Happy Halloween

Illustration by Arthur Frost for Lewis Carroll's 'Phantasmagoria.'

The Art of T&A...

New digs in old Asprey digs...


Where buttons come from


Silk shirting from the archives


More silk shirting - via Instagram



WWII shirt from Jermyn Street



"Torches" from WWII


Brolly handles


Dressing room


Pocket frogging


and sleeves


Another world...


another Friday belt?


Silk dressing gown makes use of 12 screens


Sleeves


Moleskins


Limited edition shirts...


utilizing vintage T&A designed fabric


My "Magda" editor jacket


Traditional T&A stripes


Kingdom of Evening Wear


Smoking jacket



More sleeves

The Morning Coat


Custom shirts...


and even socks (by Corgi)


Photo by Cecil Beaton


The library


More Brolly handles


Preppy?

Turnbull & Asser recently moved a couple store fronts east from their old location to the long vacant Asprey Shop on 57th Street near Park Avenue. It's like walking into some very grand hotel... a hotel I could never afford unless I was on business. It's like meeting a beautiful woman in a bar, and I can't figure out why she's so interested in me, until I discover her business. In short, it's a place I don't belong.

But NYC is full of people who belong. Missing here is the, "We're not worthy" Midwestern attitude I came to love in Chicago... along with Old Style beer and the Chicago Cubs. T&A probably threw out the welcome mat after I wiped my feet upon entering but I never saw anyone do it. They're that discreet and even that friendly.

You enter the store through a small library. An archives of beautiful vintage shirts sit behind glass as if they're in a museum. And they are. T & A has taken great care of their history unlike many retailers I can name. But then we Americans love to throw old stuff away.

There's a hip new section of black, Gore Textual, Loro Piana (why are the Italians here?) that I found out of place. But I was reminded of how little I know when a celebrity, tall and good looking, made a significant purchase of a black, Gore Textual, cashmere lined something or other. Certainly he belonged.

Lighting grows with a beautiful sun like intensity while climbing the stairs from the ground floor library. Small boutiques are sartorially bordered by T&A kingdoms of evening wear, dressing gowns, shirts, ties, jackets and suits. Classics abound. A hacking pocket navy blazer might be considered a bit off the reservation but their solid charcoal suit has to be the best suit a man can buy.

But it is the dressing gowns I especially lust after...If I were a magazine editor -- the male version of Magda from Ab Fab -- I'd get a bevy of beautiful women and shoot them wearing nothing but T&A dressing gowns and smoking jackets. Of course, it's the celebrities who belong here. I'm just visiting.

Turnbull & Asser's Smoking Smoker

Anachronistic? Without doubt. Expensive? You bet. Mind numbingly beautiful? Depends on who are you. If you're like me... a sucker for out of date, hand crafted attire that most likely will never see the light of day outside your own four walls...then you'll love the smoking jacket. I've written at length about them here.

It makes absolutely no sense in today's world. It's the buggy whip of formal attire but it's also an unmitigated work of art. Last December I took a poll of New York City haberdashers on smoking jacket sales. It's complicated depending on the retailer but know this -- They ain't flying off the shelves.

All the more reason to have one. Trust me...you're not gonna run into anyone wearing a smoking jacket at a black tie Christmas or New Years party. But you'll need some hefty stones to pull it off. I'd say no if you're under 25. Maybe even 35. Why? You'll look silly because you don't deserve it...yet.

I remember entertaining a lady friend in my college dorm room just before Christmas break. Astrud Gilberto was on the Akai reel to reel while she sat on the edge of my bed with her legs crossed watching me pour tonic and gin into a cocktail shaker.

She arched an eyebrow and seconds later I understood why...She wasn't as interested in me as much as she wondered if I'd really shake tonic. I did. She smiled and left. I was all sticky. Good thing I wasn't wearing a Smoking Jacket.

Formal Week: The Belted Smoking Jacket

I was told many years ago that life's luxuries quickly become necessities. Never was that more true than when I went through a discounted case of La Conseillante in less than a month. I had plenty of other wine but I just couldn't see the point. Not with a Pomerol staring at me. "Hey!" I would think to myself, "I could be dead tomorrow."

