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Houndstooth Check..Bugsy Style



It was a great look on Duke Ellington, who wore it all the time in the late '30s, '40s, and even into the early '70s. Ellington pushed the fashion envelope, but he carried it off with aplomb. The man had taste.

Cab Calloway, Ellington's musical contemporary, tended to pop that envelope open. I have a photo of him in a cream zoot suit, which he wore in the film Stormy Weather back in the early '40s. In my peanut-gallery opinion, he looks pretty ridiculous in it.

 

Vladimir Berkov

One Too Many
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The zoot suit was too far (all zoot suits are in my opinion) but Cab had other looks which were totally bizarre but he was able to pull off such as tweed tailcoats, all-white outfits and the like. He actually dresses in a similar style to contemporary public figures such as Fonzworth Bentley and Andre 3000.
 
I've always been a fan of the houndstooth check look. There's something distincly "country gentleman" about a man wearing a nice earthtone houndstooth. When i started buying vintage i made sure to get a couple of sports jackets in large houndstooth (being very careful to avoid the seventies versions - yuk).

I have an image of Edward VIII (duke of windsor; prince of wales ... take your pick) taking the look to its logical extreme - jacket, knickerbockers, hat all made from the same cloth. I'll post it later.

bk
 

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