Sartorial UFOs

[yialabis]

I have tried several times to post pictures through imageshack but it doesn't seem to work ..I do manage to host a photo there but I don't know what to do with it after..!!

[sartorius]

As a regular poster myself I feel somewhat chided! However, as an Englishman of traditional English sensibility I subscribe to the school of "conspicuous inconspicuousness" when it comes to dress. Some of the posts on this forum are very much enhanced by the accompanying pictures but, for myself, I simply find it difficult to overcome a natural reticence - and a fear of commiting the sartorial crime which Hardy Amies memorably described when he wrote that "great style is insouciance - it is very vulgar to be impressed by your own clothes".

If credibility is the issue, well, I use a tailor who is head cutter at a large house on the Row and hope to continue my sartorial acquisition with the help of knowledge and ideas from this wonderful forum.

[Cordovan]

I do not believe that credibility is the issue as much as to show personal tailoring.

I also do not believe that you would be committing the crime that Harday Amies mentions as that refers to encoutering people in your daily interactions. Are you not impressed with your tailors work? Would you not pride yourself on wearing something unique and elegant while at the same time 'blending in' just enough to trigger someone's attention without his/her knowing what it was that caught his/ her eye?

True, one should not be paying attention to his clothes all day, but did not Brummell famously spend quite some time arranging his scarves (please correct with proper terminology) so they looked as if they were just thrown on?

The very purpose of this forum is to discuss and to educate, and pictures help tremendously (this from one who is slowly but surely learning - especially from those gracious enough to post pictures).

No reprimand for not posting if you don't feel comfortable, but the excuse cannot be that doing so would be a sartorial crime.

Cordovan

[storeynicholas]

I have tried and failed to be vulgar then - because my picture posts just did not show up - only links (to which RWS managed to gain access). Brummell's neck ties were called cravats and there is recounted somewhere (following my failed attempt to be vulgar, I pursue the once fashionable practice of failing to recall the source of quotations), the story of an early morning caller on the Beau in Chesterfiled Street: the door was answered by the valet (carrying a tray laden with crumpled cravats), who wryly observed: "These are some of our failures, sir." Maybe two hours is rather long to spend dressing but the mere fact that Brummell accomplished the feat so very well for us still to be talking about him 166 years after his rather horrible death as a derelict, demonstrates that the remembrance of the effect of the sum of perfect accomplishment in some ephemeral arts (speaking and dressing well are two foremost) can and does outlive the practitioners. I think that this site is one which encourages members to be enthusiastic correpondents with each other and, indeed, all the world; then, maybe, it is no bad thing to know the appearance of those with whom we are corresponding and, sometimes, fencing and jousting and whose opinions we are challenging or enforcing. I too am English - and instinctively felt the same reticence expressed above, to show off -for all of the thirty odd seconds, uploading and attempting to download, it needed to demonstrate that I am not actually capable of vulgarity at all. However, I shall keep perservering; not least because I still owe some images in the 'Sartorial heros' thread.
NJS.

[RWS]

To quote a distant cousin from college, I too am English, though American rather than British. The same apparently genetic reticience makes me reluctant to post, and my ignorance of the process (and the lack of a digital camera) confirms that reluctance. The few photographs (none, I trust, very true to life) of me that appear on these virtual pages were casual shots of gatherings of LL/NY, and objecting on the ground of privacy or modesty to another Lounger's posting them would in fact have felt as immodest as seizing the initiative and posting them myself -- had I had that elusive knowledge!

I owe much to Costi, Alden, NJS (yes, I saw the photograph; and it came out well), and numerous fellow Loungers who've overcome their own reticience to show us just what can be done when a keenly developed sense of aesthetic balance is coupled to well-honed craftsmanship. Better, I can put faces with typed words to receive fuller impressions of men whose wit and insights I enjoy through this website.

[RWS]

Storeynicholas's dapper image appears at

http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/gg55 ... randah.jpg .

If clicking on this quotation of the URL should fail to take the reader to the image itself (a soothingly tropical shot entitled "Nicholas Storey on his lower front verandah" -- soothing, at the least, to this Lounger, grappling with the iron clasp of The Winter That Would Not Die), he may simply cut and paste into his browser: it would be worth that little additional effort.

[Cordovan]

I actually did see that picture the first time it was posted, but am glad to have seen it again.

Do you have pocket flaps with that coat?

Cordovan

[couch]

I suspect Alden's challenge was not meant so much to unmask imposture or encourage unseemly preening on success as to aid in our mutual learning by providing clear illustrations of often subtle variations. In this aim I fully concur, having been the beneficiary of the experience and generosity of so many here and on the other forums.

