A short time ago the lovely Pilar M at B.e contacted me to ask if I would review one of their products. The brief email read:

I am contacting you as I have seen your website and it expresses exactly the philosophy of B.e : Elegant & Simple, Comfortable. Be stands for Be Essential.

Not all pleasures [...]]]>

A short time ago the lovely Pilar M at B.e contacted me to ask if I would review one of their products. The brief email read:

I am contacting you as I have seen your website and it expresses exactly the philosophy of B.e : Elegant & Simple, Comfortable. Be stands for Be Essential.

I am a Textile Engineer,with a strong background in Quality Control on Italian firms- high end brands, like La Perla; Argentovivo, Bacirubati, Julipet. Be-Pima is the result of combining my studies and professional experience to produce a brand based on Quality.

Now, as many of you know, I’m not much of a t-shirt kind of guy. And, the basic collection is exclusively (at this point) women’s wear. But in all fairness to you, my female readership, I thought I’d give them a try. After all, when I asked, many of you responded to my survey and told me that you wear casual clothing a lot. So, if you’re going to wear a t-shirt, I reasoned, you should wear a beautifully cut version. Could it then be elegant? I do own a cashmere t, and rarely wear it. It just isn’t something I think about and when you’re a bit “neck forward and long” as I am, I don’t think it is very flattering.

But entering into the spirit of the thing, I asked that they forward a red tunic in a medium so that Mrs. E. could put it through its paces and render a verdict. Which she has.

First things first…. it arrived in a silver mylar bag with a very nice square sticker sealing the top. The three cards tucked inside were of beautifully modern design.

The colour is stunning. A vibrant red that will not escape notice. The hand (the way the material feels to the touch) is luxurious. Indeed, it is cotton made silkily smooth.

The cut is very nice. It is, however, designed more for the Audrey Hepburn-esque among you rather than the more Monroe-esque Mrs. E. . She was unhappy with the way that the side vents opened over her hips. The neckline, length and sleeve length she pronounced superb. The neckline is particularly beautifully sculpted.

There were a couple of design issues that I wasn’t as pleased with; but judge for yourself if they matter to you.

There is, at hip level, an embroidered logo. I wear Ralph Lauren’s, Brooks Brothers’, Fred Perry, LaCoste and Peter Polo tennis shirts, so that isn’t too much of an issue with a piece of casual kit. There are some who don’t like to wear visible logos; if you are one, this may grate.

The fantastic boat neck is tagless inside, so there is nothing that might mar the line when seen from the back.

However, the tagless imprint does show through the back of the neckline. Not really an issue if you have below-shoulder length hair.

You will notice that the seams on the inside are not finished and loose threads were very much in evidence at the side vent. I like finished or at least taped seams and seamless construction is possible, I believe, using a method that creates the base of the garment in a tube shape. I could be wrong, but I’ve seen a lot of athletic clothing that is seamless to reduce chaffing. I like the look and feel of those garments. In addition, I think that the idea of hiding the size tag so as not to interfere with the neckline is very smart. Hiding it at the hip next to a side vent many not be the best location. I’m not sure there’s a better solution.

Finally, and this is a design choice, there is a seam running straight down the back. Which I find odd. I couldn’t tell if it was meant to be slimming (creating a vertical line) or not. Shaped side seams may work better to that end. I don’t know, I’m not a designer. But it was strange looking to my eye, imparting a heaviness to the back not in keeping with the ethereal lightness of the material.

So there you have it, at EU45, a mixed bag in my opinion. (Full disclosure: I was sent the shirt gratis to review.) I am not a clothing designer and don’t know if this is the most efficient design from all standpoints. I admire the packaging, the marketing materials, the thought that went into the concept. I think that the final product needs a bit more tweaking to be considered truly elegant.

But that’s just me.

If you’re in the area, stop by and peruse the selections of one of the best dressed on the other coast and the ever elegant Gracie. I understand that on-line purchasing will be available in the future.

I go through phases in reading books. At the moment I am reading about my favorite period in history: between the wars and the glittering generation that changed the way we think about living. Thought-provoking stuff.   David Desmond’s  Misadventures of Oliver Booth: Life in the Lap of Luxury was purported to be a comic novel — [...]]]>

I go through phases in reading books. At the moment I am reading about my favorite period in history: between the wars and the glittering generation that changed the way we think about living. Thought-provoking stuff.
 
David Desmond’s  Misadventures of Oliver Booth: Life in the Lap of Luxury was purported to be a comic novel — a ‘Voltaire-esque’ misadventure on top of that — and I just wasn’t convinced that I wanted to read it, especially for review. ‘Dying is easy,’ someone once said, ‘comedy is hard.’
 
Let’s get this out in the open: it is funny, with Rabelaisian moments, even. It is also a comic novel for our times. Especially when we read of the alleged fraud perpetrated by London antiques dealer John Hobbs, and the nightly escapades of ‘celebutantes’  famous for being … famous.
 
The Misadventures of Oliver Booth is a novel about shortcuts. The protagonist Booth is a social climber clinging to the side of a building just off the wealthier shopping thoroughfare of Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida. Worthless, in every sense of the word. He longs to belong to the set that decorates the better houses in Palm Beach, but his ‘antique shop’ is filled with cheaply made ‘reproductions of classic French designs.’ He is a horrible employer, grotesque in appetite and deportment, and not much of a decent person in general. If he didn’t have bad taste, as the saying goes, he wouldn’t have any taste at all. No one would enter his shop without stumbling into it or bother to take a second glance at the inventory if he did. 
 
Fortunately for Booth, that is exactly what happens as he makes the acquaintance of the grandson of one of the doyennes of Palm Beach society who sends Booth and a French waiter with a good eye to Paris to outfit her guest house. Booth hopes to get rich quick, not really knowing his antiques (although he subscribes to all the magazines,) not speaking the language and not willing to listen. His newly-minted colleague Bernard Dauphin (the French word for the heir apparent to the throne…) is destined to make good. And he does it by being honest, hard-working, and French. Yes, he has a good eye, but he also advances largely through being in the right place at the right time.
 
And why not? The American motto may be e pluribus unum but I bet I could make a strong case for carpe diem in this land of opportunity. Since we’re on the subject of Latin phrases, I leave you with one more: caveat emptor, ‘let the buyer beware;’ you may get sucked into reading and not want to stop. Or you may recognize yourself in one of the composite caricatures.
 
No one escapes Mr. Desmond’s satiric gaze and that is what makes for a fun romp.  Even the glimpses that we catch of Palm Beach society don’t really make you long for inclusion in the social clubs so much as for the kind of money that lets you go on buying trips to Paris to furnish your guest house. At any rate, Mr. Desmond has written and published a novel that gives us a café table view of a certain segment of society that always intrigues us.
 
Tough times sometimes call for light measures … this is a book that can make you smile.