A Few Passages – Hardy Amies

Well, it is exam week, and with less than 48 hours to go I am a bit short on time. I thought I would throw up two quotations from Sir Hardy Amies’ entertaining book “The Englishman’s Suit.” The first to me represents the ways in which we can draw upon tradition and reinterpret in interesting ways, and the second serves as a thoughtful reminder of the external impact of dressing ourselves properly.

“It’s all quite simple. When you drop fastenings so low that you can go no further, you move upwards. You look to history to see how far you can go. You think of Edward VII’s Deeside coat. You remember that the single-breasted coat originally fastened up to the neck. You feel that we’ve had enough of the double-breasted coat. You go upwards.”

“The sight of the clothes worn on the streets today provokes fascinating thought. Mercifully, you can say, there is less gentility. No one seems to be attempting to be something grander than they are. Anoraks, trousers and white running shoes abound on both sexes. It is remorsely non-upper class. This does not make for classlessness. It only throws the differences into high relief. It throws up the relation of fashion to manners. It is rude to the citizens of London, Paris and New York to be ill-dressed. It is particularly rude to dress squalidly at the opera, theatre or concert hall. It is rude to your fellow public and rude to the performers.”