Dress With Style
Ha. When I am in Sicily on a rainy day, I will sit for hours in my tailor's workshops chatting and watching them work. I see them working the fine, light cloth that squirms around in their hands like small, slippery trout. It takes loads of patience and skill to sew this cloth well. With a stout tweed or overcoating they just clamp on the stuff and sew...easy as can be!I've never forgotten the description, the cloth was referred to as tissue thin and nervous.
Sorry Michael can't go with the open necked shirt with or without cravat with this coat, nor the flat cap. Neither work IMHO.mmkn2 wrote:These two looks are what I consider ideal alternatives to a tie . . . the visual interest of silk next to the neck but not activating the carotid sinuses . . . relaxed yet interesting.alden wrote:
- M
Interesting you should write that. I thought that, on the contrary, it was an excellent example of how a relatively dark DB overcoat can be made to look good with an ascot and cap. I think the secret lies first of all in the nature of the cloth (a brown, after all, and a herringbone tweed - not something you would wear over your dinner suit), then in the way it is tailored, in conjunction with the weight of the cloth: soft, not overly structured, just as much as the cloth naturally takes; finally, it is the four button configuration that is more relaxed. The mere fact that it is a dark DB overcoat does not confine its use to covering a city suit and a tie (althoug it can do that as well). This is what makes it a "useful" (i.e. a versatile) overcoat in my view and allows it to transcend "rules" without really violating them.ottovbvs wrote:Sorry Michael can't go with the open necked shirt with or without cravat with this coat, nor the flat cap. Neither work IMHO.
It does indeed lie in the nature and pattern of the cloth, but also in the cut of the coat. Now accepting that this is all about personal taste my view is that the only proper "formal" topcoat if I can call it that (ie. not Barbour, Field, Pea, etc) that works with a flat cap is the classic bulky raglan sleeved overcoat ideally in a fairly strong pattern of coarse texture. A big and colorful herringbone tweed, cream and brown say, or windowpane would work but I , and I emphasize it's personal, think this cloth and the DB cut even with four buttons looks too sophisticated and formal to work with the cap let alone the cravat/open neck shirt. A plain color of coarse texture in the raglan cut would also work as would the fabric of Michael's coat although I do think it's borderline. The problem wth transcending "rules" is that when you do it it has to produce an aesthetically pleasing result as for example the DB blue blazer and straight legged jeans do but this IMHO does not. It's a fine dividing line.Costi wrote:Interesting you should write that. I thought that, on the contrary, it was an excellent example of how a relatively dark DB overcoat can be made to look good with an ascot and cap. I think the secret lies first of all in the nature of the cloth (a brown, after all, and a herringbone tweed - not something you would wear over your dinner suit), then in the way it is tailored, in conjunction with the weight of the cloth: soft, not overly structured, just as much as the cloth naturally takes; finally, it is the four button configuration that is more relaxed. The mere fact that it is a dark DB overcoat does not confine its use to covering a city suit and a tie (althoug it can do that as well). This is what makes it a "useful" (i.e. a versatile) overcoat in my view and allows it to transcend "rules" without really violating them.ottovbvs wrote:Sorry Michael can't go with the open necked shirt with or without cravat with this coat, nor the flat cap. Neither work IMHO.
Isn't that really shirting?DD MacDonald wrote:On the subject of light cloth taking patience, I remember reading an article in the WSJ in the past ten years or so about a range of 6oz summer cloth which briefly touched on a tailor's experience. I've never forgotten the description, the cloth was referred to as tissue thin and nervous.
DDM
Agree about the need for a good hat and your suggestion would work well but the effect might be somewhat like those frozen faced guys standing on top of Lenin's Tomb for the parades. Alan's trillby looked good and the right large Tyrolean might work.Jordan Marc wrote:Michael:
A 'dainty 32 ouncer', eh? This magnificent herringbone monster will get you through the next Ice Age. But it needs a great hat. How 'bout one of those Cold War-style fur hats, not the crappy Russian army issue but something made of the finest mink, sable or beaver.
JMB
On this side of the Atlantic we tend to use the flat cap a bit more liberally, always have done but even more today when facilities are just not cut out to deal with fedoras. And if someone is needs to keep the head warm, a flat cap is a good way to go, just fold the thing in your pocket. Dressed with a nice silk scarf it passes muster pretty easily.Sorry Michael can't go with the open necked shirt with or without cravat with this coat, nor the flat cap. Neither work IMHO.
Is there a fresh picture of this anywhere?alden wrote:A few of you have asked to see the back of the useful DB overcoat. Here it is:
Cheers
M Alden
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