The London Lounge

I bought several bespoke hats from Baron's California Hats located in Burbank, California about 8 years ago. The price was then around $150 for a fedora from rabbit fur felt and $180 for a more structured hat like a homburg or bowler. I think the prices have gone up appreciably since then. Other opt...

Great looking ties. As for the best among the best choosing a tie that fits you well should be factor as well. You could have the best tie in the world and if it isn't long enough to wear, well then it won't be much of tie then. As for John Comfort I was told they don't make ties anymore. Best Rega...

Menjou may have been well-dressed, but he was disliked by the Hollywood community. Nobody in the picture biz who had worked with him wanted anything more to do with him. He was considered a miserable SOB. JMB Could part of this antipathy have been because he was so conservative? When I was a young ...

I should note that in the United States the black brogue/wingtip has been a standard of buisness attire for many, many years. I seem to recall that in their glory days IBM required all its male employees to be shod in black wingtips. To claim that the black brogue is a sartorial anomaly is engaging ...

This is a great question. My father has never worn a ring and I had no intention of wearing one either if and when I marry. However, persuading women that this is a reasonable standpoint has never been as easy as I had hoped. I would be very interested in further discussion of this topic. Simple, t...

A chap shouldn't have a wedding ring at all - although this flies in the face of convention in the US and parts of Europe. This "convention" in the USA is of comparatively recent origin. It is largely a European import. I think it only became firmly established after World War II. It was promoted h...

In recent years I have resumed wearing ascots with some frequency. Hope to buy some more in the not-too-distant, sartorial priorities and the ol' exchequer permitting, I really couldn't imagine wearing an ascot outside the shirt. Opening the second button of a shirt to display more ascot seems a lit...

No, no, no commerce business is to be conducted when you're wearing a formal dress. If you do, I'm afraid someone would have to call the Sartorial Police to knock on your HK SAR door at midnight to invite you for a stay just across the SAR/SEZ border until you have submitted a proper self-criticism...

Allow me to convey my thanks for your detailed post as well, Etutee. Your comments have got me to thinking that a suit that was a cut above the ordinary lounge suit, rather on the the order of the 3-piece peak lapel job that Astaire is shown wearing, would be virtually equally appropriate in any sit...

Manton, any specific reason why a 6x3 DB would not be "on" for a stroller? As I think I mentioned in my post on AAAC, I thought a DB jacket in Oxford gray (doesn't have to be 6x3) could, with two pairs of pants, double as a suit or stroller as the situation demanded, or is that sort of a makeshift c...

If you fancy Allen-Edmonds be sure to check with the factory outlet stores for seconds on closeout. The blemishes that make the shoes seconds are usually indiscernible. I have gotten many excellent Allen-Edmonds dress shoes for $129 and even less.

Standing always buttoned, seated never...unless I forget. I always feel embarrassed if I have stepped over to a co-worker's office next door and left my jacket unbuttoned.

Will wear one occasionally with a sport coat for variety's sake and just for fun. I wouldn't with a suit, however, but then I wear suits very infrequently.

Thanks for the fascinating post. It is interesting that there is nothing remotely comparable to the men's block of the Shinjuku here in the greater Los Angeles area. Just to think, an Edward Green display equalling or surpassing the Burlington Arcade! (Althought they just moved, didn' they?) However...

I'll have to say that I had never encountered the term "carpincho" until now, but I have known the animal by its other name "capybara" since I was a little boy. Is carpincho more commonly used for the leather? I'm surprised at the confusion since the peccary and the capybara are such radically diffe...