The London Lounge

Its not surprising to me that the word chic has not been uttered in America in the last forty years, because no sightings of the phenomenon have been made in that elapsed and decidedly frozen period of time. While a decided point of view is often a good thing, perhaps it would be best not to make s...

An interesting slice of American sartorial history. Thanks for posting that, Mark.

I think Signor Ricci looks rather dreadful in this silhouette.

^^"Some people swear by us, others at us."

This is off topic, but Bates no longer makes hats sur mesure do they?

I'm 6'1" and slender. I like the look in the abstract but don't seem able to pull it off well: a slight taper from around the knee works better. I too find it an attractive look "in the abstract" but agree that for even a tall slender man that a gradual taper of perhaps 2-3" from the knee makes for...

carl browne wrote:I'd like to know, too.

I'd hoped that a book of the illustrations might be available somewhere. I looked on Amazon, but to no avail.

Who are the illustrators?

Lawrence Fellows was one of the most noted of the AA/Esky illustrators, along with Leslie Saalburg.

Ed Hayes indicated that Conde Nast still holds copyrights to the old Esquire/AA material. There was some talk a few years ago about possibly trying to create a CD-ROM of the material, but it didn't come to fruition.

I don't know how to embed video here - perhaps the forum software doesn't have the capability - but one of my favorite little scenes is the "Looking for a Needle in a Haystack" number in The Gay Divorcee . Astaire tries out ties, dances a bit, puts a boutonniere in his lapel, and heads out into the ...

^^Alden, I know what you mean in the above statements about Southern Italian and Sicilian men, but I couldn't help but smile in the reading of it; my time in that area (though not as extensive as yours) convinces me that the machismo-laden Mediterranean culture is dominated by mamma, sorella , and z...

Oh, I wasn't advocating we drop trou (and coat and shirt) when it's sunny....and I've always found the mania for baking one's flesh in the sun more than a bit of crazy. My younger sister has done so for years, and at the ripe age of 32 looks like she's pushing her late 40s. I was simply making the p...

Sator wrote:Weave is very important to how warm a cloth runs....

This is generally true. However, not even the finest fresco will counteract the effects of 100+ F temperatures and concomitantly high humidity. In fact, being stark naked is little relief in such ambient environments.

I agree with Concordia; if you can wear the sturdier heavycloths, do so. There's no doubt they tailor and hang better. If, unlike our host and Sator, you feel the heat very much, the weights being discussed will wilt you. I would saturate a 20 oz worsted fabric with sweat, and that's no exaggeration...

I would think that all of his trousers, save perhaps evening clothes, were cut this way. All the pictures I've seen of him in casual attire show him wear belted sports trousers, often brightly colored.

The Duke's real objection to English trousers was that he wanted to wear them belted, not the brace version Scholte et al wanted to make for him. Harris accommodated the Duke's wish for full-cut pleated trousers made for wear with a belt.