The London Lounge

Summer suits are gin & tonic, Our Man in Havana, panama hats, Churchill in Africa, Brideshead Revisited, fun.

Summer suits are 1890-1925 too. They are Thomas Mann, the novel Buddenbrooks (it was published, when he was 25!), the island Rügen, the beaches of Travemünde.

Summer suit from 1920:


Travemünde 2006:

Gruto wrote:Summer suits are...Churchill in Africa

pvpatty wrote:

Gruto wrote:Summer suits are...Churchill in Africa

From Cairo and around:

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I quite like Mme. Chiang's summer dress. I wonder if I should show the photograph to a friend . . . .

Anthony Eden was always exquisitely dressed. Shame he was such a disasterous PM!

Doubly sad when one considers how long Eden had had to wait...and Gruto, may we add 'Our Man in Marrakech' too please? On WSC - his great friend F E Smith said of him: "Winston can always make do with the best of everything."
NJS

Gruto wrote:

pvpatty wrote:

Gruto wrote:Summer suits are...Churchill in Africa

From Cairo and around:

Probably two stupid questions from an ignorant frog:
In the group picture above, is the sixth man from the left (back row), with a moustache, a smile, and his hair parted on (his) left side, Harold MacMillan?
Who is the second man from the right (same row)? He looks familiar (probably an American) but I cannot place him, or rather, put a name on the face.
Thank you.
Frog in Suit

Yes, Frog, the man 6th from the right is 'Our People Have Never Had It So Good.' - Super-Mac - not sure about the id of the other chap! But isn't that RAB Butler next to him?
NJS

That second photo is actually one of the few I have seen of Churchill with a straight necktie.

Also, is it me or are the tops of Monty's lapels in the second photo massive?

storeynicholas wrote:Yes, Frog, the man 6th from the right is 'Our People Have Never Had It So Good.' - Super-Mac - not sure about the id of the other chap! But isn't that RAB Butler next to him?
NJS

Re: RAB Butler, I think you are right. I looked him up in Getty images and this looks like him. Also, the second man from the right is Averell Harriman (quick internet search).

It looks as if WSC is holding a white or cream homburg, presumably straw. I do not remember ever seeing one before. Perfect headgear for the tropics.

Frog in Suit

Harriman ran off with WSC's son's wife - later Pamela Harriman-Churchill - odd that she kept the name - she became US Ambassador to Paris and died of a stroke in the Ritz pool on her morning swim. I believe that WSC's hat is a Panama in a Homburg style. They can be found at Brent Black Panamas - on a Google search - but not a very usual style.
NJS

storeynicholas wrote:Harriman ran off with WSC's son's wife - later Pamela Harriman-Churchill - odd that she kept the name - she became US Ambassador to Paris and died of a stroke in the Ritz pool on her morning swim. I believe that WSC's hat is a Panama in a Homburg style. They can be found at Brent Black Panamas - on a Google search - but not a very usual style.
NJS

I had the pleasure of hearing and seeing the late Mrs Harriman in Paris, at a reception given for Parisian alumni of US universities. She spoke beautiful French, had an imposing presence despite being in her eighties, I think, and had her own pictures -- not the State Department's --on the walls of the ambassador's residence (I sem to remember Van Gogh and others of that caliber). She was a big hit with the French because of her linguistic abilities and also, I would suggest, because she had been born and bred in the aristocracy, or at least the gentry, had known familiarly many important figures (WSC as a father-in-law!) and could conduct herself with ease and poise in any situation. A hard act to follow.

Frog in Suit

Re the straw Homburg, I seem to recall Christie gives Poirot one in one of those Egyptian mysteries. I remember because it struck me at the time as unusual; obviously, none us here would follow Poirot's dress sense in every particular, but it does have precedent.