Great Photos: Duke of Windsor

[Costi]

[Gruto]

"The Prince of Wales visiting a school in the latest jacket fashion. The elderly gentleman, who accompanies him, is bishop (Notice his dress)." [Skræddermesteren, 1928]

[marcelo]

And seen from the back, in 1950:

[marcelo]

1954

[marcelo]

[uppercase]

[Frog in Suit]

I thought I would put an end to the legend that the late Duke of Windsor had anything approaching taste. Warning: this may shock the more sensitive amongst you:



Source: an enjoyable interior decoration blog called An Aesthete's Lament (link: http://aestheteslament.blogspot.com/sea ... %20Windsor).

Now I think I shall go and find a good place to hide from the enraged mob.

Frog in Suit

[shredder]

I have always felt that bad taste invariably triumphs over no taste, but I'm open to discussion...

[storeynicholas]

shredder - I suppose that it is bound to be so. FiS - I should like to think that he fell under his wife's influence but there was probably a gleeful element in that he was rebelling against the stuffiness of his upbringing. BIg day today
NJS.

[Costi]

FiS, I agree the polka dots on the banquette are too much...

[shredder]

NJS, well, he did have a monumental cheek.

OK, bambini, hush! Photos and captions only!!

[Des Esseintes]

Gentlemen

two photographs not of the good Duke himself but his wardrobe were posted today on the, generally rather entertaining, weblog "The Trad":
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wwgXxAjQedA/S ... loset1.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wwgXxAjQedA/S ... loset2.jpg

I am not completely convinced about everything I see in the second photograph, but the impressive number of rather extraordinary sartorial details on display serves to explain the reverence the sartorially interested continue to pay to this man - just to list a few immediately obvious ones:

• an arguably rather loud tartan jacket with cuffed sleeve and cloth-covered buttons - for evening wear, perhaps?

• a corduroy jacket, again with cuffed sleeves

• a pale tweed (?) blazer, or rather, a pale tweed jacket with brass, or gold, buttons

• a light coloured corduroy jacket, again with brass, or gold, buttons

• an Alpine-styled mottled grey loden jacket with a rather intricately ornamented green sleeve cuff

On the other hand, the photograph also hints at an aspect of the Duke's personality that, in lesser human beings, may well be considered attention-seeking to the extent of verging into tackiness - note the in your face placement of contrast colour shirt monograms. Clearly, the Duke would not really have needed to present his initial and, of course, the ducal coronet, to those he met with, or would he?

dE

[Costi]

Excellent resolution, Des Esseintes!
You can have a better look at some of these here.
A few of these loud pieces (like the Tyrolean suit) are traditional suits, more "costume" than dress.

[Des Esseintes]

Thanks for the link to the remarkable display of suits on the equally enjoyable Houndstooth Kid weblog, Costi.

I agree, many of the Duke's items pretty certainly cross the line to costume, in particular, from today's point of view - any plus-four tweed suit will be considered costume nowadays outside a very small, very conservative inner circle of the hardcore shooting set. And a full loden "Trachten" suit, even in most rural parts of the Alps, is usually reserved for "dress up" special events.

Good to see, too, my assumption confirmed that the loud tartan suit, apparently in a Hunting Lord of the Isles check - you always learn something new on these boards - may be an evening suit. That suit takes a tough man or a clown to wear in any other way than with a hefty dose of irony! Or the good Duke, of course...

dE

[uppercase]