A Suitable Wardrobe

Jet Lag Day

2013-06-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

Paris, after the usual interminable clothes rumpling overnight flight with two hours sleep. The first day is jet lag day: check in tired and unshaven, open the windows, unpack, take a photo of the courtyard, have brunch on the terrace, sleep for two hours, fiddle with the laptop, order room service for dinner and go to bed. All but the bed part was accomplished in Norwegian slip-on shoes, white gabardine trousers, a purple polo, olive safari jacket and a cotton neckerchief.

You are probably smarter about these things but I elected to replace my Windows laptop that had been crashing far too often with a MacBook Pro the day before the trip began. No problem, thinks I. After all, I use an iPad every day and it is roughly the same. Wrong. Today's post was the most difficult one to publish since I first learned that the Wi-Fi in Italy is more promise than reality some years ago. But hopefully the worst is over.

Tomorrow we clean up and suit up before going to look at kid gloves, more eyeglass frames and some very French neckties. In between there is lunch at Lavinia and later dinner at Au Trou Gascon. Once jet lag day is over, days like this are the best part of my job.

Gatsby Swipes

2013-06-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

It may now happen only once a decade or so, but he can still hit them out of the park on occasion. That was my thought wrapping up a first listen to The Jazz Age, an album of instrumental jazz orchestra covers of songs from Bryan Ferry’s solo and Roxy Music career, arranged by Ferry himself. I realize I refer to Ferry quite a bit in these suitable pages, which may lead the reader to assume that I’m some sort of blind fan. I’m not, although Ferry is the rare relatively well-known living public figure who still dresses with both care and flair, which sets him aside from all but a very few outside the fashion industry and its shills. Artistically, with the exceptions of 1994’s Mamouna, 1999’s inspired album of Tin Pan Alley standards As Time Goes By and now, The Jazz Age, for the past 20 years any reasonably objective listener has had to endure constantly repackaged greatest hits collections and a few suspiciously underwritten albums that suggested Ferry had taken his self-conscious pose as a prior generation’s pop Gatsby too unironically to heart.

In fact, Ferry’s return to subversive form now sees him contributing two other 1920s-style tracks to the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s new The Great Gatsby film, including vocals for a deliberately anachronistic rendition of “Love Is the Drug.” Appropriation and transposition – swapping and swiping – are perfect themes for The Great Gatsby. Gatsby the self-made magnate created himself in his perceived image of “an Oxford man,” wielding the thinly disguised proceeds of a bootlegging fortune in an ultimately failed attempt to remove Daisy Buchanan from the brutal conventionality of her class. Despite this failure, he gains the enduring fascination of Fitzgerald’s narrator, and of generations of readers. And, of course, that of viewers of the various Gatsby movies, which come out once every few generations.

However, the last two Gatsby movies (this year’s version and 1974’s version starring Robert Redford; I haven’t seen any earlier versions) have tended to be excuses to wallow in lifestyle porn at the expense of Fitzgerald's lyricism. In this respect and others, they remind me of the period-piece pornography of Mad Men, a show which allows its viewers vicarious participation in martinis-at-midday sexism with the pretense of tut-tutting those (increasingly soapy) long-ago times. (I confess, I watch it too.) However dutifully the Gatsby films include two arresting images from the books, the red light at the dock and the eye doctor’s billboard, they are only momentary detours from the lavishness of estate locations, party set-pieces and lavish costumes presented without any of the irony inherent in the source text. When Robert Redford poses for a still in Gatsby’s carefully chosen “white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie,” the viewer isn’t cued to consider the overdone garishness of the over-thought ensemble Gatsby’s settled on to impress Daisy, but to exult in Redford’s gorgeous finery. The 1974 movie’s interpretation impedes a more accessible scene from the novel where we’re to delight, with Daisy, in Gatsby’s endless and incredible array of bespoke British shirts in all manner of colors and patterns by making sure we see that they’re wrapped in Turnbull & Asser tissue paper (ironically, Fitzgerald himself used a different Jermyn Street shirtmaker), an unusually direct product tie-in for the time.

Those shirts may have been the only item in Gatsby-Redford’s wardrobe that didn’t come from Ralph Lauren, whose wardrobing for the 1974 movie has become part of the Polo mythos. Lauren’s Polo imitated the English look as well as the ethos of the old Brooks Brothers. Now, as if by coincidence, Brooks Brothers itself has provided the men’s costumes for the 2013 The Great Gatsby, competing with the nostalgic look of the 1974 version.

