The Beretta Gallery of New York City

Beretta employee, Moses Gutierrez with a 20 gauge Silver Pigeon 1 ( $2,240) 

I first bumped into the NYC Beretta Gallery about five years ago.  Town-housed among Manhattan's retail townhouses;  Hermès,  Etro,  Longchamp, Chanel, and so many others…I was actually just looking for a pair of khakis.  I pushed open the Beretta door, walked past security and was slapped in the face with racks and racks of obscenely beautiful apparel.

 

Wool and Waxed Cotton jacket in the Maremmana style ($1,295)

It was a London flashback, what with tweed, moleskin, chukka and waxed cotton.  Gravitas on the order of Jermyn Street,  Cuban cigars and 25 year old single malts drunk from engraved pheasant whiskey tumblers.

Moleskin suit with side vents (Jacket $535 Trousers $165)

Luckily I stumbled onto a sale -- Even better as I had a little money back then.  There was a lot I should've bought that day but didn't and learned a lesson.  Much of what you see in the NYC Gallery is unique to the store.  Once it's gone, you may never see it again.  Of course,  I was here for a pair of khakis.  

Second Floor

Looking back, it seems a shame  shopping for khakis in Beretta --  Sort of like visiting Umbria on the wagon.

Competition Shooting

It's hard to describe just how diverse the gallery is.  Roaming around on my last visit, I heard a man walk in and announce, "I've been invited to a shoot in Spain."  I looked down from the second floor balcony and watched as the salesman sprung into action while those words, "I've been invited to a shoot…" bounced jealously between my ears.

Main Floor

While outdoor retailer's, Kevin's and Cabela's offer over the top decor, Beretta manages to pull off the outdoors aesthetic with understated elegance.  Chalk it up to to Beretta's hometown of Brescia 'cause this ain't meatballs and gravy.

In store Italian made checks ($155)

Much of what is in the NYC Gallery is not on line and much of what is on line is not in the NYC Gallery.  Still, a past visit to the Beretta website found an olive moleskin maremmana hunting jacket, sadly long gone,  for a surprising  $99.

In store Suede chukka ($423)

A women's wool felt cap made by Pennsylvania's Bollman Hat Company is currently on sale for $37.50 marked down from $75...

Beretta Sole

And a men's quilted waxed cotton biker jacket has been reduced from $595 to $279.

Khakis ($75)

But I was looking for khakis.

And at $75, they're made in the US and something of a surprise.  I had mine cuffed and there was no extra charge.

That's the thing about Beretta.  You can find a $20 ball cap...

Or, there's a $140 number that looks like a Vietnam boonie hat I lusted after when I was in the Army.

Field watches are reasonable…

Field Watches (Quartz $229 Automatic $389)

Women's Quilted Shooting Jacket ($875)

Women's Scarves ($895)

Carafe Gift Set ($149)

The engraved carafe and glasses are available in store and on-line... 

Martini Pitcher $200

While the best looking cocktail pitcher I have ever seen is only in the store.  A steal and you're only seeing it because I gave up martinis.

Ice Bucket $2,200

I haven't given up ice but the elephant foot ice bucket is a good example of Beretta's price swing.

And like the 32" barrels on the $2,000 Silver Pigeon, there's value in Beretta.  It's under the radar for most NYC  residents.  Save those types who go shooting in Spain.

The Ethnics of Antonio Ciongoli

Terra cotta basket weave cardigan - $595 Pine/white with navy deco gingham spread collar shirt - $225 Pine/terra cotta medallion printed open weave silk tie - $150

Inspiration for our Duomo scarves and ties

Brick "Duomo" wool challis scarf - $175

Terra cotta/pine/stone gun check sportcoat - $995

Various ties in the pine/terra cotta stone story, including prints inspired by Medici family shield and Ghiberti's bronze panels for bapistry doors - all $150

Pine donegal "Medici" rolleck sweater inspired by the diamond windowgrates of Michelangelo's Capella Medici in San Lozenzo - $595

Terra cotta casentino wool maremanna jacket - $995

Terra cotta Italian chamois work shirt popover - $250

White/terra cotta/pine bold tattersall twill spread collar shirt - $225

Navy/white/lavender japanese flannel spread collar shirt - $225 & Gray knit toggle vest with suede trim - $595

White/charcoal stripe Japanese cotton tab collar shirt - $225 Fatigue green knit toggle vest with suede trim - $595 & Fatigue green/charcoal shepherd's check belted peacoat - $995

Cashmere blend crewneck with wool "guild shield" embroidery - $650  - The shields  represent the Florentine tailors and shoe makers guild as well as the Medici family coat of arms

Shearling asymmetrical peacoat - $2995 & Brick "Duomo" wool challis scarf - $175

"...he might hear a young grandson being greeted

at the Cosenza train station by packs of jubilant relatives

who would make the boy feel like a McArthur returned, or 

a kind of Latin Lindbergh in a ticker tape parade -

except instead of confetti, the boy would be showered

with wet kisses from endless uncles, aunts, and cousins who

could not understand a word of English.

