Bespoke Savile Row

LONDON'S SAVILE ROW is a dandy's paradise - it is, I can only presume, where Lord Whimsy goes to get all suited up. The number of bespoke gentlemen tailors who hold the royal warrant on that street, a sure sign of sartorial excellence and quality, is truly something to behold. It is where the aristocracy gets fitted out for nobility and where those lesser mortals, like Churchill and the landed gentry, bought their top hats and morning suits. By appointment of Her Majesty The Queen, it is also where the Royal Family gets decked out in their best livery, a tradition which goes back to Victorian times.

More specifically, the Royal Family gets their military uniforms at Gieves & Hawkes, their livery at Henry Poole, their robes at Ede & Ravenscroft, their kilts at Kenloch Anderson, their tweeds at J. Barbour & Son, their hand made shoes at Anello & Davide, their umbrellas at Fulton and their headwear at James Lock & Co., no doubt the best hatters in the world.

Some of these, mind you, do provide very specialised services. Who out there is competing with Henry Poole in making garments for coachmen, footmen and chauffeurs, for example. I should hope he has a royal warrant to supply the royals, otherwise he be not in business. The in-house expertise needed to produce State Liveries, Court Dress for High Sheriffs and other Ceremonial uniforms, with their velvets, satins, gold lace, buckles, cut–steel buttons, court shoes, cocked hats and dress swords, cannot be all that insignificant.

Just read what they have to say at the Livery Department at Henry Poole: "In 1869 the Lord Chamberlains office issues new guidelines governing the wearing of Court Dress, and in an effort to standardise the appearance of gentlemen attending at Court, prescribed for the first a suit of clothes cut from black silk velvet and trimmed with cut steel buttons. Hither to Court uniform has consisted of a coat and breeches of superfine cloth worn with a floral waistcoat. This in turn had descended from the lavishly decorated court clothes worn during the reign of King George III.

This new, more restrained style of dress became the regulation uniform for High Sheriffs and retained some of the elements of dress from a previous age. Amongst these was a species of folding cocked hat known as a ‘chapeau–bras’ which had first made its appearance in the dying years of the eighteenth century and the black silk rosette worn at the back of the neck the last vestige of the bag wig of the 1740’s. The coat itself echoed the style of the 1780’s though the advancement of nineteenth century tailoring techniques lent a more fitted silhouette to this later garment. To offset this more sober uniform, a great variety of cut steel buttons, shoe buckles and sword hilts were produced, allowing the wearer to express his personal taste.

Today Henry Poole & Co. make Shrieval Court Dress to much the same standards set a century or more ago. Whether for ladies or gentlemen, each suit is fully bespoke, cut and handmade from the finest Italian velvet, trimmed with a choice of buttons and shoe buckles in the correct court patterns. For ladies we offer a design service and are happy to advise on style and choice of material."

Next time I'm in London, I'm going to go for a stroll on Savile Row. I'm missing some buttons on my navy high collared whites, and I can't think of anywhere else where I might get them replaced. Come to think of it, I'm also in need of a new umbrella.

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Classical Dressage

The lack of gentry sports at the Olympics is dismaying. Certainly most forms of English and Roman equestrianism should be permitted on the basis of their heritage. Chariot racing should take the place of beach volleyball, for example, so should polo, horseracing, foxhunting, combined driving and the fine harness.

Luckily though, dressage, eventing and jumping are recognized olympic sports.
Above: Just look at this dame on her horse! Excellent dressage turn-out, with braided mane, banged and pulled tail, trimmed legs and polished hooves. Rider wears a shadbelly and top hat, with white gloves, tall boots, and spurs.

An upper-level dressage horse at the canter.
A welsh pony in fine harness competition
Combined Driving: George Bowman in the dressage phase at Hopetoun National Horse Driving Trials Edinburgh, Scotland in May 2005.

Combined Driving: HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh exiting the water obstacle at Lowther Cumbria in August 2005.

An Andalusian at the collected trot.
An upper-level dressage competitor performing an extended trot.
Olympic gold for Eric Lamaze of Canada on individual jumping.

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When our grandfathers are gone, what will become of us?

Rummaging through the attic the other day, I was ecstatic to come across a couple of photos of my late grandfather who passed on over 20 years ago. As you can see from these 1948 shots, he was a somewhat tall and handsome man and dressed most appropriately to the times. No he was not a lawyer or a banker, he was a miner and then a lumberjack - what you were made no difference to how you dressed in public. Lawyer or lumberjack, you wore your Sunday best to town.

