Entertainment For Lively Minds
Ozwald Boateng
Posted by matthew on 8 January 2009 - 10:57pm.
I tuned in earlier to a programme on BBC4 in which Ozwald Boateng was talking about style. Now I understand that he has single-handedly saved Saville Row and redefined the well-cut suit but the man's credentials have this evening been called seriously into question. As he took the viewer round his flagship Saville Row store he, and I'm still quite shocked now, had his bottom jacket button done up.
Is this yet another case of the BBC 'dumbing down'?
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Nope
Trinny and Susannah taking you round his store would have been dumbing down. OB is probably allowed to break a Saville Row rule. Or two.
Urrrrgggghhhh...
Those two make me feel quite ill. Why won't they go away? What have I done so wrong to be punished with those two wasters of good air on my television screen?
They are so awful
we sky+ them just to delete it. Its better than just ignoring them - we feel we are actively ignoring them. They are vile.
When Nescafe coffee jars started featuring...
those two witches on the jars, I would religiously scrub out their faces and any text referring to them with a black marker pen. The last thing I wanted to see first thing in the morning was those two fright queens...
I hope your not buying instant coffee
in Italy. You'll get deported.
I have a Nescafe first thing...
and then the first of many caffè doppio at around 11am. Mmmm... I'm so healthy. I'd give Lemmy a run for his money at the moment...
Wrong button taboo?
Isn’t it the bottom button of the waistcoat in a three-piece that should always be undone?
It goes something like
Three buttoned suit only do up the middle button. Bottom button undone follows the shape of the hips and top button undone balances the shape.
Two button suit just the bottom button undone for the the same reason.
Exactly
Surely it depends on the number of buttons for the context?
Don't you remember a recent article in The Word?
I think it was an interview with Bill Nighy. The rule is:
Middle button always
Top button sometimes
Bottom button never
Clearly, you have to think a bit laterally if your jacket has an even number of buttons, but I think the final line always applies.
Isn't all that bottom button undone stuff...
...all to do with being a bit tubby? Not that I would know, of course.
Edward VII
That was Edward VII, when still prince of Wales, who set the trend for leaving the bottom button undone when he grew fat.
I work in local government, and the crimes against clothes in that place can cause almost physical pain - the jackets fully buttoned, the ties worn with short-sleeved shirts (horribly prevalent this one, even in winter), and, my dears, the shoes some people wear. I'm just glad that even in my office everyone has finally read the memo about the unacceptibility of cartoon characters on ties.
Oh good
Our own Paul Dunoyer, a big man for the Windsor knot and precisely-shot cuff, is known to remark "Nowadays, people dress like *toddlers*."
Quite right
In his excellent book Big Babies (which I have recommended on these pages before) Michael Bywater observes that it is common to look at old photographs and comment on how the children are dressed just like the adults; future generations will surely look at our photographs and observe how the adults are dressed as children. I would add that this is particularly true of those in-between length shorts which end at mid calf - they have no other purpose than to give the wearer the body dimensions of an enormous 3 year-old whose legs aren't long enough for his shorts to reach the knees.
As I read this thread....
One of the younger girls in the office has walked in wearing a velour tracksuit with "Juicy Couture" splashed across her backside.
Looks like a damn babygrow. I've often thought about having our security team to act as Fashion Police on reception and weeding out those inappropriately dressed. HR tell me we can't do that...equality or some such nonsense....
Whoever invented dress down Fridays needs a stern talking to...
Hips more than tubby
Button undone suits the shape whereby the hips are wider than the stomach. Being a bit tubby may make that rule a little difficult if the stomach gets wider than the hips.
It's purely
to show off the belt buckle on your hipsters. Man.
Whoah there!
Is this true? I have classified myself as something of a dandy in my time - nay! even a fopp! - but this button thing is entirely new to me. I always buttoned up all three as, being a bit of slim jenkins in my youth, it emphasised my svelteness.
Now that I am merrily lurching in to the arms of middle age and my gut has woken up to my diet, the possibility that undoing the bottom button might not only be permissible but actually the thing to do makes me feel rather chuffed.
Wasn't it a four button suit...
...and he had the fourth button undone? I was in and out of that prog while my wife was watching but looked out for that. Mind you, he changed his suit so many times, he probably had every variety on show. Smart guy, in every way.
What struck me more was that Georgio Armani spoke no English. No reason why he should of course, and actually by not doing so demonstrated strength, but it was quite surprising.
How nice to see a style discussion on The Word Blog
Any chance Mr Ellen might be joining in soon?
I would thoroughly recommend http://thelondonlounge.net/ by the way if you're interest in the minutiae of men's dressing (although like many specialist blogs, the discussions can get a bit anal).
Something that never happens round here...
...perish the thought.
A four button suit?
The preserve of the Basildon Wedding guest surely?
I do personally think ties are strange though
windsor knot or no.
Re; the show did you see that Burial were all over the soundtrack almost as arresting as hearing Flaming lips on a death scene on emmerdale over Xmas.
As to humorous adult wear is this what you mean?