The Long Coat

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The impressive ulsters and great coats have disappeared. Most coats today are variations on a barely knee long chesterfield or a pea coat.

The step is logical. I mean, who needs a coat that runs down to the ankles? Long coats don’t fit the car and life in the tube, and they work poorly for bycycling, which so many cities try to promote. Long coats are cut for men strolling weather-hit streets of yesterday.

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All the more, it is a pleasure to see long coats today. They tell a story of a way of living that once was.

In the photos, Luciano Barbera and Ethan of The Armoury.

Source: The Journal of Style in Florence

The Double Breasted Tweed Jacket

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Do you remember this gentleman?

He offended a few traditionalists with a creative take on the tie.

I found him again last week in Pitti Uomo. At a first glance, very conventional in brown-green tweed jacket, grey flannels, red foulard tie, dark brown suede shoes, and a cheroot.

At a second glance, though, we discover the peak lapels and extra row of buttons.

In other words, we are witnessing the shocking double breasted tweed jacket.

He has done it again.

Source: The Journal of Style

Casentino at Pitti Uomo

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Casentino-Coat-Florence-The-Journal-of-Style

Instinctively, you may think that casentino is one of those silly Pitti Uomo fashions. And, it is.

That said, casentino cloth has been around for some time. It became popular with the Florentine bourgeoisie and nobility in late 19th Century. They used it for long fur covered coats with martingale backs, in other words, show coats.

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Casentino itself is poor cloth. There is nothing luxurious about the rough woollen material. Instead casentino has a romantic touch. It fits classic casual clothes, not so much business clothes, if such a distinction makes much sense nowadays.

In the photos above, two young men in modern knee long coats made up in French blue and mocca brown casentino.

Source: The Journal of Style at Pitti Uomo January 2014

Veblen Shoes

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At the risk of offending some readers, I have often found that loafers and monks have a tendency to signal money and arrogance rather than style. They are Veblenesque in my imagination, perfect examples of Thorstein Veblen’s conspicuous consumption.

I am a little afraid that my position is nothing but a prejudice though. Therefore, I have decided testing it. I have started wearing loafers ands monks giving my laced shoes a break once in a while.

Until now, I feel at home. I like being Veblenesque.

Above in the photo my monks in drizzle. They are, like most of my shoes, bespoke from Central Europe.

Source: The Journal of Style

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