How many own a vintage suit?

[Senator Jack]

I'm all for everyone having their personal preference, but what I don't like is the propagation of sartorial old wife's tales. I'm sort of defensive about the lounge because it's everything the other sartorial sites aren't. In all the style mags and at the popular style sites, you'll always see that alway/sometimes/never rule which we here, again, have proven to be a complete fallacy. If one doesn't like to have any or all of the three buttons done up, that's fine, I just cringe when that rule gets brought up again.

'Three button suits are for young men' - Wife's tale.
'You should never wear a tie lighter than your shirt' - Wife's tale.
'Your fingers should cup under your jacket' -Wife's tale.

These are all told by 'experts' who evidently don't know much about the history of the craft. My crack about bartenders in the cocktail thread could be used here too. 'Tailors are incredibly passionate about their craft, till they actually have to open a book on the subject.'

 

[manton]

None of those have really come up on this thread, have they?

All of the things you state are indeed false, with perhaps one partial exception. In the business/social context of the big cities of the 30s and beyond, it was indeed something of a faux pas to wear a tie lighter than the shirt, with perhaps a few excpetions (silver or yellow on French blue, for instance).

Now, I suppose it depends on how broadly or narrowly one defines "business/social context". The hipper and/or younger and/or more bohemian the crowd, the more one was likely to see this look. On Wall Street or Savile Row, however, you would have been hard pressed to spot it.

 

[Matt Deckard]

I myself prefer the black shirt and yellow tie, though I'm sure frowned upon at a Senate hearing, I think it's right at home at a coctail party.

 

[manton]

I myself prefer the black shirt and yellow tie, though I'm sure frowned upon at a Senate hearing,

If you're invited to expound on vintage clothing, go for it. If you're subpoenaed to testify about accounting fraud, probably not.

 

[Matt Deckard]

The last time i dealt with accounting fraud was when Big Boy here overcharged me for a pork chop.

 

[Senator Jack]

None of those have really come up on this thread, have they?

They've come up enough in recent months that I needed to comment. To tell the truth, I've posted sporadically in the sartorial sections for the past few months and members have pm'ed me to ask why. I explained that I was sort of getting tired of taking the time to put together combinations and photograph them only to have some members come back with a snide comment and this, '[huh] '. I'm a failry equanimous fellow, but I will be brutally honest when I have to be. If one wants to make snide comments, then he or she should let us see their style, too. Let's see pictures of their suits, combinations, et cetera. Members looking for tips, ideas, and whatnot would find this helpful, but I'm not seeing these pictures from members who are making the snide comments.

The big difference between the FL and the other sites is that we talk about STYLE here and not fashion. I'm proud to be a member of the lounge, but I won't be if this is the direction we are going. Somehow, I get the feeling it is.

 

[patrick1987]

I hope not. I just got my first vintage suit and I'm hopping happy. Now I want more.

 

[MK]

.

This is a great thread. I love the exchange of information....especially when accompanied by photos. I look forward to chatting with Matt and Manton about suits over a cold one next. I know it will be fascinating as well as educational.

As for snide comments. I hadn't noticed any....but if I do they will be addressed. Photos of our members is one of the great things that makes this joint great. Constructive and courteous comments are encouraged, but rude remarks won't be tolerated.

 

[Matt Deckard]

i think it's good to remember that when it comes to suits we are the wild bunch... th ones that look beyond the jacket tie and trousers and see the curve of the lapel the break of the trousers the size of the collar and the seams along the side of the trousers. So the shoes have double thick soles or the sleaves narrow. We are the ones who notice these details and we get picky at times, our sense of style can at times be looked at as awkward by some though we are here to learn. And I as a rule am awkward in a style sense... i like to stand out though only slightly... I'll let my personalty do the rest. That's what makes us stand out in the crowd. If I really did show up on the floor of the senate perhaps they would think i was reenacting a Frank Capra movie, though I love the style and wish it were more prevalent. as Jack said, "I think a man should move with his suit and not within his suit". I'm a big stickler for the vintage fit though do believe tailors today can recreate that fit of any suit if it is something they really wish to do.

This thread began with the premise of 'if you havn't worn a vintage suit you really don't know good fit'. In a way it's correct and in another it is not. All bodies are different. Bespoke is always going to better in the hands of the knowlegable consumer who knows exactly what he wants or the tailor who has that keen eye. It's an abomination as it was in the old days to the ones who don't know style.

I just want to see more modern suits and who dresses well or is well tailored today and to find the quality of style and fit as was seen yesterday is very very hard to do.

I'm not a fan of the NBA look since it is a tube with no shape.
I think Sean Combs looks good.. 'though needs some space between the lapel and the collar.

