To question the wearing of basics such as the white shirt strikes me as nothing but far-fetched to be honest...

...it's just that I can imagine all those lurkers shaking their heads in disbelief reading topics like these

Of course, anyone who wants to clothe themselves immediately in Troy Guild, Linet, Wilkes, Walk Over, Halrin etc. will have to think again.  The wearing of a decent American made Brooks shirt is not so difficult.

LOL

am wearing one at the moment and not a bird in sight!

sighs..

LOL

i'm married and all that jazz... thus, going out wouldn't help that much would it.

Not married here but "going out" hardly ever does much, pink shirt or not. Why people keep giving advice like that is beyond me.

That is definitely good advice.

Maybe for the newbies we should explain the context:

There was a piece on the old JS page by a macchiato man who wrote about what he had learned at John Simons by observing and talking to the older customers. He mentioned rules, but of course, this was different from all the iGent rules you read on the net. I forgot his exact words, but it was something like this:




"When I was a young lad working at John Simons, these rules filtered down to me:

The natural shoulder line is most important. Hook vent, flap and patch pockets, three buttons, two on the cuff, as many raised seams and welted edges as possible and no darts represents the ideal, but most important is the natural shoulder. The Anderson & Sheppard shoulder line is god.

Shoes only in black or brown.

Shirts blue or candy stripes, white if feeling outlandish, pink if on drugs.

Knitwear best in navy or grey.

Chinos should be flat fronted and high rise.

Chet Baker was our Beatles."



I think it was something like this. I've probably forgotten half of it, and of course the original macchiato man text was better, but that's how I remember it.

Great website it used to be, if not from a technical point of view, but I don't know much about websites anyway....

It's a shame it's all gone. There was a wonderful intervierw with John Simons and lots of other good stuff. Sometimes surprisingly beyond Ivy. A tribute to the Italian male and his sense of dress with a few nice photos from the sartorialist, sharp dressers in Africa, old flyers from Graham Marsh, pictures of actors from Steve McQueen to Tab Hunter, musicians from John Coltrane to Chet Baker, architects and designers....