New to Sport Coats

[Baron Kurtz]

Apparently in Kalgoorlie The Baroness and classmates would be sent home from school if it got to 40 Celsius … which is, of course, not uncommon in that particular hellhole.

The school was the only building in town with air conditioning! And it was a 2 mile walk through the bush to get home. Uphill both ways, naturally.

 

[herringbonekid]

...Uphill both ways, naturally.

luxury.

 

[Dick Ireland]

Thank you very much Gentlemen! I'll start my search for a medium weight blue blazer and perhaps a brown tweed for cooler months! The members of this site really are invaluable sources of knowledge!

I would definitely get both. They have different roles. The navy blazer is perfect for evening events or any business casual occasion (where the brown sportcoat may be inappropriate) and the brown sportcoat is perfect for Saturday afternoons in the park (where the navy blazer would look overdressed).

Also, to the extent you follow old rules of dress, navy is city color (though always appropriate at the shore) and brown is a country color.

 

[Fastuni]

Also, to the extent you follow old rules of dress, navy is city color (though always appropriate at the shore) and brown is a country color.

Brown Tweed sport coats may be "country wear" in an Anglo context.
But as far as the color brown is concerned... the numerous brown pinstripe suits of that era were hardly "not for the city".

 

[Edward]

My mother told me a story from just before the war (World War 2 to you whipper snappers) about her going to the local milk bar as we call them which was run by this English family who had just moved to Australia. My mother was wearing a jumper as it was quite cool in early spring, and they were closed and packing up to go to the beach and couldn't understand why other people weren't making use of this "perfect summer weather"

They were in for a hell of a shock when summer finally arrived!

I can imagine! I'd die. I've been in India in February, and that was hard enough. That was their Winter. Can't begin to imagine how the Brits coped there in the Summer, back in the days when they insisted on full formal dinner dress and the rest. I'm sure that worked to Ghandi's advantage in turfing them out.

Apparently in Kalgoorlie The Baroness and classmates would be sent home from school if it got to 40 Celsius … which is, of course, not uncommon in that particular hellhole.

The school was the only building in town with air conditioning! And it was a 2 mile walk through the bush to get home. Uphill both ways, naturally.

"...but we were happier, then. And if you try and tell that to the young people of today...."

Brown Tweed sport coats may be "country wear" in an Anglo context.
But as far as the color brown is concerned... the numerous brown pinstripe suits of that era were hardly "not for the city".

Absolutely. What a lot of folks forget these days is that those "rules" were invented for city boys who had a strict dress code for work, and an idle rich class that still changed for dinner and could afford extensive wardrobes. There's also a theory that it was an elitist thing - "Ha, ha! Look at the poor people who don't know any better than not to wear brown in town. Aren't they silly?" I've never seen conclusive proof of that, but it is possible, I imagine.

 

[Fastuni]

Possible - I can only imagine this in a British context.
Elsewhere brown suits (with fabrics, such as pinstripe worsted) where decidedly "townwear" just as much as blue or grey.

What to make of the brown British suits with "non-country" fabrics, some of them upscale tailoring?
I have a hard time convincing myself that there was a generally accepted notion in Britain that considered brown inappropriate for town. At least among the working population.

Yes, maybe indeed just an peeve for a couple of "fashion concious" aristocrats.
Could have to do with British gentry, living on country estates (where brown/earthy colors where worn), making use of other colors when in the city.

 

[AntonAAK]

I had always understood that the 'town' in 'brown in town' only referred to the City of London (the one-square-mile financial district). No other British town or indeed region of London was included in this 'rule'.

 

[Fastuni]

Very interesting.

Certainly this explanation of this "rule" makes most sense.

 

[Two Types]

So much that gets said about vintage clothing is utter nonsense:

And 'Never wear brown in town' is right at the top of the nonsense list.

It's right up there with 'no one ever wore black suits'.

I suspect these type of 'rules' have been perpetrated in the UK by 'The Chap' magazine and its many readers who fail to recognise its humour.

