The London Lounge

The bigger question here is: why doesn’t Alden own anything FRENCH??

Berluti. Corthay. Charvet. Hermès. Dimitri Gomez. Cifonelli. Camps de Luca. ARNYS. yes, Arnys. ( Forestiere. ). LVM. Not to mention Guerlain. Caron. Please stop me....

I suspect that he may be a secret Anglophile, perhaps a disappointed Anglophile, yet still an Anglophile, who seeks Anglophilia made in Italy where they are more British than the British.

I really don’t understand how these French makers are ignored.
I am sure that there is some misunderstanding.

uppercase wrote:
I really don’t understand how these French makers are ignored.
I am sure that there is some misunderstanding.

Dear Uppercase,

if anything, blame 1968

Cheers, David

The London Lounge tie is from Charvet and I know Mr Alden has one of these.

Dear uppercase , you are such an " agent provocateur " ... which- by the way - has done so much good to the club over the years , as it has started countless of firing , interesting topics ..!!! I am only sincerely concerned that you don't have to carry this burden alone , maybe let someone else step in occasionally... But again I'm sure you enjoy it and also that you know all this !
respectfully
Vassilis

He gets things going.

I fly at a considerably lower 'altitude' than most of the posters here, sartorially speaking, but I've always found French clothing to have limited appeal from a price/quality standpoint. In other words, if it's as nice as Italian or British stuff, it costs more.
I love the idea of Charvet and have bought a couple of ties there over two decades but that's it.

Luca wrote: I've always found French clothing to have limited appeal from a price/quality standpoint.

Not to mention that French RTW men sizes seem to fit only on flat jockeys (not even on steeplechase ones ).

French products? Moi?

At this very moment I am consuming inordinate amounts of French products: oysters, Champagne, foie gras and all the lovely things that go with these. I love French products!

Charvet, Hermes, Guerlain, and Caron get my custom as well.

But a good many other classic names in the dressing world are mere shadows, long lost splendor...Weston, Lanvin, Berluti, Cifonelli, Arnys..among others

And I was never a fan of Arnys, Cifonelli or Berluti....

But the French brand "Eminence" makes the best underwear for men going. I love their sky blue T-shirts.

Cars should be German or Japanese. Certainly not French.

Food, on the other hand, should be French, Italian or Japanese.

And I have a very open mind about women. French products are excellent though the very best in the EU come from E. Europe these days.

Cheers

Vassilis: Agent Provocateur?? Moi??

No, certainly not intentionally..

But then, why not??

But seriously:

LL is a congenial lounge and I have enjoyed lounging here since the beginning - now nearly 12 years.
Some of you have as well. Some long time, old timers here.

I just hope to have a good laugh here with you all now and then, talking of matters of no great importance or consequence, a short visit and then be gone.

And on any given day, take a point of view; and then perhaps tomorrow, the contrary. I enjoy a good conversation. All the better if not about much in general.

Its just rags, friends, rags, and tomorrow our heirs will offer our beloved clothes in a vintage shop for peanuts because clothes' intrinsic worth is little; their meaning and pleasures, and memories, reside within us, individually, alone. An then...poof...they are gone, with us. You know this.

Yes, a good group here on LL with diverse views, opinions, experiences. A lot for me to learn from, and for all of us to share.

And although we haven't met, well at least we correspond now and again about our shared interests. And then off we go, on with our lives.

I would love to share a drink with each and everyone of you here on LL and shake your hand.

Cheers to our LL, to Alden who made this conversation, this lounge possible, our shared interests, our agreements and disagreements, our differences and similiarities. Thanks.

It's all in good fun. And very interesting as well I, at least, think.

I have always been interested in people's opinions and particlarly at how they arrived at them, their origin, their history - all fascinating to me, really: here we are talking about clothes..., but not only clothes, there is more, I think. Though rarely expressed. That is often the way it is among men.

And following on that, I also reflect, but dare not too closely, no, only tangentially, and ask myself as to how i have arrived here, and with these views, my views...in what I believe and in what I do not. And why...expressed through clothes or otherwise. It seems in retrospect that clothes have punctuated many changes and turns, indeed, provided a shadow narrative and document to a changing life. I look at clothes in the closet and see a story.

