, mahogany and light Havana (my favourite); you then pick your buckle which is either brass or nickel and of three possible designs, a traditional buckle, the Hoof pick and the Slip Cinch – which is the one I’m going for.
To my mind distinctly American, my favourite is the Slip Cinch in light Havana which has a simple elegance about it, and a casual summery feel. It certainly makes a difference from all the mass manufactured preppy grosgrain belts which will start to make an appearance as summer approaches.
The late Duke of Windsor was of course famous for having his jackets made in London and his trouser made in the US. While not quite pants across the sea, living in London I love the idea that a piece of small scale crafted America is now so obtainable, when in any other age it would have been beyond my physical reach.
TailorU will tell you more about custom suit.
The Wiley producing hand made belts brothers grew up on an active horse farm and it is from the craftsmanship involved in the making of equestrian tack and harnesses that they get their inspiration, for both for the materials used and the belting designs. For example the hoof pick belts go through a detailed 15-step process ranging from cutting and sizing to burnishing and stitching. Made of vegetable-tanned English bridal leather, Marcus tells me it’s sourced from the West Midlands and was “absolutely the best I could find”. Indeed, I have been told by those whose knowledge I trust, that English bridle leather is about the best there is for belting.
Made to order they have a fully commercial website and ship internationally. You choose your colour for the leather, from black, dark Havana, mahogany and light Havana (my favourite); you then pick your buckle which is either brass or nickel and of three possible designs, a traditional buckle, the Hoof pick and the Slip Cinch – which is the one I’m going for.
To my mind distinctly American, my favourite is the Slip Cinch in light Havana which has a simple elegance about it, and a casual summery feel. It certainly makes a difference from all the mass manufactured preppy grosgrain belts which will start to make an appearance as summer approaches.
The late Duke of Windsor was of course famous for having his jackets made in London and his trouser made in the US. While not quite pants across the sea, living in London I love the idea that a piece of small scale crafted America is now so obtainable, when in any other age it would have been beyond my physical reach.
TailorU will tell you more about custom suit.
Bespoke Suit Wash Ups
A child, quite demonstrably informed by an adult not to do ‘something’, will eventually do ‘something.’ It should also come as no surprise that another adult, demonstrably informed by another adult not to do something, will rekindle that childlike curiosity and reaction to authority by doing the very thing they had been instructed not to do. Temptation wields a mighty force. For centuries, man has always sought to place his hand on Eden’s apple. I was told by my parents not to do many things, some of which I hadn’t even thought of myself. Their introduction, and apparent damnation in the eyes of people who had great authority over me, sparked something; ‘if it’s bad, it must be good for me’ I muttered to myself many a time in my rebellious youth.
I once visited a tailor who looked at me up and down, frowned and asked me where I got my clothing from. After informing him, he said; ‘Oh, so this is actually two suits? You’re wearing one suit’s trousers, with another suit’s jacket?’ Shrugging my shoulders in admittance, he shook his head with knowing disdain; ‘Shouldn’t mess around with your suits. Wear the matching trousers; don’t mess around trying to mix it up.’
I have always remembered his words, although I have never heeded them. I informed him coolly that contrasting trousers with jackets is actually an old phenomenon and that I liked the distinction between a lighter pair of trousers and a dark jacket, and vice versa. He informed me that only blazers should be worn with contrasting trousers, everything else should match.
As claustrophobic and unattractive a viewpoint to me as it was, it did educate me that some people disapprove of suit ‘mash ups’ – mixing trousers with jackets, wearing jackets with odd trousers and vice versa. Such people might look down upon a chap who finds, in the words of an acquaintance, ‘too much utility’ for a single suit. This sartorial sneering doesn’t really bother me as most of the fun in buying a suit is not rejoicing in its possibilities as a predictable one-piece but dreaming of the possibilities for experimentation – with a seersucker jacket in the summer, a velvet jacket in the winter, a cardigan or even a pair of jeans.
My light grey Prince of Wales check suit, for example, offers great possibilities for such mashing; as soon as I had bought it and worn it as a suit, I was considering the trousers and jackets as separates – a pair of white trousers and the Prince of Wales jacket in the spring, or perhaps a light blue linen jacket with the trousers in the summer; a woollen cardigan and the trousers for a simple Astaire-esque casual look, or a dark blazer with the Prince of Wales trousers, a silver tie and buttonhole for a modern ‘stroller’ ensemble. The titillation of the seemingly never-ending possibilities of a new acquisition is the reason why I enjoy clothing. I don’t enjoy the mashing merely because there is something vaguely rebellious about ignoring the established style sages who ward against such experimentation but because I like discovering that two items are worth more than their face value; the human delight in conjuring ‘value’ is utterly intoxicating.
