The Real Evening Wear

‘Tis the season to be jolly and though Christmas cocktail parties seemed eons away in early autumn, they have come around terribly quickly. Whether you’re one of those who dreads these office functions, regarding them as Bacchanalian nightmares that must be endured to continue the illusion of ‘team-spirit’ or if you are one of those bizarre people who drinks, gorges, makes merry and performs the funky chicken to the almighty awfulness that is Slade, you have something in common; a desire to be yourself. And, as we are all unique, what better way to celebrate our own individuality than to pick something out from the wardrobe few others will be wearing. Christmas time excuses eccentricity and oddities like no other time of year, and the man of style should be considering choices one step beyond the vast sea of the commonplace; this is a time to trial new ideas.

The jacket

Many men will choose the modern classic tuxedo jacket; single breasted, peaked satin-silk faced lapels and two-buttons. It is elegant and inoffensive but lacks pizzazz. It’s what everyone expects and therefore, it’s what everyone dreads. Women are unfairly blessed with the potentiality for surprise; they have yards and yards of dress material to choose from. Men are forced into a proverbial corner and very little is expected of them, so it is a magnificent occasion on which to shine.

The ‘DB’

Instead of the ordinary jacket, why not choose something with a little more to give.
A double-breasted tuxedo jacket may sound ordinary enough, but the steady decline in its popularity has meant that they are not ordinarily available. Paradoxically, this has been wonderful for the DB as high-level clothiers such as Hackett have picked up the gauntlet. Hackett’s creation is fantastic. The lapels are large, peaked and gorgeous; no tacky satin on this one but a thick, matt woven silk. Coupled with an equally individual slub or moiré silk pocket square in gold or royal blue, it will make the wearer look polished, regal and unforgettably original.

The Shawl

The shawl collar tuxedo is the true individual’s choice. Like the DB, the Shawl is rarely seen these days. It has a strong association with the 1950s and 60s, an era when the shawl collar was the most fashionable choice for evening wear. Many see it as dated rather than classic, but for me it remains an attractive, albeit more feminine alternative to the traditional peaked lapel. Whereas your DB aficionado is a follower of the Duke of Windsor, the Shawl collar admirer is probably a Cary Grant man; think space age bachelor-pads rather than genteel and crumbling clubs. It’s generally of a lower cut, and therefore will be less forgiving to emaciated chaps like myself, but worn with a shawl collar waistcoat (a velvet version and a cotton version are both available at Zara), it looks perfect.

The smoking

For those of a theatrical disposition, the smoking jacket has to be le dernier cris. It’s too laidback for some, for others it has a deliciously cavalier quality; merely possessing the bravado to wear one outside one’s own home is exciting enough. Forget the Noel Coward-style silk version (these really do belong strictly within the confines of your home and should never be considered for functions unless fancy-dress is stipulated), the velvet double-braided model is the thing I refer to. It can be quite hard to find off-the-rack versions, but Pakeman Catto & Carter have a fantastic deep green model (pictured) available for £395.

The shoes

Most chaps you’ll see at these Christmas shindigs won’t have bothered with selecting shoes; they’ll be wearing what they wore that day to the office in all probability, which is not the worst circumstance, but it is a mite depressing. Patents are available everywhere so polish your look a little with some amusingly labelled ‘shoe-mirrors’.

If you want to be really daring and be the subject of many an ambiguous whisper, the cause of a few splutters of champagne, then go for some evening pumps. Those pictured are $445 from Christian Louboutin. Certainly not inexpensive, but you will have the most beautiful feet at the ball.

The rest

Scarf

For an aesthetic touch, wear an ivory silk evening scarf. I must stress ‘ivory’ or ‘off-white’ for the ideal colour; bright ‘Dulux’ white looks cheap. Make sure it’s a woven silk scarf for added texture and try and resist the ‘two scarves in one’ black and white sided versions.

Studs

Some elegant shirt-studs will make you stand out as a true old-hand connoisseur of the art of black-tie. They perform the same function as the poor old button, but they look a darn sight better. Mother of pearl, antique silver or onyx are the classic matter for studs but I have seen some very rare sapphire and malachite versions. It all depends on budget and whimsy; if both are more than substantial then go forth and be individual.

The real shirt

The Marcella shirt, the pleated shirt – that’s all there is to choose from, isn’t there? Well, no. They still make the ‘boiled front’ shirts (though in very small quantities), and as far as evening wear goes, for the gentleman who is truly determined to do his damndest in the pursuit for individual perfection, this shirt is the real thing. The Vintage Shirt Co. can sell it to you for £66.00, though that doesn’t include VAT and you must provide your own studs and collar. However, this merry contraption of a shirt is a reminder of the fun that can be had in dressing for an occasion. And it’s a thing of beauty when worn properly.

