UTTER RANDOMNESS

There was a time around forty years ago when Mick Jagger was taking styling cues from Tommy Nutter’s shop and looked very good in a Savile Row rock and roll dandy kind of way. I would place him in that period ahead of a contemporary like Bryan Ferry today, for example, and that is not small praise. And that is relevant because today the younger Mr. Jagger is giving us another demonstration of one of my favorite accessories, the cream colored waistcoat, worn with a striped gray or blue suit.

What I like best about the cream waistcoat is that, in the context of the cream colored stripes on a suit, it is elegant without standing out - barely more visible than a white shirt in the same circumstances. And donning one is another way to dress a business suit up for cocktails or an opening without going home to change.

This being summer, some might question the utility of the waistcoat at this time of year. And for them I have only one word: linen. For temperate evenings the linen waistcoat atop a tropical or mid-weight suit is a comfortable pairing that adds considerably to one’s style points for the evening. And even at an event full of suits you are unlikely to see another one.

- http://asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com/2012/05/cream-waistcoat-once-again.html

You probably already know that in the early twentieth century wealthy men began wearing cream colored flannel trousers with their navy suit jackets at resorts, a fashion that was the seed of both the blazer specifically and the odd jacket generally. And to this day the most classic trouser to wear with a blazer during the day is cream colored, like the best dressed former President in the photograph.

So far as I am aware, no-one ever recorded the evolution of those cream colored trousers into the khaki chinos worn as part of the “California Tuxedo”, the tan cavalry twill that author Bernhard Roetzel described as part of the English uniform, or the ubiquitous gray flannels (that latter happened in the span of a single generation, perhaps driven by the cost of cleaning those off-whites in a world still heated by coal fires). But the style did evolve, and today the original color is remarkable.

The little examination possible of JFK’s trousers finds them looking a bit too crisp for flannel and probably a wool twill or gabardine, either a more practical choice for warmer days anyway. He wears them with penny loafer styled slip-on shoes, and those, lightly brogued chestnut colored oxfords or spectators are a fine complement to the pairing of blue and cream.

Worthy of emulation.

- http://asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com/2012/05/worthy-of-emulation.html

Brown suits seem to be going the way of the dodo. Never all that popular to begin with, they are being put to death by that hoary old “no brown in town” chestnut. Now by brown I do not mean tan, or patterned tweed necessarily, but true brown whether flannel for winter, gabardine for spring and fall, or cotton and linen for warmer weather. And that is because brown is a country and suburban color, better suited for holidays than conference rooms. When the suit is worn only for formal occasions, its informal applications disappear.

It’s a pity because brown suits are one of best colors for the sunshine in my opinion, along with mid-blue and cream. More formal than odd jackets but less formal than city suitings, brown lends itself to travel by air, rail  or motorcar. And though an abogado de campanilla is probably better off in blue, brown is just fine for visiting a suit-wearing executive staff in that same area.

Brown has the further advantage of functioning very well as a weekend suit, should you have cause to need one. The color just seems to complement country details like ticket pockets, even on a double breasted (a request that one of my tailors had never heard before).

Get yourself a brown suit.

- http://asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com/2012/05/brown-suits.html

The four-button front on a double-breasted jacket is a change of pace whose practical use is to give a jacket the appearance of a little more length, a technique that works admirably on shorter men like the Duke of Windsor in the top photo. Four buttons can also give a linen or other casual jacket a bit of extra panache when the top two are keystoned (that is, spread wider than the ones beneath them, the “Kent” model) as they are on the young JFK in the second picture. 

For consideration by the young, by men who wish to call discreet attention to themselves, and of course to anyone who wishes to appear a bit taller and a tad imposing.

- http://asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com/2012/05/four-button-front.html