The inherent risk with such mixing and matching is that, sometimes, a man gets it wrong. Ho hum. I find this happens mainly when there are no ‘anchoring’ items in an ensemble that make the ‘mashing’ look intentional; if you’re wearing, for example, different trousers with a suit jacket, I find it’s useful to use the accessories available to pull the trousers into the outfit. A complementary tie or pocket square will help. Secondly, I’d try to avoid pairing colours that are too close in the spectrum. I once saw a gentleman pair a dark grey jacket with a slightly lighter grey trouser that, instead of conveying a look of assuredness actually gave the impression he had either raided a charity store or had got dressed in the dark. If you are wearing garments of the same colour, it is important that the contrast is exaggerated; a dark grey should only be accompanied by a much lighter grey.
TailorU will tell you more about bespoke suit and shirt.
I once visited a tailor who looked at me up and down, frowned and asked me where I got my clothing from. After informing him, he said; ‘Oh, so this is actually two suits? You’re wearing one suit’s trousers, with another suit’s jacket?’ Shrugging my shoulders in admittance, he shook his head with knowing disdain; ‘Shouldn’t mess around with your suits. Wear the matching trousers; don’t mess around trying to mix it up.’
I have always remembered his words, although I have never heeded them. I informed him coolly that contrasting trousers with jackets is actually an old phenomenon and that I liked the distinction between a lighter pair of trousers and a dark jacket, and vice versa. He informed me that only blazers should be worn with contrasting trousers, everything else should match.
As claustrophobic and unattractive a viewpoint to me as it was, it did educate me that some people disapprove of suit ‘mash ups’ – mixing trousers with jackets, wearing jackets with odd trousers and vice versa. Such people might look down upon a chap who finds, in the words of an acquaintance, ‘too much utility’ for a single suit. This sartorial sneering doesn’t really bother me as most of the fun in buying a suit is not rejoicing in its possibilities as a predictable one-piece but dreaming of the possibilities for experimentation – with a seersucker jacket in the summer, a velvet jacket in the winter, a cardigan or even a pair of jeans.
My light grey Prince of Wales check suit, for example, offers great possibilities for such mashing; as soon as I had bought it and worn it as a suit, I was considering the trousers and jackets as separates – a pair of white trousers and the Prince of Wales jacket in the spring, or perhaps a light blue linen jacket with the trousers in the summer; a woollen cardigan and the trousers for a simple Astaire-esque casual look, or a dark blazer with the Prince of Wales trousers, a silver tie and buttonhole for a modern ‘stroller’ ensemble. The titillation of the seemingly never-ending possibilities of a new acquisition is the reason why I enjoy clothing. I don’t enjoy the mashing merely because there is something vaguely rebellious about ignoring the established style sages who ward against such experimentation but because I like discovering that two items are worth more than their face value; the human delight in conjuring ‘value’ is utterly intoxicating.
The inherent risk with such mixing and matching is that, sometimes, a man gets it wrong. Ho hum. I find this happens mainly when there are no ‘anchoring’ items in an ensemble that make the ‘mashing’ look intentional; if you’re wearing, for example, different trousers with a suit jacket, I find it’s useful to use the accessories available to pull the trousers into the outfit. A complementary tie or pocket square will help. Secondly, I’d try to avoid pairing colours that are too close in the spectrum. I once saw a gentleman pair a dark grey jacket with a slightly lighter grey trouser that, instead of conveying a look of assuredness actually gave the impression he had either raided a charity store or had got dressed in the dark. If you are wearing garments of the same colour, it is important that the contrast is exaggerated; a dark grey should only be accompanied by a much lighter grey.
TailorU will tell you more about bespoke suit and shirt.
