hello & a few questions

[WF]

Good evening.
I started reading this forum last week and my head is in a spin trying to keep up with all the technical terms which I have never encountered before.Could someone please recommend a book that will help me understand the evolution of British tailoring. I would love to participate in the forum but I dont want to ask questions that are clearly answered elsewhere.

I will be in London next weekend to visit the couture exhibition in the V&A, I am so excited about it. I know someone mentioned that there were some classic suits in the V&A. Whereabouts in the V&A are the suits on display? I always get lost in there & I would really appreciate it if I could have a general indication of where I should go.

Finally - I dont know if this exhibition will be of interest but I thought I should post it up anyway: http://www.ftmlondon.org/exhibitions

Wishing you all the very best for 2008
Wendy

[HappyStroller]

A Happy New Year to you, Wendy, and to everyone else, too.

Here's four books quite related to the evolution of
British tailoring:-

1. Hardy Amies, THE ENGLISHMAN'S SUIT, Quartet Books [1996];
2. Richard Walker, Savile Row: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, Rizzoli [1989];
3. Maria Constantino, MEN'S FASHION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, Batsford [1997]; and,
4. Nicholas Antongiavanni, The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style, Collins [2006].

[andreyb]

Wendy,

As I remember, there is only one (though spacious) room in V&A museum devoted to clothes. A small number of classic suits exhibited there.

Andrey

[WF]

Thanks for the recommendations & assistance. If I am permitted to take photos in the V&A I shall post some up here.

[rjman]

Wendy,

As I remember, there is only one (though spacious) room in V&A museum devoted to clothes. A small number of classic suits exhibited there.

Andrey

Well, a small number of badly displayed suits from a smattering of tailors and a few designers of questionable renown (Sean John).

[WF]

The suits are located in room 40 of the V&A. There are 3 or 4 suits in a display cabinet at the back of the room which may be of interest. I was quite surprised how close fitting the 1940s suit was. I knew there were restrictions in place limiting how much cloth could be used. But it looked painfully tight.
Photography is permissable in the room but all the pictures I took were dreadful so I cant post them up.
Apologies
Wendy

[Cordovan]

Thank you HappyStroller for the recommended reading.

I am a student who discovered this site sometime last year and shortly thereafter realized that I was in a little over my head. In the last several months I have spent much time reading previous old posts on this forum to broaden my knowledge. I have begun putting together a book list of recommended reading. I seem to recall seeing a comprehensive list somewhere on this site, but cannot find it at the moment.

I found this link posted on the forum (http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Solitarias) and it has been a little helpful, but a little daunting as well. In short, I'd like to enlist LL members' support in putting together a comprehensive list of books, arranged by topic, detail / complexity, and or by author.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Cordovan

[Cordovan]

Sorry to badger, but does anyone else have any other books to include in a sartorial library? Here is a list I've begun to compile (the list that is, not yet my actual library). Can anyone specifically recommend some more (or which of these may be) basic and fundamental books for a beginner?

1. Hardy Amies, THE ENGLISHMAN'S SUIT, Quartet Books [1996];
2. Richard Walker, Savile Row: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, Rizzoli [1989];
3. Maria Constantino, MEN'S FASHION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, Batsford [1997];
4. Nicholas Antongiavanni, The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style, Collins [2006]

Books by Alan Flusser

5. Alan Flusser, Style and the Man: How and Where to Buy Fine Mens' Clothes, HarperCollins [1996] ISBN 0-062-70155-X
6. Alan Flusser, Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion, HarperCollins [2002], ISBN 0-060-19144-9
7. Alan Flusser, Making the Man: The Insider's Guide to Buying and Wearing Men's Clothes, Simon & Schuster [1981], ISBN 0671791478
8. Alan Flusser, Clothes and the Man: The Principles of Fine Men's Dress, Villard Books [1985], ISBN 0394546237

Books by Bruce Boyer

9. G. Bruce Boyer, Fred Astaire Style, Assouline [2005], ISBN 2843236770
10. G. Bruce Boyer, Eminently Suitable, Norton [1990], ISBN 0393028771
11. G. Bruce Boyer, Elegance: A Guide to Quality in Menswear, Norton [1985], ISBN 0393018784
12. G. Bruce Boyer, Rebel Style: Cinematic Heroes of the 1950s, Assouline [2006], ISBN 2843237513