It’s unlikely that the literary Gatsby would have shopped at Brooks Brothers. He spoke of having a man in England whose measurements corresponded to his own and who obtained Gatsby’s shirts from a London shirtmaker for him. (While the descriptions of the Brooks Brothers tie-in shirts from the film state they are “Imported,” that is only a euphemism for being made someplace Brooks Brothers wishes we didn’t know about, not a cutting room in Piccadilly.). And while even back then, according to Lucius Beebe, some of the best New York tailors were better and more expensive than the tailors of Savile Row, we can assume that an arriviste Anglophile like Gatsby (or, perhaps, this author, except I have arrived nowhere) would have preferred the exoticism and prestige of obtaining his suits from across the Atlantic instead of from the dependable Midtown outfitter that Brooks Brothers then was. But it is fitting that Brooks Brothers is engaging in this sort of pastiche of 1920s poshness, and its 1960s costuming for Mad Men, since today Brooks Brothers is, at best, a pastiche of what it once was, mining not only its own DNA but that of the brands like Polo and Tommy Hilfiger which sampled it.

Hilfiger himself is present by extension in the new Gatsby movie: he lent his apartment in the former Plaza Hotel for location filming. It’s fitting, a billionaire designer who never had an original idea making available his apartment in a former grande dame hotel which was converted into condos for the stupidly wealthy, for a film ostensibly about deep subjects that never manages to transcend its own superficiality. A saving irony for me is that at least Ferry did, in this remake/remodel, with interpretations as slyly many-layered and lambent as Fitzgerald’s original.

Words by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

Carry A Bit Of History

2013-06-15T07:01:00.001-07:00

In 1973, divers off England's Plymouth Sound found the wreck of an eighteenth century brigantine that sank in 1786 with a cargo of reindeer hides. They had been cured in baths of rye or oat flour and yeast, hand embossed with a varied cross-hatching before being soaked in wood liquor, hand curried and then soaked in seal oil and birch tan oil. The result is a unique finish that cannot be replicated.

Introducing Russian reindeer leathergoods hand made in London by G. J. Cleverley. Carry a bit of history.

When To Wear Red Socks, Part II

2013-06-14T08:50:00.002-07:00

The time to wear red socks is when the rest of the ensemble is muted blue and white.

Dressing for travel: blue cotton suit, blue and white checked linen shirt, navy grenadine necktie and a lightweight blue and white silk pocket square by Drake's London. Complemented by scarlet Certified Sea Island cotton socks and a pair of George Cleverley's slip-on shoes.

Pitti

2013-06-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

Pitti Uomo is next week, and I am torn. Dressing for the photographers, the Converse trainers with a suit that is the current fashion in Milan for example, is not my usual style and I would be happier meeting my friends outside the show. I am for example excited to be returning to the Florentine atelier of Leonardo Bugelli. Bugelli is to my mind one of a handful of the best Italian shirt-makers (He is not as well known as Matuozzo or Mimo Sviglia but unlike Naples or Rome I get to Florence regularly) and I hope to commission two cream silk pleated evening shirts with link cuffs. Said shirts are by no means a done deal as many shirt makers literally do not know how to make them (properly done the cuff requires a different sort of interlining so the weight of the cuff links do not cause it to flop around during wear) and I am not certain Leonardo does either. But his place is much less crowded than the Pitti show and the men there tend to be better dressed.

In the photo, a grayed blue Finmeresco suit, gray and white striped shirt, grayish green foulard unlined necktie, blue silk pocket square with a pine pattern, and, underneath, gray linen dress socks. I will change into the trainers when I get there.

Dressing For The Heat

2013-06-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

Aside from active sports the heat may be the one time that men who care about their clothes should appear in public sans a jacket of some sort. And when they do, they should ideally look like Noël Coward in the photograph: sunglasses, saddle shoes or bucks, khaki or lighter colored trousers, and a short sleeved shirt with two pockets (the bracelet is optional). Particularly if both shirt and trousers are linen the combination instantly identifies the wearer to other dandies everywhere, but (without the bracelet) should not draw a second glance from the rest of the population.

The challenge for me in all this is whether to wear a vee-necked tee shirt under that linen shirt. I can make an argument on both sides of that particular issue. Without a tee the slightest breeze penetrates the shirt and feels great, but in a world where most of us are not posing for the camera that same missing undershirt is soon made obvious by each drop of perspiration.

The opposite is also less than ideal of course. Nothing keeps a man dry indefinitely but a cotton tee absorbs minor perspiration before it penetrates all the way through. The price for this is that breezes are stopped by the tee and one's linen is no longer so cool and airy.

On balance, I prefer to wear a tee shirt in the heat. It is better to be dry than slightly cooler.

Where Would You Wear It?

