SAVILLE ROW SUITS

Boy, I wish I could have a suit like the kind Connery wore in the early James Bonds.

I like that tailored look superimposed on a good fabric. The area around the shoulders and neck is especially important to get right. The fabric has to cling like a second skin.

Me, I can't afford a tailor-made suit. I get 'em off the rack.

They (above) never fit right. I probably look horrible in them.

How did Cary Grant do it? He looks like he was born in a suit.

Wouldn't you kill to have real, custom-tailored, Saville Row threads? You can have one like this (above) for just under $5,000.

Here's one (above) by Saville Row stylist, Tom Ford. It has an Armani influence and sells for a measly $2,700.

Since the hippie era men's suits have been regarded with suspicion as emblems of class distinction. They certainly are that, but they're also symbolic of efficacy, intellect, and sophistication. That last point, sophistication, requires a little history to appreciate.

In Louis XIV's time (above) men's clothes were all about ostentatious wealth.  

Beau Brummel, the great simplifier of fashion in Regency England (early 1800s), changed all that. He favored the look shown above. Even kings deferred to him.

Brummel later favored the modification shown above and, once again, everyone followed. Collars were lowered in imitation of the way naval officers dressed. Men like the military look.

Amazingly women's fashions didn't undergo a similar simplification. They continued to wear ornate, Marie Antoinette-style wedding cakes for a kazillion years or so. Sophisticated style was the domain of men from Brummel's time til after WWI.


                                                   
England is a cold and damp country so eventually Brummel's sporty look gave way to the frock (above), which was long and sheltering, and always buttoned in the front. The frock favored the tie which was initially used to show off the wearer's school or regional colors.

The older Brummel design was kept alive by sportsman and military men who preferred the freedom of movement it afforded. Horsemen especially favored this cut and, since most people rode in the mornings, this type of jacket was called a "morning" coat.

The modern suit jacket is the inevitable result of combining the frock and morning coat in one medium-length jacket that can be worn all day long.

Buttons on the sleeve came about because physicians insisted on them so they could roll up their sleeves without taking their jackets off.  Saville Row began by catering to the doctor trade, so the buttons persisted, even when they were no longer in demand. Maybe also because they seemed to denote military rank.

Sigh.