My tips for finding style at The London Sock Co.

The London Sock Co kindly asked me to give some tips for finding style. Many of you will know that I have no background in fashion and five years ago, before starting the blog, I had little interest in style. The blog describes my search for style and I distill some of what I've learned on their blog here.

Monochrome: checks and texture

I love monochrome checks at the moment, so allow me to indulge in herringbone, dogstooth, houndstooth, puppytooth, Glen check, Prince of Wales check, grey, white, black, charcoal, texture and feel. The skill is wearing them together, but that's another story. Suppliers' details below.

Suppliers (from top left clockwise): Black.co.uk (cashmere scarf), London Undercover (umbrella), Gloverall (jacket), Johnstons of Elgin (cashmere scarf), London Sock Co., Marks & Spencer (knitted silk tie), Age of Reason scarves (pocket square), E Tautz (Glen Check trousers), Portuguese Flannel (shirt).

Grey Fox's Friday Favourites: socks, hair, boxer shorts, Private White VC

This is the first of an occasional Friday round-up of news and of products I've tried and approved of. If you'd like to contribute your selected tips, news or recommendations about favourite products, please e-mail me.

Archer & Peyton socks

I'm a bit of a sucker for a nice pair of socks, particularly if they come brightly-coloured. I've had to struggle hard to manipulate this image to show the lovely apple-green of these socks from Archer & Peyton, whose products are beautifully-made in Italy. Lovely colour, lovely socks.

Visit Archer & Peyton's website for a range of patterned and colourful socks, with style advice, limited editions, information and a shop to buy your choice of hosiery.

White Hot hair products

I reviewed these products for grey and white hair a while ago. I recently realised how much I'd come to rely on them when I ran out of their shooshing creme, which so effectively keeps my longer Fox locks on place. An urgent message and replacements were rushed to me by the lovely people at White Hot.

I've been using a number of their products, from shampoo to conditioner, and they've been ideal for my grey hair as it becomes whiter, keeping it lustrous and healthy-looking. Highly recommended.

For men and women, they can be ordered from the White Hot Hair website.

British Boxers introduce stretch trunks, made in England

Another brand I've talked about before, British Boxers have added stretch trunks to their range. For those of us who prefer their assets to be held more securely than looser conventional shorts, these provide the very comfortable answer. I'm planning a feature on this brand soon.

Meanwhile, you can buy the stretch trunks online at British Boxers (new website due soon) or at Susannah Hall Tailors.

Private White VC news

It's been a busy time at Private White VC. They've welcomed The Princess Royal at their Manchester factory, refurbished their shop in Lamb's Conduit Street in London, had a successful time at Goodwood Revival and are about to open a second London store. Their AW14 collection contains some mouth-watering products, including gorgeous knitwear and the rather nice cashmere Ashley blazer.

It's good to see their collection developing each year and to see a proud British menswear producer achieving the recognition they deserve.

The Princess Royal pays homage to Brutus, head of Private White VC

A reader asks - how do I dress now that I'm past forty years of age? (Part 1)

Image The Sartorialist

A reader commented recently as follows, raising some interesting points about style and fashions for the middle aged and older man:

How should I dress once I've reached 40?

I'm well past 40 and it's still a question I ask myself at the age I am. Trouble is, I still think I'm 21 but I know I can't and shouldn't dress like a much younger man. To be truthful I'm envious of the clothes that are available to the young man of today.

I really don't like the terms classical and traditional it makes me think of frumpy* old men and I don't want to be frumpy. T'other week I was socialising with a group of friends dressed in a tweed jacket, jeans, brogues a scarf and with a pocket hanky. The females admired the look - gosh, I was wearing a scarf just for the look, Mediterranean style - but the men thought I looked academic. Oh no! I looked frumpy. I had been considering a tweed suit but maybe not now.

* My wife's terminology

I'm finding the blog useful keep it up. 

Regards

David

My first thought was, 'who's this guy, who dresses well well enough to excite female comment, yet isn't satisfied with his sartorial choices?'

Older men see style in binary terms

But then I saw the deeper seriousness of your comment. You have defined the schizophrenic approach men take to style as they get past 40 years of age. We want to stay and look young, but suspect that this is unacceptable. After all, an older man is expected to behave as such and fears ridicule if he doesn't.