2013-06-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

He may have gained a pound or two since it was made, but if we ignore the pulling at the waist Mr. Gable's suit is a great looking style that does not come around much any more. Cream linen with a patch breast pocket and bellows side pockets, it is well suited for watching summer polo or having a drink at the bar of your hotel on the Italian Riviera (or anywhere masquerading as such) but is technically too casual for just about anywhere else. That aside, the reality is that it probably has more versatility than it would have in Gable's time - the contemporary wearer is likely to be the only one in the vicinity that knows how informal it once was.

Where would you wear it?

Too Flash

2013-06-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

Which came first, the duke or the criminals? I have to admit I felt self-conscious wearing black and white spectators slip-ons the other day. They seem fine at night, and that is after all why I acquired them, but they may be a bit much for daytime occasions that are not named Pitti Uomo.

The late Duke of Windsor wore this style of shoe, and wore them often, but I suspect that my hesitation about them comes from too many movies showing Prohibition era American gangsters for whom spectator shoes were apparently a rite of passage. First a man committed some heinous crime to show he was one of the boys and then they sent him out to get some flashy shoes.

It is a little unexpected that I feel this way about black and white spectators as I have three pair of brown and white that I wear without a second thought. The reason is probably the way they are worn. The brown and whites are rarely seen under anything more formal than linen trousers, and that is undoubtedly where the black and whites should also be confined, as it were.

The gangsters may have been emulating the Duke, but in this case it is their legacy that survives.

Lifestyle: Don Melchor Wines

2013-06-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

The phrase “quality-driven large winery” is normally an oxymoron. Concha y Toro is the exception to that statement.

In 1883, Chilean politician and businessman Don Melchor Concha y Toro planted grapevines from Bordeaux in Maipo Valley and hired Bordeaux winemaker Labouchere. It was the beginning of a relationship with Bordeaux that continues to this day.

Fifty years later, Vina Concha y Toro exported its first wines and listed the business on the Santiago stock exchange. Edward Guilesasti Tagle joined the board of directors in 1957 and ascended to chairman in 1971. Under his reign, Concha y Toro focused on the export market, employed the latest wine technology and acquired vineyards. In 1994, Concha y Toro became the first winery in the world to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. And while its energy was used in making and selling millions of cases of wine, its link to Bordeaux strengthened, too.

Following in the footsteps of its founder, Don Tagle sent his son, and Concha y Toro’s winemaker Goetz Von Gersdorff, to Bordeaux in 1986 to meet with Professor Emile Peynaud from the University of Bordeaux, who was arguably France’s preeminent winemaker. Impressed with samples of the cabernet sauvignon from Concha y Toro’s Puente Alto vineyard, Peynaud sent his business partner, winemaker Jacques Boissenot to Chile. From this joint collaboration, a new wine was born in 1987, Don Melchor.

Don Melchor is made from cabernet sauvignon grown in the 275-acre Puente Alto vineyard in the Maipo Valley. In an 18-acre section, cabernet franc is grown and blended with the cabernet sauvignon. Research of the soil composition resulted in a division of the vineyard into 6 sections; the grapes are harvested and fermented separately. After fermentation, winemaker Enrique Tirado decides which vats will be used for that vintage’s blend; the wine is then transferred to French oak barrels - of which about two-thirds are new and the remainder used once - for 12 to 14 months aging. The wine is then bottled and aged for another year.

Don Melchor’s Bordeaux connection is now in its second generation as Boissenot’s son Eric has joined the endeavor. The Boissenots are also consultants to chateaux Lafite-Rothschild, Mouton-Rothschild, Latour and Margaux as well as numerous other Left Bank estates.In April, Tirado came to New York City and presented the 1995, 2001, 2005 and 2009 Don Melchor wines. For this article, I opened the 1999, 2003 and 2007 vintages from my cellar. Tirado made all the wines except the 1995, as he was appointed the winemaker in 1997.

The wines can be divided into the evolved 1995-1999 and 2001; and the evolving 2003-05-07 and 2009. With three percent merlot, the 1995 is the exception to the cabernet sauvignon plus cabernet franc formula. However, it shares with its two siblings coffee, sage and black fruit scents; its pleasing black fruit flavor is carried on gentle tannins and mild acidity. It is eminently drinkable. The 1999 contains seven percent cabernet franc and is a beautiful wine shaped with black fruit and integrated tannins. Its elegant structure is very Bordeaux-ish, and while it has evolved, it will continue to please for another decade with proper cellaring. The cabernet franc reached its peak at nine percent with the 2001 Don Melchor. Now a dozen years old, this vintage displays Don Melchor’s profile of black fruit and coffee-like aromas and flavors built on a medium body. It is a very harmonious wine; perfect to drink now, and structured for another decade or more of vibrant life. I could not find auction records for these three vintages. The 2001 is in a few retail shops priced from $65 to 95 dollars. I suspect these bottles are on consignment from private cellars as the wine is no longer available from the distribution channels. Whatever the source, the price is foolishly to the buyer’s advantage.

