Thursday 13 December 2012

In the words of Monty Python, "and now for something completely different."


Lapo, these are for you. One of our clients has a few matt green cars, including a Ferrari and a Jeep painted in matt camouflage. While in Bologna at a leather show, we saw English tanned hides with a camouflage print on them. Being slightly unusual, we asked if these were used for leather bags. The response was a dead pan stare back, and "no, for military sniper gloves."


The leather is not as soft nor supple as the cape skin we use from the same tannery, but we know they can take a beating. Lined with rabbit and hand stitched, no army glove was ever this luxurious.


Friday 16 November 2012

Red

Recently One Sunday I passed a few red objects, here is what I saw.















Monday 12 November 2012

Black Tie, not so Classic



For those who like their black tie a little different and actually involving a tie, this is our version. The piped dinner jacket is a departure from the satin lapel version, but its history in formal wear can be traced back over a century. The piped waistcoat adds an elegant touch and negates the need for a cummerbund.

The extreme cutaway collared dinner shirt grabs the headlines and can only be worn with a tie and not a bow tie. It is a statement piece and is ideal for traveling as the fly front and cocktail cuffs negate the need for studs or cufflinks. Also one doesn’t have to find someone who knows how to tie a bow tie in the last minute, even though one really should learn how. Elegant accessories such as a sting ray card holder or our folding crocodile wallet to hold one’s credit cards and cash is the finishing touch, showing both character and individuality.

Three piece piped dinner suit                                               £1625.00
Extreme cutaway collar dinner shirt                                     £  215.00
English black satin silk sevenfold tie                                   £  145.00
Italian satin silk evening scarves                                          £  135.00
Calf leather robusto cigar holder                                           £  145.00
Crocodile print folding wallet                                                 £  105.00
Stingray card holder                                                                £  195.00




Sunday 11 November 2012

Black Tie, Classic with a Twist

In our shop window now:



A certain Hollywood client wanted something refined, elegant and that would make him subtly stand out from the sea of penguins. We recreated our signature velvet jacket in this double breasted style with moire silk lapels and accents. The fitted silhouette, lapels and turnback cuffs, are a nod to the elegance of 1930s Hollywood. The Brits in Hollywood have a reputation to maintain afterall, and an ordinary dinner jacket just wouldn’t do. In the words of Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale: “there are dinner jackets and dinner jackets, this is the latter.”

Paired with a simple but elegant fly fronted shirt and a self-tie bow tie (if you can tie your own shoe laces you can tie a bow tie), and patent or velvet loafers, they nicely complement the jacket. This ensemble is not for the faint of heart, but then nor is our clothing.
Be wary of women who “borrow” the cashmere scarves. They are soft and sumptuous – the scarves, possibly the women too, and probably will never be returned.

Double breasted velvet dinner jacket with moire lapels          £1075.00
Velvet and patent leather loafers to order from                         £  425.00
Marcella fly fronted dinner shirt                                                    £  205.00
Satin self-tie bow tie                                                                       £    55.00    
Onyx and sterling silver segmented cufflinks                            £  335.00
Gun metal skull and crossbones cufflinks                                  £  145.00
Calf suede bound cashmere scarves                                         £  175.00



Saturday 20 October 2012

The Economist does James Bond

Only the Economist's cold analysis and graphic department would produce a chart like this:
James Bond films are almost always the same: Bond is sent to an exotic location, meets and seduces a woman, gets caught by the villain, escapes, kills the villain and gets the girl. Known for martinis, Bond girls, apocalyptic antagonists and heavy innuendo, Bond has schmoozed, boozed and bruised his way through women and villains alike. Or not alike. Data compiled by The Economist show that of the six Bonds, Pierce Brosnan was the most bloodthirsty, bumping off an average of 19 baddies per film. The short-lived George Lazenby, it turns out, was the Bond for the babes, whereas Daniel Craig, the latest, is notably less successful. Maybe that’s because he drinks the most martinis. Still, all that risks being shortlived. In the new Bond film, “Skyfall” (reviewed here), Heineken has paid to ensure the hero only drinks beer. Neither shaken nor stirred, presumably.