With an 8mm movie camera, the boy would begin to 

click off scenes of these relatives…Perhaps these films

would later be shown in a kitchen back in Brooklyn

where a bedsheet, serving as a projection screen,

would be tacked up to the flowered wallpaper.

And when the lights would go on in this 

Brooklyn kitchen, tears would be seen in the eyes 

of some older folks." 

The Ethnics of Frank Costello by Gay Talese

Esquire Magazine, Sep. 1961

A few years ago Antonio Ciongoli introduced me to Gay Talese.  A meeting was set up at Gay's home and we talked for a couple hours.  I brought up the excerpt from the Costello cover story in Esquire and while  Talese remembered the story he couldn't remember his unusual but beautiful meandering off subject and loaded with remembrance and nostalgia.  I told Talese how much it moved me and he smiled, his eyes narrowing into slits, and said with some surprise that he should probably revisit the story if only to see it if it was worth republishing.

New York Fashion Week is a cold slog through mostly forgettable designers who are all trying too hard.  Throw in the pushing and shoving by remarkably nasty attendees and it's a scene light years from what I envisioned when I attended my first show in what would be Bryant Park's last.

I've cut back on shows and a lot of shows have cut back on me.  Probably as it should be since I'm not a fashion guy.  But like Talese, I love storia and especially the kind that connects to something completely foreign and unknown.  Only in this way is it possible to continue to misspell people's names.

Antonio Ciongoli of Isaia's Eidos showed me his new line for Fall / Winter 2014.  The show room is still in the understated quiet of Elizabeth Taylor's townhouse on West 56th.  If you're quiet,  you can almost hear the walls talk as Anthony Perkins gets drunk and Richard Burton orgasms.  Antonio has had a lot to do with educating me in Italian apparel.  But I still think, as a whole, the Italians are too studied.

If American sportswear is about being relaxed and casual, then the Italians have taken that and extruded it through endless and needless details: scarves in July, wrist dental floss, double monks and now triple.  Pitti is all you need consider to get my point.  I like the billowing sail of an oxford button down over a man's alligator belt -- Antonio prefers a more fitted silhouette…over an alligator belt.   Seems there's always something to agree on.

I'm not writing for anyone but me so what you see here is what I like.  I love green and don't think anyone uses it enough.  It's everywhere in this collection along with my appreciation for the even rarer color I call, 'dried blood' or what Antonio calls, 'terra cotta." If you cut yourself shaving a lot then this is a no brainer for you.  Even the chamois pop over comes from another place but the roots are so American.  What you do with Eidos is your business…tang it up all you like --  Or, just leave it alone and let it speak for itself.

Update: Following are retailers for Eidos Napoli.  

For spring, it will be available online via Carson street clothiers, CHCM, The Armoury, Haberdash (Chicago) and Lawrence Covell (Denver). All of these stores will also carry in store as well as Charles Speigel (Pittsburgh), Boyd's(Philadelphia), Pockets (Dallas), Sy Devore (LA area), Carriere (LA Area), Steven Giles (Oklahoma city) Scoop (East Hampton and Brentwood), Syd Jerome (Chicago), Mr. Sid (Boston area), J3 (Cleveland area), AK Rikks (Grand Rapids), Butch Blum (Seattle), Shaia's (Homewood, AL), Oak Hall (Memphis) and Got Style (Toronto).

The Last Season of Mad Men

Art Director's Club of NY Advisory Board, 1971

Don and Peggy start their own shop.  Both win gold medals at the 1971 Art Director's of NY Hall of Fame.  Peggy for an anti-war campaign.  Don for True Story magazine.  Their passion is their work.  Their work is what they  are.  They get married.  Don dies of lung cancer two months later.  Peggy becomes one of the most powerful and respected individuals, man or woman, on Madison Avenue.  Roll credits.