Although the 2003 Don Melchor was not part of my tasting with Tirado, he mentioned that the vintage was made in very hot and dry weather. I reflected on that fact, and thought it presaged the hot weather that occurred throughout Europe. Scorching summer heat in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal yielded wines that remain unbalanced and odd. Fortunately, the vineyards of Don Melchor cooled enough at night to produce grapes with better balance.

The interiors of oak barrels are burned, shaved and rinsed with water before winemakers filled them with wine. This process is called toasting the barrel. You can order your barrels with a heavy, medium, or lightly toasted, or somewhere along that scale. The 2003 Don Melchor has a significant toasted oak scent—what I describe as a campfire accent. Its blackberry and black tea aromas and flavors are just as pronounced making this a substantially bigger wine than the three aforementioned vintages. This 2003 is not as off-kilter as the European 2003s, but it is noticeably different than the other wines in this presentation. Like the earlier wines, the 2003 Don Melchor is listed with a few wine shops and the price range is a bargain $80 to 90 dollars.

The 2005 Don Melchor displays its Bordeaux personality. Made with 3 percent cabernet franc, the sage, blackberry and medium toasted oak scents are enticing and the black fruit and tannins are frictionless on the palate. This 2005 is as elegant and structured as any of the classified Bordeaux chateaux in their great 2005 vintage. It will age just as well as those wines, and never extract as much money from your wallet as the 2005 Bordeaux’s do. I found a number of retailers in California, New York and New Jersey listing the 2005 Don Melchor in the $80 to 95 dollar price range. It’s a steal.

The 2007 Don Melchor was my favorite wine. Ambrosial black cherry, blackberry, toasted oak and tobacco scents float from the glass, and the medium body is built with ripe, sumptuous black fruit and exquisitely balanced tannins. The 2007 Don Melchor has the DNA of great Bordeaux, and the structure to live the long life and gain the exalted complexity that comes with time and a proper cellar. It is the current vintage in the marketplace and widely distributed. The prices range from $65 to 100 dollars. I only wonder when wine collectors are going to catch on to Don Melchor and drive the price upward. He who hesitates will pay.

Our last wine was the soon-to-be released 2009 Don Melchor. Composed with 4 percent cabernet franc, it is from a very warm year in Chile, and foreshadowed the same weather in Bordeaux. There is less toasted oak aroma than in the three prior vintages listed here, and more ripe black fruit scent and taste. Its fruit, tannins and acidity are surprisingly seamless for such a young wine; its mellifluous character has a striking resemblance to the 2009 Bordeaux wines.

My tasting of the Don Melchor wines left me with a deep appreciation for the graceful style of this wine. From the wines Tirado brought from Chile to the three vintages from my cellar, a picture developed of this hidden gem from the Southern Hemisphere. Its elegance became obvious, its age-ability unquestionable, its link to great Bordeaux wines stronger than ever. Yet, wine collectors are either ignorant of Don Melchor or simply ignore it because of its birthplace. Or maybe it’s both.

If you like wearing elegant clothes and appreciate well-made things, then add some bottles of Don Melchor to your cellar and dinner table. And as long as wine drinkers who focus on the label instead of what is in the bottle ignore Don Melchor, you’ll have the added pleasure of an outstanding wine that leaves you some money to spoil yourself with the other refined things of life.

Words and photo by John Foy

For The Special Graduate

2013-06-08T07:01:00.001-07:00

Graduation is right around the corner and if you want to show a special someone some love we have you covered. You'll see her smile, for example, when she opens the box containing one of our oxhorn combs, a beautiful oxhorn barrette for women who wear their hair long, or, for a very special gift, one of Rubinacci's lightweight cashmere stoles printed with caricatures of dandies getting dressed. In Gifts For Her.

For men of course we offer a plethora of choices, including a variety of shoe care kits for new entrants into the work force. Or, give him one or two of Rubinacci's beautifully printed silk pocket squares to help him look his best on social occasions (we offer more variations than anyone in the world).

Choose gift packaging with your order and we will send any of your choices properly packaged with your handwritten message.

Not Really CBD

2013-06-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

CBD, the acronym coined by Nicholas Antongiavanni for conservative business dress, is the state of being well dressed while raising no eyebrows whatsoever (from other suit wearers anyway). It is most useful for men who do not care about their clothes as well as would-be dandies who are unwilling to show off at the office.