Sunday 14 October 2012

Skyfall

Living in London has its advantages. One being one gets to see the new James Bond before everyone else in the world. Another advantage is that the world premiere is in London. Now if you happen to know the right people, one can see it two weeks before everyone else does. For this Bond, I was that fortunate.
How was it? Awesome.



Wednesday 26 September 2012

Clothier and Bond Fan

Matt Spaiser, author of the thesuitsofjamesbond.com came by for a visit. After arguing the merits of the various James Bonds, and the next film, and insisting that the best martinis in the world are served at Duke's Hotel in St James (which they are) we had a real interview:
Oscar Udeshi
There’s a shop in Mayfair called Udeshi, run by a man named Oscar Udeshi. Oscar Udeshi started out as a banker but left that industry to open a clothing shop that combines fashion with tailoring. Mr. Udeshi is also a well-known James Bond fan and much of the clothing in his shop is Bond-inspired, from shirts with cocktail cuffs to grenadine ties to suit jackets with gauntlet cuffs. I spoke with Mr. Udeshi about the clothes he sells and his take on the clothing in the Bond films.

Matt Spaiser: How did you get started in the clothing industry?
Oscar Udeshi: The correct answer is I inherited my mother’s bottom. I couldn’t find anything that fit. I was a 38 jacket and a 40 trouser, of sorts. Also, I could never find anything the way I wanted it to be. If you went to a tailor it would fit well but it wouldn’t necessarily look very good, and if you go to a fashion house you’ll have something that might look well but doesn’t fit or isn’t comfortable. I was trying to find something that would balance the two out and is something that would look good and is comfortable and actually fits. And at the time I didn’t feel there was anything out there that would bridge that gap.
MS: When did you open the shop?
OU: Six years ago.
MS: You’ve been here on Davies Street?
OU: Yes. Before that we sold wholesale, but with wholesale there’s a limit to how far your distribution can get. We also always had people go, I’d like this shirt but in a different fabric, or can you do this or can you do that. And why are we giving away that business? So it was the next logical progression. Very few stores would also stock the whole range.
MS: How do you like to describe your clothes?
OU: We walk the magic tightrope between fashion and tailoring. Tailoring usually, as I said earlier, the garment will fit correctly but won’t necessarily look that good. It’s a question of balancing proportion, having an eye to balance it and having the right clothing and the right look for that specific person. Whereas a tailor would make you something really that fits. Whereas with fashion you buy a suit and actually like it, and you want to come back 3 months later and say “I’d like the same thing in grey,” good luck. Or if you go to, Gucci is a good example, every time you go back there in 6 months they’ve changed the fit so it fits completely differently. I don’t know how they assume your body shape is going to change every 6 months just to fit it its clothes. And so for us it’s finding something that is comfortable but also makes you look good.
MS: Do you have suits in your shop that have different fits?
OU: Yes. We have 3 different fits and then with our made-to-measure and our bespoke you can have within reason whatever you want, but still we have a house style. We have relatively light shoulder pads, waisted but not too tight, relatively light canvas, light construction so it feels comfortable but still has some shape and isn’t a sack. For example, if you’ve ever have a Tom Ford suit on it’s almost like a suit of armour. Not a bad thing, it depends. Some people like pasta, some people like sushi. There’s no right answer. To each their own. But, we probably have a much lighter style than the average English suit on the market. We also have some completely unstructured jackets, whereas the Italians tend to have the Tom Ford “let’s stick the biggest sleevehead we can into an armhole.” Yes, lots of comfort, lots of freedom of movement but then you end up looking like a woman’s blouse with all the creases and pleats along the top shoulder line. Whereas an Englishman, that doesn’t work. I had a gentleman in here and I said to the client “What do you think of this jacket?” Why is he wearing a girl’s jacket, just because of that detail. Or for example, a Borelli shirt and one of my friends looked at it and goes “why is the buttonhole machine broken?” Oh, those are hand-made buttonholes. “They’re not consistent.” That’s the beauty of it. Eh! And again he complained about the sewing. “Why are you wearing a girl’s blouse? Why do you have creases on the shoulder?” Nothing wrong, different tastes.
