The Cravat Post (and Other Knick Knacks)

   Prompted by a couple of comments on StyleForvm regarding cravat use amongst the young (the most specific being "How can I wear an ascot and not look gay kthxbye?"), I have taken upon myself to investigate this Scoobariffic mystery

   I'll begin by informing you that you're likely screwed if you wear them as ultra traditionally as possible, unless you are genuinely in costume or ridiculously full of elan. I own 3 and only trust myself to wear them to either a wedding, in character at a party or without a standard suit jacket/blazer/odd jacket, unless it's a three piece suit and a cravat that's sized more like a scarf

   Call me a sentimental young fogey, but I rather think the morning suit cravat holds up very well. I wore it as a groomsman last year, yet not only had I no say in the outfit (aside from relatively accurate fit), but when I arrived wearing the lilac cravat in a traditional manner with a pearl tie-pin, the rest of the four-in-hand cravat-sporting wedding party physically attempted to rearrange it whilst I was still wearing it. Good times

Via the New York Times , this J.C. Leyendecker look encapsulates elegance through illustrative prowess

Judy and Fred during the final scenes of Easter Parade, from a Telegraph featurette 

   But you want to know about less occasional and more down to earth usage. So make it casual. You need to refer to Apparel Arts/Esky and the Duke of Windsor on this one, and even if you are young, let Will at A Suitable Wardrobe guide you along the way (he also has the most comprehensive collection of Apparel Arts images in the menswear sphere)

   Instead of a regular cut jacket, try something a touch offbeat (I don't like reusing shots, so the link is necessary) or something more relaxed and informal like a cardigan (Will favours a safari-styled shirt jacket - colonial, yet still uncommon enough to be interesting). Or just get them in a particularly eyecatching size, tune up the nonchalance and colour match with extreme prejudice:

The DoW treats it as just another part of the ensemble by harmonising it with the rest of the outfit. Bold, bright and relaxed

   What I'm also driving at is using scarves instead. You get the combination of flash and practicality without the self consciousness. Some of you may remember this one:

   This would also look rather clean and somewhat exuberant with a waistcoat, either as part of a suit or a more informal ensemble - there's something of the lounge lizard about it. It's also rather enjoyable with a v-neck:

   You should also have noted by now that rather than the standard references of Lord Byron or early 20th century motorists, I'm actually interpreting something of a mariner look, which is far less overexposed and flouncy and much more enjoyable since it doesn't need to be worked at or overstated. Think also to the peacoats-and-flat-caps casual styles of the young Paul Newman but with decorative neckwear

   For those of you who don't want too much material but enjoy the look nonetheless, well, there's always a neckerchief; leaving the ends out is standard, though one can also sport them tucked in like so:

   For the upcoming seasonal change, look to the new collection of a certain Japanese designer whose name, I'm finding, is becoming rather redundant to type. You probably know who I'm referring to by now, and he's tackled this gilded age look with utter aplomb and a clear idea of how to make it natural today.

   As befitting JW's "new feeling for basics," the proportions are executed rather similarly to my own silhouettes, generally mixing slim-but-not-tight upper halves with flowing trousers and structured looks that utilise shorts to avoid severity, alongside some well mannered quirks and enviable pattern mixing

   Observe that the neckwear is even worn with polo and short sleeved shirts and without jackets. A perfect way to bring these Esky looks back into focus:

JW CdG Man S/S10 images from GQ.com. A full review may appear after its release next month

   If you don't believe that you have a flair for the look, the solution is very simple - find someone with a flair for it and take inspiration. After that, the rest seems easy

   As for the neckerchief with suits-look, let me get back to you when I've made it happen for myself. Oooh, excitement

Glamourous

And now for a post that doesn't feature me in it

   As an addendum to The Party Post, I'd like to reiterate that we're rolling headlong into the party season; a time of frivolity, stupidity, overconsumption, enjoyment and your parents being overly embarrassing/overly affectionate/overly or not so overly generous/overbearing pompous asses. For those of you who have more strings to your social bow than the ritual cheese overload and rite of humiliation/schadenfreude/sexual misadventuring that is the office Christmas Party, get dressed to express, impress and flounce the night away in as strut-worthy a manner as possible. Be glamourous. And if you cannot, be mildly insane:

Sammy Davis Jr.

