Where cary grant bought his clothes?

[Costi]

Santy, Sator's coat WAS buttoned up in those pictures. The coat is a so-called 6x2 design, that is only the bottom buttons are meant to be buttoned. Other button stances are the 6x4 (the most common, with both middle and bottom rows of buttons working), 6x6 (all buttons working), 4x4, 8x6 etc.
The white linen pocket square (usually approx. 20x20 cm, with hand rolled edges) belongs in coat's breast pocket and has no practical purpose. For that, a white cotton (or linen) handkerchief (usually 45x45cm) may be used.
It is no crime not to know these things, but if you do care about how you look it would be a pity not to take advantage of the immense amount of good information gathered up in the LL archives. NJS is perfectly right that education, with regard to dress or anything else that interests you for that matter, is an ongoing process in which you add layer over layer and keep shaping the edifice. When you have stopped learning, it can only mean you lost interest.

[Guest]

you are right i thought it was a 6 by 4, but from the side it looks strange, unappealing as if he left the top button undone, in a casual manner.
besides, that called me old fashion, but why would you carry something useless.A white handkerchief does not adorn, i thought it was white for easy laundering purposes. silk could adorn and give some color.
i always carry a white linen handkerchief, but i don't want want everyone to know i carry one.
What i learned from Hardy Amies is that everything in clothing has a purpose. But yes, it's nice sometimes to show a white handkerchief on the breast pocket.

[RWS]

I, too, tend to prefer a utilitarian approach to dress. But the occasional elaboration can be liberating, Santy.

[Costi]

But the white linen pocket square does serve a purpose, even though not a practical one: it brings a spot of contrast where it is needed, whether white or coloured.

[NCW]

Santy has a point; Hardy Amies does oppose the use of a purely decorative pocket square. I must admit I am loathe to blow on silk, so I often have 'one for show, one for blow', which seems well supported and sufficiently traditional, if not strictly utilitarian.

How old fashioned is 'old fashioned'? You have to go back practically to the era of costume (which is further back in this forum than probably anywhere else in the world...) before the idea of a visible handkerchief vanishes. After all, as women today seem unfortunately determined to show, man has a basic urge to reveal his underwear (cf. lace jabot and cuffs analogous to the outrageous Edwardian handkerchiefs spilling from their breast pockets).

[Guille]

"which is further back in this forum than probably anywhere else in the world..."

NCW, you are absolutely righ in this. In many circles today wearing an odd jacket is dressing formally, wearing a hat (common until 60s) is very much an affectation, and wearing a tie to my universit is a topic of comment and surprise amongst peers. And here, Sator fascinates us with his knowledge of frock coats and we have hundreds of discussions on inverness capes, formalwear, hat styles, spectator shoes....

[marcelo]

But the white linen pocket square does serve a purpose, even though not a practical one: it brings a spot of contrast where it is needed, whether white or coloured.

For sure: one for show one for blow, but could a pocket square have a more mundane function without one’s flouting a well established sartorial rule? In Hitchcock” The Paradine Case (1947), the public prosecutor is sometimes seen removing his pocket square and then putting it back. At a certain point (ca. 1:20 min) he uses it to clean the lenses of his glasses before inserting the handkerchief in his pocket again with great panache.

[edhayes]

Cary Grant was slim, he didn't exercise much(he said he hated it). He also moved well. But remember, he was an actor, that's all he did all day-work at being cool.
I think that elegance is to realize that one is on this earth to contribute-that can be done with work, kindness, taste, love and the willingness to do what one has to do.

The first step to elegance is a smile and a kind word. If you have a small head and big shoulders, make your self strong so that you can use that strength for good. Everybody likes a man who looks hard but acts kind.

There are lots of good modern stores and lots of terrific modern artisans-I would hold Steve Hitchcock and Tony Gaziano up against anyone anytime. Gallo makes magnificent socks, Trafalgar Limited Braces are wonderfully colored and witty.

An elegant man never unintentionally offends, pleases in dress and manner the best he can and never stops working at being a better man.

[Costi]

But the white linen pocket square does serve a purpose, even though not a practical one: it brings a spot of contrast where it is needed, whether white or coloured.

For sure: one for show one for blow, but could a pocket square have a more mundane function without one’s flouting a well established sartorial rule? In Hitchcock” The Paradine Case (1947), the public prosecutor is sometimes seen removing his pocket square and then putting it back. At a certain point (ca. 1:20 min) he uses it to clean the lenses of his glasses before inserting the handkerchief in his pocket again with great panache.

Fine linen is indeed excellent for cleaning lenses and I sometimes discreetly use my pocket square for that if I have no alternative at hand, but I wouldn't do it with a jacquard silk one.

[storeynicholas]

An elegant man never unintentionally offends

I agree with most of what you say but here you say unintentionally - don't you mean intentionally - after all everyone occasionally unintentionally puts his foot in it, so to speak - and, without meaning to do so, says something that causes pain.

An example might be taken from the John Newman "Face to Face" interview of Gilbert Harding (in the days before these things were scripted with agreed content) - Freeman asked him whether he had ever seen a dead body, without realizing that his mother had very recently died, and Harding nearly broke down - life is full of this sort of thing and conversation would be unbearably restricted if we kept to the weather and rose-growing.

Cardinal Newman once said that "it is almost a definition of a gentleman that he is one who never intentionally inflicts pain" - Of course, a real gentleman would also seek to relieve it where he discovers it - and that is why, presumably, Newman said 'almost'.
NJS.

[RWS]

. . . . In Hitchcock” The Paradine Case (1947), the public prosecutor . . . . uses [his pocket square]. . . to clean the lenses of his glasses before inserting the handkerchief in his pocket again with great panache.

I formerly did so often. After I realized that even the softest of linen, cotton, or silk will scratch the supposedly "armored" spectacle lenses I wear, I ceased to do so.

[Guille]

"Everybody likes a man who looks hard but acts kind"

edhayes, I do not have words to express the extend of my agreement with the above statement and my surprise when reading it in such simple terms. I will quote you on this in conversations outside of the LL, I hope you don't mind.

[Mark Seitelman]

An elegant man never unintentionally offends, pleases in dress and manner the best he can and never stops working at being a better man.

Bravo, Ed!

[Mark Seitelman]

Cardinal Newman once said that "it is almost a definition of a gentleman that he is one who never intentionally inflicts pain" - Of course, a real gentleman would also seek to relieve it where he discovers it - and that is why, presumably, Newman said 'almost'.
NJS.

Well stated.

Mr. Storey, I just received your book, and I look forward to reading it!

[Azdak]

The book's out?! Why, we must get over to Amazon straight away. I suspect NJS's publisher is counting on all two-thousand-five-hundred-and-seventeen of us...