The problem with CBD of course is that it tends to be boring. There is a limit after all to the number of times a man wants to appear in a dark suit with a virtually invisible pattern, conservative shirt, white linen handkerchief in a tv fold, black shoes and the kind of foulard neckties that Richard Nixon (37th President of the United States and the only one to ever resign from office) used to wear.

In between CBD and the type of clothes I prefer is what I think of as muted dress, like the ensemble in the photograph: dark blue suit with a not very visible pattern, almost but not quite conservative shirt with a maroon double stripe, a blended in ancient madder paisley pocket square with a chalk hand (white linen worn points up would be slightly more extravagant), dark brown shoes and a hand made foulard necktie designed to blow in a breeze.

Nothing is quite CBD but the effect is still conservative. Your office mileage may vary.

Paris Is Always A Good Idea

2013-06-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

Events have conspired against me and it does not appear likely that I will spend a bachelor week in Paris as planned this summer, which is too bad as it is my favorite city. That said, I see it is 81 degrees (27 C) there today and I am starting to think about packing for a Pitti Uomo trip that will include two days in Florence but four in the City of Light.

Paris has the spotlight on it in the menswear forums at the moment, where the crowd that cares about these things is currently exclaiming over the hand crafting of the best Parisian tailors. The best of French luxury goods are very good indeed, and always seem to come at a price approximately double the already difficult cost of the same things made to a high but lesser standard elsewhere in the West. Personally, I am not willing to pay a premium for beautifully sewn interior jacket facings that not even the wearer pays attention to after a time or two, but that is only one man's opinion.

At any rate, I will be packing three of my less than completely hand sewn suits for the trip, as only the travel days are appropriate for casual clothing. Along with them will be two pairs of shoes, at least a dozen dress shirts and half a dozen neckties, which will with the other necessaries of life amount to 75 pounds (34 kilos) of baggage. That will suffice for lunches above small wine shops, dinners at La Braisiere, Vin sur Vin and Les Fables de La Fontaine as well as afternoons at sidewalk cafés watching beautifully dressed women periodically walk by.

Despite the luggage, Paris is always a good idea.

Resource: Taking Great Care Of Suede Shoes

2013-06-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

What you will need:

-Suede and Nubuck Brush

-Saphir Edge Dressing

-Tarrago Nano Protector

-Suede Eraser

-Saphir Omni'Nettoyant Suede Cleaner

-Suede Cleaning Sponge

-Tepid water & an old towel

-Saphir Renovateur Suede Spray (neutral or matching color)

After wearing:

Brush suede shoes with the Suede and Nubuck Brush after every wearing, taking care to brush dust out of the joint where the sole meets the upper with a welt brush or an old toothbrush. If you color your sole edges apply Saphir edge dressing to the heel and soles. Periodically spray shoes with Tarrago Nano Protector spray to keep them water resistant.

The suede spa day

Give your shoes a “spa day” when they are no longer look like new despite your after wear maintenance. Start by cleaning them with the Suede Eraser to rub out the dirtiest spots (it is normal for the eraser to crumble during use – just brush any crumbles off with your brush).

Lather the suede with Saphir Omni'Nettoyant Suede Cleaner using the Suede Cleaning Sponge humidified with tepid water. Spend extra time on any areas that are particularly soiled.

After you have lathered the shoes brush again with tepid water to wash additional dirt away and remove the Omni'Nettoyant from the suede (you have removed all of the residual Omni once the brush is no longer producing a lather on the shoe). Insert shoe trees, pat dry with an old towel to remove excess water and allow them to dry overnight.

The following day, brush the shoes again and then spray with Saphir's Medaille d'Or Renovateur Suede & Nubuck Spray in a well ventilated place. The spray waterproofs and recolors suede and its almond oil renews the shine. Select black, neutral, dark brown or medium brown according to the color of your shoes (use the neutral if you do not think any of the colors match closely enough). Hold the spray four to six inches (10 to 15 cm) away and apply an even coat. Don’t worry about applying too much - just don’t fully saturate the suede. After you have sprayed, allow the shoe to dry for another day in a well ventilated place.

Finally, once the shoes have dried, brush them one more time to restore the original texture and your suede shoes are ready to wear.

Wearing Blue In Summer

2013-06-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

A man should wear lighter colors under the brighter lights of summer and that applies to blue. Just as brown makes way for khaki and cream when temperatures rise, so navy is replaced by dark blue and less formal suits may range from the medium blue in the photograph all the way to powder blue. Well, perhaps not powder blue.