Anyway, enough. Basta! ...cheers to you all, and now we really need to know what the hell happened to California girls now facing Alden's latest shameless gauntlet promoting E. European girls above the classic sun kissed American dream. Although, I have an idea, well, it should not go unchalllenged. Obiviously he never listened to the Beach Boys. Or maybe just didn't absorb that zeitgeist.

I am turning this investigation over to you, Vassilis!!!! Many here are counting on you, this is no small matter. Be an agent for truth, Justice, and the American way...ok, well, never mind, you understand the basic troubling issues here on LL and I will leave the matter in your capable hands.

over and out.

know what the hell happened to California girls now facing Alden's latest shameless gauntlet promoting E. European girls above the classic sun kissed American dream

UC

The greatest of the Beach Boy inspired California myths were (and are) its girls. You can’t pull an itsy bitsy teeny weeny polka dot fabric over my eyes, I was there.

It wasn’t until I had a chance as a youngster to go abroad that I realized what girls were supposed to look like, walk like and talk like.

Not much has changed. Why do you think they have to bring in all sorts of girls, from all over the world in order to make the movies? Or to keep a President company?

A walk on the streets of Manhattan or Sunset Blvd will tell you why: it is a devastating experience for admirers of the fair sex. None, as in zero, except for a few imports here or there.

Probably for efficiencies sake, sometime ago, they must have decided to stop making two flavors of people. Its a supply chain thing, you need twice as many parts. So they just make one kind of people, that’s neither goose nor gander but some strange blend of the two.

But don’t believe me, just spend a week in early June in Budapest, or Prague, or Kiev or (Paris, Milan, Madrid, Rome)… For scientific purposes if nothing else, just to see how a girl is supposed to be. It will open your eyes and your heart.

Cheers

Uppercase give up. You're getting slapped around. Vassils cant help you.

alden wrote:
It wasn’t until I had a chance as a youngster to go abroad that I realized what girls were supposed to look like, walk like and talk like.

I had the same experience. Eye opening. Which at the time made me wonder if the men abroad also looked, walked and talked like men were supposed to. If not, was there an asymmetry? The women did, the men didn't?
It was with the passing of time that I learnt that, despite some notable exception, the wines of a given region go best when combined with cheeses, seafood and produce from that same region. It's just a matter of complementing evolution during hundred of years and how those wines came to be nowadays.
We can admire them in the summer on the streets of Kiev, etc. but girls from E. Europe are -in culture, demeanor and expectations- better suited for men from that part of the world. Those dolls who are for export are -as we can see- when they move West, a great "match" for dirty old rich men. Maybe it's just envy talking.

hectorm wrote:

alden wrote:
It wasn’t until I had a chance as a youngster to go abroad that I realized what girls were supposed to look like, walk like and talk like.

I had the same experience. Eye opening. Which at the time made me wonder if the men abroad also looked, walked and talked like men were supposed to. If not, was there an asymmetry? The women did, the men didn't?
It was with the passing of time that I learnt that, despite some notable exception, the wines of a given region go best when combined with cheeses, seafood and produce from that same region. It's just a matter of complementing evolution during hundred of years and how those wines came to be nowadays.
We can admire them in the summer on the streets of Kiev, etc. but girls from E. Europe are -in culture, demeanor and expectations- better suited for men from that part of the world. Those dolls who are for export are -as we can see- when they move West, a great "match" for dirty old rich men. Maybe it's just envy talking.

Tomatoes didn't have Italian origins, we imported them and did just fine (I guess)

They were wild in America (still are in some parts, including my wife's orchard pots ) and it took 500 hundred years of civilization to achieve the homogeneous level of post-war San Marzano pomodori. Thank you, master Screaminmarlon.
Do you think you can do the same for our Valley girls or are they a lost cause?

Dear Hectorm, you’ve been too generous: I’m not a master but I have a few friends of mine that in 500 years will say “I’m only beginning”