My father said he could be frightingly stern and strict at times growing up, but what I remember most about my grandfather, an Englishman born in Wales during the Edwardian period, was his quiet humility, his happy and peaceful acceptance of who he was and where he stood. As far as I could tell, he was only latently Christian and monarchist, meaning that it wasn't apparent, but you knew deep down he was, because that's just the way life was. I think if you had to summarize in a single word the general malaise of society today, if you had to explain what was sorrily missing in the West and what one characteristic was in need the most, I do believe that word and characteristic would be humility. The thing our grandparents had in spades.

As far as I'm concerned, our grandparent's generation, the ones who well remember Emperor George as young men in the 1920s and 30s (the Duke of Edinburgh represents the tail end of this generation), was the last to courageously possess all the attributes of moral virtue in working condition. How will we find our way when they have all gone?

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The Gentleman Manifesto

A Revolution of Panache: Making the Chap Manifesto our own.

The Chap takes a wry look at the modern world through the steamed-up monocle of a more refined age, occasionally getting its sock suspenders into a twist at the unspeakable vulgarity of the twenty-first century.

Since 1999, the Chap has been championing the rights of that increasingly marginalised and discredited species of Englishman - the gentleman. The Chap believes that a society without courteous behaviour and proper headwear is a society on the brink of moral and sartorial collapse, and it seeks to reinstate such outmoded but indispensable gestures as hat doffing, giving up one's seat to a lady and regularly using a trouser press.

* * *
SOCIETY HAS BECOME SICK WITH SOME NAMELESS MALADY OF THE SOUL. We have become the playthings of corporations intent on converting our world into a gargantuan shopping precinct. Pleasantness and civility are being discarded as the worthless ephemera of a bygone age - an age when men doffed their hats to the ladies, and small children could be counted upon to mind one's Jack Russell while one took a mild and bitter in the local hostelry.

Instead, we live in a world where children are huge hooded creatures lurking in the shadows; the local hostelry has been taken over by a large chain that specialises in chilled lager, whose principal function is to aggravate the nervous system. Needless to say, the Jack Russell is no longer there upon one's return.

The Chap proposes to take a stand against this culture of vulgarity. We must show our children that the things worth fighting for are not the latest plastic plimsolls but a shiny pair of brogues. We must wean them off their alcopops and teach them how to mix martinis. Let the young not be ashamed of their flabby paunches, which they try to hide in their nylon tracksuits - we shall show them how a well-tailored suit can disguise the most ruined of bodies. Finally, let us capitalise on youth's love of peculiar argot Ð only replace their pidgin ghetto-speak with fruity bons mots and dry witticisms.

It is time for Chaps and Chapettes from all walks of life to stand up and be counted. But fear not, ye languid and ye plain idle: ours is a revolution based not on getting up early and exerting oneself - but a revolution that can be achieved by a single raised eyebrow over a monocle; the ordering of a glass of port in All Bar One; the wearing of a particularly fetching cardigan upon a visit to one's bookmaker. In other words: a revolution of panache. We shall bewilder the masses with seams in our trousers that could cut paper, trilbies angled so rakishly that traffic comes to a standstill; and by refusing the bland, watery substances that are foisted upon us by faceless corporations, we shall bring the establishment to its knees, begging for sartorial advice and a nip from our hip flasks.

All men are equal. All men, that is, who possess umbrellas.
- E.M. Forster

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The Chap Olympiad

The Beijing Olympics won't have to compete with this. The Chaps very gentlemanly and sportingly chose to hold their Games earlier, so as to not hog any official air time. The chaps of course are fellow esteemed members of the cultural counter-revolution, whose lack of athletic abilities is amply made up by their sartorial prowness.

The annual event is hosted by Chaps Magazine - the bible for traditional gentlemen who are against the vulgarity of modern culture. The opening ceremony includes the lighting of the Olympic pipe.

Teams compete to mix a dry martini, with the handicap of having no butler to do it for them. Such is the athleticism of the Chap Olympics.

The Chap movement was created in 1999 by Hampstead-born Gustav Temple in an attempt to "stand against the horrible culture at the time" including lad's magazines and wearing too much sportswear.

Let the Contest Begin
The Pipe Smoking Relay
In the Pipe Relay a lit pipe is passed between teams of three along a gruelling 100-yard course. Wearing any kind of sportswear at the games results in instant disqualification.

