A New Service Offered by the Houndstooth Kid

This has been something I've considered and thought long and hard about for over a year.  But then I was forced out of my comfort zone when a CEO out in Los Angeles contacted me and asked for a short style consultation.  I'm thankful that he did.

Surprisingly I'm a quiet person, shy around folks I don't know very well.  But that consultation session was so comfortable and enjoyable that I decided to finally open it up as an option.  I'm coming out of my shell.



So here it is.  The Houndstooth Kid is now offering either 30 minute or hour-long style consultations via phone, online (Skype, etc.), or even in person if you are local.  Do you have questions about vintage style or just men's style in general but don't know where to start or don't have enough time to research yourself?  Do you need advice about what to wear to your wedding, how to dress your groomsmen, what to don for a formal event or for any other event for that matter?  You've come to the right place.

You can take advantage of Will's vintage expertise and style with a one-on-one consultation where you ask whatever questions you want.

You can order a style consultation either through the Houndstooth Haberdashery or by contacting Will and requesting a session via the following email address: houndstoothkid@hotmail.com.  You will be contacted by Will to set up a date, time, method of correspondence, and the topics and questions you wish to discuss. You will receive a questionnaire and a receipt for both your payment and the consultation via email.

What I Have To Say

As if this blog wasn't enough for me to put my thoughts to 'paper', below are links to interviews I did with two different men's style websites.  Strangely both asked to interview me within the a couple days of each other so I guess it was meant to be.  I thank the owners for contacting me and allowing me to take up valuable room on their sites and time from their schedules.

So with little else to say, here are the interviews.

Well Built Style interview

Keikari interview

Let us know what you think, either at those sites or on this one.

Fantastic Vintage for Sale...

...at the Houndstooth Haberdashery.  My closet is bursting at the seams so I'm clearing some fine items out to make room for more pieces that will get more wear.

Now it's your turn to own and wear these 'holy grail' vintage pieces.  Or maybe a few pieces will make someone very happy on Christmas day just a month away.

Here are just a few of the suits and sports coats now for sale.

click links to visit sale site and images to enlarge

1930s Donegal herringbone tweed suit

This is a rare and fantastic 2-piece suit from the late 1930s/early 1940s.  Heavy weight tweed, very well tailored, just a fantastic piece to see in person.  This suit will make someone very happy.

Late 1920s/early 1930s 3-piece double breasted suit

This is another very rare suit since suits from this period are getting more difficult to find, especially in good condition and a 'wearable' size like this one.  A few moth holes in the jacket and trousers, they are stitched up, not too apparent and don't take away from this gorgeous suit.  A rare piece of wearable art.

1930s flannel sports coat

The flannel of this sports coat is some of the softest I've ever seen.  This jacket was custom tailored back in the 1930s and the quality shows.  It's a manly and stylish sports coat that will help you dress your best.  Lovely dark maroon pinstripes on a brown background.

1950s bold herringbone sports coat

I just recently found this one for myself but have decided to part with it because it is just a tad too large for me.  My loss is your gain.  You never see one like this again, it's fantastically unique.  Bold, wide herringbone with square patch pockets.  Very Hollywood and it could be yours.  Check it out.

1940s WW2-era suit

A nice, conservative, attractive pinstripe suit from the WW2-era.  Not a lot issues with this suit at all.  It does, however, have a neat 'former' issue.  One part of the right leg has an expertly executed example of reweaving.  Reweaving is the lost art of making a hole invisible by hand-weaving individual threads from another area of the garment into the hole. Let me tell you, the reweaving on this suit is expertly done and is near invisible.  This has been the first and only example of vintage reweaving I've ever seen.  I love this suit but alas, not the best fit so off it goes.

The reweave spot.  Nearly invisible!

I have a lot more high quality pieces that will be going up for sale within the next few days and weeks so keep your eyes glued to this blog as well as the Houndstooth Facebook page.

Cheers,

Will

Quality of the Time

With the way I go on about the quality of vintage all of the time you probably think everything was amazing back during the Golden Era.  And that's not true, there were plenty of bad quality pieces, just like there are today.

