Thoughts on High Gorge 2 Button

[Cordovan]

I was watching Man of the Year with Robin Williams, and noticed at around 32 minutes into it, he was wearing what appeared to be a (some level) custom suit with hacking pockets, a ticket pocket, and 2 buttons - both fastened. Perhaps someone with more advanced technological abilities than I can freeze the frame from the film and post it online.

Jack Newcastle has an article discussing such button placement on Matt Deckard's The Cad. You can see it at http://www.thecad.net/20071115122/Men-s ... wrong.html.

The look generally intrigues me. I was wondering others' opinions.

Cordovan

[NCW]

The article seems to take a rather modern view. A lot of what it says discusses 'fashionable' men in the past, and perhaps does not make the case strongly enough for why a photograph from the 1870s should be taken as enduring style. I think the most important rule is really the button placement relative to the waist. On a three-button suit, the middle button should be about where we wear out trousers (the actual waist), while I think on a two-button model, we generally have the top button there. You do not have the option of doing up the bottom button on any old jacket, as the article seems to suggest, but only where the two buttons are placed symmetrically around the waist. Similarly, buttoning the bottom one only requires a specially made jacket with a high bottom button, and should not be done, as the article suggests, with any jacket you feel like.

Finally, just out of interest, why did you think articles by a cad would be of any relevance to the company here?

[townie]

Further to the Jack Newcastle article, I thought "gorge" referred to the seam joining the collar and lapel, not the placement of buttons. Am I wrong? (It wouldn't be the first time of course).

[Costi]

No, you are not wrong, but usually the higher the gorge, the higher the button stance. NCW's exhaustive analysis pretty much covers all main points of the matter, I think.

[couch]

A footnote to Costi's response (apt and correct as always) is that it is a common misconception to believe "gorge" and "gorge height" refer to the depth and/or shape of the shirt exposed in the V of the buttoned jacket. It is a not illogical mistake to make, given that the more common meanings of the word are "throat" and "a narrow passage or ravine."

In a way, it's too bad we don't have a word for this shape apart from "button point / stance," which focuses attention on the coat's closure and only indirectly on the proportions of the lapel V and the amount and shape of exposed shirt, both of which are fundamental to achieving an elegant line on an individual figuration, and to judging pattern and color mixing.

Or do we?

[Cordovan]

It seems odd- but I was on the lookout for (at least pictures of) these jackets ('coats' for Sator) for a while but couldn't find very many at all. I recently saw some pictures of Al Jolson wearing them as well - I think the look and cut he had were the most appealing I've seen.

Cordovan