Beau favoured blue, white and buff. All the time
Formal dress is built on a very simple colour palette, which was initiated by the regency dandy Beau Brummel. Despite its use today, the original meaning of the word ‘dandy’ was one who was fastidious about his appearance but with the intention of producing perfect simplicity. So his palette was modest: blue, white, occasionally buff, and black for accessories.
A couple of weeks ago a reader of my blog, Permament Style, asked me what shops he should make sure he visited in London. He was coming over from the United States for a week and wanted to visit any store that could be considered unique to London. Bespoke suits and high-end shoes were out of his price range, so it was a question of dissecting the high street.
A cuff button is finished off
It’s rare that you get to see something you own being made. Most of the stuff on the high street the manufacturers wouldn’t want you to see being produced – rather like sausages, I suppose. And, like sausages again, you wouldn’t want to see them being made because it would quickly put you off your favourite brands. Factories are not pretty places. Even if they’re clean, their gigantic efficiency crushes aesthetics.
Kirby Allison's hanger
It’s easy to think that the shape or size of the hanger you put your jacket on doesn’t make any difference, but it does. Without adequate support, well made shoulders on a thin hanger can bend and distort, ruining the care that has been taken to make sure they fit properly.
An image from Anderson & Sheppard's new blog, The Notebook
There’s a chance that, after you’ve had your first bespoke jacket made, you will still buy one off the rack. It’s so convenient, so quick, and you’re still used to a brand designing clothes for you, rather than doing it yourself.
But once you’re bought that jacket, and worn both it and the bespoke number, regret will start to harass your waking mind. ‘Why did I do that? It just doesn’t fit as well. And I saw some guy on the street wearing the same thing…’
Alfred Sargent handgrade shoes - click here for their blog
G Bruce Boyer, one of the great menswear writers, admitted in his 1985 book Elegance that of the dozen or so pairs of shoes he owned, only two of them were not brown suede. It was, for him, a personal idiosyncrasy. Brown goes with almost anything (outside the most formal and business-driven events) and suede is a nice quirk to exchange for calf.
Edward Green 'Shannon' boots
Black shoes are boring. That’s not the main reason I wear brown shoes more than black, but it’s a small contributory factor. Black shoes don’t have any of the advantages of patina – with brown you can build up a personality in polish over a number of years, creating an individual finish through the addition of layers of black to a chocolate shoe, or brown to a tan. You can’t do that with black.
A Henry Poole. Notice the balance around the fulcrum of the waist button
Balance is key to the shape of a suit. It is worth remembering that the next time you are commissioning something from the tailor, and adjusting the lapel width here, the jacket length there and demanding that the sleeve be that little bit shorter.
Panta Clothing in New York does some great unlined wools
As the seasons change and the weather gets a little cooler, wool ties are a nice way to freshen up an outfit and reflect the thicker, more substantial clothes of autumn. There are, however, a few important points to bear in mind.