2010年4月5日星期一
Bespoke Suit from 2001
These are things I utterly love about the bespoke clothing ‘experience’ and there are also areas which think leave a lot of room to be desired. A throbbing, temple-grindingly painful example of the latter category is service. The na?ve amongst us might imagine that, given the cost involved, the level of service that customers receive from bespoke artisans would be far superior to that proffered by the sartorial sirens in the oh-so chic, bijou-till-it-hurts boutiques. Certainly, you would expect the bespoke experience to be better than the treatment we receive at the hands of the obsequious and effete young chaps – as eager to please as they are lacking in individual style and opinion – so favoured by the major luxury goods houses for their flagship stores. But you’d be wrong – kind of.
Let us start with what’s right about the bespoke experience. It is the absolute antithesis of the luxury goods brands’ anonymous and coolly detached emporia. The workshop or shop looks like a real person works in it with evidence of their presence and trade present in the objects and ephemera scattered around the (usually untidy) room. When you meet your tailor or shoemaker he (maybe she, but not often) will shake your hand and introduce himself. He or she will not be wearing a name badge and, after a visit or two, you will probably have built up a pretty decent relationship with the person whose hands provide the conduit through which your designs will be brought to life.
You can rely on your artisan’s honesty, too, when asking for an opinion on this or that: with a mountain of experience and no incentive to push a particular style they will be able to honestly appraise the way something looks on you, helping to both improve the end product and harmonise the way you view yourself and the way others do. It is also a real learning experience; assuming that, like me, you are fascinated by the finely honed skill that these superb craftsman utilise in order to produce what seems a very simple garment, you will enjoy getting to know your tailor and learning from them – equally, it is not unlikely that they will enjoy explaining what they do to a eager pupil. Finally, if you want to think in terms of value, you are not subsidising marketing campaigns and flash stores at the expense of quality clothes and, of course, you can keep modifying and tweaking your product until it more closely resembles the image you had in your head: the aftercare service is peerless.
Sounds great. So why am I whining? Is it because these old-world craftsmen can be a touch rude or standoffish, at first blush? I can see how that would bother some people who have a certain preconception of the customer-salesman role but it does not keep me awake at night. Would I perhaps prefer a more salubrious showroom, with complimentary drinks and a plush leather couch on which to sit my now handsomely attired derriere? Well, perhaps; but I can well see the benefit of going without as I described above when discussing value. The real problem is the refusal of some artisans to deviate from their time-proven methods in order to create exactly what the client wants.
This is the very definition of bespoke and the primary characteristic which allows bespoke to soar mightily above ready-to-wear and, like a disrespectful pigeon, relieve itself upon its poorer relative from a great height: you can create exactly what you want, however weird, wacky, or idiosyncratic that may be. Yet, in practice, this is often not really the case. Often a tailor will refuse to play with convention or genuinely put his skill to the test by cutting a daring shape or marrying one feature with another in such a way that requires a touch of daring and a good dollop of artistic sensibility to pull it off correctly. In some (admittedly rare) cases, I have had a tailor tell me something is flat-out impossible to do – something as simple as slimming the arms on a suit whilst still having broad shoulders, for example.
I have some sympathy for the tailor who knows that something his client has requested will look ridiculous on him; anyone who has seen some of the bespoke monstrosities lauded on certain internet fora by their proud owners will attest to the fact that bespoke does not always look better. The thing is, though; I think these people are great. One of the main things I like to see in other people, as far as dressing goes, is them enjoying themselves; that is feeling good about how they look in what they are wearing and, perhaps, using their clothes to express their personality in some subtle way or another. Anyone who fulfils these two criteria is, in my humble opinion, far more interesting an aesthetic artefact than someone trendily attired in the latest Prada suit (even if my personal taste were to err more on the side of the latter than the suit they had commissioned).
I quite understand that there is a tried-and-tested formula which works pretty well for most suits and would not like to see this bastardised or mutate too deviously but I also recognise that the vast majority of the suits flooding out of the London tailor shops are almost identical in style, covering only a minute corner of the overall spectrum, and this is boring and lazy. It is not what bespoke should be. Suits can respect certain fundamental rules whilst still being interesting and individual: consider that a book such as Musgrave’s Sharp Suits fills over a hundred pages with attractive and diverse images of attractive and diverse suits. Going bespoke affords us a lot of possibilities and what annoys me most is that so few customers take advantage of this and that so few tailors truly encourage them to do so and this is something that I would argue should be intrinsic to the service.
