Thursday 26 August 2010

Dads 'n' shirts 20 June 2010

An early morning start last Sunday at 4.30am was worth the lack of sleep to arrive at Mum & Dad's a little after 8 in Central London. A day of shopping was anticipated though after breakfast & a nap the opportunity to sift through piles of Mum's old photographs from the 50's through to the 80's was too good to pass up!

                 To see my Dad in & around London enjoying boat rides in Hyde Park.




                       On his way to Soho Jazz clubs which were full of American GIs




In tails at weddings larking around being Jack The Lad. In envy I closely peered at at each individual one.




Mum cutting a waifish figure in the secretarial offices at United Steel in Grosvenor Gardens SW1. " That fella who was opposite me. . . . . .forever asking me out he was!"




                                              And of course the 1977 wedding!




Now seeing both of them in a completely different light though obviously as we've all heard from our parents " I was young once aswell you know!"  It really has made me appreciate these current days of my own life. Being as my Mum says " up in the clouds" & " loves young dream " is probably true. The girl & I are seven months in, no proposals as yet, no tiny feet running ffrom room to room, apart from our cat Jaques. Time we spend together hand in hand, in the counrty side, on small towns high streets popping in & out of antique shops is how we live our life together.  And this week back to a favourite " Serendipity One " in New Milton, a lovely late 60's Japanese Kotana clock was aquired and now proudly hangs above the girls' work station.




For this week focus was on new shirts. The modern man's shirt has a long history, with Brown Davis & Co. of Aldermanbury registering the first shhirt with buttons all the way down the breast in 1871.

For me collars have always been one of the most  important parts of a mans formal shirt. With plenty to choose from of course my favourite would have to be a white pure cotton, pin collar shirt, no breast pocket, split yoke with two back darts from Savile Row. " A shirt for those who eschew the trend for more casual collars in favour of precision & decisiveness."




Functioning in a similar way to the tabbed collar, it keeps the collar in place and lifts the knot to provide a more aesthetically pleasing arc to the neck tie.  A classic piece of Menswear popular in the late 50's to early 60's which I think could still have a place in todays' far too casual way of life. How about a dress up Friday anyone? Rather than the awful dress down one.

I'll always rembember someone once mentioned to me there's no greater event worth dressing up for than life itself! Here's to that, ching ching!

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