Any chap - or lady - of worth smokes a pipe.
This lad demonstrates his skills in the Cucumber Sandwich Discus Toss
Michael "Atters" Attree is grooming editor for Chaps. For him being a "chap" is a way of life, not a hobby. He dresses like a gentleman everyday. His event was the three-trousered limbo, where participants share enormous trousers and must wriggle under a pole. Another event, 'Bounders', involve six cads who approach six ladies and behave atrociously, with the winner being the recipient of the loudest slap.

A quill is thrown at a target as poetry is read out. Extra points are awarded for epic, metaphysical or absurdist verse.

Ladies astride their equine-attired mounts race each other, with some surprise hurdles along the way.

Judge my Shrub
The prize? Gold, silver and bronze cravats of course, among other things.

Hat tip: The Classic Canadian

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The Duke and his d'Orsay

I must say the Duke of Edinburgh is looking rather dapper here in his morning suit and beaver hat. Is that a d'Orsay or Regent, I think it's a d'Orsay, which fell from fashion eons ago when beaver felt made way for silk. Whatever the style, the choice of pearl gray is perfect for afternoon garden parties like this one at Holyroodhouse, though strictly forboden as evening wear.

Prince Albert singlehandedly saved the Canadian beaver from extinction, when he donned the silk top hat as a statement of royal pleasure in 1850. For the three hundred years prior (1550-1850), virtually all hats were produced from beaver pelt, from the bicorn/tricorn cocked hats of the navy and army, to the mass of gentlemen toppers across civilised Europe, and the Hudson Bay Company flourished as a result. The beaver was trapped out of existence in mainland Europe and then Scandanavia before operations really took off in British North America. Thanks to Prince Albert, the great and glorious beaver never met the same fate in the New World. Isn't that right, dear Beaverbrook!

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Straw Boaters at Henley Regatta

It's Henley Royal Regatta week again. Straw hats, Hampstead-collared shirts, striped cotton blazers and rowing repp ties galore. See you gents at the Leander Club. Don't forget to bring your Pimm's!

Earlier this month we reported on the Royal Ascot races, one of the highlights of the English social season. This week ushers in another classic British sporting event, the Henley Royal Regatta. The five-day Regatta, held on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, takes place over the first weekend of every July.

International crews compete in various races at the Regatta, which has been held every year since 1839 except during the two World Wars, the main event being the Grand Challenge Cup for Men's Eights. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, became the Regatta's first Royal Patron in 1851, a tradition carried on by the reigning monarch ever since, though unlike Royal Ascot they don't always deign to attend.

Even more so than at Ascot, Henley provides an opportunity for aristocrats from the sporting and social sets to dress in that distinctively British style which has inspired so many fashion designers over the decades. The commercialization of Henley, unlike Ascot, Wimbledon and cricket at Lord's, has been slower to take hold, and as Godfrey Smith writes in The English Season, it is something of "an Edwardian time warp."

Then and Now
At Henley, members of rowing and boating clubs sport distinctive blazers, straw hats and repp ties - sometimes all three - in often eye-popping club colors. Like the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, Henley has its own inner sanctum where the bon ton congregate, and as at other English social occasions class distinctions involve fastidiousness of dress. The Stewards' Enclosure, adjacent to the last part of the mile-long course and the finish line, is the most coveted locale.

Stewards' Enclosure
Prizegiving takes place here at the Regatta's conclusion, and there is a strict dress code: suits, blazer and flannels or evening dress, and of course neckties, are required for gentlemen while women must wear dresses or skirts that cover the knees. The waiting list for the Stewards' Enclosure, tactfully referred to as "a haven from the general bustle of the Regatta," is several years long. Many gallons of Pimm's and champagne are consumed there.

The Leander Club
Another such stylish oasis is the Leander Club founded in 1818, situated just down from the Stewards' Enclosure. The largest, most historic and prestigious rowing club in the world, its members wear bright pink in sometimes surprising combinations.

Straw Boater tip to The Classicist for the above article.

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Tails and Toppers at Royal Ascot

Proper Toppers may be a thing of the past, but at the Royal Ascot races they are de rigeur. Read Royal Ascot: gentlemen prefer toppers

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall ride down the racecourse at the start of this year's Royal Ascot, 17th-21st June 2008. Royal Ascot is the high fashion event in the summer social calendar, steeped in history, tradition, heritage and pageantry dating back to 1711 when it was founded by Queen Anne.

The jewel in Ascot’s crown, Royal Ascot attracts over 300,000 racegoers each year, to view the splendour and colour of five days of the finest racing, fashion and glamour. The course is closely associated with the British Royal Family, being approximately six miles from Windsor Castle, and owned by the Crown Estate.

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