Wednesday 2 September 2015

Trouser department anxiety


One and a half hours of high-speed driving followed by two and a half hours of slow-speed shopping followed by one and a half hours of high-speed driving left me with the sort of headache yesterday which is only cured by sleep.

I must have slept deeply, because H.I. told me this morning that she was summoned from her bed by the appallingly loud door buzzer we have in order to answer questions from the police, who had been told that a man who they were looking for had just moved in to this address.

Guess what I bought in Bicester Village? A pair of trousers. Mise must have been right about artists and trousers, but I have never been offered a bursary for them.

Every time recently that I have pulled an article of clothing from the rack which has caught my eye, H.I. has said, "That is too young for you". I dolefully put it back and turn to the perma-press beige section.

Some of you older bloggers may remember the time when - whilst again at Bicester Village - I was approached by a charming and beautiful young woman who wanted to take my photo for her fashion blog, 'The Tweed Pig'. This was probably because I was wearing my absolute favourite tweed overcoat, and hopefully not because I looked like a pig.

I had my 15 minutes of fame which I shared with you. Astoundingly, when she asked where I lived, it turned out that she too lived in Bath. She need not have driven the hour and a half to find me, but destiny is inescapable.

This was about three or four years ago, and about three or four years since I began my search for the perfect tweed hat as worn by Basil Rathbone above. I am still looking for it, and I have had two near-misses made for me in the interim period.

As H.I. went into Missoni to buy her trousers, I went into the nearby Hackett of London to buy mine, in the sure knowledge that I could never be accused of trying to look like mutton dressed as lamb.

It was about fifteen years ago when I decided that I was old enough to wear a hat like the above, so why am I being punished by waiting so long for it?

39 comments:

  1. Q: What has four legs and flies?

    A: Two pairs of trousers.

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  2. Interesting fact number 1003:

    The original illustrated Sherlock Holmes smoked a straight pipe, but the downward curving one was adopted by the first cinematic Holmes so that his face was not obscured by it.

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  3. Re the hat Tom. If they are not generally fashionable at the moment then nobody will be making them! Just selling one is not enough to urge them on.
    Re the trousers - I would love the farmer to buy imself a pair of pink trousers - I love them. He goes pale around the gills if I dare to mention such a thing.

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    1. So would I! Pink trousers are only worn by intolerable gits. I rang up a famous London hatter to order one which looks just right, only to be told they discontinued them because of a shortage of Harris Tweed. What kind of an excuse was that?

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    2. I thought that your hat was a Donegal tweed ?

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    3. No, they were the trousers which were badly stored and now made obscene by the moths eating out the invisible (to my eyes) piss-stains. I do have an Irish 'walking-hat', but it isn't quite right.

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  4. I loathe drab and especially in men's clothing, my tendency is to mix colours rather than to match them. To hell and high water anyone criticises my style - I say.

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    1. I would imagine that anyone who dresses in white bedsheets at weekends and high holidays would have to tolerate a certain level of criticism without reacting too badly.

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    2. I daresay your assumption is right re white bed sheet folk :) However, the majority of Druid folk over here wear anything but white. I wear a black wool robe with a purple lining.

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    3. "White bed sheets" made me immediately think of the Ku Klux Klan. What a relief that you were only referencing Druids! LOL

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    4. Purple lining? Black? Now I am thinking Christopher Lee.

      I always think of those Spanish Christians with candles, pointy hats and very Large Virgins.

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  5. Thank goodness I don't have your obsession with hats, trousers, tweed, shoes, and coats; although my favourite ever jacket was a green Harris Tweed creation, now sadly gone to earth.

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  6. Magee sell lovely jackets that would draw the eye away from the perma-press beige trousers that HI is making you buy.

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  7. http://www.magee1866.com/men-c1#c4

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    Replies
    1. Send an enquiry to David Kelly am sure he will help you out.
      Ever thought of buying a kilt instead of trousers ?

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  8. Excellent choice Mise for Magee are first class tailors & I especially like their range of coloured chinos. In fact am wearing a pair of red ones as I write this.

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    1. You must be one of those intolerable gits that I was warning Weaver about then.

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    2. Yes I probably am but I do try to keep up with fashion as am now in my 70's
      it makes me feel 20 okay

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  9. A Hat Making course?

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    Replies
    1. I don't need a course, I just need to dismantle a hat to see how to reverse the process. The thing is that I am more than willing to pay someone else a lot of money to do just that for me.

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  10. Another excellent bespoke tailor is
    http://www.irishtweedjackets.com/products/tweed-trousers/

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  11. I've been looking at the clothes in my closet, and think I've aged out of some of them. It can be a shock, but I was truly stunned when I went into a clothing store where I used to buy a lot of my clothes to discover that *every* item in there was too young for me.

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  12. I didn't think you needed any trousers.

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    1. To make the trip worthwhile and keep H.I. company.
      I looked up Bicester Village. Over here they have names like Legacy Village and Century Village. Everything is becoming turnkey, the world around.

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    2. I didn't either until I got arrested in Bicester.

      There is a Bicester Village in Beijing too, Joanne.

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    3. No trousers?
      Sigh, no there isn't.

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    4. I can usually talk my way out of it.

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    5. I can usually walk my way out of them.

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  13. I'm a big supporter of mutton dressed as lamb and I say go for it! There are few enough things in life that make our hearts sing, so if you find it in fabric, it's a good deal, although style in the end is just a coating for what's inside. Good luck with your hat hunt.

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    1. You are the Patron Saint of elderly lambs, Melanie. I am sorely tempted to make Cockney rhyming slang from your Hat Hunt wishes, but although that's usually my style, I won't. I'm more interested in what's inside too.

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    2. In the cold light of day, the above sounds a bit rude - the bit about mutton I mean. The other bits were supposed to.

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  14. Try looking in charity shops. I find men's clothes from yesteryear of better quality and more suitable for our age group (!) than new items in normal shops. Especially shirts.

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