Keikari.com

“[I’m] 59years old and serve as Associate dean for Diversity for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a practicing cardiologist (Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiology). High School: East Nashville High School in Nashville, TN (graduated with Oprah Winfrey!) College: Vanderbilt University in Biomedical Engineering (B.S., Magna Cum Laude). Medical School: Harvard Medical School. Residency and Cardiology training: Emory University School of Medicine Affiliated Training Program. I have 2 children and my daughter has worked in fashion in NYC post college as an intern. and is  currently finishing the Owen Business School at Vanderbilt; my spouse is tolerant of my style interests (for 30 years!); I helped her develop her own personal style interests; I initially bought 80+% of her clothes and helped her understand what designer’s clothes flatter her.

My father was the defining force in my life on many things and men’s dress was no exception; he helped my 3 brothers and I understand the power, importance, and fun of dress. My brothers have developed their own sense of style/dress. He felt that your dress served as your personal “armor” that allowed you to stand the challenges and “arrows” sent your way. As he dressed us as kids and young men I began to see the effect of well-cut clothing on the seeing masses. As I finished my training and had a little money, I began buying reference books to expand my knowledge: Elegance by B. Boyer; Clothes and the Man by Flusser; etc… I was fortunate to meet Bruce Boyer through a series of contacts in the late 1980’s and Bruce began my “graduate and post-graduate education in Men’s dress”—introducing me to Leonard Logsdail (Savile Row Tailor Transplant in NYC), Robert Gillotte of Turnbull and Asser who educated me on Custom Shirts; Edward Green and Cleverly shoes.

Over the years, I have met through Bruce many luminaries in men’s dress. I began TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF SYMMETRY AND BALANCE IN CONSTRUCTING YOUR PERSONAL WARDROBE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF DEFINING YOUR OWN PERMANENT  CLASSIC STYLE. Fashion is for the moment and NOT about  permanence. [My knowledge comes] from studying style icons like Gianni Agnelli, Fred Astaire, Doug Fairbanks JR and others (Cary Grant). It was apparent they were about defining what worked for them and sticking to it for a lifetime. Bruce, and other friends who had and intense view on personal style: The late Peter Rauch, Robert Gillotte, Avery Lucas, Sean Crowley (of Polo) Anthony T. Kirby, and many other “men of the cloth” who share a common vision and passion in dressing well and choosing the classics.

I have learned from meeting and using many tailors/designers on what determines great bespoke and made-to-measure tailoring. This journey can be a bit expensive as you drop the banal, average and fair tailors off the list. It makes me appreciate the phenomenal work of Leonard Logsdail — he is a gift! [My style is] very English-oriented, but with the American sense of  individual style. I have come to understand what works best if you are 6’3” and between 185-190 pounds — the kinds of Patterns, the placement of buttons on a SB jacket; DB jackets—button the top of the 6 on 2. Trousers should barely touch the top of the shoes (just a “shiver”, or what Luciano Barbera calls the mid-atlantic break!) I favor fall/winter because of the ability to wear flannels and tweeds; one also has a wider palette to choose from with colors; lastly, I like 13-14oz weight cloths that one can wear in colder weather, it drapes better. This list is a partial one. Having spent a lot of time on this I work exclusively on bespoke-suiting with Leonard Logsdail (NYC/Savile Row); RTW is hard to say, but Polo Ralph Lauren has worked for years and for jackets Pal Zileri, but by and large I have trouble finding jackets that work.

[My journey on ASW] I think started with the Trumpet Award of 2011. My brothers and I won the medical award and it was featured on television, and had a black tie runway where we were featured, and Will showed this pic on his website and the rest, as they say, is history. I would recommend to the readers to spend a little time reading the key reference books (some I cited) and watching classic films of the 1930’s and 1940’s — these films show men’s dress at its pea,k and reveal all the styles that are available — 2-button SB; 3-button SB that rolls to the middle button; nonvented; single vented and side-vented jackets, etc. There are very few current men’s dress icons in the public’s eye that you can recommend the beginner to study, eg, George Hamilton, Prince Charles, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Chuck Scarborough of WNBC in NYC, Bruce Boyer, Luciano Barbera…that is about it. Also work with a good/great tailor or a brilliant designer (like Avery Lucas of Anthony T Kirby—both in NYC) who understand cut, balance, drape, etc.

