A suit with massive shoulders, tiny waist or short trousers does not necessarily fit badly. It just has a bad silhouette. It is important to understand the difference. The shoulders of your suit, for example, may end exactly at the edge of your actual shoulders, continuing in one smooth line down the rest of the sleeve. They may, alternatively, extend an extra half an inch to an inch. The line of the shoulders may be square and straight; they … [Read more...]
I was flicking through an extremely large volume on vintage fashions when I visited my parents at the old homestead for Easter, and though my flicking was casual and intended for pleasure alone, I began to appraise the pages as though a student; I started to notice patterns and similarities. Between the Edwardian ladies with their bicycles and straw hats and the late Victorian country gentlemen with their shotguns and deerstalkers, there were few … [Read more...]
I wrote recently about how luxury has been downtrodden over the years, and how our own quest to live the good life has fueled the demand for cheap opulence. It’s a fascinating issue because it ties together the impact of social stratification, class change, privilege and the common leveler of the retail market. “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster” is a captivating analysis of this very subject. Not since Thorstein Veblen and his Theory … [Read more...]
Tom, Hong Kong: Simon, where do you stand on deck shoes? I've seen them around and think they'd be a nice compromise between scruffy converse and brogues when wearing jeans or casual trousers. I grew up detesting them for being too boaty but quite like the look of them now. I know exactly why you have that inherent distrust of the deck shoe, Tom. I have it too. I don’t know whether this caricature will be familiar to those in the US, but … [Read more...]
So you want to be the next Gordon Gekko? Think you’re a master of the universe, ready to wheel and deal with the big guns on Wall Street? I spend a fair amount of time with those guys and though it’s been a rough couple of months in the Big Apple, most are still looking pretty sharp. Even with the financial market’s current turmoil, Wall Street continues to grind away at the business of business. Every day, newly minted MBAs surge into … [Read more...]
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