The lighter blues of summer are best complemented by shirts of lighter shades. The standard blue dress shirt is less than ideal when there is too little contrast between shirt and jacket. Choose ivory and white instead and mate them with neckties in comparably light shades. Since they are less familiar than their four season brethren, tastefully combining the off-white or white grounds of a summer tie may seem initially challenging but actually they are designed to be paired with the aforementioned white-ish shirts. Problem solved.

In the photo, a medium blue linen suit for summer is accessorized with Edward Green Buckingham slipons, an ivory voile shirt, shantung silk summer necktie and a Rubinacci pocket square. Summer blue.

A Trivial Problem

2013-06-03T09:10:00.001-07:00

It is a small but irritating problem really. Handkerchiefs intended to be worn in the breast pockets of jackets need to be 16 1/2 to 18" square (42 to 45 cm) if they are to remain visible without adjustment every 15 minutes. But those same handkerchiefs worn in a patch pocket are really too large. They seek to escape confinement and spread themselves across half the chest, for a properly proportioned patch pocket is considerably smaller than the regular kind.

The solution to this particular problem is both simple and complex. Many of the Italians make 12" (30 cm) squares that work perfectly in patch pockets. Indeed, I used to think that the smaller square was intended to reduce costs (the larger square wastes cloth during cutting while the smaller is an exact fraction of a bolt of silk), but the prevalence of patch pockets in the warmer weather of southern Italy may however also have had something to do with it.

Keeping an inventory of smaller squares specifically for patch pockets has its own challenges though. Intermixed in a drawer with their larger brethren, smaller squares are hard to find when you want them but always in the way when you need something larger. And who has drawer space for two sizes of handkerchief for dog's sake?

Patch pockets of course are more casual than the other kind, which is why they are so often found on odd jackets. They do not require lining for support, which makes them somewhat better suited for warm weather coats, but they are also quite common on tweeds though I have no idea why. The handkerchief problem resists easy solution and so, much as I might like a jacket or two with patch pockets to harmonize with the patch side pockets that I like so well, I simply avoid them altogether. A simple solution to a trivial problem.

RJ’s Alternative Style Icons: Lino Ventura

2013-06-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

Few actors had the charisma of the late Lino Ventura. Fewer still managed to combine that charisma and world-weary thoughtfulness with the hulking physique of a former Greco-Roman wrestler, which he was prior to his 1953 film debut opposite Jean Gabin in Touchez pas au grisbi. That combination of intellect and brawn enabled Ventura to shine in roles as varied as a professor turned Resistance fighter in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows, a secondary-school teacher whose whiny daughter, played by Isabelle Adjani, gets corporal comeuppance in the comedy La Gifle, a definitive Jean Valjean in Robert Hossein’s Les Misérables and, of course, to what seem like dozens of turns as shrewd hard men on either side of the law in various tough-guy movies that his presence makes must-sees. Through it all, Ventura remained remarkably well dressed, and it’s entertaining to see that even as the most decorated cop on the force (in Dernier domicile connu), the credits make sure that we know the suits are by Cifonelli, who had been his tailor since his debut.

Ventura is similarly well turned out L’Emmerdeur, where his cold-blooded contract killer’s attempts to silence a mob snitch are thwarted in increasingly ridiculous ways by a hapless neighbor played by none other than Belgian singer Jacques Brel. However, it wasn’t for Ventura’s suits that I chose L’Emmerdeur in particular, nor for the elegant black and white spotted print necktie his character wears, which would be unusually and refreshingly simply today (note to self: dig my old gum twill version out of closet when I get back home from the heights of Mt Poydras in the Himalayas). Instead, Ventura’s turn here stands out for the unlined peccary gloves he wears at the wheel of his BMW 2002, rushing to reunite Brel’s character with his estranged wife and make it back to town in time to carry off the hit.

The 2002 was the perfect car for the aspirational 1970s assassin: legendarily well engineered, peppy and lower profile than a Mercedes, while peccary gloves then were and remain now excellent driving gloves. Unlined peccary gloves, made in the normal style, are less showy than classic driving gloves with their cut-outs and straps that remind me of something a movie slasher would wear. (BMW, of course, was co-opted by 1980s yuppies and became an ostentatious status symbol in its own right.) Good peccary is incredibly soft but surprisingly durable, so that unlined peccary gloves are extremely comfortable to wear, allow the wearer as much dexterity as he can get in a pair of gloves, and will last a long time with appropriate care. Granted, in extremely cold weather a pair of cashmere-lined gloves will be cozier until the inside of the car warms up, but unlined peccary will do well in normal chilly weather – and a lot better than lined gloves when you’re fishing for your keys. Especially if you’re a hit man finding that getting tangled up in Jacques Brel’s neurotic misadventures, despite the ice in his veins, makes his blood boil.

