The London Lounge

Adophe Menjou notes the following tailors that he has used in his autobiography, It Took Nine Tailors (1948):

1. Eddie Schmidt and later his son in Los Angeles. Schmidt was Menjou's primary tailor, and he copied clothes that Menjou brought back from England and Europe. He thought that Schmidt as as good as any of the English and European tailors.

2. Sholte.

3. Anderson and Sheppard.

4. Pope and Bradley.

5. Leslie and Roberts.

6. Plaidell and Smith.

7. Birkenshaw and Knights.

8. Henry Poole.

9. Sandon, makers of breeches and riding clothes.

10. Caraceni.

11. Caraterro in Madird.

12. Kinize of Berlin.

13. Larson and Pile of Paris.

Dear Mark Seitelman
This is an interesting piece of information, for which we are truly grateful. Are there by any chance, in the mentioned book, pictures of the Nine Tailor Gentleman wearing some of the garments produced by those artisans?

marcelo wrote:Dear Mark Seitelman
This is an interesting piece of information, for which we are truly grateful. Are there by any chance, in the mentioned book, pictures of the Nine Tailor Gentleman wearing some of the garments produced by those artisans?

The book has some photos, but there is no identification of the tailors.

Menjou had definite ideas of how he wanted his clothes made, and he gave directions to his tailors. He directed Schmidt in making copies. Therefore, Menjou's clothes had a pretty consistent look.

Quite an astonishing variety and I agree that this is most interesting.
NJS

Dear Mark:

First of all thank you for the neat list.

Also in Alan Flusser's 2nd book "Clothes and the Man" there is a great shot of Menjou standing next to his shoe wardrobe. Does anyone know where that original photo came from and if there are anymore photos of the rest of what appears to be a great closet?

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

There is a further photo of Adolphe Menjou in Alan Flusser’s book, but it is not as impressive as the one which shows him standing before his vast collection of shoes.



Does any one guess who made this DB? I do not have the answer.

marcelo wrote:There is a further photo of Adolphe Menjou in Alan Flusser’s book, but it is not as impressive as the one which shows him standing before his vast collection of shoes.



Does any one guess who made this DB? I do not have the answer.

I cannot answer your question but would draw everyone' s attention to the fact that he fastens all working buttons .

Frog in Suit

Cufflink79 wrote:Dear Mark:

First of all thank you for the neat list.

Also in Alan Flusser's 2nd book "Clothes and the Man" there is a great shot of Menjou standing next to his shoe wardrobe. Does anyone know where that original photo came from and if there are anymore photos of the rest of what appears to be a great closet?

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

I like that photo too, and mentioned it in a post last week. The picture comes from the archives of Culver Pictures, but you would probably have to ask them if you wanted to find out more.

NCW wrote:

Cufflink79 wrote:Dear Mark:

First of all thank you for the neat list.

Also in Alan Flusser's 2nd book "Clothes and the Man" there is a great shot of Menjou standing next to his shoe wardrobe. Does anyone know where that original photo came from and if there are anymore photos of the rest of what appears to be a great closet?

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

I like that photo too, and mentioned it in a post last week. The picture comes from the archives of Culver Pictures, but you would probably have to ask them if you wanted to find out more.

I have probably failed to notice your mentioning this photo from Flusser’s book. In the absence of further pictures of Menjou, it would be interesting if we captioned some images from his films. He probably wore garments made by some of his nine tailors in his films, for at that time, as it has been often mentioned in the LL, actors used to wear their own cloths in their films.

marcelo wrote:



Does any one guess who made this DB? I do not have the answer.

We have no way of knowing who made the suit.

I do not think that one could discern one tailor versus another when looking at Menjou. Essentially, Menjou looked like Menjou regardless of the tailor.

This photo shows typical Menjou style, such as a tight fitting coat, white pocket square (usually more prominent), and full trousers.

marcelo wrote:

Even with the photo blown up, it is pretty hard to tell if he has cuffs on his trousers.

Can anybody make that out?

If there are cuffs on the trousers, they're quite big.

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

They were the first thing I noticed, after my eyes adjusted to the stripes Yes, I am pretty sure those are cuffs - and probably in excess of 2 inches.

Frog in Suit wrote:I cannot answer your question but would draw everyone' s attention to the fact that he fastens all working buttons .

Frog in Suit

His hose has cuff, by all means! As for the fastening of all working buttons in a DB, should we expect one to leave the bottom button undone? As for the jacket sleeves, could they not be a little shorter?

marcelo wrote: As for the fastening of all working buttons in a DB, should we expect one to leave the bottom button undone?

It is my firm opinion thet one should not, but there are some (ahem!) even in this forum , who have been known to disagree....

Frog in Suit

Frog in Suit wrote:

marcelo wrote: As for the fastening of all working buttons in a DB, should we expect one to leave the bottom button undone?

It is my firm opinion thet one should not, but there are some (ahem!) even in this forum , who have been known to disagree....

Frog in Suit

Ahem! Looking at the Duke of Windsor in various pictures, through his life (www.gettyimmages.com) it seems that he frequently did up the lower button and left the top one undone; sometimes he had display buttons and, sometimes, not. On a DB DJ I noticed in one image that one button was to do up and the only other was for display. A cutter once mentioned that he thought it best to do up the top and leave the bottom button undone; however, by Jove, here there might reasonably be room for difference of practice without too much bad blood I think that if AM had left either button undone then, because of his choice of tight fit, the coat would have splayed open. As for the turnups/cuffs - they do look deep but the trousers are so full that less deep might have looked skimped.
NJS