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Style Movie I Enjoyed: The Darjeeling Limited

This week I was fortunate enough to see a movie that actually allowed style itself to play a crucial part. Most movies are prone to product placement; never so much stylish as verbose projects full of marketable names. However, the film I enjoyed, The Darjeeling Limited, was a film that was prepared to place style on an equal billing with the leading names of Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzmann.

It wasn’t that there was an overload of style; fantastical outfits and utterly artistic camera work weren’t really key components of the film. In fact, the three lead characters wore the same outfits throughout the film. The film’s director and co-writer Wes Anderson is well-known for his tendency to ‘uniform’ his characters. And, bizarrely, though some critics denigrate his efforts on film as superficial, his focus on costume and scenery unhealthy, it is surely far easier to argue that Wes is frugal with his approach. In fact, when it came to it, less was more as far as the movie goer was concerned.

For ideas on clothes for his leading men, Wes turned to friend and designer, Marc Jacobs. Known for his subtly modern takes on classic menswear, Jacobs is one man who has conquered the misconception that modern designers court fashion for the ego boost and the money. Jacobs, while he may be genuinely in love with clothing, is well known for his dislike of fashion. Thus, for a costume designer on a major motion picture, he makes for a wise choice. The leading men wore variations on the grey flannel suit, symbolic of their blood connection as brothers. Their shirts, though of the same cut, were of very different colours which was symbolic of their emotional distance from one another at the beginning of the story.

Carrying off symbolism through costume isn’t a new trick, nor is it particularly difficult, but the effect is appealing. Schwartzmann’s black shirt echoed his dark, rather Don Juan playboy status (he has intercourse with a stewardess in a train toilet), Brody’s crisp white represented his belief that he was the most deserving (married with a child on the way) and the least guilty, and Wilson’s shirt was a dark khaki which represented his position as the balance between the other two brothers; the force that reaffirmed their brotherhood. Symbolism is ubiquitous in Anderson’s movies, and there is no escaping it in this.

The style of the picture is an amalgam of influences. On the one hand you have the delicious cliché of wealthy westerners travelling through India with absurd amounts of luggage, behaving like tourists and ludicrously expectant of miracles when wandering through sacred places. On the other hand you have three sharply dressed men who sit lounging in their compartment, sipping painkillers with a cigarette drooping from their lips. Dressed for the Western metropolis, where their outfits might sink into anonymity, they come to the fore in rural India. In fact parts of the film reminded me of much fashion marketing I have seen; improbably attractive people, improbably dressed in an improbable location. In The Darjeeling Limited, the improbability didn’t matter, and though I am more likely to be seen in India wearing a white suit, club tie and pith helmet, I appreciated Jacobs clothing.

I also appreciated the beautiful Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton luggage which was carted around by Brody, Schwartzmann and Wilson as they continued their journey through India. Blissfully monogram free, the luggage (pictured below) was caramel brown in colour (Vuitton likely using their Nomade leather as the base material) and was covered in charming embossed motifs of elephants, giraffe’s, zebras and palm trees. The design for the motifs was not by Jacobs, but Anderson’s brother, Eric, and the effect was truly and unabashedly colonial. Even their father’s initials were printed on the side. There were a great number of items: two or three suitcases, a steamer trunk, a keepall, a reporter satchel and a briefcase, and there were frequent Abbey Road style shots of the procession of brothers with their matching luggage.

As a style film it doesn’t have the complexity or beauty of The Talented Mr Ripley or the elegance of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but there is a certain North By Northwest quality to the outfits – that ‘good in all conditions take-me-anywhere’ label to the suits. In terms of the movie’s undeniable charm, style does indeed play a leading role.

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My Sartorial Gifts Wish List

So what would I like for Christmas? You know you are hurtling towards old age when you have to ask yourself that question, and you feel even older when people have to ask you. When you were a child, you were easy to cater for; the latest toy, gadget, computer game and mountain bike seemed to do the trick. You only had to follow the current wave, or even ask what other parents were buying their children and thus, ubiquity prevailed; everyone clambers to get their tot the same blasted thing.

Being an adult is rather different. Clothing bought for me at Christmas as a teenager was timidly conservative; accessories such as socks and underwear and basic items such as plain sweatshirts and white t-shirts may have been boring surprises on Christmas morn, but they were extremely practical and sensible; I have never taken underwear back to the shop for an exchange or refund.

As I got older, and my clothing tastes became wildly unpredictable, my parents decided to focus on other areas of need and want; computers, sporting goods, books and items for around the home. Now, I feel I have settled into an absurdly predictable mould, it should be dashed simple to choose clothing for WJP Chesterfield.
However, just in case I am wrong, and it proves to be as hard as Arctic ice to pick out suitable sartorial items for yours truly, here’s a guide to my Christmas list.