The reason we don't see those pieces very often nowadays is that they were cheap and didn't survive.  A cheaply made piece isn't going to last as long as a well made piece, especially if it is all the owner can afford and wears it to death.  Not to mention certain materials didn't always behave the way the owner might have wished:

THE SHRINKING SONG

Woolen socks, woolen socks!
Full of color, full of clocks!
Plain and fancy, yellow, blue,
From the counter beam at you.
O golden fleece, O magic flocks!
O irresistible woolen socks!
O happy haberdasher's clerk
Amid that galaxy to work!
And now it festers, now it rankles
Not to have them 'round your ankles;
Now with your conscience do you spar;
They look expensive, and they are;
Now conscience whispers,
You ought not to,
And human nature roars,
You've got to!

Woolen socks, woolen socks!
First you buy them in a box.
You buy them several sizes large,
Fit for Hercules, or a barge.
You buy them thus because you think
These lovely woolen socks may shrink.
At home you don your socks with ease,
You find the heels contain your knees;
You realize with a saddened heart
Their toes and yours are far apart.
You take them off and mutter Bosh,
You up and send them to the wash.
Too soon, too soon the socks return,
Too soon the horrid truth you learn;
Your woolen socks can not be worn
Unless a midget child is born;
And either sockless you must go,
Or buy a sock for every toe.

Woolen socks, woolen socks!
Infuriating paradox!
Hosiery wonderful and terrible,
Heaven to wear, and yet unwearable.
The man enmeshed in such a quandary
Can only hie him to the laundry,
And while his socks are hung to dry,
Wear them once as they're shrinking by.

--Ogden Nash

Some of the worst-made suits (yet highly collectible today) are British 'Demob' suits from the 1940s. As British servicemen were returning from the war the government gave them suits to help them get back on their feet. They were often very crudely made with all sorts of errors: misshapen lapels, funky proportions, low quality materials. 

click images to enlarge

But they were only meant to be worn a short time to allow the owner to get a job and eventually buy new suits.  Demob suits sell for big bucks but beware: not every vintage suit advertised as a Demob suit is really a Demob suit.

A demob suit.  Note the wonky lapels and the poor pattern matching on the back seam.

Photos via Baron Kurtz Vintage.

Now let's once again look at the other side of things: good quality.  While poor quality items did exist they were definitely the exception, not the rule.  Let's face it, people back in the day cared more about quality and were more thrifty, fixing and salvaging and reusing items without tossing them away like we do today. As a result, we're able to find both the high-end and lower-end pieces from 70 years ago, often in perfect condition. And looking at vintage 'mid-level' pieces from run-of-the-mill department stores like Sears, Younkers, and JC Penney, we see that garments from these places that everyday low- to middle-class folks use to buy are often still better quality than higher-end off-the-rack of today. 

I regularly find vintage top quality tailored suits and other pieces from long gone shops that were once found in tiny farming communities. Back 70-100 years ago nearly every decent sized town had one or more men's clothing store and/or one or more tailor shops. They dotted the landscape from coast to coast. My great- great- grandfather owned, in central Iowa, as many as four quality men's clothing shops within 50 miles of each other back in the teens and '20s. The quality was better and people were willing to pay more for that quality.  

Examine the late 1930s/early 1940s drape sports coat shown below.

This sports coat is artful, finely crafted.  It has a gorgeous, subtle herringbone pattern to its wool material.  Add in the attractive leather buttons and the sleek roll of the lapels and you have an incredible piece of vintage.  Here are a couple more views of the sports coat:

For so fine a garment you might expect it to be a high-end custom piece from a custom tailor.  Let's have a look inside at the label:

Younkers is a local, midwestern department store that was founded in 1899 in Des Moines, Iowa.  Below is the original Younkers site from which the above sports coat was sold.

Interesting, that a department store company similar in concept to the more famous J.C. Penney's department store company would sell such a finely made garment.  I think this point demonstrates that quality mattered much more during the Golden Era than it does today.

Just out of curiosity, how much would that Younkers sports coat have cost back in, say, 1940?  Well, here's a comparable sports coat from a Spring and Summer 1940 Montgomery Ward catalog.  The price for this piece is $12.50 in 1940 dollars. 

