4F Hepcat wrote:

How the pink=gay thing still exists for contemplation is beyond me. I work in heavy engineering and construction to the oil & gas industry, quite a homophobic industry in places, and yet no one would bat an eyelid if you turned-up for work in a pink shirt.

Agree. I used to wear pink shirts quite commonly to the Annual Members Meeting of the National Rifle Association--certainly a conservative and probably still homophobic lot--and nobody ever said a word to me about it. This would have been around 30 years ago.

Popeye, you are as always too kind.

Inanity news:

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/foru … ost1304908
Hardline_42 (who hails from "between Princeton and Penn") suggests that the ever-resourceful Memphislawyer replace an offensive bit in his Gucci bit loafer with an actual bit from a tack shop. "French mouth, D-ring, egg butt, loose ring; just pick whichever one looks best to you," he tells the OP.

Hardline, who is obviously an expert horseman, must know a great deal about tack stores, although he appears to be visiting them in an alternate universe where horses are only twelve inches tall. If this isn't an astonishingly unfunny joke then it's one of the weirdest things I have ever seen on Andyland. For the very few non-equestrians on the sartorial internet: an actual bit for a horse is sized to fit in an actual horse's mouth, and is therefore five or six inches long; I submit, with total humility, that this might be too large to place on a shoe.

But I can only hope that this advice leads the iGentry en masse into tack shops, which are usually owned by brutish, muscular women who give the impression that they will drag you into the parking lot and beat you if you ask the difference between a running martingale and a breastplate. Even better, it might lead them to order pieces of equestrian bric-a-brac over the internet and affix them to any of their shoes that appear deficient of visual interest. I would love to see a magnificent series of Cole Haan venetian loafers provided with cribbing straps, Strongid-C bucket openers, short dressage girths, bot knives, tooth rasps, bell boots, Sports Medicine fetlock protectors, etc.

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/foru … emove-them
Then again, Memphislawyer appears to be steaming and ironing his pants, on the crotch, while wearing them, at his desk at work. So maybe taping actual horse bits to his ugly suede loafers would provide a much-needed distraction.

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/foru … tance-stat
Andyites explain why it's a good thing that no one has ever been able to buy a pair of Alden shoes.

To be fair to Costi, he was quoting Marcel Proust.

As Paul Simon once sang, "Proust is the bottom line for everyone...."

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/foru … orkmanship
Andyland early-season MVP Lalaland starts a silly thread on jacket alterations; Kabbaz comes in to give his opinion as a renowned tailor (his opinion is that the OP is stupid, which is surely true but perhaps not to the point); Kabbaz and Lalaland begin to argue; each side produces evidence of past altercations, reviving the ancient feud that had brought these two sartorial colossi to blows earlier this year; it calls to mind the battle between Achilles and the river Scamander, defiled with Achilles' victims - gore, earthquakes, racking waves, stabbing spears, the limbs and torsos of the slain thrown up as missiles against the godlike warrior, hard helmets and flashing greaves tumbling in the bloody water.

Also, since when has Kabbaz been a suit tailor?

For those who can't get enough of exciting new poster Lalaland:
http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/foru … s-going-on
A discussion of "nasty puckering" and "shelf ass." Note that this is like 80,000 words and that no living human would survive reading it.

Gilgamesh2003 wrote:

For those who can't get enough of exciting new poster Lalaland:
http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/foru … s-going-on
A discussion of "nasty puckering" and "shelf ass." Note that this is like 80,000 words and that no living human would survive reading it.

Despite having to admit to the humiliation of having to have shoulders of a jacket narrowed, Lalaland still trots out the bodybuilding/fitness model jargon of lateral and rear heads of his deltoid. It's clear to me that Lalaland is a 'hardgainer' and needs Scooby's Workshop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcuhi6Ra … plpp_video

Jimmy Frost Mellor wrote:

meanwhile someone done a poo in the Trad tie box & posted it on.

I laughed, thank you.

Meanwhile, as I'm laughing...

