The new BBC series Life in Squares, starting Monday 27th July, takes another look at the already microscopically examined lives of the Bloomsbury Set including Duncan Grant, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, Clive and Vanessa Bell, Maynard Keynes and others. With it artistic characters, gay and straight sex and bucolic Sussex landscapes, this is a topic bound to grip its audience.
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| The cast of Life in Squares, BBC. Their clothes have a modern workwear feel to them. |
I was struck by the mens's costumes. With a crumpled, comfortable workwear/corduroy/vintage feel, such clothes have strongly influenced current menswear styles. Relaxed tweed suits, cotton twill, waistcoats, stout boots, luxuriant beards, occasional nudity and hats sums up the style which was clearly an artistic reaction to the starched stiffness of Victorian and Edwardian England.
So, you want to recreate Bloomsbury style? Here are a few ideas:
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| For suppliers see below |
Suppliers from top left clockwise:
SEH Kelly strip herringbone linen jacket
Albam Montmartre blazer
Private White VC cord workwear jacket
Joseph Cheaney & Co Barnes II walnut and burgundy elastic boots
Universal Works suit pant, navy Lancashire twill
Triplstitched sky candy stripe buttondown shirt
James Norton as Duncan Grant in the BBC series Life in Squares
Cravat Club Axel cravat
Also try:
Thomas Farthing (for tweeds)
Sir Plus Clothing (waistcoats)
Drake's for silk Paisley ties and classic knitwear
Pantherella (for British-made socks)
And of course you can scour your local charity/thrift and vintage clothing shops for that genuine early twentieth century style.