Prince William has a modern fitting in that political standard you see on Bush

I think he looks better in this two button functional and I'm glad to see the fashion is still around.
Higher gorge and the waist is between the buttons.

Can't tell without the rest of the pic though I already like the lapel and shirt collar over the design of his father's
The the belly and return of the lapel are great. This tailors been using his tools... see how William's lapel has belly then straightens out at the peaks, very Douglas Fairbanks.

Can I say they look as good as the vintage suits? Well the DB William is wearing I like, though the rest i don't think stand up.

So I have to keep looking.

Even Tom Wolfe to my eye needs a tailor that can help him with his build rather than make him look gangly.

Fred Astaire was good at comfortable and not gangly and because of the fit he looks set to take off into dance and he was.

From what I have learned he kept his tailors on their toes when it came to armholes prefering them high like they were in the 20's

 

[Veronica Parra]

Does anyone here know a guy from mybe the DC area who was doing vintage suits. Maybe hi name was Calvin. He was a very sophisticated african american guy. I didn't see his stuff, but he had a lot of esquire vintge catalogs stuff and was talking about making a lot of custom vintage styles. That was about ten years ago.

You may be thinking of Avery Lucas. He worked in NYC. Started on his own with dress shirts, then did suits for St. Laurie and Dunhill.

 

[Matt Deckard]

Is he the one about which I was speaking to Marc at the Oviatt? Or is that another tailor?

 

[manton]

Avery Lucas is not a tailor, but a designer/clothier. He was really into the 30s look, and helped St. Laurie make some wonderful vintage style clothes. After that, he worked at pretty much every high end shop in New York. He moved away, then returned to a little shop in the suburbs for a while, but the last time I looked in on him, the owner of the store told me he had moved again. I don't know where he is now.

He had maybe the best taste of any salesman I've ever encountered. Plus, he is one of only two people I know who had a complete run of Apparal Arts.

 

[manton]

Matt: Tom Wolfe has a huge drop to one of his shoulders. His tailor once showed me one of his jackets in progress. One shoulder had no pad at all. The other one had a mattress in it.

See, that's why some guys have to get bespoke!

 

[Matt Deckard]

I love the fact that he has style and is not afraid to stand out in the crowd... luckily he isn't insane or he'd give a bad rap to dressing outside societal norms

We need more risk takers.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Plus, he is one of only two people I know who had a complete run of Apparal Arts.

I'm a-workin' on a digital archive. It will eventually be hosted on the web for everyone to browse . . .

t's so hard to get hold of these things to scan them. I've been getting them piecemeal through interlibrary loans, but noone wants to lend them out. I believe there's a complete archive in the British Library. And it's likely to be perfectly preserved so i should get good scans of the remaining issues from there.

bk

 

[manton]

Wow, in every library I have ever found them, they have definitely been non-circulating, no exceptions.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I managed to get some through Viriginia Tech. And a couple from U. Illinois, i believe (maybe not, i don't remember exactly).

And a copy of the sister publication: "Apparel Arts: Fabrics and Fashions" which was the veritable swatch wonderland. They both ran 4 issues a year for a couple of years then just became Apparel Arts running 8 times a year.

Also there are a couple of librarys that have them on microfilm. Only b&w, however, which sucks. And bad transfer to microfilm, to boot. When i receive these i just send 'em back. I can't be bothered looking at the crappy transfers any more.

I have currently scanned:

AA: 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.4
AAF&F: 2.3

Da problem is that they're in such a large format that i can only scan half a page at a time, then i need to put the halves together in Photoshop and alter the colours to make them perfect. Fortunately i'm a perfectionist so the pages look good after this treatment. The current plan is to collate the pages together as PDFs - one for each issue - and make them available for download. ( a *very* long term plan. Try doing this while writing a PhD thesis. Whew: Not much time to spare).

bk

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Thanks to a tip from Nick Charles, I just picked up a 1951 dated jacket from the Bay, pretty cheap. Maybe now I'll get to experience that classic cut firsthand. I'll post a pic or two when it shows up.

The seller said it had some moth holes, but it was cheap enough to be a good experiment, and if I like the cut I can show it to a tailor.

 

[Feraud]

Bump.

Has anyone acquired a vintage suit since this thread was last replied to?
Any thoughts on the cut, fit, or material?

 

[aliados]

Some months ago I scored a HickeyFreeman charcoal gray on eBay. skeletal lining, forward-facing pleats, dropped belt loops, pants watch pocket, HIGH armhholes, and thick, bullet-proof flannel fabric -- I can 't wait for the fall temperatures to hit NY already, so I can wear the darned thing!