Tel: 01539 737365
NEWS
• Olive. • Military references. Yes military is still in fashion, but then isn't it always? • The wearing of coats on shoulders and capes is still most definitely a "look". • The bomber jacket – it's everywhere, in every guise. • Double-breasted suits are here to stay with the Power silk tie. • There's a pinstripe revival afoot. Ditto herringbone. • Hair is slick-to-wet-look. • Paisley is a micro trend.
The David Beckham Effect ! 13th Febuary 2012
Menswear trends for next season
The benefits of the designer silk tie are simple: as well as the silken sheen to offset the matt woollen texture of the rest of your outfit, you have a handy length of material available for use as a tourniquet or bondage straps. And the downside? I really don't see any reasonable objections that would justify this war on style.
Presumably politicians are advised by their aides that ties are the elite made silk: a visible sign of disconnection with the average voter and an indication of uptight alienation from normal problems – as though a) anything is "normal" and b) no one else wears a silk tie.
Consider Gordon Brown last weekend, as he ventured out with open-necked shirt. I've no idea who advised him to do that, but I'm pretty sure they can't have the words "wear a tie, Gordon, or you'll resemble a victim of a terrible disease who's not long for this world" in their lexicon (though in his defence, Brown doesn't look half as bad as Australian politard Tony Abbott, as pointed out by Cif commenter CatastrophicGuppy).
The most common complaint I've heard is that they're "uncomfortable". Nonsense. As a former seller of fine tailoring, I can let you in on a secret: if your tie feels uncomfortable, it's because you've got a fatter neck than you thought, and have bought your shirts a collar size too small. "Darling, I'm a creative type! I can't create with a tie on! Why should I have to be uncomfortable for your benefit?" Well, you wouldn't be uncomfortable if you understood how clothes fit. I'm fine with you choosing what you wear as long as you acknowledge the logical and stylistic inferiority of your outfit. Then there's the "I don't need to wear a suit and designer silk tie to be good at my job" brigade. Quite right: I'd be very concerned if you did. However, I'm equally concerned if you can't do your job while wearing something with a collar.
"They get in the way" is another one complaint I hear often: understandable if you're operating machinery, not if you're not – and if you don't like it flapping, get a tie pin. "They're a symbol of oppression of the worker!" – I say to you, get real. Would you rather we were in Star Trek-style coloured boiler suits? How very collectivist. We can choose our own ties; they are not oppression, but expression.
Ties are different colours. Different patterns. Different materials. Different sizes. We can choose according to who we are. Colonel Buftington-Tuftington chooses a burgundy number with indigo diagonal stripes in classic twill weave with large kipper finish. Matt Trendy wears a shiny silver thing, very skinny. Peter H Author probably favours a knitted job, with horizontal stripes and square finish. And as I type this, I'm wearing a green tweed tie. Without it, I'd be a little less "me" today.
The tie could soon go the way of the hat and the pocket handkerchief because of such bleating. In a few years' time, they could be rare enough so that simply wearing one is an unfortunately ironic style statement in itself. But hopefully that won't have to happen. We see sales in ties rise ever so slightly in a recession – a tacit admission that it's not bad to look professional.
The tie will hopefully survive for longer; stronger than before. It may lose its ridiculous association with staid, oppressive office work and emerge as the flamboyant colourful signifier of personality it is. That would be good for everyone: I don't want to live in a world where I can't be pulled by my big phallic symbol into a passionate embrace.
Gentlemen
Gentlemen are kindly reminded that it is a requirement to wear either black or grey morning dress which must include:
-
A waistcoat and tie (no cravats); and
-
A black or grey top hat; and
-
Black shoes.
A gentleman may remove his top hat within a restaurant, a private box, a private club or that facility’s terrace, balcony or garden. Hats may also be removed within any enclosed external seating area within the Royal Enclosure Garden.
The French president has irritated female members of parliament by sending them what they say is an ill-judged gift to mark France's EU presidency.
Nicolas Sarkozy's office sent a sleek black case to all MPs, male and female, including a pale grey silk tie.
Socialist MP Aurelie Filippetti proclaimed it "yet more proof of male chauvinism in the political class".
Others took it more lightly, gamely adding the silk ties to their outfits or even wearing them as headbands.
Junior minister Nadine Morano - one of Mr Sarkozy's most loyal staffers - defended her boss's blunder by saying that "even for a woman, wearing a silk tie can be nice," the Guardian reports.
Some 18% of deputies in the National Assembly - a total of 107 - are women.
Mr Sarkozy chose many women for cabinet-level posts, including Justice Minister Rachida Dati and Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie.
Women also hold the finance, higher education, culture and agriculture ministries and the health, youth and sports portfolio in Mr Sarkozy's cabinet.
Many key developments in healthcare have their origins in the battlefield where the treatment of injured troops has led to innovations throughout history which continue today.
The hospital at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan is at the forefront in developments in trauma surgery. Last year it handled 8,000 casualties, many of them with extremely serious injuries.
Incredibly, US and British army medics now expect to save 90% of those patients, the highest figure in the history of warfare.
