Briatore's Wedding

[Guille]

As many of you will know from the news or from gossip (both of which I quite repudiate, in fact, but I admit both are aspects one might have live with in order to be in society) that Flavio Briatore, the managing director of the Renault formula one team, has recently married the Italian model and beauty Elisabetta Gregoraci. Well I noticed something on the news an almost absolute absence of elegance in the people who attended the wedding, I thought I might comment it here and put it as an example of the profound decadence in which ‘classic’ and elegant clothing is going through.

Most of the men attending the wedding wore dark blue, dark grey or black suits. However a few did opt for the morning coat, including the groom himself: http://www.20minutos.es/galeria/4812/0/1/

He wore a magnificently cut morning coat with stylish dark red inner lining, and worn (as one always should) with matching black trousers and waistcoat. Just in case anyone didn’t notice I was exercising Anglo-Saxon ironic humour. What else to say but that the tie is badly tied, the coat is definitely not bespoke nor MTM, and if it is he should get his money back, as his sleeves are way too short, his armholes too thick, the shoulders too big, the lapels too wide… But the worst of it all is definitely the waistcoat… I won’t list the number of wrong things on it (the high-v-front horrible mixture, terrible lapels…), as it’s shorter to say simply that it would probably look better without it (even if it is wrong to not wear one with a morning coat).

Thanks god that at least there was a man of clothing in the wedding to teach the rest, Luciano Benetton: http://www.20minutos.es/galeria/4812/0/5/

The problem is that his lesson is the wrong way round: what he wore teaches one what one must not do when wearing a morning coat. Although he does look better than Briatore, as his jacket does seem to be properly tailored and fits, and he wears striped pants and a grey waistcoat. However the trousers are too long, the waistcoat doesn’t look at all like a formal one, but more like the kind of waistcoat one might wear under an odd jacket. Although he wears a wing collar, as most men would do with a morning coat in the interwar period, he ties a bowtie under it, and in fact a black one as for black tie. But this is for sure Benetton’s response to the modern way of life full of speed, in which one doesn’t have time to change from the morning dress to black tie as it was done at weddings back in the good old days, and has invented a perfect hybrid.

The Spanish formula one driver Fernando Alonso and the manager of England’s nation football team, Fabio Capello, as sportsmen that they are, look completely inelegant in their suits. Perhaps the only man in the whole wedding who dressed elegantly was Spain’s ex-president, Jose Maria Aznar, who wore a discrete navy blue suit with a white shirt a light blue necktie and black shoes, the suit fitting perfectly the shirt looking impeccable and the necktie rightly tied: http://www.20minutos.es/galeria/4812/0/4/

It is a shame that the rich and the famous, who have the money to dress elegantly and the power to show it to the masses, have such a bad taste these days.

[storeynicholas]

Guille - I think that never were truer words spoken on this subject. Benetton and his good lady look as though they are in competition to hail a taxi cab; he having failed to achieve take-off in that collar and tie!! I do, sometimes, wonder what some of the Great and the Good do spend their money on and, if they dress like this, goodness knows what they would serve up to eat and drink at an al fresco luncheon party - and not a hat between them!!
NJS

[RWS]

No surprise. Money and fame are no guarantees of anything other than money and fame.

Judging from the comments on the photographs, Guille's disappointment in dress displayed not only isn't shared but actually is ridiculed as reactionary.

But, Guille, I agree with you: only Sr. Aznar appeared well-dressed.

[Bishop of Briggs]

What do you expect from the founder of "Billionaire Couture"? Harrods discounted it by over 70% in the January sales - Spiv Couture?

[storeynicholas]

Oh! - no - it's The New Bespoke for a New Age - O brave new world, that has such people in't!! The odd thing is that if these people actually ran their businesses as they dress they would go four-legs-up in no time; so, what is the secret of their success?
NJS

[Frog in Suit]

Ahem!
WHO are these people? Does one know them?
Frog in Suit

[storeynicholas]

Know them? No, not I.
NJS

[RWS]

Hey, I'd never even heard of any of them (save Sr. Aznar) before Guille posted the story. But there's one benefit for this ageing bachelor: seeing such an old dog marry such a pretty, young woman. Now, if only I could find a billion dollars . . . .

[Sator]

This is hardly a disaster:



In fact, it's pretty good overall. I think the criticism of his waistcoat may be a bit harsh. In fact, I really like dove grey waistcoats with morning dress. Again, the combination of winged collar and bow tie are perfectly fine in my opinion:

[Gruto]

Sator, you cannot judge everything in relation to historical stuff. It might be correct dressing, but is it elegant dressing? As Mr Alden has pointed out: at the end, it's all about elegance, not rules.

[Sator]

. I might be correct dressing, but is it elegant dressing?

Yes. I would happily wear a morning coat with bow tie, detachable winged collar, and dove grey waistcoat without the slightest hint of hesitation. It is an exceptionally elegant look.

[storeynicholas]

RWS, I think that a billion dollars means less than it used to (hasn't the US version been varied down to 1,000,000,000) - still, as you say, enough to get a pretty wife, despite all else! But he must realize the truth, mustn't he?
NJS

[Gruto]

. I might be correct dressing, but is it elegant dressing?

Yes. I would happily wear a morning coat with bow tie, detachable winged collar, and dove grey waistcoat without the slightest hint of hesitation. It is an exceptionally elegant look.

Sator, I admire your knowledge and contributions, but we end up like Don Quijote, if we insist on Edwardian dressing. We have to accept reality. The task is to dress elegantly in the context of today.

[RWS]

I yield to no one in my love of history -- I may be the only Lounger who has actually worked as an historian -- but I must agree that we need dress with an eye to our actual environment, if for no other reason than that we should not gratuitously discomfort those with whom we have to do as friend, neighbor, customer, or guest.

[storeynicholas]

RWS - Spot on - moreover, the people who started off as the subject of this thread, to me ,do not even look particularly well clothed - let alone, well-dressed - they just look - well, all over the place.
NJS