Functionally illiterate Englishman or party planner from Long Island--pick your Southampton--considers what to wear to Oscar Night Theme Party at his job:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthre … -ball-help

A nice little portrait of the Welsh Ripper ("Red is nice--the blood don't show!"):

Popeye Doyle wrote:

Okay, we'll try this one, with its impressive wall decoration:
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1691 … eyvest.jpg

He has the thuggish majesty of an enforcer for the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce. Of course, he breaks the iron rule of sunglasses and dress clothing, as expounded by noted fashion theorist CuffDaddy:
http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/foru … ss-clothes

Last edited by Gilgamesh2003 (2012-06-21 10:14:48)

prince nez wrote:

Is this AAAC fossil "OldSarge"?

http://www.styleforum.net/t/305109/burg … st_5538989

If it is I would have thought the only clubbing he'd be doing is the seal kind.

It certainly seems to be the same person. He's giving some great advice over at SF -
http://www.styleforum.net/t/304272/excu … st_5524974
I suppose the "good walking stick" in question is a deadly carbon fiber fighting cane, in case one of the young cellists becomes crazed with drugs (probably "bath salts") and makes an unkind remark to one's ladyfriend.

prince nez wrote:

Is this AAAC fossil "OldSarge"?

http://www.styleforum.net/t/305109/burg … st_5538989

If it is I would have thought the only clubbing he'd be doing is the seal kind.

Same guy, all right. Nice fellow, really. He's not too many years my junior, so he might find "clubbing" more congenial than enduring the hardships and dangers of the ice floes! At least, I would. However, I would rather be home in bed than in either situation!

Gilgamesh2003 wrote:

Renowned tailor* Alexander Kabbaz favours us with the honour of a very long post on shirt collars:
http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/foru … ost1305815
Anyone with a good relationship with a bespoke shirtmaker care to weigh in?

Well, here's my take for what its worth.

A fused collar is easier to iron than a traditionally constructed one due to the fullness present in a traditionally constructed collar.

Many men can't iron them, iron them badly or have them badly ironed.

To iron them you have to start at what I believe shirtmakers call the 'presentation point' that's the points of the collar and push the the iron to the centre of the collar do not go back and forth with the iron as you'll push the cloth to the points and get those nasty creases you sometimes see along the edge of the collar. Do each half on the collar separately. Ditto [French] cuffs. Some cottons are more 'sensitive' than others however. Twill (easier) compared to Batiste, (difficult) for example.

I believe Kabbaz uses a lot of those super fine Italian/Swiss cottons which as I've said before are a bitch to iron. I have some I know.

Therefore they tend to look crisper on the everyman.

The problem with fused is the quality of the fusible and the skill of the shirtmakers/operators in setting/operating the machine more so in a RTW/mass production environment.  A lot of fused RTW collars/cuffs bubble after repeated washings. Chemicals present in detergents can be aggressive and attack the fusible if of poor quality/incorrectly applied.

Another potential disadvantage is that fusible could make the collar stiffer and therefore less conformable to wear. The advantage of the increased stiffness afforded by this method is that it allows him to make more 'flamboyant/unique' collar designs.

Slightly related, I've heard several tailors voice the opinion that lightweight superfine suitings are better made by fusing than by traditional coat making techniques.

The guy has probably made thousands of shirts, speaks with the benefit of [his] experience. A good, informative, even handed post I though.

Last edited by formby (2012-06-23 08:39:23)

Just such a shame that he's such an utter prick.

He should just stay in the background & make shirts. Maybe. As a 'personality' he's awful.

Not like me.

Film Noir Buff wrote:

Sammy Ambrose wrote:

formby wrote:

The guy has probably made thousands of shirts, speaks with the benefit of [his] experience. A good, informative, even handed post I though.

I'd agree with that. Kabbaz is a shirtmaker, and probably a very good one indeed. Credit where credit is due, and all that.

"You can`t dress trashy till you spend a lot of money."

-Billy Joel - Its Still Rock And Roll To Me

“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap” - Dolly Parton.

Film Noir Buff wrote:

Sammy Ambrose wrote:

formby wrote:

The guy has probably made thousands of shirts, speaks with the benefit of [his] experience. A good, informative, even handed post I though.

I'd agree with that. Kabbaz is a shirtmaker, and probably a very good one indeed. Credit where credit is due, and all that.

"You can`t dress trashy till you spend a lot of money."

-Billy Joel - Its Still Rock And Roll To Me

Does anyone know what the 'masculine' form of seamstress is? I'd really like to find a more precise way of describing what Kabbaz does. Were he an artificer of women's blouses and dresses he'd be a dressmaker. The equivalent for men's shirts is ...?

EDIT: Does anyone have Andy's Encyclopedia to hand?

Last edited by Sammy Ambrose (2012-06-23 21:05:48)