Viyella Wallah: Cool When it's Hot and Warm When it's Not

Africa Addio (Farewell Africa)

Warning: Graphic images

Summer Spectators

The English Gentleman: The Gentleman and his Wardrobe

His Suits

Those people who have a suit for every day of the week and even, one is reluctantly led to believe, more expansive wardrobes, are parvenus of the worst sort. A gentleman generally has two suits. There is one for formal occasions like funerals and another for less formal occasions like going up to London. They are made by one of a select band of exclusive tailors and last him many years until his wife judges they are too threadbare. Then they are either handed down to the gardener or given to a good cause like the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association. By this time, with any luck, his tailor has been paid and he buys two more. The criterion of a gentleman's suit is that it should fit well round the shoulders and that the cuff buttons undo so that he can turn them back when he is washing his hands.

Other Wardrobe

Although the number of suits he owns is on the meagre side, he has an assortment of other garments which are essential to him and which seldom find a place in the wardrobes of others. He has, for example, a jacket for every occasion. If he is a hunting gentleman he will have a hunting jacket. He will also have a hacking jacket, a shooting jacket and a gardening jacket which no self-respecting gardener would ever be seen in and they invariably have horn or leather buttons, several of which will be missing. He has a dinner jacket with trousers to match which must under no circumstances be called a 'dinner suit'. If he has evening tails he apologises for them, saying that they belonged to his grandfather, which is almost certainly true. A gentleman will sometimes wear a white waistcoat with his dinner jacket, particularly if he cannot find a black one and not mind being whispered about by non-gents, for it is perfectly permissible. He will not, however, wear a black waistcoat with tail, which is the prerogative of hotel waiters. A gentleman will also have a morning coat which he wears with rather dashing light-coloured trousers unlike those dark striped ones which are rented out by dress-hire firms.

The English Gentleman, Douglas Sutherland (1978)

Night Flights

The Blizzard (Akira Kurosawa)

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Hunt or be Hunted: German Hunters ca 1921

Thanks to TF in Frankfurt

Sotherboy: Bruce Chatwin at Sotheby's

Long before he became a celebrated traveller, novelist and controversialist, Bruce Chatwin was a 'Sotherboy' – a precocious young art expert for the famous auction house. Fifty years later, his colleagues recall Chatwin's Bond Street days with affection.

By Christian House

The Independent, Sunday, 16 November 2008

On a crisp winter morning 50 years ago Bruce Chatwin stepped off New Bond Street and into the galleries of Sotheby's for the first time. He was an 18-year-old, dough-faced boy straight from Marlborough College. The following eight years spent at the auction house were to prove pivotal. They would inform his unique prose style, introduce key themes to his work, provide him with a wife and create a lasting fascination with the allure of objects.

The world into which Chatwin entered that morning was experiencing a dramatic change. That season the art market had shifted up a gear, much as it did in September this year when Sotheby's hosted the groundbreaking Damien Hirst auction. In October 1958, the company staged the first black-tie evening auction of Impressionist paintings ever held in London. The Goldschmidt sale changed forever the way in which art was marketed, auctioned and desired by a new global audience. Bond Street was awash with reporters, their bulbs flashing on a dizzying array of dinner-jacketed bidders.

Read on...

Copyright 2009 Independent News and Media Limited

Sweet Toast of Mine

A Field Guide to L.A. Preppies

A field guide to L.A. preppies

The ’80s fashion statement is back. And in some parts of Southern California, it never went away. Where to find the look and the scene, with a West Coast sensibility.

By Adam Tschorn, Los Angeles Times

April 25, 2010

It's all but official: Preppy is back. But can Los Angeles — the laid-back land of mañana and margaritas, ever rise to the level of a prep paradise? It may surprise you, but it already has.

You wouldn't know it from the definitive text on the topic. When "The Official Preppy Handbook" was published in 1980, it didn't just give the West Coast the short end of the lacrosse stick, it practically smacked the City of Angels upside the head with the milky white sole of a Sperry Top-Sider. The few references to L.A. were more like admonitions. As a ski area, Mammoth Mountain was maligned for being "too close to L.A.," and the chapter on vacations deemed Los Angeles "strictly slumming material."

Which was understandable given what passed for preppy at the time: an insular WASP tribe clustered around New England, with wardrobe and social habits bizarre enough to warrant the satirical field guide that sprang from the minds of the handbook's Lisa Birnbach and co-authors John Roberts, Carol McD. Wallace and Mason Wiley.

Now with Birnbach soon to publish a sequel, we must recognize that the prep diaspora has continued unabated, and today the full trappings of a prep-centric lifestyle are just as likely to be found on Catalina as on the Cape, and the prototypical prep might just as easily hail from Manhattan Beach as Manhattan.

To that end, we've compiled a shortlist of L.A. locales and labels that today's Binks, Bunnys, Bitsys and Biffs might find worthy of a soft, well-mannered golf clap.

Read on...

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Blazer-on-Thames

Squash: Father vs. Son

Robinson Jeffers

"There is no reason for amazement: surely one always knew that cultures decay, and life's end is death."

- Excerpt from The Purse-Seine, Robinson Jeffers

Night Flights

The Rake: The Modern Voice of Classic Men's Elegance

If you are in need of reading material for your holiday in the Bahamas this summer, check out the journal The Rake. The focus here is on classic men's style and it claims to promote a "renaissance in gentlemanly sophistication and style." But it is much more than that. Recent issues also include pieces on literature, art, music, and design. The current magazine features a profile of the Hollywood actor George Hamilton, an essay on signet rings, and a stimulating account of the White colonists in Kenya before the war. The Rake is written for men by men. No preening metrosexuals, douchebags, or fashion-obsessed adolescent boys. Adults only, please. Luckily for me they do permit non-gentlemen to subscribe and it has been just over a year since I sent in my initial donation. I find every issue a delight. When I carry my collection of back issues to the beach or pool in my bespoke tote bag, I am so captivated by the inspiring content within that I barely take notice of the sizzling bikini-clad hotties surrounding me. The Rake is that good.

The Marlboroughs

Night Flights

The Day of the Jackal (1973)

The film The Day of the Jackal (1973) is one of my favourites and remains an inspiration to this day. If you are planning to assassinate a senior political figure who is betraying your country, it is best to wear the proper clothes--including a cravat-- whilst doing so, to memorialise the occasion.

Kometenmelodie 2 (Kraftwerk)

L is for Labour

Bertie Wooster: Floor Plan

Night Flights

Tartan Tuesday

Reds Don't Surf !

Belgian Shoe Delight

"These dainty shoes can be a shock when initially tried on; they seem slightly camp, but even the butchest of men could not fail to be impressed by how comfortable they are. While slipping on a pair in delicious chocolate-suede, I attempted to glean from the shop's manager, who his customers might be. Of course, he was far too discreet to divulge, though I did surmise that they do include some of the most powerful individuals on the planet. Being a little down at heel myself, I chose to have rubber soles added to the bottoms of my pair to increase longevity--such luxury does not come cheap."

Mr Classic, Jeremy Hackett (2006)





















http://www.belgianshoes.com/

California Poolside

Spanish Sailing

Don Juan de Bourbon (l), Juan Carlos (c) and Bernardo Arnoso (r) sailing in a small yacht.

Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal, or, The Story of the Vivian Girls

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Living in the Sunlight, Loving in the Moonlight (Bratislava Hot Serenaders)

Featuring Henry de Winter aus Berlin und Bobby.

Dreamhome