As one example, I hope eventually to post a series of pictures comparing the effect on line of three small variations in pleat depth on several pairs of trousers that are otherwise nearly identical in cut and measurements. Members might (will) differ in their preferences, but I hope the comparison will be equally useful to many. Illustrations of some details could also highlight the work of the makers.

That brings up one legitimately delicate point, which is the potential effect on the relationship with one's tailor of detailed commentary on his work in a public forum. If an artisan is as forthcoming as The Tailor in encouraging responses, the risk is small, but I at least would want be circumspect and diplomatic when the tailor or firm has not taken the initiative to invite analysis or critique. I don't mean we should be gullible or fawning as customers, only that we should acknowledge a legitimate professional pride on the artisan's part and the importance of maintaining a rapport based on mutual trust and respect.

I'd never pose as an expert, anonymous or otherwise, but do hope to remain a lifelong student of elegance, and to contribute something in my turn. It won't happen by Alden's deadline, because it will be some time before I can equip myself to provide pictures adequate to the purpose. But it will happen eventually. Meanwhile I offer thanks and compliments to all who have posted photos in the past, and for those still to come.

[storeynicholas]

Thank you RWS for your help on the pictures and your gracious remarks above. As you know, I enjoy your posts very much too. Cordovan - yes there are pocket flaps but I tend to push them in as I go along!
I took Alden's suggestion that we declare ourselves pictorially to be just that - a request for a head-to-toe picture of what we look like when we get dressed; of the overall effect, that's all.
NJS.

[couch]

NJS: May I say it's nice to see an odd waistcoat with a lounge suit--something too seldom observed these days.

[storeynicholas]

Thank you, Couch: the waistcoat is in its 30th year and just happened to match the stripe in the suit. The hat is in its 25th year - but the rest is all later.
NJS

[alden]

Gentlemen

I was strolling about SR the other day talking to people at the various houses while working on a small project. When the subject of the internet came up I heard the kinds of sentiments expressed by Des Merrion regarding the “faceless experts.” It might be nice for some of you to know I also heard a good deal of praise of the London Lounge. But the SR sources led me to believe that they knew some of the faceless ones and implored me to find a way to make them fess or is it face up. It seems there would be general shock and consternation should their images ever be revealed.



I think it is very safe to say the faceless UFOs will never reveal themselves and for very obvious reasons. Please draw your own conclusions.

We don’t have any UFOs in the LL, my pictures are posted. So the post was not directed internally. However, I am very happy to see that a few photos were published anyway.

Photos are of such importance in the communication of dress that its constructive effects can no longer be ignored. In a recent discussion of DB lapels, readers had instant access to a variety of examples. Sadly some who wrote well of their dress on other sites, did not follow through and post pictures. It’s a missed opportunity in my book.

I will be posting more pictures on specific themes as soon as the rain stops…

After all how can you criticise others without offering yourself for examination?

Des, that is a nice bit of gentlemanly “fair play” you describe. I don’t think its an antiquated notion.

Cheers

M Alden

[mafoofan]

Well now, I wouldn't want to be a UFO, now would I?

[alden]

Mafoofan

Good show!

You were never on the UFO radar screen. Your generous use of photos combine well with the descriptions of your sartorial experiences. They make for reading that is a pleasant and informative.

By the way, gents if you have never been over to see Mafoofan’s blog, you should do so.

www.mfanblog.blogspot.com

Cheers

Michael

[HappyStroller]

Gentlemen, kindly excuse me. You know, One Country Two States a.k.a., The Whole Country Is Red, Korean War, Let A Hundred Flowers Bloom, Great Leap Forward, Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Anti-Confucius Campaign, Gate of Heavenly Peace (TianAnMen Square) 1989, One Country, Two Systems, Taiwan, Tibet, Olympic Games 2008, etc.... The works.

Unidentified Opinionists

Well the internet forums about clothes have grown considerably over the years and the number of self described elegant ones has as well: founders, moderators, posters, sales reps posing as posters, chant about their dress. But who has ever seen them? They are the internet’s UFOs-Unidentified Fashion Opinionists.
...<snipped>...
Now the other day on Savile Row a few tailors suggested a thoroughly plausible explanation as to why the pictures of certain writers have never been published. I prefer not to believe them. But there is a pair that leave a serious film of doubt trailing in their wake.
...<snipped>...
So let’s have the snaps of the snappy!
...<snipped>...
I think they should all be published by April 1. Does that sound reasonable?

We should probably compile a wish list of the UFOs we would especially like to see. Whom do you choose?


Cheers

M Alden