Plaatje nog een keer in het groot:
[Mijn aanvulling op wat Snob (bedankt voor de tip) in de OP schrijft.]
Een lekker – en soms geestig, maar niet zo geestig als Hardy Amies – geschreven boek vol regels voor de liefhebbers, winkel/kleermaker/schoenmaker-tips (vooral Londen) en leuke weetjes. Hieronder staat een vrij willekeurige greep van dingen die mij opvielen.
------Always remember that nothing should look too new. One should really hang and weather one's new tweeds, before wearing, much as one hangs game, before eating.------Om een idee te geven van de regels:
[...] very general rules [...]
• Strictly one should still always wear a dark suit in town (and never tweeds of any colour; except when coming, going or merely passing through) and black leather shoes (never brown or suede).
• Day ties may be any colour but, in the evening, when not in evening dress, dark suits and dark ties should be worn.
• Dark hats are worn in town and never straw, palm or tweed – and certainly not caps.------Over bespoke, mtm en rtw:
• 'Bespoke' garments (including shoes) are made from scratch to the customer's precise dimensions and according to his exact choice of materials and colours and style.
• 'Made to Measure' garments are made to standard patterns and sizes and then adjusted to the customer's dimensions.
• 'Ready-made' or 'off the peg' garments are made in standard sizes and patterns and the customer takes potluck on pattern and fit.
------With two very specific exceptions, socks should match trousers. The first exception is red socks which, for some reason that I cannot exactly explain, always raise a smile, especially when worn with a dark suit. [...] The second exception is shooting stockings which are normally bright.------Over 'Napolitaanse manchetten':
The barrelled cuffs, by Turnbull & Asser, were made famous by Sean Connery as James Bond. These are double cuffs, which are buttoned and called by their makers 'cocktail cuffs'.
Sean Connery was taken under the wing of film director Terence Young, who coached him for the role of James Bond; even to the extent of introducing Connery to his tailors and his shirt-maker, Turnbull & Asser, who had just designed this cuff and thus it was chosen as a signature garment for Bond.------Buttons on bespoke shirts often used to have three holes (rather than four) and were sewn by hand; of course this is no longer the case. Still, bespoke shirts should have proper mother of pearl or 'shell' buttons. Some better ready-made shirts also have these.------Over het pochet:
So far as current use of handkerchiefs is concerned: in town, purists do not sport a handkerchief (whether coloured or not) in the breast pocket, despite the examples set by, amongst others: Winston Churchill, the Duke of Edinburgh and the present Prince of Wales, Cary Grant, Noel Coward and Jack Buchanan.
[...]
Never ever sport a matching tie and handkerchief unless you manage an out-of-town superstore.
[...]
Have white and coloured silk handkerchiefs made abroad and stitched all around by hand for about 50 pence each – or pay almost a hundred times as much in the quad.------Bespoke gloves cost very little more than ready-made gloves.------First-rate Savile Row bespoke suits in very reasonable but not rare cloths are now around the ₤3,000 mark (including VAT). However, outside the Row and the gods' quad, you can get a very passable bespoke suit for around ₤1,000.------Overall, you will probably find that a variety in cloth weights will be more useful than a variety of colours and patterns.
[...]
As mentioned above, there are super worsteds at between 100 and 220mm long, which weigh in at between 7–9 ounces. Some good examples of the lighter fabrics are the Holland & Sherry Whisperlight and Capri ranges or the Dormeuil Microtwist range.
For autumn and winter weight lounge suits there are worsteds and flannels (flannel is a loosely woven yarn, originally made in Wales in the Seventeenth Century), typically at between 10–13 ounces (and note that, here, imperial measurement still seems to prevail). Modern living conditions mean that there is little demand for lounge suit fabrics at 16 ounces or more. However, you should definitely have at least one suit in West of England Tweed, which will be quite heavy. Other famous cloth brands are Scabal and Wain Shiell.------The conventions for vents is that a single-breasted coat* has none or one vent and double-breasted coat has none or two vents, as you wish.
*) Suits normally have 'coats'. The only 'jacket' is one of the following: a dinner jacket, a shooting jacket, a smoking jacket, a Norfolk jacket, a hacking jacket, a mess jacket (otherwise known as a monkey jacket or a bum-freezer) or a reefer jacket.------Zips instead of fly buttons on trousers were the innovation of Lord Mountbatten of Burma and were described by the magazine London Life (7 April 1934) as something, which might 'become one of the most important developments of men's fashions since knee breeches'.------[The country suit]
You will also probably wish to have suits with the alternative of plus twos or plus four breeches on a couple of them. Plus twos have an overhang of two inches below the knee and plus fours have a four inch overhang.------[Tweed]
'Tweed' derives from the old Scots word 'tweel' meaning 'twill'. There is an urban legend that a clerk at a cloth merchant's misspelled it and that is how the 'tweed' came into use.
[...]
The world-famous Harris Tweed from the Outer Hebrides is dyed with natural lichen dyes [C: kleurstof uit korstmos], which are responsible for the characteristic small specks of colour and the distinctive smell.------Lord Carnarvon had been dressed by Henry Poole when he opened Tutankhamon's tomb.------Over trenchcoats
I should go for a single-breasted blue Burberry; try to avoid the beige trenchcoats unless you really are off to the trenches because it tends to look rather Dick Tracy – but then you might want to look like Dick Tracy!------H. Huntsman & Sons (founded in 1849 in Albemarle Street and noted for sporting wear) is about the costliest.------John Lobb had been a poor Cornish labourer. One of his feet was injured and deformed in an accident and so, in order to get a new pair of shoes that would accommodate him, he became a shoe-maker.------G. J. Cleverley are also conscious of (and meeting the need) for publicity to advertise their superb craftsmanship, which often includes the chiselled toe. Although it certainly does not apply to their workmanship, the use of the word 'square' to describe someone as old-fashioned or fuddy-duddy possibly derives from a change in fashion (from square-toed shoes to rounded-toed shoes) – with anyone not following the new fashion castigated by being called a 'square' or 'square-toed'.
[...]
Cleverley worked at Tuczek's from 1920 to 1958 and his customers had included Rudolph Valentino, Winston Churchill, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Gloria Swanson and Rex Harrison.------He [C: de Duke of Windsor] explained his status in the fashion world in his book A Family Album:
I was in fact 'produced' as a leader of fashion, with the clothiers as my showmen and the world as my audience. The middleman in this process was the photographer, employed not only by the Press but by the trade, whose task it was to photograph me on every possible occasion, public or private, with an especial eye for what I happened to be wearing.------Also useful are a few short-sleeved Hawaiian shirts with bright, floral patterns for places where it is 30 degrees by 9.30 am – and just too hot to wear much at all. You could have these made up at Budd in West Indian Sea Island cotton. A breast pocket on casual shirts is acceptable and indeed sensible, because it provides storage space when it is not likely to be readily available elsewhere. It might even be an idea to have a large pocket with a flap and button, for added security. One would generally avoid pockets on shirts – especially on formal shirts.------Over spijkerbroeken:
However, there is now (as a sign of the times, What! What!) a bespoke jeans maker in Savile Row, Evisu (a Japanese clothes designer), and Huntsman confesses that it recently experienced with making bespoke jeans, but has now given up the exercise.------Over schoenspanners (!):
Whether your shoes are bespoke or not, always use trees when storing them. However, do not put the trees in until the shoes have rested and thoroughly dried out inside.------Het boek is zeker de moeite van het lezen waard, wat mij betreft.
Edit: spelling.
