Ede And Ravenscroft

The perfect suit

Ever since I was a teenager, I have resisted wearing a suit. My adolescence coincided with the Nineties, a benighted decade for men's suits, when fashion was dominated by grunge and sportswear, and the Young Turks of Silicon Valley promulgated the novel concept of dress-down Fridays at work. As a result, I associated suits with conformity and the Establishment: I only bought my first suit for my wedding last year.

In the meantime, my father kindly agreed to foot the bill for an off-the-peg, single-breasted suit from Savile Row tailor Gieves & Hawkes, insisting upon a "classic" bird's-eye pattern for the cloth (minuscule silver-grey dots clustered against a darker background).

To begin with, I remember feeling sharp. On a subliminal level, donning a suit helped me get into my new role as a "proper" grown-up, because that is what a suit had meant to me as a boy: I used to watch my father leave for work in the City dressed in suits that he had ordered from Ede & Ravenscroft. Even then, I recognised that a suit could confer power and prestige upon the person wearing it.

But my Gieves & Hawkes suit started attracting snide comments from colleagues. To anyone versed in the subtle fluctuations of men's fashion, the bird's-eye pattern broadcasted a somewhat archaic signal: it belonged to my father's generation, rather than my own.

Recently, I have been thinking a great deal about men's suits, while presenting a new television documentary for BBC Four. explores the history of the gentleman's lounge suit, a jacket and trousers of matching cloth.

Now, I realise that clothes have a somewhat superficial reputation, but Coco Chanel had a saying that "fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening". I think she was on to something; just like art, clothes hold up a mirror to the times. Besides, as the outspoken British fashion designer Antony Price told me: "Women love a man in a suit. He can bring home the bacon - the suit indicates success."

The origins of the lounge suit are murky. Fashion historians find antecedents for it in military uniforms, riding and hunting clothes, and garments worn by surgeons. Some trace the suit back to the court of Charles II, who introduced austerity measures in the 1660s, and insisted that courtiers wear only sober, three-piece outfits made from the same dark fabric. Buttons were sewn on to the right side of jackets (a practice that has endured to this day), so that men could easily draw their swords, which were always worn on the left.

New Ede & Ravenscroft Catalogue Out._35058 - Cell Phone Forum

Yep, got mine yesterday too. Wish I had a scanner to show them to the forum.Generally wonderful outfits - I loved the cream 3pc wool/cotton/cashmere suit paired with the brown suede boots. The shirt/tie/square combo with that suit is excellent too. The brown linen hacking jacket paired with white trousers, pale blue shirt and orange tie seemed a trifle last year dresses with waist training corset , but still worked very nicely and is a modern classic now I think. The formal wear is gorgeous, as always. The bengal linen jacket outfit was a nice twist on US seersucker patterns. I have a seersucker jacket and will be stealing that look - with a few little modifications - I think.I didn't think much of the brown pinstripe suit with hacking pockets (looked a bit spivvy to my eye) and the red stripe/red stripe tie/shirt combo with a red rose and the grey 3pc suit was just a confusing choice. The cover pic grey suit has a nice texture (?sharkskin white corset sale , couldn't make it out exactly) dresses saxi sale , but I don't like the pale lilac tie. Nice shirt though. The Chelsea boots with the regular blazer outfit seemed a bit incongruous but worked anyway.I tried on that blue/white boating blazer a month or so ago, when wearing a pair of white flannel trousers I just had altered to fit. It is BOLD !

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