The French glovers used to make a specialty out of peccary, which is a piglike animal from Central and South America. In addition to its softness and strength, it has a distinct grain which made it possible to recognize on Ventura. Leave it to Lino to have the perfect accessory, even behind a sniper rifle.

L’Emmerdeur has other reasons to watch: Did I mention that this film has Jacques Brel? While Brel’s immense songwriting and singing talents are not in evidence here, he has a natural chemistry with Ventura, whom he had acted with a year previously in L'aventure, c'est l'aventure (for which he did provide the title song) and the two of them are hilarious in L’Emmerdeur. Francis Veber, who wrote the screenplay for this film, revisited its mismatched buddy comedy themes in two later films, La chèvre and Les compères, with former Frenchman Gerard Depardieu and Pierre Richard, a sort of French Gene Wilder, playing the same types of brawny man of thought, man of action and lovable loser that Ventura and Brel, respectively, created in L’Emmerdeur. Those later films also aren’t nearly as dark as L’Emmerdeur. It’s a credit to Ventura and Brel that they make us like and root for their characters despite showing Ventura’s character efficiently liquidate earlier victims and Brel’s character stalk his wife, attempt suicide by hotel plumbing and get Ventura briefly but involuntarily committed and sedated. And of possible interest to Umbrellas of Cherbourg fans, Nino Castelnuovo offers more comic relief here as a put-upon bellboy, a somewhat sad comedown for Catherine Deneuve’s spurned lover in that movie.

Many of Lino Ventura’s films are entertaining on their own merits without looking to his consistently great wardrobe. L’Emmerdeur offers the spectacle of him satirizing his reputation as a tough guy (in fairness, a tough guy with a spark of humor), opposite the best thing to come out of Belgium since, um…

Words by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

Elegant Eyewear

2013-06-01T07:01:00.003-07:00

While England and Italy are homes to much of the world’s best clothing, France is the source for many of the world’s most elegant accessories, among them eyewear that combines style with the best materials and innovative technology. My Pour L’Homme sunglasses for example are among the highest quality acetate sunglasses available and they are joined by two other classic frames in four colors that are offered without lenses so they can be fitted with your prescription by your optometrist, as polarized lens sunglasses with an anti-reflective coating, or as great looking reading glasses in various strengths.

Your eyewear should after all look as good as the rest of you.

Video: Artist/Rebel/Dandy

2013-05-31T07:01:00.000-07:00

A short video exploring the Artist/Rebel/Dandy exhibition at the Chace Center Galleries of the Rhode Island School of Design. On display through August 28, 2013.

Video by Andrew Yamato for A Suitable Wardrobe

Toning Your Underwear

2013-05-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

Braces are underwear as we all know, but when men routinely wore vests that was truer than it is in today's two piece suit world. Braces are often visible under a jacket and, just as low rise pants provide the unfortunate opportunity for the young to display their boxer shorts, glimpses of them should be in harmony with the rest of the day's clothing.

Black shoes with brown ends or brown shoes with black ends are neculturny so toning is easiest when each of the available choices has white ends that may be worn with shoes of any color. Pair braces with the shirt (light blue barathea over light blue chambray, for example), the jacket (black and white braces with a charcoal jacket), or the shoes (maroon braces with dark brown shoes) and be not afraid if your jacket blows open.

In the photo, a grenadine necktie, Rubinacci's black Victory pocket square and a pair of limited edition geisha braces worn with a charcoal gray suit.

Mighty Oaks From Little Acorns

2013-05-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

The saying "mighty oaks from little acorns grow" is especially relevant to Northern California where the acorn was an important food to the Native Americans, and that will hopefully extend to A Suitable Wardrobe as we begin a time of significant change. It would be overly egocentric to state that we plan to be anything more than a sapling but, to borrow the words of an obscure jazz favorite of mine, it is nonetheless "seedin time".

Today's photo was taken shortly after ASW began more than 2,000 posts ago as a solo effort by a man who happened to love clothes. Those efforts found a niche thanks to a group of equally passionate readers and for several years we were by far the Web's most visited destination for information on the world's best menswear.

Lately it has become obvious that ASW's format needs an upgrade if it is to remain relevant. Over the coming weeks, technology willing, that upgrade will begin. We will be moving to a dramatically different and what I believe will be a much improved format as well as physically relocating to a much larger production and warehouse facility to support that change.

Thank you for your readership these past years. There may be some posting irregularity as we make our move but I will do my best to ensure that your transition is as seamless as possible.

