By Alan Flusser
The Dove Gray/Bisque Tan Odd-jacket
It’s hard to find a great grey sport jacket. Not a naturally-inclined tweed shade, grey tends to need the plumage of another color that both makes sense and flatters. To writ, we offer the tan over-plaided grey sport coat or its optical reverse, the grey over-plaided tan sport jacket.
Why, because this particular color combination can enhance the middle-age or prematurely grey hair complexion like no other. The grey picks up the emerging hair color while the tan reflects the skin tone. Together they frame the face while providing a certain glow underneath the chin that other jacket colorings simply cannot. In addition, the coat effortlessly invites the correct trouser coordination, grey or tan.
Featuring one some years back, the moment the client slipped his on for a fitting, you could see him relax with an uptick of confidence. While flattering for any age, the grey/tan odd jacket offers the mature man something special.
The Cashmere Dinner Jacket:
I understand that this may not be the first thing you find yourself slipping into tomorrow. However, the classic tuxedo may be that one traditional pillar of male decorum likely to retain its pre-pandemic relevance and status. Should you be without a proper fitting one or interested in trading up, a new cloth has entered the field which should assuage the channeling of any Fred Astaire aficionado.
A perfect indoor weight but with a difference, our candidate happens to be a worsted cashmere. Normally pure cashmere is not firm or drapey enough to tailor for dinner clothes, but this cloth is not typical in any way. At 9 oz, it’s milled to indoor perfection and comfort. Partnering a barathea weave with a rich black shade, the cloth is luxurious to the touch yet substantive enough to behave like a lighter, harder finished worsted. Yes, such indulgence is not for everyone. However, ascending the fantasy mountain of sartorial exuberance and soigné eveningwear via a worsted cashmere tuxedo would find you pretty close to its summit.
Over-Plaids Galore:
A Cambridge gray sharkskin with a multi-tracked medium blue over-plaid – the stuff of Alan Flusser lust, and then lore. I think it was the legendary Savile Row cloth merchant J. J. Minnis, back in the mid-seventies occupying its street-level premises on The Row where I first viewed such high-brow worsted cloths. The over-plaid design for a dress suit was then and remains today, a garment imbued with a quiet bespoke exclusivity.
For a retailer to offer one for sale, he’d have to have it made by a high-end manufacturer with the tailoring expertise to match up each rectangle’s lines with each other. This would require more fabric, more time, and thus expense. In addition to the higher tariff, there was the added complication of tailoring it to fit each body while making sure the integrity of each line remained unbroken.
And if those hurdles were not enough, its salesman would have to be prepared to field the in’s and out’s of donning one, such as - can a short man wear a plaid or is a plaid suit as dressy as a stripe? How do you accessorize it – does it demand a solid shirt and tie or are there other ways to style it?
In short, the over-plaid suit came with a host of built-in issues for both the customer and retailer, therefore consigning it to the more rarefied precincts of the custom tailor and his sophisticated clientele. This is one reason I’ve long been drawn to them and why, should a worsted with an over-plaid design meet those criteria, I immediately escort it to the head of the line.
The Mustard Sport Jacket
Can’t tell you exactly why I’ve always been drawn to mustard as a color for menswear – maybe because it pairs so well with medium blue shirts and gray flannel pants. It’s certainly a great vest color for the right tweed jacket or gilt-buttoned blue blazer. Or for that matter, for an odd pair of corduroy trousers.
I suppose its limited appeal may be due to its lack of contrast to certain skin colors. Back in the day (when Brooks Brothers was the hub around which all Manhattan prep costumers revolved) you’d occasionally see the shade grace the shoulders of a blond-haired, horn-rimmed WASP chap. Occasionally I’d see one in or around a Milan waterhole or exiting an elegant Paris hotel. It’s owner usually projected a Hermès-bound, cosmopolitan kind of taste.
Well, may we recommend a tweedy solid twill in woolen cashmere for you today? As one of the few cashmere weavers with any feel for the upper-class taste of years gone-by, Loro Piana whipped this one up and we respectfully pass it on to you for further consideration. It’s definitely not something you’ll see coming and going, unless you happen to be looking in the mirror.