But times have changed. We have two wars going and the economy is... I don't have to tell you what it is. Nick Sullivan wrote in Esquire's Fall Black Book that the sale of pocket squares plummeted in the last year and I'm doing a week of smoking and dinner jackets. Impeccable timing.

This is a belted smoking jacket from Italy. They're a common site in the better haberdashery and they're not cheap. Around $900 to a $1,000. So who is gonna plop down a grand for something they may never wear more than a handful of times? That's a good question. Better than that, it's what we call in sales a buyer's objection. I'll try to over come it:

1. The Tuxedo Option:
It takes some stones to wear this out of one's home but it can be done. Unless Bruce Boyer is at the party who's gonna call you on it? The bow tie is a gift from Pierrepont Hicks. The cuff links were not a gift and were purchased at an auction in Chicago. All the accessory stuff for Formal Week will be covered Sunday after tomorrow's Tartan dinner jacket.

2. Home Entertaining:
A little luxe in the privacy of your own home is not a bad thing. The at-home holiday party in black tie is elegant and fun. The wine is better. The food is better and the cost is better. Plus, it's always interesting to see your neighbors in something other than cargo shorts and hair curlers. This is the jacket you wear as host.

3. The Robe:
With this option you can wear it every day. Over pajamas or over nothing.

4. The Girl Friend's Robe
Nothing looks better on a woman than a smoking jacket and only a smoking jacket.

Lastly, I ask you to consider 18th century clothing. Very little of what people wore daily 200 years ago is still around. What is around are the ceremonial coats, vests and dresses that were worn once and put away. A smoking jacket may not help your bottom line today but it could mean a new house addition for your great- great - grandson.

A Week of Formal Options: The Smoking Jacket

The Herzfeld Smoking Jacket



Paul Stuart emamel studs

You're having a holiday party at home and everything is ready...but you. Unless you have a butler I assume you're going to answer the door. In what? Cargo pants and a Moto Guzzi T shirt? By the way, I have a Moto Guzzi T shirt. It's the coolest T shirt ever but we're not here to discuss Moto Guzzi.

The Smoking Jacket may be something like a buggy whip or a typewriter repairman and I guess that's why I like them so much. Up there is that little number I picked up at Herzfeld. It's Austrian and consequently a little unique with most Smoking Jackets coming from England or Italy. I have worn it on the street as a jacket with double cuff shirt, silk knots and jeans. But I'd only do that in New York. Certainly not Jackassville, FL where this outfit is banging 12 on the "Get Your Butt Kicked" meter.

It's really for home. And for entertaining. Speaking of which, I miss the reel to reel tape player. I had one in the Army and college and it had the auto reverse option where it automatically played the other side by reversing itself. Made a big impression while entertaining girls in college. I also put gin and tonic in a cocktail shaker and after it blew up...Well, I don't know if it made an impression but the girl still remembers it.

If you're entertaining - - at home - - don't shake gin and tonic in a cocktail shaker and give the Smoking Jacket a chance. Paul Stuart carries them. That's where I found those enamel studs. Turnbull & Asser has some beautiful jackets and they even offer a smoking fez to match. Herzfeld, of course, still carries them.

Ira, who works at Herzfeld, was telling me about a smashing Smoking Jacket he saw on Turner Classic Movies showing of the 1944 film, Gaslight with Charles Boyer. That's the great thing about anachronistic clothing. You may not see much of it on the street anymore but there's always the movies. Tomorrow- The Velvet Dinner Jacket.

The Duke's Smoking Jacket

A friend who works for an auction house attended Sotheby's Duke and Duchess of Windsor Sale. His three volume set of catalogs are noted with his impressions of lots - - mostly silver and clocks -- and on the last page of the catalog he scrawled, "...it would appear all these two people ever did was play cards and eat."

As much as I would like to have made off with his catalog set...it's far too large to stuff down one's trousers (Perhaps if my trousers were pleated and made by H Harris I'd a gotten away with it), I finally secured my own set of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor sale sans any thievery on my part. Should you be inclined to do the same ... a word of warning. If, like me, you find yourself in a tony upper east side book shop and see this volume for sale...fend off any impulse to purchase it for $250. Rather, go on line to Alibris or Abe and secure a copy for $30. Which is probably what the owner of that book shop did.