I suppose it would be disingenuous of me to suggest that the bespoke industry’s level of service is anything other than better than that of ready-to-wear but, like a smart schoolboy whose natural ability allows him to keep pace with his peers without effort, it needs to be encouraged to take strides forward and not rest upon its laurels so that it can truly differentiate itself and offer us something really special – we all complain about how few people partronise the tailoring houses these days and here is a way to ensure that the numbers do not dwindle further.
TailorU will provide you more informations about bespoke suit and shirt.
Let us start with what’s right about the bespoke experience. It is the absolute antithesis of the luxury goods brands’ anonymous and coolly detached emporia. The workshop or shop looks like a real person works in it with evidence of their presence and trade present in the objects and ephemera scattered around the (usually untidy) room. When you meet your tailor or shoemaker he (maybe she, but not often) will shake your hand and introduce himself. He or she will not be wearing a name badge and, after a visit or two, you will probably have built up a pretty decent relationship with the person whose hands provide the conduit through which your designs will be brought to life.
You can rely on your artisan’s honesty, too, when asking for an opinion on this or that: with a mountain of experience and no incentive to push a particular style they will be able to honestly appraise the way something looks on you, helping to both improve the end product and harmonise the way you view yourself and the way others do. It is also a real learning experience; assuming that, like me, you are fascinated by the finely honed skill that these superb craftsman utilise in order to produce what seems a very simple garment, you will enjoy getting to know your tailor and learning from them – equally, it is not unlikely that they will enjoy explaining what they do to a eager pupil. Finally, if you want to think in terms of value, you are not subsidising marketing campaigns and flash stores at the expense of quality clothes and, of course, you can keep modifying and tweaking your product until it more closely resembles the image you had in your head: the aftercare service is peerless.
Sounds great. So why am I whining? Is it because these old-world craftsmen can be a touch rude or standoffish, at first blush? I can see how that would bother some people who have a certain preconception of the customer-salesman role but it does not keep me awake at night. Would I perhaps prefer a more salubrious showroom, with complimentary drinks and a plush leather couch on which to sit my now handsomely attired derriere? Well, perhaps; but I can well see the benefit of going without as I described above when discussing value. The real problem is the refusal of some artisans to deviate from their time-proven methods in order to create exactly what the client wants.
This is the very definition of bespoke and the primary characteristic which allows bespoke to soar mightily above ready-to-wear and, like a disrespectful pigeon, relieve itself upon its poorer relative from a great height: you can create exactly what you want, however weird, wacky, or idiosyncratic that may be. Yet, in practice, this is often not really the case. Often a tailor will refuse to play with convention or genuinely put his skill to the test by cutting a daring shape or marrying one feature with another in such a way that requires a touch of daring and a good dollop of artistic sensibility to pull it off correctly. In some (admittedly rare) cases, I have had a tailor tell me something is flat-out impossible to do – something as simple as slimming the arms on a suit whilst still having broad shoulders, for example.
I have some sympathy for the tailor who knows that something his client has requested will look ridiculous on him; anyone who has seen some of the bespoke monstrosities lauded on certain internet fora by their proud owners will attest to the fact that bespoke does not always look better. The thing is, though; I think these people are great. One of the main things I like to see in other people, as far as dressing goes, is them enjoying themselves; that is feeling good about how they look in what they are wearing and, perhaps, using their clothes to express their personality in some subtle way or another. Anyone who fulfils these two criteria is, in my humble opinion, far more interesting an aesthetic artefact than someone trendily attired in the latest Prada suit (even if my personal taste were to err more on the side of the latter than the suit they had commissioned).
I quite understand that there is a tried-and-tested formula which works pretty well for most suits and would not like to see this bastardised or mutate too deviously but I also recognise that the vast majority of the suits flooding out of the London tailor shops are almost identical in style, covering only a minute corner of the overall spectrum, and this is boring and lazy. It is not what bespoke should be. Suits can respect certain fundamental rules whilst still being interesting and individual: consider that a book such as Musgrave’s Sharp Suits fills over a hundred pages with attractive and diverse images of attractive and diverse suits. Going bespoke affords us a lot of possibilities and what annoys me most is that so few customers take advantage of this and that so few tailors truly encourage them to do so and this is something that I would argue should be intrinsic to the service.
I suppose it would be disingenuous of me to suggest that the bespoke industry’s level of service is anything other than better than that of ready-to-wear but, like a smart schoolboy whose natural ability allows him to keep pace with his peers without effort, it needs to be encouraged to take strides forward and not rest upon its laurels so that it can truly differentiate itself and offer us something really special – we all complain about how few people partronise the tailoring houses these days and here is a way to ensure that the numbers do not dwindle further.