Image The Sartorialist

In the face of these concerns most men give up and adopt a sartorial grunge, wearing ill-fitting clothes without a vestige of style. That's the slippery slope that I found myself on 18 months ago when I started this blog to explore style and fashion on middle age. I don't pretend to have found a stylistic Shangri La, far from it, but have a few thoughts which I offer for you to reject or accept as you like.

Older men think about style in binary terms. We see a choice between either young men's fashions, Top Shop etc, or the sort of shapeless tweedy neutrality available from too many Sunday supplements, high street chains and catalogues. We see nothing in between.

Style with a twist 

In reality, the older man, choosing carefully, can buy into the younger/fashionable/stylish (whatever term you want to use) end of the market without looking like mutton dressed as lamb.

Classic with a twist - Image Stockholm Streetstyle.com

The term I've used for this style is classic with a twist. It gives the older man the comfort of wearing a classic outfit that doesn't delve into the wilder reaches of the menswear fashion catwalk, while showing, at the same time, a sense of personal style.

Finding this look takes work as we have to trawl through the racks of poor quality or too young-looking clothes to find what we want. I would like high street retailers to market 'classic with a twist' more widely. After all, middle-aged men are a relatively large and affluent market, so retailers are unlikely to lose out here.

I've talked enough, so I'm going to split this post and, in the sequel, say more about what I mean by 'classic style with a twist', giving examples and sources where you can go to explore the style further for yourself. Meanwhile, some on the images here will give you an idea of what I mean.

However, the last thing I want to do is give you rules for dressing. The advantage we have in middle age and beyond is that we have the confidence to create our own styles that owe nothing to an unhelpful and youth-obsessed high street - let's do it!

Meanwhile, see my article in Menswear Insight [link broken, magazine closed down] in which I explored this question in more detail. See part 2 of this post here and part 3 here.

Photograph Niall McDiarmid

Crombie - a tradition of style

Crombie was a name I knew well in my youth; their overcoats were worn by most businessman of style and also became popular among more sartorial (and no doubt more affluent) skinheads (something I suspect that the great and good at Crombie were less keen about). They were also adopted by mods, a culture which is now seeing quite a renaissance.

The name Crombie became synonymous with British-made overcoats - for example The British Warm. The company has been around since the date of the Battle of Trafalgar, (a date* hopefully familiar to all Brits).

Image Crombie

Now Crombie has updated itself and skilfully combines modern styling with its traditional core values. It has tried to preserve its Britishness as far as it can. The majority of fabrics used in their coats are milled in England and Scotland (otherwise in Italy). Likewise, 80% of their accessories, from five-fold silk ties hand-rolled by English craftsmen, to handmade classic fur felt hats, are "Made in England". It offers a made to measure tailoring service at three stores.

I looked at their range at their flagship store in Conduit Street in London, just around the corner from Savile Row. I liked what I saw - the emphasis is on the classic, with some beautiful fabrics, but there is a modern edge to much of what I saw, which makes their clothes ideal for both young and older men of style.

I'd love to talk about the garment they're best known for, the overcoat, because they are beautiful, but I'll leave that to Autumn, when you'll be thinking about warmer clothes. For now I'll show you some of the items from their Spring and Summer range that caught my eye. For more information see Crombie's website here.

*Battle of Trafalgar - 1805

Young and older wearing variations on a theme.

At a recent party for my 21 year old twin nephew and niece I posed with members of the younger crowd wearing coloured chinos and jeans. In case you can't spot me, I'm second from the left.

The overall styles were similar with a few differences. The cut of the blazers worn by most of the younger men was short and they had one more shirt button undone than I did. They also wore very pointed brogues, what decades ago were called "winkle pickers"; not my style at all. Most wore their trousers long, rather than with turn-ups. Despite these small differences, the picture illustrates that fashion for all ages is generally centred on well-tried classics - here chinos or jeans, blazers and shirts. 

I was wearing a brown linen jacket (usually buttoned up) and tan Loake Chester brogues. I discussed the blue brown colour combination a few months ago - see here. These colours were brought together by an old  Liberty silk pocket square, pictured below.