1) Polka-dot lightweight dressing gown from Woods of Shropshire

Silk dressing gowns are fabulous and luxurious, but are not coffee-friendly and certainly not practical in a house with little bits sticking out of wood and doors, ready to snag the smooth dense material. This dressing gown is perfect. It’s more elegant than a towelling gown and it has that 1940s film noir appeal; I half expect it to come with a Mauser. It’s manufactured by legendary, yet little known nightwear producers Lloyd, Attree and Smith. It’s light weight and 100% cotton and a steal at £31.50. Elegance is affordable after all.

2) The ‘modern’ white shirt

I have plenty of city-collar, cutaway white shirts. In fact, I have a couple of tatty ones that I hold dear; perhaps I should throw away. What I really would like is the modern take on the white shirt. Very Dior Homme: a small collar, with a smidgeon of black detail (black buttons on the cuffs). Appropriate for going out, wearing with or without a tie. Zara make a fantastic one, and at a fraction of the Dior price. The cotton is very high quality too.

3) A paisley pocket square from Massimo Dutti

One of the things many people might not notice about Massimo Dutti is their stock of affordable and lovely accessories. While many might scream that the style of the store is a Ralph Lauren rip-off, the pocket squares are fine silk and excellent value. They also come in lovely combinations; purple, forest green, gold and grey. The selection is not huge, but there are usually at least three or four to choose from in shops.

4) Brown leather boots

For certain looks, only boots will finish an outfit. Some of my trousers have a slightly looser and more casual edge and call for a more rugged and less metropolitan shoe. A slip on boot, in brown, would complement some of the layered looks very well. Layering has a tendency to make people appear top-heavy, and I praise the look for its richness, but the shoes I regularly wear have seemed, well, too petite and dainty to carry it off.

5) Le Dandy from D’Orsay Parfums

A fragrance that is so frequently out of stock, I wonder if it gets delayed going through a special initiating ‘blessing’ pageant before hitting the shelves, because, it really is that good. Though the name suggests it’ll smell of Oscar Wilde’s pillow case, Le Dandy is actually fairly masculine in base notes; wood and balsam are used. The middle notes are spicy and gingery, and the lovely top notes are tobacco flower and whiskey. Though it is most certainly a male fragrance, it has a confectionary quality that would put musky-men off; Brut it ain’t.

6) Dior Homme Patent lace up shoes

One last request, just in case St Nick is feeling especially generous is a pair of Dior Homme shoes. The style of them is quite retro and definitely quirky; pointed toes and all, but they update classic looks like nothing else. They’re not cheap, but then they’re not cheaply made. They have a singularly beautiful construction usually seen on Berlutis or Lobbs. Thankfully, they’re not quite in that stratospheric price range, but they do qualify as being the ‘guilty luxury’ wish on this list.

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Gordon Brown’s Style Problem

I feel a modicum of sympathy for modern politicians. It must be inordinately taxing for them to appear to be pleased to see the deep ranks of the sniffling public; those pushing up at railings at hospital openings, shouting about their relatives languishing on endless waiting lists. Then, braving the underrated brutality of eggs and saliva, they shake hands with all and sundry and lie convincingly about ‘new steps’, ‘great improvements’ and ‘increased funding.’ Their life is the very kind of celebrity that others dread: public responsibility.

They can therefore be forgiven, you might think, for lacking physical pleasantness. And some might even go as far to say they don’t expect their local Member of Parliament to be ‘too fancy’ in dress.

And why should they be? Politicians represent the serious tonic of reality that awakes us from the reverie many of us float around in; they are the Officers of the Watch who allow us to luxuriate in the privileges of our first rate lives whilst the dirty and grim realities of our existence are attended to.

However, when politicians represent you on the world stage, when they shake hands with presidents and popes, sultans and soldiers, there is an embarrassingly superficial desire for them to look good when doing so. Though patriotism may be the virtue of the vicious, wanting the rest of the world to see the best that your country can offer is a natural desire.
Gordon Brown, our Prime Minister, is one of the worst dressed politicians in our history. Charles James Fox was notoriously scruffy and unwashed, and yet he had charm, Gladstone was tedious in attire and yet even his staidness had a gravity of aging elegance. Brown is hopeless. His feeble hold over his own wardrobe seems to reflect his weakening grasp of his own party, his disregard for custom (he recently resigned from his determination not to wear black tie) and his cynical treatment of the British people. His hideously shiny ties are as badly tied as a rebellious teenager’s. His ill-fitting suits relegate him from world statesman to chippy, ill-informed pretender, and his naive demeanour implies doormat rather than diplomat.