Most of my other passions are very right-brain determined — drawing/sketching (note studying: Jack Kirby, Leonardo da Vinci,,etc) and writing prose/poetry. Music (Nat Cole, Torme’, Johnny Hartman, Sinatra, Bennett, Ella, Sarah Vaughn, Louis Armstrong, ,Beethoven, Mozart, early Bing Crosby (before 1936), Count Basie, and anything played by the Nashville Symphony…there is more but I’ll stop here!)

I think one thing that young men interested in dress should know a little secret. Women love guys in a well-cut and flattering suit with great shoes. Also how you dress presents you to the world, and future employers DO pay attention to how you dress and the quality of your clothing. The first thing that people see as you approach them is what you look like, and what you wear is the opening message. Make it good!”

Pictures with permission: © Rose Callahan

AGING or Twisting Your Life Away by André Churchwell

Life’s molecules twist and undulate like
oyster pearls on a string.

Breath and life are
suffocated by another of God’s
twisting, delicious,
and asphyxiating creations—sausage links.

We wish for Winston Churchill’s genetic resilience.
To scoff at death while ingesting a copious diet
of sausage, eggs and vino.

Like Sinatra, he smiled
and after over 8 decades of life
offered one more toast to
immortality.

DNA cracks under the unrepairable influences
of wear and time that lead
us to a common quiet place.

So, raise your glass again and
smile for joy and life
to be endured before
apoptosis has its way.

I’ve a problem with outsourced apparel. I can somewhat trust makers who own their factories, or at least come clear with the manufacturers used in outsourced goods. Most do not, leaving the customer pondering the true source and grade of goods. When the maker is revealed or known, the customer can rely on a certain level of quality and make great finds in sales. Some factories offer limited sales percentages with the aim of maintaining an aura of prestige. One example is Edward Green, who does make a few models for Brooks Brothers. While EG’s models will remain expensive, the pairs made for BB may be offered with favourable prices.

One prime example of re-branding comes from Ralph Lauren, whose webstore features a dull half-brogue titled ‘Denver‘ for $1250. The very same model, made for RL by the Italian factory Silvano Sassetti, sells for around $400 as part of the makers own collection, titled ‘Passo‘. The pairs might differ if RL has selected higher-grade leathers for its model. This tidbit must be gleaned  from the seller or someone higher up, yet I highly doubt whether RL is willing to reveal such details. Outsourcing, or simply replacing brand tags and packaging, is among the fastest methods of hitching up profits. Buyer beware.

Fresco is a suiting originally woven by Martin Sons&Co., now belonging to Huddersfield Fine Worsteds Ltd as part of J.&J. Minnis. It was patented in 1907, and in its application the manufacturer explained that, in a worsted cloth woven with the ordinary double or single threads, the threads were liable to flatten under pressure, closing up the small interstitial openings left in weaving, “but, according to this invention, we twist together a double and a single yarn, producing thereby a thread for both warp and weft which, when woven into cloth, retains its roundness while the cloth is in wear, and we thus prevent the closing of the said openings and attain the said object.

The current Fresco range arches from 250 grams in weight to just under 500 grams, with a price of around 60 pounds per metre. Most fabrics are grey or blue in colour, with a few beige exceptions. The fabric is a renowned spring and summer cloth due to its unsurpassed woven qualities. A noticeable open weave, Fresco allows the breeze to pass through and cool the wearer, but will benefit from a lining so as to avoid naughty patches of chicken-light skin from showing. The high-twist fabric resists wrinkles, but comes with a coarse hand, which makes for another aye for lining. Other mills offer similar weaves, but Fresco is the original.

