Recent content by Bargepole

I have five Herbert Johnson velours and one Fischer. The tan/taupe/pale brown/whatever HJ hat is my "beater". I reckon it's been the equivalent of twice round the world, in three civil wars, four deserts, two - no, hang on, three - riots, it's been in a Sudanese jail and a Frankfurt cathouse...

Actually, it was the nom de guerre of a column I used to write in the long-dead Punch magazine. As in "You wouldn't touch it with a..." Kind regards His Excellency the Very Rev. Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Sgn.-Lt Sir Florizel Bargepole Md PhD DD KCMG FRCO FRCOG LMIBG (Honoris Causa)

Sideline on Ralph Lauren suits: Doug Hayward is my tailor in London (although he is partially retired now, for reasons of health, the business and the style continue) and once I was in the back of the shop and there were all these little wee suits hanging up, in various stages of construction...

Put it upside down in my suitcase. Stuff it with socks, surround it with sweater, underwear etc. Works fine for me.

I seem to recall it had precisely that, but the image spontaneously combusted when I accidentally leered at a nun... Here it is. Colour is tricky to reproduce exactly but this is pretty close:

Sort of curious sage-green Stratoliner (never seen one like it) picked up on A Popular Auction Site in the summer. Don't know what it is about it, but I love it and it's supplanted my previous favourite, a chocolate-brown Herbert Johnson velours.

There is indeed a Borsalino "boutique" on the Corso, up by the Hotel Russie, but the hats are very, very disappointing. You might prefer the venerable Troncarelli, at the southern end of P. Navona where it debouches into Corso Vittorio. (They do the world's best socks there, too; I am wearing a...

When are you taking orders? Yes - I mean it. I am 53 years old and an inveterate fedora man, but, hell, I rather like this strange hat even though I am not the target market and my approval is probably the last thing the designer needs or wants. But I think it's -- well, interesting, and cool...

Here's one: the fawn one and the dove-grey (and in the front, a Herbert Johnson black "Poet" from the 1970s, before HJ moved back to Bond Street from Old Burlington Street). Flash doesn't do it, so I'll take a couple more in the morning. As for the avatar -- just a snap someone took down in...

That would be me. And what a beauty it is. So far it has been most of the way round Britain, twice on television, twice across the Atlantic, to my Fortress of Solitude on Paxos, to Ithaka, Kephalonia, Corfu, Athens, Paris, and kept me company for 15 hours in Philadephia airport when the airlines...

The Doctor's Hat Don't know about the others, but the burgundy-coloured velours one is Herbert Johnson, from the days when they were in Old Burlington Street. I had just been appointed to the staff of the late and intermittently lamented "Punch" magazine in around 1982/3 and bought a burgundy...

English etiquette In England a dinner jacket (tuxedo, or just "black tie" as it's usually called) is informal evening wear -- in theory at any rate. A bowler is inappropriate as it's a daytime (and originally a sporting) hat. A top hat is inappropriate since it's a formal hat. A black fedora...

Just Like Grandpa... ...I am a Trumper's man (even to the extent of getting my hair cut in their Curzon Street barbershop -- and any Lounge visitors to London really ought to make a pilgrimage there). Trumper's Violet shaving cream Chubby #2 Super Badger brush Ordinary three-piece...

Welcome Squid Overlords http://store.muledesign.com/shirts/squidoverlords.php

This is a cue for a sad tale of woe. When I first started wearing good hats, in the late Seventies, Herbert Johnson (then in Old Burlington Street) was unquestionably Hat Heaven. Since then, the quality and choice have gone into a fairly terminal decline, and never really survived their...