Benedict Froggatt | web log

On the way to London for the screening of O’Mast, a documentary about Neapolitan tailoring and the old school charm of apprenticeships. Should be a good one.

“Well dressed, what does that actually mean? It means to be correctly dressed.

Correctly dressed! It is as if with these words I have revealed a secret that up till now has cloaked our perception of fashion. Words like lovely, chic, elegant, fetching and snappy are but vain attempts to provide explanatory terms for fashion. But this is not at all the point. It is all about being dressed in an inconspicuous manner. A red tailcoat stands out in a ballroom. Therefore red tails are not fashionable in a ballroom. A top hat stands out on an ice rink, therefore it is unfashionable to wear while ice-skating. Anything conspicuous in high society is considered crude.”

My modern interpretation of the above is:

Don’t wear black tie to a sports game and likewise don’t wear chinos and a sweater to an evening do.

I’m reading Adolf Loos’ Why a man should be well-dressed. Although the writing comes across as dogmatic in places and borders on the downright snobbish in others, if you take his ideologies with a pinch of salt you have a pretty nice set of guidelines for the modern gentleman. A few quotes from what I’ve read so far:

“An outfitter keeps everything in stock belonging to menswear. Not an easy task. For every article he sells he takes the responsibility for the appropriate distinguished look of the buyer. In a well-run gentleman’s outfitter one can expect to be able to choose an item completely at random and not end up with something not in good taste, i.e. not correct.

A true gentleman’s outfitter cannot make any concessions to the needs of the masses. The excuse that one has to cater to all tastes should never cross the lips of a leading outfitter. Errors of judgement should be unthinkable, and if one should happen to occur, it is his duty toward his customers to remove the offending article from his premises immediately.

…

He is principally a dealer. His relationship with craftsmen is similar to that of a collector, or the director of an art gallery with his artists. They too have a duty to select the best from among the wealth of objects that latter have created. This is enough of a task to fully occupy the mind and soul of any person.”

I’ve added an ask feature to this blog. Top right, in the description. You know, if anyone out there actually cares about that sort of thing…