Books by Ian Kelly

13. Ian Kelly, Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style, Free Press [2006], ISBN 0743270894
14. Ian Kelly, Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Dandy, Hodder and Stoughton [2005], ISBN 0340836989

15. Richard Torregrossa, Cary Grant: A celebration of style, Bulfinch Press [Sept. 2006],
16. E. P. Harrison, Scottish Estate Tweeds
17. Francois Chaille, The Book of Ties,
18. Berhard Roetzel, Gentleman: a Timeless Fashion,
19. Neil Dteinberg, Hatless Jack,
20. Thomas Fink, The Man's Book, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, [2006],
21. Thomas Fink and Yong Mao, The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie, Fourth Estate, London, [1999]

[RWS]

It's not badgering, Cordovan, but much-needed assistance to the Lounge. I'll try to add a title or two this weekend. Meanwhile, you might wish to look at the old website (I no longer have the bookmark), where another Lounger -- Mathew, I think -- posted an excellent list of works on tailoring.

Thanks, very, for taking the time to do this. Perhaps you'd care to e-write Michael to propose that the list be placed in a permanent "sticky".

[culverwood]

Lance has just posted another book: "The London Cut, Savile Row Bespoke Tailoring" by James Sherwood
http://thelondonlounge.net/gl/forum/vie ... php?t=7555

[rjman]

A few from another post I made elsewhere:

History/cultural:
Savile Row, Richard Walker
The New English Dandy, Alice Cicolini
The Sloane Ranger Handbook, Peter York and Ann Barr
The Preppie Handbook, Lisa Birnbach
Today there are no gentlemen, Nik Cohn
Dress Optional, Rodney Bennett-England

Pretty Pictures/Monographs:
Turnbull & Asser, Nick Foulkes
Berluti, portrait of a family of artists
Gieves & Hawkes, Robert Gieve
Henry Poole, Stephen Howarth
Marinella
So British

Time Capsules, for the portraits of long-gone stores:
Making the Man, Alan Flusser
Nothing But the Best

A good all-rounder, if a bit too forgiving in its Anglophilia:
Gentleman: A Timeless Fashion, Bernhard Roetzel

A very interesting book, with all its author's quirks laid bare:
The Englishman's Suit, Hardy Amies

Clothing memoirs:
A Family Album, the Dook of Windsor
The Way We Wore, Robert Elms

[jasstoltz]

13. Ian Kelly, Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style, Free Press [2006], ISBN 0743270894
14. Ian Kelly, Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Dandy, Hodder and Stoughton [2005], ISBN 0340836989

Just FYI, those are the same book. Hodder & Stoughton was the English (and originating) publisher.

[couch]

A couple of familiar additions:

Boutonniere: Style in One's Lapel by Umberto Angeloni (chairman of Brioni) et al.
http://www.amazon.com/Boutonniere-Style ... 0789303884
Some used copies on Amazon at the above URL; the NYC Brioni store kindly sent me a complimentary copy a couple of years back--wouldn't even let me pay shipping to Phila.
Not just the flowers and history but the detail shots of clothing are worthwhile.

The Elegant Man: How to Construct the Ideal Wardrobe (Villarosa and Angeli)
http://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Man-Const ... 679&sr=1-1
Good if you're starting out for its close-ups of cloth types and discussions of terminology for details of cut and construction; focuses mostly on suits and jackets. Complements Flusser.

Handmade Shoes for Men (Laszlo Vass et al.)
http://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Shoes-Me ... 3895089281
The best step-by-step illustration of last- and shoemaking with excellent glossary of terms--and beautiful photography.

Dressing in the Dark: Lessons in Men's Style from the Movies (Marion Mankeker)
http://www.amazon.com/Dressing-Dark-Les ... im_b_img_2
Not sure about the lessons, but a good selection of photos, some elegant.

And one really should say that if you have not yet printed (in color) and read all of Etutee's commentaries on the essays and illustrations from Apparel Arts and Esquire magazines from the 1930s (in the Archive of Featured Articles section of the Lounge), your education still awaits you. Perhaps best to read the basic Flusser, Villarosa, Boyer, Antongiovanni etc. first, but then you have a real treat in store in Etutee's meticulous and thoughtful efforts at drawing principles and lessons from the "golden age" that can be applied today. They really form a monograph, and one superior to to most. Don't take them for granted.