The Gentleman Mason

The Magnificent Bastard doesn’t know all…

This morning, Magnificent Bastard fielded a question from Amanda-Louise about a tuxedo (sic) for her father to wear to the opening night of the San Francisco Opera.

I couldn’t be more pleased that someone is asking the question.  I couldn’t be more annoyed that the questioner implied the obviousness of a double-vented jacket and that MB never bothered to correct her.

A vented dinner jacket?  Vents are for comfort, not for bastardliness in a dinner jacket.   Dinner jackets should be ventless unless you go the rental or Mens Wearhouse route.  (Oh, buy vents if you must.   No one will criticize you or probably even notice, but we’re talking correctness here.)  Vents interrupt the silhouette of the jacket, and dinner jackets are for looking good.  They are a form over function device, some of the most bastardly of men’s clothing.

He DID get the part about the flat front trousers correct however, so I’ll give him good marks for that.

I probably shouldn’t be completely critical.  When I commissioned my last dinner suit I bought a double breasted jacket because I despise cummerbunds and I tend to get a bit too warm in a waistcoat.  But a DB isn’t incorrect… like vents. 

Geo. F. Trumper: Gentlemen’s Perfumer

I’ve been a patron of The Art of Shaving’s products for a long time, in particular their sandalwood scents.  However, I was running out and being a rampant Anglophile who has never tried any of the great English shave products, I decided to give Trumpers a go.  I recently placed an order for a tub of their sandalwood cream and a small bottle of their “Skin Food” after shave lotion.

Trumpers Sandalwood

Geo F Trumper is recognised as the finest traditional gentlemen’s barber in London and is known throughout the world for its matchless range of gentlemen’s fragrances and grooming products.

Offering a choice of more than twenty colognes including the signature GFT fragrance, Trumper also have one of the largest ranges of gentlemen’s grooming products and accessories. This includes shaving creams and soaps, aftershave balms, skin foods and moisturisers, bath soaps and shower gels, razors, shaving brushes, mirrors, hair brushes and bathroom requisites.

I’ve always been happy with my Art of Shaving products, but the Trumpers sandalwood was a revelation on my skin.  Different people have different reactions to different products, of course, but a pea-sized amount of the Trumper’s shave cream generated way more lather than I needed for two passes, and the lather felt considerably slicker and afforded more of a cushion.

I followed up the shave with a few drops of “Skin Food.”  I’ve tried TAOS’ after shave balm in the past and didn’t much care for it.  It does its job and is quite soothing, but I found it to be oilier and heavier than I liked.  The Skin Food, by contrast, goes on very light and several hours later my face still feels very soft.  A lot of people seem to like the Skin Food as a pre-shave lotion as well, to soften the beard before the shave, but that seems unnecessary to me if you use enough water and your cream or soap is sufficiently slick.

Trumpers scent seemed to me decidedly more “barber shoppy” than the TAOS, which I find a bit warmer and more subtle.  I don’t mean to imply anything unpleasant about the scent of the Trumper’s at all, however.  I like it quite a lot, and Dianna likes it more than I do, which is probably the important thing.

I have some additional products I’d like to try now, specifically Castle Forbes’ Limes cream.

Try different things.

Hemrajani Tailors visiting Carmel

To my Hoosier friends, Hemrajani Brothers tailors are visiting Carmel on Friday, August 27 at the Double Tree on Meridian. Click here to schedule an appointment.

Do it. You know you want to.

And that is why I use Hats Direct…

Those two hats I ordered in the previous post?

I ordered them on 7/4, and I received them today, 7/7.

From Australia.

As I said, I’ve never heard of anyone getting better service from one of the American Akubra retailers.  I can’t recommend either Hats Direct or Everything Australian highly enough for your Akubras.

Starting to think about Fall

Yes, I know, it seems a bit early, but it’s really not.  A couple of things on my list, I’m going to have my friends at Bookster make an odd jacket or two for me in a nice Donegal tweed, and maybe a pair or two of their outstanding moleskin trousers while I’m at it.  I’m still thinking about what I want there, I’ll say more about that after I’ve decided.

More to the point, I have a rather large gap in my hat collection, namely a dark gray fedora.  I have a light gray that I had my friend Art Fawcett make up for me a couple of years ago, and a couple of brown ones, but nothing in a darker, more formal gray.

Akubra Capricorn in Grey

Akubra Stylemaster in Carbon Grey

I like my Akubra Stylemaster in fawn quite a lot, in a size 59 it fits perfectly and I think it’s just about the perfect size and shape for my head, so I’ve ordered a stablemate for it in Akubra’s “Carbon Grey” color.  Hopefully it’s not too dark, but we’ll find out in a couple of weeks when I get a box from Hats Direct in Katoomba, Australia.  Sounds like a long way to go for a hat, but Hats Direct is one of the outstanding internet retailers, I’ve had really good luck with them, as I also have with Everything Australian.  There are a few American retailers, but I’ve never heard of anyone getting an Akubra any faster from them than from the Australian sellers.  While I was at it and paying for the shipping from Down Under, I also picked up a grey Akubra Capricorn to go with my tan.  They’re inexpensive and bulletproof substitutes for a proper Panama.

Akubra is an inexpensive and outstanding everyday hat, highly recommended, as are either of the retailers I mentioned.

For the last time, President Obama doesn’t know clothes.

This little blurb showed up in USA Today.

Turns out Presidents Obama and Clinton know a good pair of shoes when they see them!

