Result happiness
To balance my last post, a description of two recent purchases.
I picked up my suit today. I bought my first three piece suit when I was seventeen (milk chocolate wool with a sky blue chalkstripe). Before my mother had finished kindly taking in the trousers for me, I bought another. I'd gone to the Edinburgh Fringe, foolishly only having packed T-shirts, so I stopped off in a vintage clothes' shops on the Grassmarket and picked up a black pinstripe (dated 1946).
I've liked suits ever since, but the men's jackets have never really fitted across the shoulders, so I finally treated myself to a made-to-measure.
You can customise most things - pockets, buttons, double or single breasted. I hovered back and forth on this - I very much admire traditional suits and I knew that the more you deviate from the basic template, the greater the risk of looking foolish. But then, I'm never going to look entirely classic in a chap's suit. And I was under the stylistic influence of True Blood, and lovely Lafayette's funeral outfit:
In short, I was havering between being a Saville Row gent and a buff gay sex worker. Other style role models included Giles from Buffy and Lord Voldemort.
So I opted for a sober black herringbone but lurched into some unusual alterations, in a slightly dizzy haze, persuaded by a flattering cockney tailor, and I was worried that it wouldn't pay off.
It is totally awesome and I'm so glad I didn't get an ordinary suit. The waistcoat's double breasted and collared, the jacket comes down to my knees. And it's got a silver lining, because everything should.
So that cost more than I've ever spent on anything, ever. Apart from my annual London three zone travel card (a good suit can take you anywhere).
And then I bought some curtains. They were a bargain! They were being sold off cheap in packs of two pairs, so I was dithering between getting four pairs or six.
I took some measurements. One pair = 66 inches. So one curtain = 33 inches. I haggled a bit and got six pairs.
I'd forgotten that with curtains, you're supposed to have double the width of the window to get a nice gather, even when they're closed. So actually, each individual curtain = 66 inches. I have twice as much black velvet curtainage than I need, and about eight times as much as anyone else would ever need. I can black out the window, four-poster the bed, and still have some to spare to drape in front of a mysteriously aged portrait of myself, or chuck over the sofa.
If anyone needs me, I will be standing in a pitch black room dressed as Dombey and Daughter. Eating lentils and staying away from the internet.
I picked up my suit today. I bought my first three piece suit when I was seventeen (milk chocolate wool with a sky blue chalkstripe). Before my mother had finished kindly taking in the trousers for me, I bought another. I'd gone to the Edinburgh Fringe, foolishly only having packed T-shirts, so I stopped off in a vintage clothes' shops on the Grassmarket and picked up a black pinstripe (dated 1946).
I've liked suits ever since, but the men's jackets have never really fitted across the shoulders, so I finally treated myself to a made-to-measure.
You can customise most things - pockets, buttons, double or single breasted. I hovered back and forth on this - I very much admire traditional suits and I knew that the more you deviate from the basic template, the greater the risk of looking foolish. But then, I'm never going to look entirely classic in a chap's suit. And I was under the stylistic influence of True Blood, and lovely Lafayette's funeral outfit:
In short, I was havering between being a Saville Row gent and a buff gay sex worker. Other style role models included Giles from Buffy and Lord Voldemort.
So I opted for a sober black herringbone but lurched into some unusual alterations, in a slightly dizzy haze, persuaded by a flattering cockney tailor, and I was worried that it wouldn't pay off.
It is totally awesome and I'm so glad I didn't get an ordinary suit. The waistcoat's double breasted and collared, the jacket comes down to my knees. And it's got a silver lining, because everything should.
So that cost more than I've ever spent on anything, ever. Apart from my annual London three zone travel card (a good suit can take you anywhere).
And then I bought some curtains. They were a bargain! They were being sold off cheap in packs of two pairs, so I was dithering between getting four pairs or six.
I took some measurements. One pair = 66 inches. So one curtain = 33 inches. I haggled a bit and got six pairs.
I'd forgotten that with curtains, you're supposed to have double the width of the window to get a nice gather, even when they're closed. So actually, each individual curtain = 66 inches. I have twice as much black velvet curtainage than I need, and about eight times as much as anyone else would ever need. I can black out the window, four-poster the bed, and still have some to spare to drape in front of a mysteriously aged portrait of myself, or chuck over the sofa.
If anyone needs me, I will be standing in a pitch black room dressed as Dombey and Daughter. Eating lentils and staying away from the internet.