A pair of mock cut-steel knee-buckles by George Bower, Birmingham 1816.
They go on breeches.
As you get older you have to wear clothes of better quality - better material, better cut, better everything. When you are very young, clothes are pointless and the only thing that matters is showing your body. As this loses its beauty, your clothes have to take over the job of making you look good.
Elegant older women know this. Well dressed older men are fewer, but they know it too.
Picture (of David Niven at the age of 55) reblogged from i12bent:
Dapper gentleman actor, David Niven: Mar. 1, 1910 - 1983
Photo Gjon Mili, 1965, LIFE
Don’t miss the last verse - and, especially, the last line…
AN ARUNDEL TOMB
by Philip Larkin
Side by side, their faces blurred,
The earl and countess lie in stone,
Their proper habits vaguely shown
As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,
And that faint hint of the absurd —
The little dogs under their feet.
Such plainness of the pre-baroque
Hardly involves the eye, until
It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still
Clasped empty in the other; and
One sees, with a sharp tender shock,
His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.
They would not think to lie so long.
Such faithfulness in effigy
Was just a detail friends would see:
A sculptor’s sweet commissioned grace
Thrown off in helping to prolong
The Latin names around the base.
They would not guess how early in
Their supine stationary voyage
The air would change to soundless damage,
Turn the old tenantry away;
How soon succeeding eyes begin
To look, not read. Rigidly they
Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths
Of time. Snow fell, undated. Light
Each summer thronged the glass. A bright
Litter of birdcalls strewed the same
Bone-riddled ground. And up the paths
The endless altered people came,
Washing at their identity.
Now, helpless in the hollow of
An unarmorial age, a trough
Of smoke in slow suspended skeins
Above their scrap of history,
Only an attitude remains:
Time has transfigured them into
Untruth. The stone fidelity
They hardly meant has come to be
Their final blazon, and to prove
Our almost-instinct almost true:
What will survive of us is love.
From The Whitsun Weddings
This fine jacket is a little bit let down by its display. The point of a jacket like this is LEGS. It is cut way above the waist so that the military trousers seems to go on for ever, elongating the legs in the same way as a high heeled shoe does for a woman. Meanwhile, the buttons taper in to suggest a V shaped upper body, and the epaulattes, by artificially widening the shoulder line, do the same.
As with all good tailoring, the cut is designed to do some visual cosmetic surgery to the body, and make it look better, according to the fashionable ideal of the time.
Hung on a stick and not on a body, something of the effect is lost….
The 1862 jacket of an Assistant Surgeon in the Medical Service, shows how military uniforms had remained virtually unchanged since the Revolutionary War.
reblogged from oldbookillustrations:
Mr Nicodemus Dumps… cross, cadaverous, odd and ill-natured.
Illustration by Fred Barnard, from Scenes and characters from the works of Charles Dickens, London, Toronto (not dated).
Via archive.org.
But look at the clothes. Very high waisted flat fronted trousers, designed to emphasise and lengthen the legs - which was THE focus for men in early nineteenth century Europe. Later, trousers became looser and baggier, and so the shape and length of men’s legs disappeared from view altogether, except when riding.
The coat rounds the shoulders, with its high collar rolling down to the lapels, and a slight puff at the top of the sleeve where it joins the body of the jacket. The thickness of the coat, and waistcoat, and their darkness, obscure everything except the cravat, which is held with some sort of diamond or similar pin - this flash of clean linen and luxury conveys wealth and status.
Mr Dumps is an old and miserable man, and his clothes are, no doubt, old fashioned for his time. But the style is now SO old that we can see it, not as dowdy and out of date, but as a style wholly new and interesting to us, which both contains the germ of the modern business suit and tie, and retains the long lost styles of the Regency.
The character is from Sketches by Boz
reblogged from jonnodotcom:
Fitz-Patrick, “Fotografia Inglesa” - Calle Rincon 176, Montevideo, ca. 1900
(for robertpatrick, thizizit, sailorjunkers et al.)
The picture is old and discoloured but the essential character of the sitter still breaks forcefully through, utterly real and alive. The sailor suit is so different from the strange Sunday best usually worn in these studio portraits that it shocks us with its thickness and coarseness, entirely demonstrated by the natural fall of the cloth over the man’s stocky body.
William Howard Taft: Hero of the Fats
William Howard Taft was our nation’s fattest leader. He typically weighed more than 300 pounds, and according to legend once got stuck in a White House bathtub, but he was also PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
He was also quite sharp. Notice that his style is neat: important for a heavy guy who will naturally look a bit unkempt. His three-piece suit minimizes contrast between his top and bottom half, which allows attention to head naturally towards his face. The dark, solid color is as flattering as is reasonably possible, given his girth. He’s also got a sharp haircut and some great facial hair - neat but also distinctive.
onlyfornow adds:
Spot on. Nothing suits a fat man better than a three piece suit. Think of Minnesota Fats in the Paul Newman classic The Hustler for another proof of the same point.
A three piece suit on a fat man is like a magic spell. It’s wonderful how much difference clothes can make to anybody’s looks.
FUR
Until the later part of the twentieth century furs were the signature clothes for fashionable women who conveyed an image of luxury, beauty and glamour.
The most celebrated work of Sacher-Masoch (who gave his name to the phenomenon of masochism) was called Venus in Furs.
The softness of fur is so powerful and delightful that even looking at it evokes a sensual response.