How much is $12.50 from 1940 in 2013's dollars?  $208.52.  If we were to walk into any of the big name department stores like J.C. Penney's or Younkers and purchase a sports coat at a full price of $200 I think we'd be very disappointed in its quality when compared to its 1940 counterpart.

I think it's pretty safe to say as a rule of thumb, vintage clothing will be better quality than most modern clothing, even much of the higher-end stuff today.  Quality mattered back during the Golden Era, though from time to time junk would make an appearance.

Palm Beach: the Summer Fabric

Palm Beach was a famous brand that created a uniquely blended fabric for warm weather wear.  It was very popular during the Golden Era (before dying out in the 1950s) because it offered men one of the best and most stylish ways to stay cool in the heat while wearing a suit.

click to enlarge images

What was Palm Beach fabric?  It was a warm weather blended fabric created in the late teens/early 1920s.  The blend was kept secret and is still up for debate, but general consensus is that it's a blend of linen, mohair, and, added in the mid-1950s, rayon and nylon.  One 1950s Palm Beach material tie is tagged with the following blend:

50% rayon

32% mohair

12%cotton

6% nylon

It should be noted that this is a later blend after Palm Beach was sold by Goodall in 1953.  The previous original blend did not contain rayon nor nylon.  While the Palm Beach fabric died in the 1950s, it should not be confused with the Palm Beach brand, which existed separate from the fabric from the 1950s up to at least the 1980s if not later.  After the 1950s the Palm Beach brand name was just that: a name.  Unimpressive wool and polyester Palm Beach brand suits and jackets litter thrift shops across the country; these later garments share no heritage to those made out of true Palm Beach fabric.

I was able to pick up a Palm Beach suit the other day.  Surprisingly it fits me pretty well.  It has stains throughout but I'm currently working on them.

The interesting thing about this suit is that the two pieces are not original to each other.  If you look at the photo of the jacket above you'll notice by the low button stance, highly padded shoulders, and very generous lapels that this jacket dates from the Bold Look, or the mid-1940s to the early 1950s.  It dates from before the Palm Beach name was sold by Goodall in 1953 because the brand tag still mentions Goodall.

The trousers, however, have a button fly as well as an NRA tag in them, dating them from 1933-1935.

Thankfully for me the material blend and weave didn't really change in the time between when these two pieces were manufactured so they match perfectly.

With so many stains throughout this suit it will be somewhat difficult to clean well.  Palm Beach fabric can easily develop dry rot if stored in a hot, dry area and can shred at any attempt to clean it.  Oxiclean has been known to also destroy the material as it's a fairly harsh cleaning method.  From a couple experts I've talked to, the best bet for cleaning vintage Palm Beach fabric is in soapy water with a mild soap.  However, if dry rot has occurred even a gentle hand-wash in soapy water can still shred Palm Beach.  Avoid dry cleaning.

Anyone lucky enough to find a good-condition garment made of Palm Beach fabric can attest to its usefulness in the warm summer months.  I've thankfully finally joined their ranks with this great suit that, with a little elbow grease, will serve me well.

And just in time for winter...

Shiny

These are a blast from the 1960s.  I'm not usually a big fan of patent leather; it usually looks like plastic (modern equivalents usually are), creases very easily, and doesn't look right with everything but formal kits.

click images to enlarge

That said, I love these shoes.  The mix of patent leather and leather stamped to look like crocodile skin is perfect.  The sleek styling and elegantly rounded toes are also perfect.  This is a pair of shoes meant to be worn out on the town with your best getup and your woman on your arm.

Amazing shoes you just don't see very often.

Penney's Change

Hopefully you've heard by now that J.C. Penney's, now under new management, has dropped its "American Living" brand.  Manufactured by Ralph Lauren, American Living was meant to be an affordable choice for chic folks.  Reasons for its cancellation include poor sales and questionable quality.

I own several American Lving pieces and have had no issues with quality.  Actually, its 'Newsboy' jacket is a perfect copy of a 1930s reversible belted back jacket and is very nice quality.  Check out the photos below.

click images to enlarge

Soft, thick flannel in a classic color and pattern.