If you, like me, enjoy peeking into other people's medicine cabinets and poking around in their sock drawers looking for methods of birth control - - You're gonna love this catalog. I can pretty much guess which readers of The Trad already have this catalog. But I would offer it up to anyone, with sartorial interests or not, as one of the most perplexing, interesting and beautiful books I have ever owned. Not bad for thirty clams.

This week I'll post photos of the Duke's closet. After the winter of 1936, the Duke had a lot of spare time on his hands. And he threw that spare time at his closet. Sotheby's reports in 1960 he had, " ...fifteen evening suits, fifty five lounge suits and three formal suits." There's no mention of Odd Jackets, Smoking Jackets or Blazers. One can only guess.

I own two Smoking Jackets and I'm not sure why. One reason may be cost. I didn't pay full freight for either one. The second reason may have to do with my natural inclination towards being an asshole. One Christmas I wore a Smoking Jacket at a home dinner party with the Golf Foxtrot's family. Black Watch tartan trousers, monogrammed black velvet slippers, double cuff shirt with enameled fox head links, a Black Watch ascot and a black velvet Smoking Jacket trimmed in quilted green silk and tied with a tassel belt. What a hit I made.

Lesson 57. Just because the Duke of Windsor wore it doesn't mean you can.

The Most Fun You Can Have With Your Smoking Jacket On

I've smoked everything. Lucky and Camel cigarettes. 1Q pipe tobacco by Lane. The Cuban Punch Punch and the 1926 Padron. No more. The consumption of tobacco came to a screeching halt when the Doc found something on the lip. All is well but for a few months there was a great deal of reflection on the leaf and nothing has ever had the effect on me like a doctor saying, "...it may be cancerous." It wasn't but it was enough to quit. All of it.

So in smoking's place -- I've consumed myself with something else to do in a smoking jacket. Shaving. So far I've tried razor blades made by Astra, Feather, Shark, 7A.M., Sharp, Merkur and Derby. They're cheap. No more than $2 for five and they come in the most amazing and colorful packaging. Just like European cigarettes.

I was happy to use my Santa Maria shaving cream in a can ($25) and even happier to buy it from Phoebe Cates at Blue Tree. Her shop's web site is here and be sure to watch the film clip on the home page. Funny stuff with Kevin Kline. I had been to the shop a couple of times without a Phoebe sighting. My luck, the one time she was there I had Kim Chi for lunch.

While Santa Maria is good stuff and lasts for donkey years...I swear I get a year out of a can...it doesn't come close to lather spread on with a badger brush. The luxury of this is hard to describe. Let me try. While I was in the Army, I spent a week in the jungles of Panama without a shower save getting rained on almost every day. I had an itching jungle 'crud' everywhere and I wanted two things. A woman with very long finger nails to scratch my feet and a hot shower. Back at Ft Sherman, I did get a hot shower and I'll never forget that feeling of being reborn as hot water washed off seven days of jungle funk. Slathering warm lather on your face with a badger brush comes very close to that -- without having to endure the jungle part.

I strongly advise against slapping cologne on after shaving. The slow and careful shave with a heavy safety razor is a radical difference from the plastic Quarto razor that vibrates and the blue - green gel that smells like a J Crew store in an outlet mall (what is that smell?). I like to use what's known as skin food. Trumper's makes a nice lime and coral skin food I've tried but I really like the glass bottle D.R. Harris comes in. It's also cheaper.

After skin food comes cologne. I want to explain how I feel about men who smell like a perfume counter on the street. It's not attractive and I associate it with men who wear lots of Gucci, a black t shirt with a closed vent sport coat and affect an Italian accent even though they're from Ft Wayne, Indiana. I'm not saying you can't. I'm saying you shouldn't. For me, cologne that wears off quickly is A-Okay in my book. The scent is just for me. Perhaps the last bit of pleasure I treat myself to before going out into the world of pissed off clients, homicidal bus drivers and odors wafting through the 59th Street subway station. Odors so bad --I don't even want to know where they come from.

By the way, Herzfeld cognoscenti may be smiling at the label with the old 509 Madison Avenue address. That's where the shop opened in 1949. It moved to 507 Madison in 1984 and then to 118 E 57th in 2005. Great history, a wonderful staff and a beautiful tailor's ruler they refuse to sell me.