From the aptly named Iconic Photos, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in a London nightspot in 1936. The photographer, James Jarche, covertly concealed his camera in his bowler for just such an occasion. When did the paparazzi stop being so creatively underhanded? Today, such deviousness means that you're also paid to write about it or are reporting to a superior in at least one governmental departmment

Alain Delon

Claus von Bulow; socialite, theatre critic and Man With a Dark Side

Truman Capote accompanied by then Washington Post president Katherine Graham at his Black and White Ball, November 1966

Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones; the suit is actually an appealingly carefree shade of purple

Keef's bandmate and dandy drummer par excellence, Charlie Watts, in good company

On the far left, Julian Ormsby-Gore, late son of the also belated David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech and diplomat, accompanied by his sister, Victoria, and interior designer David Mlinaric, who sports a Mr. Fish suit since donated to the Victoria & Albert Museum. Alongside the other Ormsby-Gore siblings, the lifestyles of all three existed at the intersection of rock, aristocracy and hippydom during the Swinging 60s; Mlinaric was once asked to leave Annabel's for his flagrant sporting of a white suit. I can't help but approve

Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick

Liliane Bettencourt with her late husband, André

The late Brooke Astor, long-lived socialite and social activist

Antonio Azzuolo A/W 2008

Renowned operatic soprano, the late Maria Callas

A recently departed pop colossus

   Note the stylish proliferation and use of accessories, from signature eyeframes to louchely held cigarettes, nonchalantly draped scarves to ethnic jewelry, studded sparkling belts to lustrous furs. Looks that kill

(Author's note: I'm shocked at how easily the opening paragraph wrote itself. Misanthropy Mode has its advantages. Perhaps by (re)attaching my "Keep Away" sign to my forehead over the holidays, I may finally get to catch up on my reading)

The Party Post

Photograph by Daniel Barnett

   Always wear something interesting to a party, even when it's a costume. Parties are a dime a dozen for the average social animal, so don't count on the atmosphere, guests and copious alcohol consumption to make it memorable (especially the last one, unless your braincells happen to be of singularly resilient genetic stock)

   The most "young" party-friendly piece I own is the tailored tracksuit-derived jacket from Junya Watanabe Man S/S 07, which, perhaps too literally, puts the "sport" in "sportjacket." At least a third of its brilliance rests in the fact that it's publicly unwearable beyond flamboyant social occasions and the occasional "Go to Hell" day. Another third is that the construction is absolutely amazing, showing off an array of decorative stitches and nylon strips set on top of practically seamless patching and shaping. It looks utterly insane... and it's nevertheless an utter dream to wear, even moreso than the more subtle trenchcoat I wear from the same collection. It pairs well with rollnecks, with bowties, with scarves and very judiciously selected neckties

   Despite being my second choice for the Psychedelic 60s party I swaggered about at recently, as displayed above, it proved a hit where accuracy was concerned (I aimed to channel a fusion of Jimi Hendrix and The Who's Pete Townshend, though suffice to say, a combination of Nutter's and Mr. Fish was my ideal. It helps to actually own such things first)

(Author's note: the hat was acquired at a party; I awoke wearing it the next morning and I never saw its previous owner again. I do hope she's not missing it much, six years down the line)

   As for more traditional, and sedate, occasions, you cannot go wrong with the old black tie. If inclined, or required, to jazz it up, I find a patterned white scarf and a crushed velvet double breasted go a long way, even when everyone else at a "Black Tie With a Hint of Après-Ski" party is dressed more ostentatiously:

What do you like to wear to parties?