"Start Quote
End Quote Lt Col Steve Lord Consultant, Camp Bastion Emergency DepartmentWithout a doubt people have gone back alive who five years ago would not have survived ”
Yet 500 years ago, the best a fallen soldier could hope for was to be dragged off the battlefield by his friends and, if he survived long enough, have his wounds cauterised with hot irons or sealed with boiling oil.
Blood loss has always been the biggest killer in war. A big turning point came, in 1537, when a French barber called Ambroise Pare was sent as a surgeon to the Siege of Turin.
He was so horrified by what he saw, that he came up with an incredibly simple alternative, the ligature. He would identify bleeding arteries, clamp them, and then tie the ends with silk threads.
Welcome to scruffy Britain: New German director of V&A lambasts dressed-down style which has outlawed the tie
8th March 2012
German-born Professor Roth, the new director of the V&A museum, has slammed scruffy Brits for not wearing ties
A museum chief has slammed scruffy Britons for their lax attitude to workplace dress codes.
Lamenting the loss of sartorial standards in the UK, newly appointed director Professor Martin Roth says the only people in organisations who wear ties are the 'security guards.'
'My mother was a tailor. It’s where my passion for textiles and great quality goods came from,’ Prof Roth said in an interview with the Telegraph.
'But the sad thing for me is that nobody seems to wear a tie in London any longer – only the security guards.'
German-born Prof Roth, the first ever foreign director of the museum, comes from a country where workplace dress codes are much more rigorous.
While he dresses for work every day in a neat suit with immaculate shirt and always a tie, he has found that many colleagues and peers – especially those higher up in organisations – tend to go open-necked and without a jacket.
It is a clear sign that standards have collectively slipped when our sartorial shortcomings are pointed out by a German visitor.
As a nation, Britain was once admired for its buttoned-up style. Just one or two generations ago men wore suits to work, almost without exception. Many still wore hats.
But while it has taken a newcomer looking in on our society to point out this collective relaxation of dress codes, it is a phenomenon that has been unfolding gradually for many years.
In fact, Prime Minister David Cameron, who approved Prof Roth’s appointment, has a penchant for the more relaxed dress code himself, frequently appearing without a jacket and tie during the general election campaign, and reportedly going about his duties at Number 10 in stockinged feet.
Dressing down: David Cameron frequently chose to go without jacket and tie while campaigning during the general election
Mr Cameron is not the only one to be embracing this new era of relaxed dress codes either.
The Duke of Cambridge recently attended a charity event in a shirt and sweater, and on his royal tour of Canada, greeted local children in a shirt with rolled-up sleeves, eschewing the formal jacket and tie that his father, Prince Charles would always insist upon.
It is a growing phenomenon, and an inevitable part of the modernisation of Britain, according to consumer trend experts.
'Among politicians, royals and corporate heads, a more relaxed dress code makes one seem more approachable,’ a spokesman for trendwatch website fashionfreude.com told MailOnline.
'When someone like David Cameron goes without a jacket and tie, it’s a deliberate move to ingratiate himself with the masses.'
'People in positions of authority fear so much seeming out of touch with "the people" that they put aside their natural predilection for smarter clothes and effectively "dumb down" their dress sense.'
'It’s a form of inverse snobbery really – why should we look down on people who dress smartly? For previous generations it was good manners to dress smartly – it was a mark of respect for people of all classes.
'Now, the opposite seems to be true.'
Approachable: Figures of authority and royals like Prince William, pictured on a public engagement in Quebec, feel the need to dress less formally to ingratiate themselves with the masses these days
Indeed, this relaxing of dress codes has filtered down to the extent that in all but the most formal work places – banks, law firms and the likes – ties have become extinct.
And in creative environments such as galleries, advertising agencies and PR firms, ties are not so much frowned upon, as out and out banned.
One creative director recalls being invited for an interview at a world-level London advertising agency.
His headhunter had just one tip: Dress down. Do not wear a suit, ideally not a shirt – and certainly not a tie, she advised, calling it the ‘kiss of death’ for someone looking for a creative role.
A recent survey found that only 18 per cent of British office staff wear a tie, and this number is likely to fall rapidly.
Casual: A thoroughly modern royal, the Duke of Cambridge operates a more relaxed code than his father, Prince Charles, who is rarely without jacket and tie
But while office wear seems to have become more formal, consumer trends have seen more formal attire adopted into the out-of-work wardrobe instead.
Ryan Hackett, menswear designer at Austin Reed, told the Telegraph that while ties were no longer essential for officewear, more men were adopting ties, and even bow ties, into their weekend wardrobe.
'Austin Reed has seen an increase in the sales of bow ties, silk handkerchiefs and braces,' he said.
'The dapper gentleman has realised there is more than one way to style a suit.'
And Alan Bennett of Savile Row tailors added: 'We've been through this before. At one point, suits were out and everyone was wearing denim. BUt ties will come back into fashion. Prof Roth should wear his tie with pride and set the standards at the V&A.
Maybe there is hope for scruffy Britain after all.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2088884/German-director-V-A-Professor-Roth-lambasts-dressed-style-outlawed-tie.html#ixzz1oWmBGiCJ