The softness of the edge of a fur, also, frames a woman’s face or upper body in a way similar to the effects of soft focus.
Furs draw attention to themselves and also to the person wearing them; which is a fashion ideal.
Furs are fragile (they are particularly vulnerable to moth) and, before synthetic alternatives became available through advances in man-made fibres, could only be natural, which meant that they were rare and expensive. This added to their prestige and allure.
Real fur is now profoundly unacceptable, because of its association with animal slaughter. This was not, previously, a problem, because animal slaughter (for example, in fox hunting) was taken for granted.
Near my house there is a large art deco building which was once entirely devoted to the sale of furs. (It is now a block of luxury flats behind the original facade). The furs were kept in freezers in order to preserve them. There were chutes (decorative vestiges of which remain) through which the furs were delivered to the purchasers.
When my grandmother died, no-one in the family wanted her furs. So I took them. They sit in air tight containers waiting for anyone who has the remotest interest in wearing them. So far, no such person has appeared.
Image reblogged from soulcookie: via myvintagevogue Nina Leen, photographer, for LIFE, 1952
This doesn’t deserve to look quite as good as it does.
However, I don’t think I could get away with it.
Court dress for Queen’s (and King’s) Counsel
From Dress and insignia worn at His Majesty’s court, issued with the authority of the Lord Chamberlain (1921)
[None of this has changed much, although some of it is rarely if ever worn and I have never seen a silk carrying a sword. But it might be fun…!]
The VELVET COURT SUIT for… those entitled to wear SILK GOWNS, is of the following description:-
COAT:- Black Silk Velvet, stand collar, pigeon-breasted. Seven buttons on the Right front and seven notched holes on the Left, the holes being 3½ inches in length at the top and 2¾ inches at bottom. The fronts meet edge to edge at a point on the breast where they are secured with a hook and eye. Gauntlet cuffs with three notched holes and buttons. Three-pointed flaps on waist seam, with three buttons, one under each point. Six buttons behind, that is, two at the waist, two at centre of skirts, and two at bottom of the skirts. Black Silk linings. Pockets in the breast and in the tails.
BUTTONS:- …Cut Steel.
BLACK SILK “WIG-BAG” is attached to the coat at the back of the neck, hanging over the collar.
WAISTCOAT.- Black Silk Velvet. No collar. Four buttons. Skirted fronts. Three pointed flaps to the pockets, with a button under each point.
BREECHES.- Black Silk Velvet, with three small steel buttons, and cut steel buckles at the knees.
HOSE.- Black Silk.
SHOES.- Black Patent Leather, with cut steel buckles.
HAT.- A BLACK SILK COCKED HAT with Steel loop.
SWORD (not worn with robes).- Sling Sword, with cut steel hilt, and black scabbard with steel mountings.
SWORD BELT. - Black Silk Web with slings.
GLOVES.- White.
LACE FRILL AND RUFFLES.
——————————————————————————————————-
The COURT SUIT OF BLACK CLOTH to be worn under Silk Gowns is as follows:-
COAT.- Black Superfine Cloth, stand collar, pigeon-breasted. Seven buttons on the Right front and seven notched holes on the Left, the holes being 3½ inches in length at the top, and 2¾ inches at bottom. The fronts meet edge to edge at a point on the breast where they are secured with a hook and eye. Gauntlet cuffs with three notched holes and buttons. Three-pointed flaps on waist seam, with three buttons, one under each point. Six buttons behind, that is, two at the waist, two at centre of skirts, and two at bottom of the skirts. Black Silk linings. Pockets in the breast and in the tails. Plain Black flexible buttons.
BLACK SILK “WIG-BAG” at the back of neck, hanging over the collar and outside gown.
WAISTCOAT.- Black Superfine Cloth. No collar. Four buttons. Skirted fronts. Three pointed flaps to the pocket, with a button under each point.
BREECHES.- Black Cloth, with three small plain Black flexible buttons at the knees, and Steel buckles.
HOSE.- Black Silk.
SHOES.- Black Patent Leather, with steel buckles.
GLOVES.- White.
LACE FRILL and RUFFLES.
——————————————————————————————————-
Velvet Court Dress [see above]… is worn at State or Full Dress Dinners, State Balls, and Evening State Parties when Robes and Wigs are not worn.
——————————————————————————————————-
King’s Counsel,- The same dress as for the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General [viz:-]
At Courts wear a COURT SUIT of Black Velvet [see above]; LACE BANDS; over all a BLACK DAMASK TUFTED GOWN ; FULL BOTTOMED WIG; WHITE GLOVES.
At levées.- A COURT SUIT of Black Cloth [see above]; CAMBRIC BANDS; over all a BLACK SILK GOWN; FULL BOTTOMED WIG; WHITE GLOVES.
——————————————————————————————————-
MOURNING.
At Courts, the Members of the Legal Profession who are entitled to wear Black Damask Tufted Gowns [this includes King’s Counsel and Queen’s Counsel - see previous section above], wear Broad hemmed FRILL and RUFFLES instead of Lace; LAWN BANDS; WEEPERS, on Coat; BLACK KNEE and SHOE BUCKLES.
At levées.- A Black Paramatta GOWN instead of Silk, and other details as above. (Weepers are of White Lawn, and are Covers on the Cuffs of the Coat.)
An original copy may be consulted online at http://www.archive.org/stream/dressinsigniawor00greauoft#page/66/mode/2up