Wear Some Next To Your Skin

2013-05-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

Zimmerli of Switzerland makes the finest knitted underwear in the world, and Zimmerli Certified Sea Island is their very best, complementing our current Royal Classic cotton and Pureness micro modal lines. Grown only in the optimal conditions of the West Indian Caribbean islands, Sea Island is the rarest and most expensive cotton, merging the softness of cashmere, the sheen of silk and the durability of wool into each pair.

Knitted in Switzerland to be comfortable, sturdy, easy to wash, hygienic, highly absorbent, color fast and antistatic, Sea Island briefs and tees are newly available at the Haberdashery, complementing Bresciani's socks of the same quality.

Wear some next to your skin.

The Start Of Summer

2013-05-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

Summer formally begins June 21 but this weekend is Memorial Day in the United States, and that is the social start of the season. Meaning, from a clothing perspective, linen trousers, straw hats and spectator shoes come into their own.

The advent of summer also means slip-on shoes with suits, light gray worn without guilt instead of charcoal and, leave us not forget, lighter colored socks.

Ticket Pockets

2013-05-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

I do not know why what seemed like every ready to wear suit in the UK had a ticket pocket, usually slanted, a few years ago but to my understanding we owe that small extra on the right side of the jacket to the railroads. Before the automobile, travel by rail was several times faster than carriage or horseback and was accordingly used by anyone headed to the country or back to London. Some tailor's customer added a pocket meant to hold the tickets for those journeys and a new style was born.

Travelers to and from the country of course were wearing tweed in those days, changing to more formal clothes upon arrival in in the city. Ticket pockets then were found on country suits - there were no odd jackets yet - which is why the extra pocket on all of those modern city suits is a bit of an anachronism. That said I admit putting my foot into that water with a jetted ticket pocket on a striped double breasted some years ago and will not be pointing any fingers.

Ticket pockets may be unnecessary for most of us today, if they were ever necessary in the first place, but they can still be useful. They are for example just the right size for those modern automobile key replacements full of electronics and someone somewhere will surely have found something else to do with them. Not that purpose is absolutely necessary. Visual interest on a glen check like the one in the photo is its own reward.

Make The World More Interesting

2013-05-22T08:27:00.001-07:00

The term dandy may have derived from the Scottish jack-a-dandy, referring to a man dressed up for his annual village fair. Whatever the source, it entered the English language early in the 19th century and has remained with us ever since.

The dandy is simply a clothes conscious man. His dress may or may not stand out on the street - while the dandies in the illustration are flamboyant, Brummell was the most conservatiely dresed man of his time - but he takes great care with it. He may be gangstah or Duke, but the dandy is aware of clothing, his own and the people around him, to a greater extent than other men. Everything the dandy wears is deliberate.

The opposite of the dandy is the man who wears a uniform that tells others of his rank and class but is otherwise anonymous. Where the dandy spends time composing his clothes, the uniform wearer is dressed almost instantly, for nothing that he wears is deliberate except in the aggregate.

Dandy clothing differs from the uniform style of dressing in its details. The single breasted navy blazer with red and white striped tie a la George Peppard in Breakfast At Tiffanys is a uniform and, frankly, boring. The dandy wears a double breasted jacket in the same circumstances, with either a bow tie or, less flamboyantly, a gray grenadine. Either is more interesting.

Be a dandy. Make the world a more interesting place.

He Is Crispy

2013-05-21T08:48:00.003-07:00

Nearly a hundred readers chose to metaphorically chastise Réginald-Jérôme de Mans for his choice of book review material last week (as Editor of this publication I could not help but notice that a number of the respondents suggested that he be required to limit the length of his posts but none of them could be declared winners as we do not have enough socks for all of them). From the remaining entries we chose six well-deserved winners to receive the accessories kindly supplied by Cordings of Picadilly. Their suggestions were:

-He should be compelled to monogram his cat.

-He should be subjected to daily "fit" critiques by Mafoofan on Style Forum for one month.

-He should be required to attend Pitti Uomo, each day wearing clothing featured in the Sartorialist.

-He should be photographed wearing the clothing of the man on the cover of the book in question, holding a sign reading "I am crispy."

-The vents on all of his suit jackets should be basted shut.

-He should be made to watch the movie Zoolander repeatedly.

The crispy M. de Mans has as you know been hiding out in a yurt in the Himalayan foothills convenient to the source for yak hair. Monogramming the cat is probably too inhumane but he will be flown back to civilization later in June, wearing the IAC sign. The only film offered on the aircraft will be Zoolander and there will be a stop at Pitti. While he is in transit, the tailor from the local Men's Wearhouse will be basting the vents on his jackets but, sadly, Mafoofan has not responded to my request for fit critiques.

Winners will be notifed by email this week so we can send them their rewards and we will now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.