Brushing Your Clothing: A Guide for the Man Without a Man

TheElegantologist — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:59:23 +0000

This past Thursday Mrs. E. and I took the fast trip up 95N to visit her brother at the Smithsonian and to take the children to see dinosaurs and trains. We returned to Richmond after a quick overnight at my mother’s house. Needless to say, we travelled light. While staying the few overnight hours before the return trip, we took in the DVD of “Up In the Air” with George Clooney. A fine film and an inspiring tutorial on traveling very light indeed.

My wardrobe for the two days consisted of a blue flannel sportcoat, grey worsted flat front trousers, an off-white soft shirt and striped tie, suede Cole Haan air-brogues and a blue cashmere sweater and polo shirt for the drive home. All well and good. It is just a shame that I don’t have a valet. A valet would have made sure that my clothing was brushed and ready for the next day. Flannel, as you know, should be rested before being worn again. Brushing (all clothing in fact, not just flannel) helps preserve the fabric, extending the lives of your Sunday best and your workhorse wardrobe.

I don’t have a valet. But I do have a decent clothes brush.

A good brush should be natural bristled as they are less harsh on delicate fabrics. Kent makes some nice ones, including a travel brush which wouldn’t take up too much room and would come in handy for extended trips.

The brush may be used for damp brushing a suit, too. Yes, damp brushing. That one’s for another post.

Herewith a quick tutorial on brushing your jacket (this is the one I travelled in) liberally adapted from Stanley Ager’s method.

Brush the front of your jacket using short, firm strokes but not choppy enough to damage the fabric. First brush against the nap, then with it.

Next, the outside of the sleeve, up and down the nap.

Fold the sleeve back and brush the inside of the sleeve, up and down the nap. Brush the side of the jacket in back of the sleeve.

Now brush the shoulders. Start just outside the sleevehead and brush to the collar and then back to the sleeve head. It’s important to lift the nap of the fabric here as the shoulders collect a lot of dust, dandruff and grime from shoulder straps.

Now the back… up and down the nap.

Finally under the collar. Brush the interlining from left to right, and right to left. Like the cuffs on your trousers, this area really hides all sorts of dirt.

Remember to always brush with the nap after brushing against it; you risk making the jacket’s surface look uneven and patchy in the light otherwise.

And, since it’s almost spring, you may now store your jacket until Fall.

Florence, for a Couple of Nightingales

TheElegantologist — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:53:11 +0000

Gentle Readers, I have a couple of friends who are taking their first vacation together (she an architect, he an art director). They have settled, they think, on Florence. I have never visited and while it remains Mrs. E.’s favourite city, it has been a while since she closed her Baedeker’s and wandered astray to discover the charms of the city.

This worked so well for our friends who visited London that I thought to ask you again. Do you have any tips for places to stay, restaurants to frequent, sites to be seen? Remember, they are young and very much in love!

Many thanks on their behalf.

Revisiting the Past

TheElegantologist — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:17:12 +0000

Having just finished “One Hundred Years of Menswear” (Cally Blackman) and just started “American Fashion Menswear” with superb commentary by this man, I’ve been revisiting my sartorial past when most of my aesthetic centered on the drape cut of the 1930’s. I didn’t own anything from the 1930’s, I just liked the way it looked in the illustrations and on the silver screen.

Not long ago, that look could be duplicated. BGO sold it when I was first a customer, then an employee (when it was filtered through the Italian labels). Ralph Lauren continues to reinterpret it. Alan Flusser champions the look and there are those lucky enough to bespeak it from the hallowed halls of Anderson & Sheppard and the like.

Today, however, it is hard to find an off-the-peg suit that is cut like that. Today’s look is lean, perhaps in reflection of our leaner times. Perhaps celebrating the athletic bodies of today’s young people. Perhaps the designers just needed to shift the fashions to something different.

The beauty of the British Blade or London Cut, or Drape Suit is that it is based, like a lot of successful menswear, on military lines. Scholte invented the cut after seeing how the Life Guards’ uniforms made the men look more athletic — pigeon breasted with nipped waists and strong shoulders. Thanks to the extra material over the shoulder blades and through the chest, the cut was extremely soft and comfortable to wear.

If you’re looking for that kind of a suit, your best bet these days is eBay, or a thrift shop or a vintage boutique. The custom tailored Dunhill brown chalk stripe DB came from an eBay seller. It was made in ‘98 for a stockbroker in NYC (isn’t google scary?) The tie is vintage Britches. The antique stripe shirt is Tommy Bahama via TJ Maxx and the tie bar from I don’t know where. R. Martegani custom monkstraps in an orangey-brown finish the look.

Yes, I like the reimagined late 50’s/early 60’s Mad Men/North by Northwest inspired suits so prevalent today. But in a drape suit, I feel lighter, happier and less hard edged. In a sea of the trendy, you will bob about like an elegant buoy. Not brand new and shiny, but something to cling to when the latest crazes sink beneath the waves of fashion. There’s a lot to be said for the escapism of the Depression era.