Lunch with Clay Tompkins

Clay Tompkins by Bruce Weber, Interview Magazine, 1978 (click images to enlarge)

Clay Tompkins, UES Office, 2013

I had some time to kill before lunch with Clay (42L) Tompkins (online store here) and so I pulled into the Hermès men's store.  15 minutes, a rack of $2,200 cotton seersucker jackets and a handful of customers later (2 Rappers & a Russian) I left without one employee saying hello or even,  "Здравствуйте."  Odd since staff outnumbered customers by  5:1.  This shouldn't come as a surprise since Hermès started offering ties with matching pocket squares.

Waiting in front of the restaurant  I see Tompkins in a Covert coat, nail head suit and side gusseted Cleverleys.  We've only met once before but I recognize Clay and call out a greeting.  The restaurant is packed with the kind of  UES ROP that I find wanting west of Central Park.  Chanel and tanned --  St John and buffed -- They all spin their white iPhones on the white linen tables while sipping Pellegrino.  I wonder what's become of Perrier, order tap water and a salad.

Tompkins and I trade war stories of our single years in NYC. His, glamorous and mostly '70s.  Mine, mostly depressing and '80s.  I'll ask for some photos of the period and he'll respond  with a portrait from Interview Magazine (10/1978) by Bruce Weber and a  1976 Valentine's Day issue of Interview where he's French kissing Fran Lebowitz, who, in case you're as curious as I am, didn't seem to mind a little tongue in the least. I'm guessing this was pre-George Sand.

Clay recently left Wall Street and launched his own line, Clay Tompkins Menswear, last seen here.  For now, shirts (Mitch Gambert in Newark) and trousers (Julie Hertling in Brooklyn) with a navy blazer due any day.  Clay's buying so I get to work. 

Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Rumson, New Jersey, an hour south of the city.

What did your Dad do?
My father was a 40 year (to the day) active member ofthe New York Stock Exchange. He actually owned his seat for 71 years, from1936-2007.  Dad acted as an odd-lot broker with the firm of Carlisle & Jacquelin. The odd-lot brokers handled all orders less than 100 shares until DOT, Designated Order Turnaround, came in and made the job automated in 1976.

Any childhood sartorial obsessions?
I was brought up to wear shorts and shoes from the old Rowe's of London. I can still remember getting my first pair of long pants( age 7 or 8?) which were khaki with red flannel lining. I was pretty chuffed about them. But the real obsession came later. I bought a pair of black Gucci loafers in 1968, when Gucci was no more than a boutique with beautiful salesgirls in chocolate shifts. My parents discovered they cost $65 and I was made to return them. What's the song line, "The love I lost, is the true love," Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes? --  Explains the Cleverely obsession.

George Cleverley Side Gusseted Loafers

Your college and major?
Graduated from the University of Virginia with a major in English and Art History.

First job?
The Games department of F.A.O. Schwarz on the first floor, when it stood on Fifth Avenue where Bergdorf Men is now.

First wife?
One and only, Karen Rodolf Moody of Tulsa, Oklahoma. We met on Halloween at an apartment on 79th and Park. I invited her to come to Studio 54 with me, but she declined. Thought I looked " too dangerous". We will have been married 30 years on December 24th, 2013.

First suit?
Only guessing on this one, but probably Brooks Brothers. they owned the space back then.

How & when were you turned onto Poole and Cleverley?
A friend of 37 years, Sandy Spalding, who was and is a long-time customer of Poole, as had been his father, introduced me to Simon Cundey in 1998 and I've been a customer ever since. I met George Glasgow of Cleverley when he was working at New & Lingwood at the London store in 1976. We've been pals ever since. More blarney than an Irish pub, George. I became a bespoke customer later, I believe in 2000 or shortly before.

How many pairs of shoes do you own?
13. 11 Cleverely bespoke, One pair of knackered Belgian slippers and one pair of butterflies from Foster & Son (sadly just rain shoes now owing to the wear and cracking).

Favorite neighborhood restaurant?
I live between Park and Madison and over the past 5 years it's become a sort of columbarium of great fashion labels without street life...except Bel Ami on 68th off Madison. Run by Vanessa Laplaud, this little coffee bar/ restaurant has traffic that the fashion houses can only dream about. So I'm grateful for its existence and it must stand as my favorite restaurant even though it's really just a jumped up coffee shop.

Cologne? 
Haven't worn any for years, but in my younger, more whimsical days, I wore Equipage by Hermès. She'll NEVER forget you if this is your scent.  They have a new cologne called " Poivre" which is about as good as you could ask for.

Can you cook? 
If lamb chops and Brussels sprouts counts, then, yes, I can cook. I took the girls to Doubles ( I became a Junior member when it reopened as the reincarnation of Raffles in 1976) and left the driving to them

Favorite cocktail?
Don't drink them.