Accessory Service Announcement

   My rose pins, which I wear in the manner of boutonnieres, have entranced and mystified both regular readers and the people I interact with outside of this column

   Having tired of being asked if I'm making a political statement in sporting them, I've officially lost discarded them for the time being. If you wish to take up my baton, hie thee hither to Rose Paradise and place an order or three

   This season, I shall be wearing a Remembrance Poppy and, post Remembrance Day, actual boutonnieres whilst I upgrade my lapel accessories

   This is for the anonymous reader who keeps asking about them

Billingham

   An appreciation of the finer things should happen by chance as well as by design. My recent interview with San Francisco's unimpeachable Mr. Peacock reminded me that one of my most appreciated items isn't a garment but rather my stalwart camera bag made by M. Billingham and Co.

   A gift from one of my favourite uncles, I refer to it as a stalwart because it's been with me to hell and back for around 8 years. It saw me through my student days, including the clumsiness of random proles with tall drinks at pubs, and has kept my possessions protected through my subsequent "professional" life. Its value doesn't just lie in its physical benefits - it's also given me a valuable perspective on designs of its ilk. Like many products of a bygone age, it could be said to have never been bettered

Mine! All mine!

   The website is worth a browse - the products are as valuable for amateurs and casual users as they are for professionals; the prices are hardly bank-breaking, and even though mine was a gift, I attest that they're worth every penny. The photovest below is strangely compelling for a man who uses a rather low quality point-and-shoot:

   I may have a yen for mixing things up but at the end of the day, quality accessories count

Product stills by Billingham

Sail Down Savile Row - The Lanvin Shopfront

   The Hermès tie booklets once contained a whimsical manifesto extolling the outlook-enhancing properties of donning a marvel of printed and finely woven silk in a skilfully knotted manner beneath a shirt collar. "An Hermès Day," if you will. Yesterday evening, I had something of "A Lanvin Night" when my camera shifted from inside my pocket to outside the entertaining and blithely directed window display in a moment of admiration

   The most notable aspect of the presentation is the way it holds its own on Savile Row, highlighting the variation in gentleman's dress that I'm perennially championing as one of the joys of traditional clothes. It's true that Lanvin is a fashion house first and foremost, but it's actually one of the better fits amongst its peers for the Row's current incarnation

   The fundamental aesthetic that menswear chief Lucas Ossendrijver presents is referential to as many men's dress codes as he likes, and almost as invigorating to the tailoring institution on a purely youthful and visual level as Ozwald Boateng was in the 1990s and as Nutter's of Savile Row was in the 1960s and 1970s. And it's not as if Lanvin doesn't house a bespoke operation in the basement, although I doubt the actual work takes place there as it does in much of the other basements up the street

   Lanvin's menswear is generally considered directional for the mix of its fabrics - including various innovations, blends and techniques I'll never study - its signature tonal palette and its classicist outlook that brings together romantic and elegant French nobleman stylings with underfed, overprivileged 24-hour party playboy. A very subdued envisioning of this notion presents itself in photo number one, which shows two "youths" enacting a sort of Brideshead-in-the-Tropics scenario. There's a keen intersecting of "Dressing correctly, like Dad" simplicity (also note the Panama) with the eyecatching colours and "Let's face it, I'm good looking" chest baring of a brash young heartbreaker, along with the rebellious cool kid use of Lanvin's infamous high-top trainers

   My most immediate thought was how little this directly resembled the runway collection from which these pieces originated, morphing from the occasionally effete, ruched and slouchy ensembles on show into something more akin to an Apparel Arts plate. This nod to the golden days of 20th century menswear is more directly expressed in the outfits of photo numero dos, which contrasts the first with more dignified, but still leisurely, tailored ensembles

   It takes a special kind of insight to make a cravat - or a scarf filling in for one - appear nonchalant and essential in this day and age, but it's mandatory in the outfit below. The bold suit on the right is simply a delight. The tone-on-tone look in full is not entirely successful - a suit like that works best with stark or exuberantly patterned contrasts - but the colouring alone recalls the two Savile Row tastemakers mentioned above

   Not every window display is inspiring. And I don't think there's anything to adapt personally that I haven't already considered or done before. But I appreciate that the Lanvin vision is so uncompromising and so thorough, always seeking a way to view the classics with slightly new eyes