Cotton twill on the reverse side.

But even with demise the chic and classic though flawed American Living brand and the restructuring of its leadership, J.C. Penney's is still full of classic and even vintage-inspired clothing.

Before the rebranding I was a bit dissatisfied with the suit selection.  Narrow lapels, notched lapels, neutered peaked lapels, dark colors, boring fabric patterns, and uninspiring fits dominated the racks.  However, now after the rebranding I see more satisfying changes.  Yes, while the above list of complaints still does exist it is not as widespread.  Becoming more apparent are bolder classic patterns (plaids, windowpanes, houndstooth, etc), cuts, and features.

I was at a smaller Penney's recently and found multiple plaid, windowpane, and other bold patterned sports coats. Most had a 1960s aesthetic going on though a couple looked more from the 1930s.

I really like the suit/sports coat shown here. The silhouette is maybe the best thing about this jacket: pretty good looking dimensions and it fit me well. Labelled as "slim fit", it has a more vintage (shorter) length than most modern jackets, nicely shaped medium width peaked lapels, a ticket pocket, and dual vents. Nicely balanced 1930s aesthetic to my eye. Made by Stafford. 

Sorry for the poor quality cellphone photos.

Not easily seen in the above photo is the Prince of Wales check AKA plaid.  Really traditional colors and pattern sizing going on.  Here's the online link for this jacket.

Unfortunately the matching trousers are still stuck on trendy: low rise, flat front, extreme taper, and no cuffs.  Hopefully the trousers will soon swing back towards the traditional like the jackets have.

I rather liked this blue windowpane sports coat. Again, made by Stafford and also labelled "slim fit".

Both jackets are surprisingly made of medium weight material: the plaid sports coat is worsted wool and the windowpane sports coat is tweed-like.

Penney's has a lot more to offer for the budget-minded man looking for classic clothing and suits.  Ties, knit wear, and dress shirts looked quite nice and quality-made.  The shoe department also showed some positive changes, in my mind.

If you haven't in a while, stop by Penney's and see what you can find.

Back to the Basics: Proportionality

This may be the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to the appearance of a suit.  A suit can fit the wearer perfectly but if it does not have pleasing proportions then it fails at its main goal: to make the wearer presentable and attractive to the eye.

Throughout history humankind has been trying different styles and pieces of clothing in an attempt to create the most balanced, pleasing look.

click images to enlarge

If you ask me, humanity reached the pinnacle of proportionality during the 1930s and into the 1940s.  There's a reason it's called the 'Golden Era' of men's style.

The human mind is programmed to identify and be attracted to harmonized shapes.  One such complex yet ultimate simply proportional shape is the human body.  If one is to study its proportions, the shape of the human body, like many other things found in nature, follows elemental natural laws.  The Golden Ratio, also known as the "Divine Proportion", has informed artists for centuries as to the ideal attractive proportions to create in their work.  Derived from Fibonacci numbers, the Golden Ratio can be found throughout different parts of the human body.

Through the ages the human body has changed very little.  Sure, in recent years men tend to be slightly taller and a larger number of men are heavier weight, but the basics are still the same.  Check out Vitruvian Man from 1487 below:

The Vitruvian Man was meant to depict ideal male proportions and it is just as useful a tool today as it was so many centuries ago.  Notice the vertical half-way point is roughly at the crotch.  Above that mark are the hips, torso, and the head.  Below that mark are the legs and feet.

Using the Golden Ratio we find that the proportionally attractive separation point of the human body is roughly the navel/waist area.  This is an important factor and should be remembered for later.

Other parts of the human body, including the arms and face, are based upon the Golden Ratio.


So, why is the navel/waist area such an important item when it comes to dressing?  Because our goal in dressing well should be to present ourselves in an as aesthetically pleasing manner as possible and what better way to do that than to put the Golden Ratio to work?


For example, look at the two photos below.

The photo on the left is of a typical 1930s 3-piece suit while the one on the right is of a typical modern 3-piece suit.  The 1930s suit on the left is very well proportioned and attractive to the eye while the modern suit on the right is not.

