Navy Aquascutum sounds good to me.  I miss my old 'FBI' navy raincoat from circa 2009.

Staxfan - Woof - sounds like you’ve been visiting Feltham !

Stanwell, but I had an office in Feltham for two years so I got to know the town via lunchtime expeditions, it was rare to hear an English voice. Good Polish, Vietnamese and Rumanian restaurants, plus the normal Indian and Chinese. Kingstonian would appreciate the local Spoons where you don’t make eye contact with the other patrons.

Woof - that seamstress  must be very good to risk visiting Stanwell , from what I know/knew Feltham is posh by comparison, my office was on the Nth Feltham Trading Estate for 10-12 years so away from the High Street which I understand could be tricky after dark !

Feltham is Zone 6 - as far as you can get on a Freedom Pass. Never got off there. En route to Egham etc.

You can now get to Reading for free on a Freedom Pass though. Handy for a lot of nice places.

fair comment Woof, i believe Viola Avenue is the no go area but this is getting off topic I guess , cheers

Raining steadily here for the second day running.  I'm just finishing off Gill's biography of that awful old cow Peggy Guggenheim. 

Wearing well-worn stuff: a vintage flannel shirt, tattered Bean cardigan and beaten-up Wranglers.  Rather expensive German socks. 
I'm aching to replace the Bean cardigan (Scottish-made) like for like.

A glimmer of sunshine up here in this northern Ivy outpost.  I fancied a bit of an elderly college boy look for half a morning in a very trendy secondhand bookshop, searching for anything affordable on the likes of Stuart Davis.  I wore my King Louie zip-up jacket (a kind of light, well, beige, I suppose), a flannel shirt (L.L.Bean), my newly acquired Made In The USA Levi-Strauss jumper (looks like a sweatshirt but isn't), some faded down 501s, blue Smedley socks and 'wine' Sebago loafers. 
The owner of the bookshop is actually called Mr. Booker and is a jolly nice chap.  Charlotte, behind the cash register, is doubtless very attractive when not wearing her funny little mask.

As an aside, one is very pleased and relieved to see our old Woofboxer back on his feet after some time in hospital.

Just staggered in after a highly interesting morning in which I a. chatted to a former employee of Paul Smith and b. saw a lovely, French-made corduroy suit that reminded me of Keydge and was, sadly, too big for me.  But I stocked up on CDs: Benny Goodman, Frankie (hi,Alvey), Nina Simone. 
I should have put more clothes on, though - the Swingster golf jacket wasn't quite enough!

The lady, who was knocking seventy I should have thought, had worked for Paul Smith in Nottingham.  She said what a nice guy he is and that his business partner (unnamed) lived in the next village to us, died recently, and Smith was up for the funeral.  Also that she'd been involved in a London photo-shoot.  There was also a bit of chat about the Italian end, that she'd been involved in early design work but that eventually they couldn't find the mechanics to service their machines, so involved had the Italians become. 
As for Paul Smith's clothing, I had a nice jacket in a kind of mossy green twenty-odd years ago.  Nothing else.
John Simons always spoke very highly of him when the shops were within walking distance of one another.
The lady had clearly never heard of John Simons.
My wife was obviously worried about the weather so I had to cut it short.

Interesting, thanks. He does seem a decent chap, still works properly, supports his team, cares about design and tries to do their best with companies it seems. People such as him, Dieter Rams, JS are at least examples of people who have tried to do their best, create something positive, enliven our experience and stay decent.

That area you describe is common of those that don't get attention, the 'between' bits - where the pace of change seems to go a bit more humanely.  Rutland/Oakham is much the same in that regard (there was a cracking independent menswear shop down a side street there near the open air market, but not been down since about 2018 so with all we're experiencing it may of gone).

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2022-02-18 10:01:23)

In fact, I've just remembered, the shop in Leabrooks where I was chatting to the lady was where I bought two very decent Alan Paine slipovers around 2010.  Still going strong, very much so, just like the lovely scarf our Staceyboy sent me.

Exciting trip out to buy stir-fry oil, multi-vitamins and stick my nose in at the local Oxfam.  Rather attractive blonde browsing; doubtless unimpressed by my feeble attempts to look like George Sanders in my Grenfell shooting coat accompanied by a cashmere Brooks scarf.

Maybe you could try Sanders of the River when the weather gets warmer?

Pith helmets were on sale in The Cut near Waterloo station.