TailorU will provide you more informations about bespoke suit and shirt.
Custom-made Suit Accessories
It was an utterly anachronistic product being offered for sale; not even the most adventurous imagination could conjure a tenuous connection with the traditional wares of this retailer and this absurdly random inclusion. For amongst the tie pins, silk cravats, shirt stiffeners, detachable collars, Christy’s hats and other assorted paraphernalia of accessories for gentlemen was a listing for ‘traditional hand carving.’ Expecting a pair of wooden shoe trees, I nearly fell of my chair when I saw that the hand carving Bromleys had referred to was actually of an equine variety. That’s right folks, when shopping for a wing collar and a paisley tie, you can also purchase a handsome hand carved Victorian style dapple grey rocking horse for your young ones.
Aside from this bizarre interlude, browsing on Bromleys very modest, utilitarian website is a pleasurable experience. Boasting a large selection of goods, it is a one-stop-shop for the acquisitive accessorizer. Shirt sleeves too long for a suit? Bromleys sells arm bands (in gold plate and nickel); want a rare collar pin shirt? Bromleys has them (and offers replacement pins in silver and gold too); how about some of those sock suspenders you’ve seen in film noir? Yes, Bromleys can help.
For such rare items, as well as a very wide selection of Albert Thurston braces, Bromleys cannot be bettered. In a very charming way, they are a fine retailer of goods that people no longer need, selling goods from such esteemed manufacturers as Budd of Piccadilly, Hilditch & Key and the aforementioned Christys and Thurston. Ironically, the items that one would not consider to be accessories, such as the trousers, shirts and shoes, are comparatively small in range and dubious in standard; it’s as if Bromleys believes in the mantra that accessories are everything and that everything else is accessory.
I have bought a few items from Bromleys in the past, mostly collar studs for my boiled-front evening shirt, and the delivery and quality of packaging has been faultless. The prices are very reasonable too, if a little frustratingly ‘accurate’. A silk tie or cravat is a fraction less than ￡40 and a Christys panama a fraction over ￡50. The site is very plain and simple to use and the white background means that the products are easy to see. There is an amiable honesty to retailers of such simplicity; in a world where deception, overcharging and dishonesty are rife in trade, a quiet little webshop like Bromleys is quite the tonic. The utterly bizarre listing of the rocking horses is merely the cherries on Bromleys giant cake of affable na?veté. I wish there were more like them.
TailorU will provide you more informations about custom-made suit and shirt.
Aside from this bizarre interlude, browsing on Bromleys very modest, utilitarian website is a pleasurable experience. Boasting a large selection of goods, it is a one-stop-shop for the acquisitive accessorizer. Shirt sleeves too long for a suit? Bromleys sells arm bands (in gold plate and nickel); want a rare collar pin shirt? Bromleys has them (and offers replacement pins in silver and gold too); how about some of those sock suspenders you’ve seen in film noir? Yes, Bromleys can help.
For such rare items, as well as a very wide selection of Albert Thurston braces, Bromleys cannot be bettered. In a very charming way, they are a fine retailer of goods that people no longer need, selling goods from such esteemed manufacturers as Budd of Piccadilly, Hilditch & Key and the aforementioned Christys and Thurston. Ironically, the items that one would not consider to be accessories, such as the trousers, shirts and shoes, are comparatively small in range and dubious in standard; it’s as if Bromleys believes in the mantra that accessories are everything and that everything else is accessory.
I have bought a few items from Bromleys in the past, mostly collar studs for my boiled-front evening shirt, and the delivery and quality of packaging has been faultless. The prices are very reasonable too, if a little frustratingly ‘accurate’. A silk tie or cravat is a fraction less than ￡40 and a Christys panama a fraction over ￡50. The site is very plain and simple to use and the white background means that the products are easy to see. There is an amiable honesty to retailers of such simplicity; in a world where deception, overcharging and dishonesty are rife in trade, a quiet little webshop like Bromleys is quite the tonic. The utterly bizarre listing of the rocking horses is merely the cherries on Bromleys giant cake of affable na?veté. I wish there were more like them.
TailorU will provide you more informations about custom-made suit and shirt.
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