The fabric’s perks are indeed numerous and enticing, thus a few caveats are in order before Visas squeal and spouses scream. Fresco is as cool as suitings come. Heavily ventilated offices, airplanes and such will leave the skinny wearer shivering. The fabric’s coarser surface won’t quite do for the most formal of occasions. At sixty pounds per metre, one regular-size suit – requiring 3½ metres – will cost over 200 pounds in fabric alone. Aside from these tidbits, Fresco is among the most useful suitings available.

In 2007, the fabric celebrated its first centenary with this publication:

“Fresco cloth as popular as ever after 100 years

The year 2007 marks the centenary of the famous “Fresco” cloth, a high-grade, crisp and cool plain-weave worsted of English manufacture for summer wear in the hottest climates. Woven by Martin Sons & Company, of Huddersfield, patented in July 1907 and initially sold exclusively by the London agent, A. Gagniere & Co., two-fold and three-ply Fresco suitings and jacketings continue to be best-sellers, appealing equally to long-term customers and younger celebrities in the world of entertainment. Appropriately described as “cloths that take advantage of every breeze”, Frescos are still manufactured by Martin Sons & Co., which was founded in 1859 and is part of Huddersfield Fine Worsteds, of Kirkheaton Mills, whose sales director, Mr. Iain Milligan, disclosed that for the first time mohair is being introduced to mark the centenary year.

Traditionally featuring an all-wool cloth in a high-twist porous weave, in weights from 250 to 465 grams per linear metre, the Fresco range is being extended to include a worsted quality with mohair and a centenary thick & thin Fresco. Over the years Frescos have been offered in a wide choice of patterns, such as traditional checks, glen styles and window panes, as well as plains in classic colours and fashion shades. “Fresco is an old-established fabric but it has also become a fashion item and is being used by the new breed of London tailors such as Kilgour and Spencer Hart,” The Fresco is being marketed in 2007 with a “Centenary” label and is available in classical stripes and plains. Two stock supported Fresco bunches are being offered by J & J Minnis, one of several illustrious names of the British trade owned by Huddersfield Fine Worsteds, which manufactures some of the world’s most luxurious cloths. Fresco ranges are a mainstay of the company’s Hunt & Winterbotham merchanting business, which has two trading names, J & J Minnis, of Savile Row, and John G. Hardy, of London.

The cloth was designed to keep bankers, barristers and other professionals, whose work required formal dress, comfortable in high temperatures. In promotional literature at the time, it was said that since the introduction of the new cloth for summer wear, to which they had given the name Fresco, “there is no excuse, even for those most regardful of their personal appearance and most conservative in their habits, to resign themselves to the discomforts peculiar to the summer season”. The merchant at the time said that, although little known to the general public at home, the cloth “is in great demand in all the Continental cities and in countries where the great heat of the summer compels the inhabitants to dress rationally”. Obtainable from leading tailors world-wide, the Fresco cloth was described as “untearable, of fast colour, and of lasting wear.

It will not shrink or crease, and it can be cleaned without detriment to the freshness or shapeliness of its appearance, and is equally suitable for gentlemen’s or ladies’ wear”. At one time Huddersfield’s biggest employer, with 1,750 workers, worsted weaver Martin Sons & Company, then of Wellington Mills, Lindley, applied in April 1907 for a patent for its invention of a worsted cloth “through which air can pass freely, thus facilitating ventilation of clothing made therefrom”. Patent No. 7770, for the manufacture of worsted cloth from warp and weft produced by twisting together a double and a single yarn, was accepted on July 4, 1907.

In its application, the manufacturer explained that, in a worsted cloth woven with the ordinary double or single threads, the threads were liable to flatten under pressure, closing up the small interstitial openings left in weaving, “but, according to this invention, we twist together a double and a single yarn, producing thereby a thread for both warp and weft which, when woven into cloth, retains its roundness while the cloth is in wear, and we thus prevent the closing of the said openings and attain the said object.”

Today’s inspiration: pink-maroon large check shirt with a high button-down collar, large-scale paisley tie, brown PoW check cardigan, brown gunclub check jacket.