So what went wrong with the mighty Labour public relations machine? Tony Blair, once voted one of the worst dressed Britons in 2003, seems like Cary Grant in comparison with the maladroit and awkward Glaswegian. By comparison, Old Etonian Tory David Cameron is riding high in sartorial public approval; voted one of the most attractive and best dressed men in Britain, Cameron is on a roll as far as his managed appearance is concerned. And the secret is? There is no secret. Cameron makes no clandestine disguise of who he is as far as his garb is concerned.

The difference is that he doesn’t look uncomfortable wearing what he wears. Moreover, Cameron looks like he belongs in his threads. He is not exactly spectacular or that inventive with dress; he doesn’t deserve accolades for individuality. It’s just that he isn’t ashamed of who he is and where he came from. He knows his own style and he sticks to his guns.

The same can be said of Charles, Prince of Wales, who I consider to be the best dressed of men. He doesn’t dress down misleadingly and he doesn’t treat tradition and honest style with cold cynicism. He has artistry and flair and he uses these qualities to great effect and I applaud him for his stoicism and grand representation of the British monarchy.

‘For shame!’ The reader may cry, ‘Wardrobe is not the meat and veg. of representing the people.’ I agree. It has fractional importance when you come to the point. However, we don’t live in the sort of world where people can get away with inadequacy any longer. The camera lens and the gossip column invade all secret places of meagreness; we want more and we demand more from our representatives.

Therefore, I think it’s time either Mr Brown, or his unschooled clothiers, take a leaf from the style pages of the heir to the throne, or the spruce young chap sat opposite in the House of Commons. Brown certainly isn’t what he wears, and it’s hard to imagine Brown actually looking debonair or commanding. However, pride in personal appearance and style doesn’t always indicate personal vanity; it can be a herald of a concerned mind and of the desire for enhancement. Style, confidently shown, is respected and is considered a sign of self-assurance and conviction.

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COS Stores: Style and Quality Finally Affordable

I am very wary of making predictions. Dining on my own words has always put me off soothsaying and I am unpleasant when humbled. However, there is one thing I am confident in claiming, something I am almost certain will be proved to be correct. And that is that COS, the stylish little-sister company to Swedish behemoth H&M, is the future of style for the man on the street.

I am famous for my unswerving loyalty to Zara, and for good reason; Zara is a breathtaking success in terms of fashion. When I first experienced the London store those 4 or 5 years ago, I was stunned. Now, unsurprisingly, I am used to it. Also, in that period, Zara has, unhappily, let me down on a number of occasions. In its bid to capitalise on the tastes of all men, the menswear department’s audacity has gone. It still offers excellent design, but with a rather depressing familiarity to the clothing. While the women’s department still offers some of the best and most innovative designs I have seen for the high street, the menswear designers seem keen to give us rehashed, and to be frank, rather ordinary versions of items that are available in countless other stores.

COS on the other hand is a revelation. And why, you may ask, am I not concerned that COS will turn the way of Zara? Why will it not bend to fashion and to the collective taste of the average man on the street?

To answer the latter question first, COS does not seek to clothe the average man on the street. COS seeks to appeal to the disenchanted man of style, the dandy without a tailor. The man who seeks style and form rather than cheap slogans and throwaway fashion is at home in COS. Suits are well made; the cut is simply superb, and by far and away, they are the best suits on the high street for form. Colours are seasonal, but subtle; do not expect the rainbow of colours on offer at H&M, COS is about sleek clothing. Black, white and grey prevail. There are country colours on offer too; khaki, browns, dark greens and blues, but there is a COS mission to provide excellent quality basics at affordable prices. In other words, don’t come here for pink braces.

To answer the former question, I refer to the comments of Michael Kristensen, head of COS menswear design and flag-carrier of this new movement in providing style and form rather than fads and frippery. When asked what character the current collection at COS evoked, Michael replied the collection calls to mind “…a modern man with a big city mindset. He understands and definitely appreciates good style and great quality.” He was also asked to name the strongest defining characteristics of the collection and, though this was specific to Autumn/Winter 2007, they could easily be applied to all collections available in store as I believe this quote defines COS as a store; “Upgraded qualities and clean, modern silhouettes.”

With a captain like that at the helm, there seems to be no worry that COS will start downgrading for popular appeal. H&M doesn’t need COS to be a flyaway success with bright young things throwing clothing away like empty packets of Marlboro Lights. It needs it for what it already is and what it currently stands for. My only wish is that they open more stores around Europe, and eventually, the world, so more men of my leaning can appreciate the spectacular sensation of COS for themselves.

If you are German, you are very fortunate; there are six stores. Apart from London, Brussels, Antwerp, The Hague and Copenhagen are the only other cities to have a COS store. Depending on how successful COS is in the next sixth months or so, I would imagine more stores would open, including perhaps one or two in Stockholm. I doubt it will hit the United States for another 12-18 months, which makes it a very long wait, but in my opinion, it is definitely worth it.

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