The Way They Wore: Images from the Past

[comrade]

Appears to be an apron toe single monk as well.

Yes. You already posted it and I noted the 250GT Ferrari behind him.

 

[Leiker]

Yes. You already posted it and I noted the 250GT Ferrari behind him.

I already posted it?

Edit: Ah I think you mean DWW posted that image before.

 

[St1X]

From all these photos of the way the wore, I understood one thing - they wore it like ****. Most of the pics have really bad fit. And they said it was a golden age of menswear...

 

[Zerase]

From all these photos of the way the wore, I understood one thing - they wore it like ****. Most of the pics have really bad fit. And they said it was a golden age of menswear...

What is it that you don't like about the fits?

 

[St1X]

What is it that you don't like about the fits?

unstructured oversized shoulders mostly

 

[dieworkwear]

Today's theme is unstructured oversized shoulders, my favorite look

Examples of how this style continues today.

I was recently at an Anderson & Sheppard fitting. I was surprised to find their clothes fit very slim, clean, and short nowadays. I went into the fitting to get a coat fixed. My sport coat needed to have the chest let out for some extra drape and the front balance lengthened. My cutter didn't want to extend the shoulders, so I just went with his opinion. However, the overall sport coat lacked the roundness that I find so appealing in DDL's recent A&S stuff.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

These old vs. new pictures do make me pause to consider.

1. It's not just the robo-pose - it seems to me that the modern examples here are so much tighter and trimmer (despite the extended shoulder etc), so much so that the some of the folks wearing them look like they've had to breath in hard to button them (pretty typical of how SF bespoke was during the 'classic' phase of this site - I hate to imagine what happened when the owners gained any weight). I've almost never seen genuine drape in the classic old AS sense. Not even Steed does that - it's AS filtered through #menswear. They do not have anything like the drape of the older examples, which look to have a lot more room and be more far more comfortable.

2. I'm not sure I would call all of these of "unstructured" - they might not be Huntsman-style stiff military padding, but there are a variety of approraches to shoulder structure on display here from the American 'natural' (which is anything but) through hydrid 'continental' to some that are more Italian and genuinely less structured. But I don't see the "extended" and "unstructured" shoulder as synonomous, as in fact these examples show.

 

[dieworkwear]

These old vs. new pictures do make me pause to consider.

1. It's not just the robo-pose - it seems to me that the modern examples here are so much tighter and trimmer (despite the extended shoulder etc), so much so that the some of the folks wearing them look like they've had to breath in hard to button them (pretty typical of how SF bespoke was during the 'classic' phase of this site - I hate to imagine what happened when the owners gained any weight). I've almost never seen genuine drape in the classic old AS sense. Not even Steed does that - it's AS filtered through #menswear. They do not have anything like the drape of the older examples, which look to have a lot more room and be more far more comfortable.

2. I'm not sure I would call all of these of "unstructured" - they might not be Huntsman-style stiff military padding, but there are a variety of approraches to shoulder structure on display here from the American 'natural' (which is anything but) through hydrid 'continental' to some that are more Italian and genuinely less structured. But I don't see the "extended" and "unstructured" shoulder as synonomous, as in fact these examples show.

Half my wardrobe is Steed. I can tell you that you don't need to breathe in to fasten the coats.

 

[R.O. Thornhill]

Half my wardrobe is Steed. I can tell you that you don't need to breathe in to fasten the coats.

Indeed. There is a lot of space at the buttoning point of a Steed jacket

 

[Dadacantona]

Some of the coats do appear to have a particularly nipped waist, but I wonder if that is visually exaggerated by the fullness and roundness in the chest.

 

[R.O. Thornhill]

Some of the coats do appear to have a particularly nipped waist, but I wonder if that is visually exaggerated by the fullness and roundness in the chest.

If anything I try to make sure I always have some extra room in the waist. My drop is fairly meaningful (11”) so if I went for a draped chest and very tight waist I would look insane

 

[ladislav.jancik]

Some of the coats do appear to have a particularly nipped waist, but I wonder if that is visually exaggerated by the fullness and roundness in the chest.

I think this might be the case.

I am not that familiar with Steed cut and most of their jackets I saw were shoot from front, but what is contributing to the roominess in the buttoning point area is also the style of cut you can see from profile. E.g. here the waist is quite nipped as well, but the jacket is still very roomy at that area because its back is very straight:

 

[mr monty]

 

[dieworkwear]

Jean d'Ormesson, the man who loved knit ties

French writer d'Ormesson loved knit ties. So much so that he incorporated them in seemingly every outfit, making them a style signature. He wore them with suits

He wore them with sport coats, most often tweeds.

He even wore them while petting dogs.

Looking for new summer digs? D'Ormesson had some very cool summer suits ranging from tan to cream. I once commissioned a tan gabardine suit similar to the second photo. Should have gone for a heavier fabric, as gabardine is a very slippery material. I think my suit is 8/9oz cloth; thinking about doing a different gab suit in 11/12oz. When gab is too light, it doesn't drape well and the edges pucker easily.

Nearly all of my suits have matte black or brown horn buttons, but lately, I've been thinking that many suits look more elegant with tonal buttons.

D'Ormesson was also a fan of single monks. I'm increasingly warming up to this style.

D'Ormesson shows how you can dress down a tailored jacket with a black turtleneck. If you think black turtlenecks are a bit too cliche, you can also go for charcoal.

A very sad man on here once argued that suits should never be worn with loafers. D'Ormesson shows how this can, in fact, look quite elegant. At the last Anderson & Sheppard trunk show, I noticed one of the fitters was wearing a grey flannel suit with black tassel loafers, and similarly thought he looked good.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Half my wardrobe is Steed. I can tell you that you don't need to breathe in to fasten the coats.

That was an exaggeration for effect, obviously –or apparently, not obviously– so I don't doubt what you say, but as this is a photographic inspiration thread, I was commenting on what the photographs look like, saying that the new pictures you provided don't look as comfortable and relaxed as the photographs of the original style(s) that they are supposedly following. This could, to some extent be an artifact of the kind of pictures they are, but it doesn't seem to be only that. The older pictures seem to show much fuller chests and not be so nipped. That sort of much narrower cut is very 2000s #menswear - but clearly at the better end, not the 6" leg-openings end. In general, I think we'd be better off sticking with the older examples, which look so much better.

I notice you had no comment on the issue of shoulder structure... is that because I am actually right on that one?