SB peak lapel

What you always wanted to know about Elegance, but were afraid to ask!
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Guest

Wed Jan 25, 2006 6:31 pm

What do other loungers think of this combination? I'd always considered it a little too showy for a serious suit, but then I spotted someone recently in a conservative London club wearing such a suit and found it to be relatively understated.
Guest

Wed Jan 25, 2006 6:45 pm

It depends. I feel the combination is fairly formal. In a conservative cloth it can look good. A good traditionally cut and elegant waistcoat helps. But I am not sure what advantage it gives over notch lapels. Maybe for a stroller it is welcome, but them most strollers in before WWII were notch lapels, judging from photographs.

As a two-piece in cutting edge cloth you risk looking very fashion forward. Favoured by celebrities who do not have the courage or class to wear proper evening dress.

On the other end of the spectrum there may be a risk to resemble David Suchet's Hercule Poirot.

TVD
Guest

Wed Jan 25, 2006 8:39 pm

Anonymous wrote:It depends. I feel the combination is fairly formal. In a conservative cloth it can look good. A good traditionally cut and elegant waistcoat helps. But I am not sure what advantage it gives over notch lapels. Maybe for a stroller it is welcome, but them most strollers in before WWII were notch lapels, judging from photographs.

As a two-piece in cutting edge cloth you risk looking very fashion forward. Favoured by celebrities who do not have the courage or class to wear proper evening dress.

On the other end of the spectrum there may be a risk to resemble David Suchet's Hercule Poirot.

TVD
I have a photo of Sir Anthony Eden and his friends (on my wall) and all to a man (this is late 1930's) are wearing a SB with peaked lapels; but all to a man are also wearing vests.

Is resembling David Suchet's Poirot all bad? I guess I'm just an early 20th Century man being forced to live in the 21st Century. Sigh!
Guest

Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:23 pm

About Eden's penchant for double-breasted waistcoats: "Always had doubts about that. So did my tailor." Bill Deedes.

Amies said double breasted lapels are wrong on single breasted jackets. I have one lounge suit cut so, and I also feel slightly awkward wearing it.

Leon
Guest

Thu Jan 26, 2006 5:47 pm

Anonymous wrote:About Eden's penchant for double-breasted waistcoats: "Always had doubts about that. So did my tailor." Bill Deedes.

Amies said double breasted lapels are wrong on single breasted jackets. I have one lounge suit cut so, and I also feel slightly awkward wearing it.

Leon
I love this site and all the information I am learning, so thank you all

Last night I put on one of my BBC Lord Peter Wimsey DVD's (The Nine Tailors) and saw that Lord Peter (aka Ian Carmichael) was wearing a very handsome, chaulk stripe SB peaked Lapel suite (with vest of course). The series was set in the middle 1920's. Maybe it's just me, but I found the suit styled that way, very pleasing and quite elegant.

Sure, I am living in the past, I guess I was born to late!
Guest

Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:03 pm

Take a look at the movie "Wall Street" with Michael Douglas he wears a few SB peaked lapeled suits and looks great. The suits were done by Alan Flusser. Another Flusser suit I saw in a movie was worn by Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman", in which it is a three piece glen plaid. Also be sure look at some of Cary Grant's flims he wore a SB peak lapel every now and then and looked very elegant in them.

Best Regards :)
Guest

Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:59 pm

The televised Lord Peter was too foppish. Dorothy L Sayers explicitly critised DB waistcoats (with Lord Peter as her mouthpiece) in one of the novels.

But if you check her biography, she cannot have been acquainted with high class style until later in life (i.e. after she wrote it). Her personal style was weird to says the least.

TVD
Guest

Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:16 pm

Well, she did go to Oxford when that was a decidedly upper-crust sort of place. And people don't just decide to become keen observers when they turn 35.
Guest

Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:37 pm

Anonymous wrote:Well, she did go to Oxford when that was a decidedly upper-crust sort of place. And people don't just decide to become keen observers when they turn 35.

Here! Here!
Guest

Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:06 am

I really like the single-breasted peak lapel look, and have had a couple of suits made over the years with this style.

If you watch the original Thin Man movie from 1934, you'll see many of the characters in the film wearing the look. When Nick and Nora have their Christmas Eve party, watch how many men arrive wearing single-breasted peak lapel suits.

It does have its limitations though: The J. Press catalog that arrived last week had a seersucker single-breasted peak lapel sportsjacket. I think that's just a little too informal a coat for that style. :wink:
Guest

Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:16 am

J.Press???????? Sack suit SB peak lapel........... Oh please no!
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