I'm not sure how many other professions make bespoke clothing compulsory, but for those who may be interested (and in our continued campaign to educate Marc and Crud), I wear a silk gown with a flap collar and long closed sleeves (the arm opening is half-way up the sleeve). The black coat underneath the gown is known as a court coat and is cut like 18th-century court dress, with a swallow tail, and is worn with a black waistcoat. Alternatively I can wear a sleeved waistcoat - a mess jacket. The sleeve of both the court coat and the mess jacket has a turnback cuff with three buttons across, not (as now) up. Each button on the coat/jacket, consistent with the traditions of court dress, has a stitched bar opposite. The stitching of this bar, and the fineness of the thread used, is one of the ways to differentiate the tailors who make the coat. The buttons are black silk. Although some of my colleagues opted for barathea I thought it would wear too warm so I chose plain twill. Ballantines caricature is here - http://wapedia.mobi/thumb/7ef4502/en/max/1440/1800/William_Ballantine_Vanity_Fair_5_March_1870.jpg?format=jpg%2Cpng%2Cgif&ctf=0?format=jpg,png,gif&loadexternal=1

The uniform has the interesting effect of ensuring that trousers get about 4 times the wear as jackets. Accordingly, I wear suits less than I once did, certainly in the summer. Any suit trouser will do (although blue looks a bit strange with a black coat), and, although traditional striped trousers provide another option, I don't much like them. Houndstooth is also permitted, and I have a couple of pairs of those. After Court in the summer, a linen jacket is cooler and less constricting. The cost of a court coat is now somewhere north of £5,000 which means that the tailors are used to demanding customers, who take the trouble to learn a bit about the technicalities and who scrutinise the finished article with some care.

Because a stiff wing collar and bands (akin to clerical tabs) are part of court dress, shirts have to have detachable collars. That, in turn, makes a double cuff a necessity. These can be bought off the peg but the good ones tend to be right at the top end of the rtw market and the jump to bespoke is not too great (Stanley Ley still do 4 for £100 but they tend to balloon in curious places). The width of the band is of some importance because a wider band helps retain the collar, which otherwise has a disconcerting habit of jumping up at the sides.

Last edited by Grossgrain Silk (2011-04-12 00:47:14)