Anybody got any slightly mad and pretty petty sartorial rules that are maybe unique to them?
'Rules' made up just because they reflect your own taste?
Here's one of mine:
The bottom button of the waistcoat is always left unbuttoned as we all know... Tradition & all that.
But this unbuttoning MUST be a choice made by the wearer of said waistcoat. To wear one of those waistcoats so cut as to make the buttoning of the bottom button impossible is to advertise that you are so clueless that you have to have these choices made for you as you can't be trusted by yourself to know how to button a waistcoat. They are also very 'ungentlemanly' as they advertise the wearer's lack of knowledge and taste in these matters.
Good & mad, eh? As all sartorial diktats should be.
Anyone got any other corkers to add?
Random rule No. 2 -
Feel free to wear Brown in Town.
Just because it tortures all the 'experts' who've ever read a rule book...
The more you wear it the better!
Display complete sartorial abandon by wearing a town suit adorned with a ticket pocket.
Be the cause of true shock and awe by wearing a button-down shirt with a town suit. Risk complete social banishment by also wearing monkstrap shoes.
Sadly I'm not smart enough to argue it but I think there is a sense in which those who follow the sartorial rules of being 'well dressed' no longer look well dressed.
They just look pedantic & pedestrian.
The world seems to have moved on without them.
How well I recall the random rules of my late great, great ,great, great, great, Godfather, the sainted Septimus Lean:
"If the shirt be dark and the tie be light -
Lucky be he who looks alright."
Homespun wisdom from 1679.... Because I says So!
t.
Wear your flannel or birdseye suits only in the evening, to a good restaurant. During the day, pretend you're on a shooting trip in the Milanese countryside with Luciano Barbera, who has kindly consented to loan you a few flannel trousers, cashmere plaid jackets, suede shoes, and other week-end items. OK to have business meetings in this regalia-you don't live on the coast.
Last edited by stylestudent (2007-01-16 13:55:53)
I could be taking this too literally, but I am guessing that they wore their country jacket with the ticket pocket on the outside only as far as their pied-a-terre, where they had suitable city clothes in their closets for the duration of their stay. Then wore the country jacket on the return trip, no?
Because I say So Rule: very few can pull off a silk pocket square that doesn't look too studied or ponce-y. Best to avoid.
Any tie knot larger than a four-in-hand is wrong.
Only ever button ONE button on your jacket.
The top (2 btn style).
The middle (3 btn style).
If you wear 4 btn jackets (or 4+), you're on your own - I can't imagine how to button those. Last from the top only?
Always, always keep cuff buttons buttoned.
Have a personality instead of a funny tie.
The answer to the question 'Will this shirt last another day?' is always no.
Last edited by Horace (2007-01-17 21:01:41)
Horace,
I wore a silk pocket square daily, got self-conscious, and switched to the plain white variety (RLPL linen or Charvet cotton). Now I'm self-conscious about these. Nobody wore them in the '60s. Wonder if this has to do with age (or my wife's dislike of them).
Regards,
Steven