I like TS Eliot's

"I grow old... I grow old... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled."

A brilliant poet.

Sailing to Byzantium. 1928.

Edit: The bit about courage is Cheever's addition & I like it so I used that version. Very well spotted though, H.

Last edited by Miles Away (2006-06-04 02:25:46)

"Everyone appreciates good manners"

I remember when I was first experimenting with "Hip" (in this case quite Hip) clothes, I went with a friend of mine from Saks on a Dbl date to Bondst Sushi (Amazing place) and It was the first time Id ever worn a jacket without a tie.

I felt very ill at ease in the new rig and thought out loud to his gf, who was complimeting me on my new look, that I felt I may be wearing more modern clothes but that i still had old world, stuffy manners. She told me that she thought everyone appreciated good manners. Not a revelation but this particular moment stuck with me tha wearing hip clothes didnt entail acting "cool", that helped me ease into it a lot more. Its true too, manners have saved me in situations where others have gotten into serious trouble. Even the roughest sorts appreciate and respond to respect and good manners.

"She is nothing but a neatly arranged pile of clothes". Unknown(at least to me)

"Remarkable man, Mr. Eliot. Nothing ever quite in excess."

Attributed to T.S. Eliot's tailor, Cyril Langley.



"Here comes Tom Eliot in his four-piece suit."

Virginia Woolf.

Last edited by Miles Away (2006-06-06 00:40:59)

"Because our world has music, and we dance;
Because our world has colour, and they gaze;
Because our speech is tuned, and schooled our glance,
And we have roseleaf nights and roseleaf days,
And we have leisure, work to do and rest;
Because they see us laughing when we meet,
And hear our words and voices, see us dressed
With skill, and pass us and our flowers smell sweet -
They think that we know friendship, passion, love!
Our peacock, Pride, and Art our nightingale!
And pleasure's hand upon our dogskin glove!
And if they see our faces burn or pale,
It is the sunlight, think they, or the gas.
- Our lives are wired like our gardenias.

Marc-Andre Raffalovich, 'The World Well Lost IV', from 'In Fancy Dress'.

Catching that Dandy spirit back in 1886.

That one is for 'Incroyable'.

"This conference is purely business to them, and they are here to appraise the horseflesh.  The American men wear suits and have sweaty armpits.   The women are tall and lean and plain.  By contrast, some of the Royal and Ancients from the big London fund of funds have striped blue shirts with white collars and double-barreled names and chins.   The Swiss, with their pinched lips and dark blue business suits, seem aloof and cynical as they chatter away at each other in French and Schweizerdeutsch.....Germans with bulging eurobellies from family offices mingle with bloated Arabs in pale suits and white shirts, their handshakes as cool and clammy as snakeskin....Wrecked old Texans with faces like road maps, sour breath, and fitted Hawaiian shirts chatter with fast talking private wealth bankers from Miami with pompadours and slicked back hairdos."

"Hedge Hogging" by Barton Biggs.  2006

Last edited by uppercase (2006-06-07 07:24:53)

A little bitter-sweet:

"Don't we glimpse through the darkness of today the broad green lawn of an Edwardian garden party and wonderful young men in blazers and white flannels talking of the great things they would do in a future they would never have?
The wrong people have survived this war."

Auchincloss: The Young Apollo.

For Ted & Coolidge, but not about them.

Miles

1899...
Piccadilly...
London...
... And Raffles (Gentleman! Soldier! Thief!) is up to no good...

"Then he took off his covert-coat and his blazer, spread them neatly on the top step - knelt on them - turned up his shirt-cuffs - and went to work with brace-and-bit near the keyhole."

What a rotter!
I like to think that he was kitted out by Cordings for this caper...

(E.W. Hornung, The Ides of March, The Amateur Cracksman. 1899.)

Here we go -
I especially like this one & think it's worthy of being an offering for Mr. Vaclav:

"Who says the art of conversation's dead when a man can make a point with his socks?"

Peter York on Style, Modern Times, 1984.

"I gave him a business card I pulled from the right pocket of my suit coat....

"Pefect," Dobbs said, pocketing the card without looking at it.
"Should we come to you?"

"No, I'll come to you.  I'd like to see how the other half lives in those high-rises in Century City."

Dobbs smiled glibly.  "It is obvious by your suit that you know and practice the adage that a trail lawyer should never dress too well.   You want the jury to like you, not to be jealous of you.  Well, Michael, a Century City lawyer can't have an office that is nicer than the offices his clients come from.   And so I can assure you that our offices are very modest."

......My mind moved back to the sartorial comment Dobss had made about me.   It still stung.  The truth was, I didn't have a suit in my closet that cost less than six hundred dollars and I always felt good and confident in any one of them.   I wondered if he had intended to insult me or he had intended something else, maybe trying at this early stage of the game to imprint his control over me and the case.   I decided I would need to watch my back with Dobbs.   I would keep him close but not that close."

"The Lincoln Lawyer" by Michael Connelly.  2005

Fantastic quote Horace.
Cyril Langley was in Albermarle Street (Maybe he still is? Not my area of interest, English tailoring) and the quote is from Paul Keer's "A Gentleman's Wardrobe". A funny little book.
Agreed, Eliot could certainly dress.

Miles