Udeshi Suit
MS: What role has James Bond had in inspiring your clothes?
OU: When I was young, watching James Bond was a little bit more realistic than me learning how to fly or climbing up buildings. I’m not scared of spiders but crawling up on ceilings didn’t appeal to me and I tried flying, but that didn’t work. But chasing women, exotic locations, driving fast cars. After seeing a Bond film most women want to sleep with James Bond and most men would walk out a couple inches taller and want to be James Bond. I think one of the first films my dad took me to see was The Living Daylights, unfortunately. No, A View to a Kill. Grace Jones, yes. Won’t forget that one.
MS: But you’re a Connery man, mostly?
OU: Yes. Having watched all of them, having read all the books doesn’t necessarily make an expert on who’s the best Bond. I think Fleming said Connery was that milk man or that truck driver from Glasgow and really wasn’t happy about Sean Connery. It was Terence Young [director of Dr. NoFrom Russia WIth Love and Thunderball] who basically created the style, or the persona of James Bond. If you actually look at what Ian Fleming did, blues with blacks and cream shirts, it just sounded too much of a little bit of a dandy. And if you look at Ian Fleming in the photos at GoldenEye, with his slippers and everything, so that really doesn’t create that tough-guy image in my mind. Mind you, my world, our world, has been shaped by the perception of what a tough guy or what a man should be thanks to Bond as well. In my mind, Connery comes closest to what a James Bond should be. Timothy Dalton was a classically-trained actor who probably looked more comfortable in his Afghani costume; the clothing didn’t help. You didn’t get that tough-guy impression. Pierce Brosnan was a middle-aged businessman who had a briefcase. Roger Moore is more like a one-man comic. It was a completely different time in the 70s. And most of what he wore. There are probably intimidating photos of your parents wearing things. I know that my parents wore certain things like, “Dad, you wore a tie this wide?” “It was the fashion.” And back then if you had Sean Connery be James Bond in the 1970s, assuming he was 10 years younger, it just wouldn’t have worked. It was a different time.
MS: Even in Diamonds Are Forever his ties got much wider.
OU: He also got a lot… bigger. Considering he was supposedly a 46 inches chest with a 33 inch waist, which is basically like a spin top; it was like an inverted pyramid. To actually get something to fit him is quite difficult. So when people actually say the Conduit Cut, quite honestly on him, most things would have looked good back then. In Diamonds Are Forever he [his waist] was probably wider than his chest.
MS: What to you is the most memorable piece of Bond’s wardrobe?
OU: Initially it probably would have been like most people, I guess, the suit in Goldfinger. Now probably, as you can see from that rack over there it’s probably his shirts with the cocktail cuff. It’s different enough. It can be formal, you can dress it up or it can also be more casual. And in my mind it fits James Bond’s style ’cause, from the books at least, without having all the gadgets and having to remember cufflinks, in theory wouldn’t have to match your watch or any other jewelry you’d carry. Or your ring. It just dispenses with that, but it’s a little bit more interesting and a little bit more flair than just a normal button cuff. Back in the 60s it was also called a casino cuff or a Napoli cuff or a musketeer cuff. There was always something interesting about it. They didn’t invent it in the film, of course. I do think they did a lot to publicise it. And so probably that. I’ve also watched Thunderball one too many times and my casual shirts, short sleeve ones have a square tail with vents in the side like his. Most of the suits, most of the trousers have side adjusters. My jeans have side adjusters so I don’t have to worry about a belt.

