For Miles:

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57027

Oh, I see AAAC is down.

Anyway, im not sure I even want to know what youre all talking about.

This week a Squire took up residence in my building's garage...that particular resident has a double space. Amusing combination...Squire parked all the way in, brand new purple-blue X-type behind it.  Incongruous.

Just a thought (and please remember who's head it popped out of), but surely if I wanted to dress like a tip top American WASP I would import all my shoes & shirts from London? Or I'd pop over and get myself all bespoked up from head to toe?
Am I wrong? Is that not what the old money used to do?

Brooks & Press et al were always 'classy' sure, but for yer real 'class' wouldn't the true nobs have gone sniffing around the Row & Jermyn Street?
I'm very happy for those who want to to get themselves all rigged up in an authentic Brahmin get-up, but they shouldn't be wearing my beloved Ivy should they? They should be all darted and pleated and gussied-up in nice stiff-shouldered, pinchy-shoed English Style?

Rahhther!

Then again, what do I know?

Ivy, I think, was more for everyone...
What a lovely thought!

Milesy.

Last edited by Miles Away (2006-09-01 01:03:33)

Horace,
I had a navy white-striped grosgrain belt (with tan leather tabs, natch, because it was made in England) back then (about 1964). I don't remember the grosgrain wallets from that era. My younger brother, who is a Swaine collector, recently spoke to the Mr. Mancini you referenced in another post. Mr. Mancini said that the small leather goods from that era were all made by Swaine Adeney, but were marked up substantially by Brooks. The rest of the conversation was hand-wringing about the declines in quality at Brooks (a la Flusser).

In reply to Miles, the college students all wore natural shoulder styles. Their fathers may have been fitted in England. If you look at the George Frazier article on the best-dressed men of 1960 in the U.S., they seem divided between NY and the Row. Astaire is probably the best example of an amalgam between the two (i.e. the Brooks buttondown collar worn with Savile Row) and I suspect an inspiration to the Italians like Agnelli. The Brooks goods back then had English accessories and shoes, but the rest of the goods were manufactured for an American audience in Long Island (per Horace). A college student of that era would have owned penny and tassel loafers from Brooks, but probably not the tan Edward Green cap-toed shoes (or the wing-tip dress slip-on). The Brooks tan cap-toes seem to be the father of the endless debates about shoe color in these fora, but back then may only have been worn in mid-town New York.

Makes sense.
Thanks, C.