Let's look at why.
Below is the same photo of the two men with vest, jacket and trouser length and position emphasized.  Blue indicates the vest, red the jacket, and yellow the trousers.

Notice how the 1930s suit on the left is based around the navel/waist area: the trousers sit at or about the waist while the vest skirt comes down to just below the waist.  The modern suit on the right, however, is based around the crotch area: the trousers hang right on the hips and the vest skirt comes down to just below the hips.  In other words, the 1930s suit on the left is based upon the Golden Ratio, giving the wearer the appearance of long legs and an athletic build, while the modern suit on the right is based around the physical halfway point, giving the wearer the appearance of a longer torso and shorter legs: a top-heavy silhouette that is not very flattering on any man.

Also note that the 1930s jacket has stronger shoulders and is slightly shorter in the skirt (a typical vintage drape jacket) than the modern jacket, which is slightly longer and has weaker shoulders.  The modern longer jacket length does not help the top-heavy silhouette of the modern suit.

Compare these suits to the Vitruvian Man and the differences become apparent.

In order to have a more attractive appearance when wearing a suit, base your proportions around the Golden Ratio point: the navel/waist.  Choose high-waisted trousers that sit at the natural waist, a short vest that comes down to meet the trouser waistband and doesn't let any shirt show between the two, and a suit jacket that's slightly shorter than usual.  Meeting these requirements today when most suits are made to be 'hip', fashionable, and/or ironic is a difficult task but not impossible.

It is important for a man to know how to wear a suit and wear it well.  A man knows what looks right and how a garment should fit, as he's either been taught how or has come to realize it for himself. He knows and follows the code of timeless style, not fashion.  A boy can throw on his father's overly large suit and think himself handsome. That same boy can also slip into one of his own old and much too small suits and perceive himself as being fashionable. The latter of the two seems to be the current fashion trend.  

Hopefully soon men will again understand how important proportionality is to appearance and go back to the Golden Ratio Point that was so common during the Golden Era.  I'll never understand why we moved away from it.

WIW: We Few, We Happy Few...

And after four weeks being absent I am back.  A lot happened in that time: I got married, we went on the honeymoon, we got our home into order, and we went back to work.  And while that last point isn't our favorite, it's good to be back in the swing of things again.  We are pretty worn out, though.


I'll be making a series of posts showing different parts of the wedding and festivities but those will be coming a little later.

This is just a regular 'What I Wore' post.

You might remember the old 1930s Apparel Arts image showing how a safari or similar jacket can be worn in a casual manner:

I really like that image.  It portrays a stylish yet casual and laid back fellow enjoying a puff on a boat, something I'm sure many of us (including myself) wish we could be doing right about now.

What really makes his kit is the ascot, in my opinion, though I'm sure he would look just as dapper without it.

Now, I have a true-blue safari jacket that I've worn in the same manner as the gent above (more about that in the wedding posts), but I decided to put one of my old WW2 jackets to work in a similar manner.

It's an old U.S. Navy cotton twill warm weather dress jacket.  And while it is very similar to the regulation warm weather jacket, I believe it to be specially made.

The box pockets on the skirt have definite British influence and are different from the ordinary patch pockets on regulation jackets.  I really like the scalloped pocket flaps and the full belt that goes all the way around the jacket waist.

When I purchased it (along with its trousers, which are way too short for me) it lacked all but one of the buttons, which are removable.  I picked up some military-looking brass buttons that are very similar to the originals and attached them to the jacket.




So, with the jacket ready I paired it with some Ralph Lauren Polo trousers, GAP socks, vintage 1950s shoes, and a vintage ascot to create the kit below.

The arms are just a tad short but due to the construction of the jacket I'm unable to do anything about that.

I like this look, though it is a bit different than the original 'safari' interpretation of the Apparel Arts image above.  It is definitely a bit eccentric, especially in this day and age in 'fly-over-country'.  But nowadays when most people put very little to no effort in their dress, my thinking is that "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers" that do put in the effort just have to make up for everyone else's lack of it.

If that makes me eccentric then so be it.  Anyways, a little eccentricity is healthy in a man.