🚀 go-pugleaf

  <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HZO_2aywONA/Unq8uaRnM4I/AAAAAAAAMZc/94ffBeyxhxo/s1600/prince+philip+side.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HZO_2aywONA/Unq8uaRnM4I/AAAAAAAAMZc/94ffBeyxhxo/s400/prince+philip+side.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"></span></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">The world of iGents is poorly stocked with men seeking to dress so perfectly that they draw no attention; in fact rather the opposite is true. However, there is a strand of masculine style that runs back at least as far as Brummell that has always embraced this aspiration. It is, after all, what Lord Byron was referring to when he said to Leigh Hunt that Brummell possessed “A certain exquisite propriety.” It’s the fine line between sharp dressing, and sprezzy hints of dishevelment, and it’s one with few contemporary role models.</span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">I first understood the power of this approach when working on a story about Prince Philip’s style. The Prince’s tailor, John Kent of Kent, Haste & Lachter, explained his client’s abiding preference for jetted pockets, and studying photographs of the Prince the effect of his approach became apparent. This is someone who, for the two-thirds of a century that he’s been married to Queen Elizabeth II, has dressed so perfectly that the draws no attention to himself. He eschews pocket flaps even on country suits, wears black shoes with tweed jackets, folds rather than puffs his pocket square, routinely wears white shirts, is loyal to single-breasted jackets and was last photographed without a tie about forty years ago.</span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">The result of his sartorial strategy is that his appearance is almost never discussed. It attracts no criticism, and enjoys no praise. If you wish to indulge an affection for classic clothes, but are concerned about the reaction you’ll receive in the office, then follow Prince Philip’s discreet example. Here is a way to dress that gives no quarter to the depravities of modern life, while doing little to reveal the depth of a man’s passion for tailoring. In practical terms this could take the form of solid-coloured single breasted suits in unusually heavy fabrics, cut with jetted pockets, and worn with the most sober of shirts and ties as well as black oxford shoes.</span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">It’s a complete reversal of the Christmas tree approach to dressing exhibited so flamboyantly by the guys at Pitti Uomo twice each year, and is, in a way, a Northern European version of <em>sprezzatura</em>. It creates an elegance that can’t easily be accounted for, because it relies on what isn’t there (ticket pockets, eye-catching shoes, zany socks, puffed pocket squares, tie bars, bracelets and all the rest) for its effect.</span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">P.S.</span></span></div><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">I cannot ignore the fact that after I finished writing this article Vox Sartoria, the <em>ne plus ultra</em> of iGents, posted an old </span><a href="http://www.voxsartoria.com/image/66010155615"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Cambria;">photograph</span></a><span style="font-family: Cambria;"> of Prince Philip looking superbly, but uncharacteristically, rumpled, which a) deserves the widest possible audience, b) rather undermines my argument.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></span><br />  <br /><div style="text-align: right;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><em>Words by Mansel Fletcher</em></span></div><div class="feedflare">
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