 

[Tomasso]

In America, wearing brown in town was not frowned upon. It was commonly seen in executive suites and boardrooms though there were those more conservative sectors (like banking) and firms (like white shoe) where it was discouraged in favor of grey and blue.

 

[AntonAAK]

I suspect these type of 'rules' have been perpetrated in the UK by 'The Chap' magazine and its many readers who fail to recognise its humour.

The Chap in fact openly mocks a lot of these rules and conventions but I agree that many of its readers don't get the joke. From an interview with Chap editor Gustav Temple (emphasis added).

GT: I'm afraid you've got it all wrong! Chappism is all about maintaining dignity and panache in the face of penury; donning a silk cravat to claim benefits, spending your last fiver on a dry martini. Very few of the readers I have met come from privileged backgrounds. I don't know whether you've read the magazine, but it gently mocks the very things you describe. Our manifesto urges followers to turn ancient rituals of courtesy and etiquette into revolutionary acts. There is nothing elitist about good manners and nobody is going to object to being treated more civilly. By adopting the dress code of the upper classes -- and ignoring the rules about brown in town and so forth -- we are rejecting the rules of the class system and proposing that anybody and everybody can be a gentleman or a lady. When we condemn 'vulgarity' we are not condemning the poor or the lower orders, but the dull, the conformist -- the people who keep chains like Starbucks and Gap going because they cannot be bothered to discover their own individuality. That, to my mind, is 'conservative'.

http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/2004/oct/interview_gustav_temple.html

 

[Seb Lucas]

I beg to differ. Twenty five degrees is delightful, perfect in fact. It was 19 degrees today in Melbourne, Australia and it's literally the middle of winter! Nice day for a bike ride.

Don't know. I'm from Oz and I hate any temperature over 20. My perfect day is 8 overnight and 15 during the day.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

The first use of the "No brown in town" I've been able to find is from Hardy Amies (and now I can't find my reference!!). It seems that, postwar, with Amies being the style guru par excellence, his own personal prejudice against brown - no doubt informed by the very prevalence of this colour in menswear in preceding decades - became a "rule" of sorts.

So much that gets said about vintage clothing is utter nonsense:

And 'Never wear brown in town' is right at the top of the nonsense list.

It's right up there with 'no one ever wore black suits'.

I suspect these type of 'rules' have been perpetrated in the UK by 'The Chap' magazine and its many readers who fail to recognise its humour.

 

[Two Types]

Absolutely.

I have checked the thread on 'The Well Dressed Man' for the early 1920s. The writer refers to the fashion for brown circa 1921 but does not exclude the colour from use 'in town'. Indeed, with regard to informality of dress in town, he states:
"The country excludes formal wear far more strictly than the town excludes the informal."

 

[Baron Kurtz]

"Country" in this context is far more than a description of a physical location, I think. When he says "country", he (and others) refers to outdoor pursuits - hunting, fishing, sports and spectating, etc - rather than simply presence in a provincial town. The kind of situations in which you're likely to get dirty and so might not want to walk around in your expensive shoes and business suits.

A similar absurdity has emerged in the United States - "No white before memorial day/after labour day". Emerging from some sound advice "you might not want to wear light colours in the dirty sludgy days of winter, lest they get splashed and filthy", the dates have become a rule many slavishly follow. Why, exactly, on a bright, dry, sunny, warm day in April, would/should one not wear white?

 

[Two Types]

BK: I think that when 'the Baron' refers to 'country' he is referring to visiting the countryside or country towns, and not just partaking in field sports, since he is referring to staying with friends (finding out in advance whether they dress for dinner) and going to church (for which a dark coat is ideally required).

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

I use to think into categories like "business versus leisure" instead of "town and country".

And business is not always the same. Think of bankers who still rather wear dark business suits while some other proffessions moved on to "business casual". The "dark suit" kind of professions can more often be found in town...but if you are not in one of them you don't need those rules.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Brown may have come back into fashion but I recall it from the 1970's very well where almost every man wore a brown polyester suit. I've been scarred and still can't accept brown clothing.