Sunday 16 September 2012

Licence to Bid

Christie's is going to hold "fifty years of James Bond" sale. All proceeds of the auction will benefit UNICEF's work for children and other charitable causes.

eCatalogueGeorge Lazenby as James Bond
Forty lots of Bond memorabilia will be offered at an online auction, followed by ten further lots to be auctioned at an invitation evening event on the fifth of October, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the first screening of Dr. No. It is a shame the new Bond film will not be screened on this date. 
Daniel Craig
Lots include the blue trunks Craig wore in Casino Royale, a detailed scale model of the space shuttle from Moonraker, a few first edition Fleming novels and...

the Aston Martin DBS from Quantum of Solace




One or two lots would make nice stocking stuffers in case anyone is struggling what to get me for christmas.....

The Book of Goyard

I saw a copy at one of the antique booksellers I pass on my way to the gym. Fine archive books have been getting fancier and more elaborate as of late. This probably takes the cake. This post is taken from www.acontinuouslean.com

Goyard partnered with the storied Parisian publisher Devambez to release 233 editions, priced at 6000 (excluding shipping, VAT and personalisation). The number 233 is symbolic because it is the address of the original Goyard store on rue Saint-Honoré in Paris. Each book is painstakingly made by hand in France and comes in its own individually numbered, fully custom Goyard case.

The book contains a massive amount of documents and images from Goyard’s nearly 160 year history. Of course there is a section for man's four legged friends.


Below is a photo of the trunk conveyor system at the Gare d'Orsay (now the Musee d'Orsay) train station in the early 1900s

Below a shoe case that probably is causing a Japanese shoe lover sleepless nights 


Friday 14 September 2012

Shop Prop

Walked past the Lacoste store off Manchester Square
and saw this lurking in the basement....




Thursday 13 September 2012

Camo Jeans

Oscar over his travels acquires random fabrics, be it an odd length from fabric shops, special sample developments from cloth mills, dead stock from vintage shops, hand printed ethnic fabric from bazaars or just bizarre fabrics, they all share two things in common: they caught his eye, and there is something unique about them.

An example would be a classic design, executed in an unusual colour combination, or woven in a different weight. The heritage camouflage jeans below are both. An unusual blue colour combination which we are not quite sure fits in anywhere except an Yves Klein exhibit and woven in a shirt weight.
Instead of being cut in to a shirt, Oscar used them to make a pair of summer jeans. They are eye catching to say the least, the blue tones go great with a summer collection, are very light and comfortable and were actually the start of a journey for Oscar. Over the next few months you will see where this journey has taken him.
Here are some clients' jeans that were made subsequent to the first piece:



















If you love them, hate them, or are just not sure about them, you can't say you didn't see them. You can also say you gotta have guts, ONLY FOR THE BRAVE!

Monday 10 September 2012

Louis Vuitton Wardrobe Trunks hit auction

A nice article from Classic Driver that I follow. I wish I could check in one of these trunks as check in luggage for my next flight.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Our September Shop Window

This month we have two stories in our window:

Super Leggera Winter
Leggera, the Italian word for light, in conjunction with the word “Super” was used as a prefix for certain lightweight sports cars in the 1960s, which promised great road holding and handling due to the lack of mass. The “SL” acronym was also unfortunately adopted by bloated Mercedes convertibles. 

Our lightweight winter suit is the former, made of 270gram soft flannel woven in Biella Italy, it weighs no more than almost all the travel suits from Italy. It may appear substantial and solid, but is light and fluid, prefect for the climate controlled offices of today.

We have paired this suit with one of our Italian knitted silk ties for a slightly more relaxed look, we hope you like the contrast.

Biella soft chalk stripe three piece suit           £1525.00
Italian black business card holder                  £95.00
Italian black coin case                                      £85.00
Printed card holders                                         £85.00
Italian knitted silk ties                                       £85.00


Escorial

The name of the monastery and palace in Spain, is also the name of the wool or more correctly noble fibre of this magnificent suit. The original flock of sheep originated in the high Atlas mountains of North Africa, from the fierce Beni Merines tribe. In 700AD the first Berber invasion of Spain occurred and reached Madrd in 1283.

When the Berbers were finally defeated in the battle of the Salado in 1340, their pure Mahgreb flocks fell in to the hands of the Spanish royalty, who took them to the Christian monastery of El Escorial. A pure flock made its way to a farm in Tasmania in 1820, where the pure bloodline has remained till this day.

Escorial wool is exceptionally fine, soft, and rich, and displays a luxury far beyond its Super 160s definition. Not your average suit.

Escorial navy three piece suit                         £1995.00
Pebble grain folding card holders                  £105.00
Pebble grain card holders                               £85.00


Wednesday 1 August 2012

Skyfall: New Trailer

A new trailer has just been released for Skyfall. I am not sure what to make of it.

Thursday 12 July 2012

Concert at U D E S H I


Leo from The Streets is performing 24 gigs in 24 hours on the 11/12th July in various London locations ranging from the London Eye to a prison cell to The Rose Club. His 6am gig was in our shop. 
Leo is raising money for the Prince's Trust and along the route, Leo will be joined by Professor Green, Calum Best, Cisse, Sugababes and Mark Wright.