Favorite wine?
My family would tell you, " any", and that's probably fair. But the best I can remember is Trimbach' s Clos Sainte-Hune, an Alsatian Reisling.  Debatably the finest white wine in the world.

Favorite car?
Aston Martin hands down. I've owned a DB4, an '86 V8 Volante and a 1980 V8 " Oscar India" coupe (so named for the fly boys vernacular for " October Introduction."  The V8's are a sensation and underrated gentleman's transport.

Clay's Shirts sans "Sicut Lilium"

Best shirt ever owned?
I think mine are the best, but I was quite proud of a few I had made in India years back with " Sicut Lilium" embroidered on the chest instead of my initials. This is the motto of Magdalen College, Oxford and means, "Always as the lily", i.e., PURE. Pretty cocky back then, I'd say.

New York Society Library

Best kept secret of NYC?
The New York Society Library (53 East 79th between Madison and Park). Despite the name, anyone can join. Has the most elegant Member's reading room on the second floor. The place was made for me when Barbara Feldon (Get Smart's Agent 99)  and I left together and stood under the awning waiting for a cab on a rainy day. It's nice to see your favorite celebrity a little seasoned.

The new blazer

What's next in your line?
A navy blazer.

What do you want for your covert coat?
Is this a trick question?  If not, $3000, for the trouble of replacing it.


Clay Tompkins Menswear
By Appointment Only
20 East 69th Street, Suite 4C
212.249.6400
www.claytompkins.com

Bert Pulitzer's Survivalon Jacket

See the orange jacket on the roof?

 How about the yellow sweat shirt? 

It amazes me how orange and yellow stand out on city roofs.  And while I lean towards understatement in most everything -- there's a peculiar Southern fetish I picked up for loud colors. I've always loved 'em with the understanding they have their place. 

 Andover Shop

Bert Pulitzer sent me a Survivalon jacket; what we called wet weather gear when I lived on a boat. At $495, this isn't for off shore racing but it's nautical origins make it perfect for a rainy Fall day. I wore it during a visit to the Andover Shop in Cambridge.  On my way out to lunch, Larry took it off my back and threw it on a rig. I understand he had five offers in an hour.

"Don't pick a fight, but if you find yourself in one I suggest you make damn sure you win."  John Wayne

Pulitzer created the jacket back in the '70s and used a tightly woven cotton developed by the RAF in WWII. And, while that's cool enough for me, John Wayne bought one, which might be cool enough for you. The Duke liked it so much he ordered five more for his yacht, the Wild Goose.  And I think I know why.

Back in the '70s and '80s, before Gore Tex really caught on, a lot of sailing jackets and parkas were made out of  a PVC like fabric that was hard as a brick.  I had one from Lands' End, circa 1984. It didn't breathe, had two lousy outside pockets and in the rain it felt like wet particle board.

Logo inspired by Belgian Parachutist Wings? 

Contrary to it's look, the Survivalon has a supple feel to it.  It's amazingly comfortable, keeps you dry and it breathes.  I've worn this jacket a lot in the last month and even the hood, unrolled and pulled from the collar, works well.  It's wide enough to give decent  peripheral vision and it stays on your head without having to pull it tight resulting in your looking like a seven year old in a slicker at the bus stop.

In a bind, this coat and a Shetland sweater (think, royal blue, bright red, kelly green) will see you through temps as low as the mid-30s.  I should know.  I wore it last night in NY's first snow storm.  In the low visibility, it probably kept me from being run over by a city bus. Granted, it won't protect me in a knife fight like my old Lands' End jacket but I haven't had one of those, knock wood, since a pissed off girlfriend came at me with my own Randall.

The interior of the jacket is cotton with three inside waterproof pockets and one big enough for an iPad. But remember, this isn't a waterproof jacket...it's water repellent. Having said that, I've been in rain and snow with this thing and have managed to stay bone dry.  If you want to wear a suit with this jacket, and I have no idea why you would - other than I'm old and out of it, go up a size.  With just a shirt or sweater...it runs pretty true to size.

Bert tells me this cloth will eventually take on patina.  I can't wait.  That doesn't mean I'm gonna take sand paper to it or distress it in my backyard with a chain and a snowblower...It means it'll come by its patina in an honest way.  And if the weather continues like this -- it should be nicely broken in by next month.

Comes in black, orange, yellow, fawn, navy and blue. Order from Survivalon Web Site Here