Flapped breast pockets: Their Aesthetics

[Pssst]

-double post-

[davidhuh]

I have only seen one I really liked on a sportscoat and that was made by Frank Shattuck.

Costi has covered the essential points very well. A young bespeaker always seems to want to festoon his clothes with dodads he will later loathe.

Cheers

Dear Michael,

it is not easy to reply once you or Costi have made a statement. I will try

"Form follows function" is a leitmotiv in industrial design, which I try to follow when bespeaking a suit. I try to avoid things and garnitures without purpose (other than decoration). Now I was seduced when I saw the coat made up by Frank Shattuck, and the DoW coat posted by Pssst is another nice example. It was nicely done, and I liked it.

As many things in men's clothing, flapping breast pockets come from the army. All my uniform coats have one or two flapped breast pockets, on the work uniform, it was even buttoned. The breast pocket was of course not used to show off a handkerchief, but to store paper, a little notepad for daily reports etc. The flap prevents these things from getting lost in action.

Taking this into consideration, a flap could be considered for a driving or a hunting coat. Perhaps we can agree on this?

cheers, david

[Costi]

Taking this into consideration, a flap could be considered for a driving or a hunting coat. Perhaps we can agree on this?

I do.

[hectorm]

Taking this into consideration, a flap could be considered for a driving or a hunting coat. Perhaps we can agree on this?

I would say I also agree in abstract, but in reality the problem arises when that driving coat is used for a visit to a downtown museum or that shooting coat for a country walk. In both cases the flap is a bit too much (drop the flap and you might have more versatile sport coats that could even be appropriate for those occasions).

"Form follows function" is a leitmotiv in industrial design, which I try to follow when bespeaking a suit.

David, just for the sake of the argument, I wonder why you would like to follow a dictum of industrial design when it comes to bespoke clothes. It seems to me that industrial design is something one should avoid. Had you said that in Nature's design form follows function and that you try to follow that.......

[Pssst]

Ralph Lauren Purple Label FW2010.



Try to ignore the over-the-top RL accessorizing.

[davidhuh]

"Form follows function" is a leitmotiv in industrial design, which I try to follow when bespeaking a suit.

David, just for the sake of the argument, I wonder why you would like to follow a dictum of industrial design when it comes to bespoke clothes. It seems to me that industrial design is something one should avoid. Had you said that in Nature's design form follows function and that you try to follow that.......

Dear Hectorm,

first, I have to correct my German - leitsatz would be more correct. But I think either I was not clear enough, or you misunderstand me.

Many years ago, at a certain point in my professional life, I had to interact with industrial product designers (not the clothing industry, it doesn't matter). What they wanted to achieve was to assure perfect function of all intended mechanisms, and only when this was guaranteed, they would start thinking about the appropriate form and design. If you want a well known bad example, look at the famous lemon squeezer Philippe Starck did for Alessi. It looks spectacular, you just can't use the bloody thing to squeeze a lemon properly.

Actually, I was referring to something Michael was saying:

A young bespeaker always seems to want to festoon his clothes with dodads he will later loathe.

When bespeaking a suit, the industrial designers dictum tells me to keep things simple, and true to the suit's function. The most important decision I take when bespeaking is the cloth I choose. It should be the best quality and suit the purpose the commission is intended for. I like to add a ticket pocket whenever possible - for a reason: it takes my lighter. I like the condom pocket - for the handkerchief . What I try to avoid is everything pretentious, decoration for the sake of decoration. If I want a rustic sportive coat, I choose a rustic sports cloth. That's it, the rest is in the hands of my tailor.

cheers, david