The spiffy dress shoes that both presidents admired on the players during yesterday’s meeting with the men’s U.S. World Cup Soccer Team were hand-crafted vegetable-tanned leather cap-toe oxfords made by Cole Haan, the high-end footwear and accessories company.

The shoe is called the “Caper,” the color is caramel (it also comes in black and beige canvas) and the price: $295.

In case you missed this important White House development yesterday, take a look at The Oval’s post on it here. A brief recap: during a meet-and-greet with members of the soccer team, both presidents commented on how much they liked the players’ fancy shoes. “I want to be on this team just for the shoes,” Clinton said.

He called the shoes “cool.” Obama called them “sharp.”

OK, you probably want to see these awesome shoes that two presidents think are so fantastic, don’t you?  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

“We’re thrilled the Caper caught the eye of former president Clinton,” said Cole Haan spokeswoman Merideth Gilmor.

Gilmor says Cole Haan provides some of the “off the field” footwear for the soccer players. Nike, which owns Cole Haan, provides players’ athletic gear.

My favorite part of the article:

It’s not the first time Obama has had an eye for Cole Haans. Guess what he was wearing on Inauguration Day?

I saw what he was wearing that day too.  I wouldn’t brag about it…  And Cole Haan? High-end? What would that make, say, Edward Green?

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is the day we pause to give thanks to those who have given their lives in the service of our country, and to them goes our eternal gratitude for making the supreme sacrifice.

Seersucker

Sartorially, it is also the day the rules allow us to begin to break out our summer clothing, in particular the seersuckers, the white or dirty bucks and our warm weather hats.

I’m wearing a Haspel seersucker suit, a pink linen shirt from Hemrajani Brothers, a pink and blue Ben Silver linen tie, a linen pocket square from Kent Wang, and although you can’t see them, pink Marcoliani socks and a limited edition calf and suede Alden spectator shoe.  The hat is an Akubra Capricorn.

It’s a bit more of a Southern gentleman look than one normally sees in Indiana, but since men’s warm weather wear in Indiana typically consists of t-shirts, shorts and flip flops with a baseball cap, I’ll take the Southern gentleman look any day of the week.

My unnatural fascination with Royal Ascot

The season is upon us, which means that it’s time for my annual bemoaning the lack of any formal events of its sort in the United States.  I refer, of course, to the horse racing at Royal Ascot and in particular the dress code for gentlemen in the Royal Enclosure.

Morning suits, no exceptions; top hats, no exceptions; go right or go home.

A rider and an observer at Ascot

As Men’s Flair notes in today’s post, formal does not necessarily imply bland and certainly not colorless.  The best dressed men at Ascot understand that color is an important component of men’s dress, particularly in morning attire.

They further note that an ascot or cravat is positively improper for morning attire, which, of course, it is.  To bring this thing back to the Masonic part of the site title, this is something I’ve had a problem with for a long, long time… as far back as when I was a Grand Lodge and a Scottish Rite officer.  So many times I attended daytime events wearing a dinner suit, and it’s just wrong.  On the rare occasions that the dress code for officers DID call for morning suits, we never wore the appropriate four-in-hand ties, always a cravat.

Appalling.

I understand that in the U.S. when one thinks formal that the mind never travels any farther than the dinner suit, such is our programming, but it is and has always been inappropriate for a gentleman to wear a dinner suit before, you know, dinner time.  That is to say, 6:00PM.  I would love to see our Grand Lodge officers setting a better example for our members.  The Grand Lodge, of course, has its own protocols, but they’re not necessarily appropriate.  Perhaps someday they’ll assign someone the task of steering the ship of etiquette in our grand jurisdiction.  Until then, I’ll just bite my tongue and be the stroller in a sea of tuxedos in the middle of the bloody afternoon.

So I’ve kind of been gone for a while…

Life has been intervening at a fairly rapid clip.  I promise to do better.

I’m baaaaaaaaaack.

A Visit with John Hitchcock

Michael Alden of The London Lounge has posted a video of his recent visit with John Hitchcock, the managing director of Anderson & Sheppard, one of the great names in bespoke men’s tailoring.  In addition to describing the A&S style and methods of making elegant men’s clothes, Hitchcock verified something that I’ve suspected for some time.  Hitchcock said that A&S sales were up 25% over last year, even in this economic environment.

I believe there are two issues at work.  One is that men, particularly younger men, are becoming more interested in classic style.  A recent New York Times piece says the same thing.

“The older generation, say 45-plus, look upon success as being able to dress down,” said Marshal Cohen, the chief analyst at NPD Group, which tracks retail sales. “They think being able to wear jeans is the epitome of achievement.

“But the younger generation is looking at getting dressed up and making their mark,” Mr. Cohen continued. “It’s a real generation gap here. I teach at three different colleges, and I am amazed how dressed up some of the students are. Girls still come in their hoodies and pajamas, but boys come in their suits.”

I’m a little annoyed with Cohen’s use of “45-plus” as the beginning of “the older generation,” but even a hard truth is still truth, and in this case I am gratified to see it.

The second issue is something that has always been true, that there are men who will pay for excellence, who will sacrifice for something better, something above the ordinary and average experience.  As the younger generations assert themselves more completely, I hope for great things.

With that, please enjoy Mr. Alden’s video and Happy Holidays to you.

Men’s style: A visit with John Hitchcock from Michael Alden on Vimeo.