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Valstar is an Italian maker with a penchant for outerwear, best known for their A-1 flight jacket version, Valstarino, born in 1935, and first made of leather. In its previous life, the company was English, making very English rainwear in England, and known as English Fashion Waterproof right until 1911. That year the maker moved to Milan, changed names and was born anew as the first Italian rain coat specialist. Obviously they did something right as the Princess of Savoy and the Duke of Ancona granted Valstar their snooty royal warrants in 1939 and 1942. While the old A-1 examples I’ve seen have small hip pockets, Valstar’s Valstarino sports large flapped patch pockets with side entry. Otherwise theirs is a faithful interpretation of a tried-and-true design.

The example Valstarino is made from lavender cotton canvas with no lining, and has the usual A-1 details: button front; patch pockets; knitted stand collar, cuffs and waist; shirt-like construction. The fabric is strong, medium-weight and has no give. The cut is very slim, so much so that I had to size up from 38” to 40”, which never happens. After having tried on five different variations, I must mention that this cut is not standard in all Valstarino jackets, and ease of wear depends on the fabric. While this canvas version and another double-faced gabardine-flannel Valstarino are both slim and drape well, the other three were huge by comparison and bloused all over. The knitted collar, cuffs and waist don’t have much give, and, when coupled with the slimmer cuts, I’m confident to add that the Valstarino will not suit the fat man at all. The hem is short and the jacket best worn with high-waisted trousers. The dry clean only tag won’t please the lazy owner.

While all of them are straight and even, the jacket is sewn with a coarse, loose stitch that is on the ugly side. All buttonholes have a bit of purl on them, but they, too, are sparse. All buttons are lifeless plastic, attached poorly and droop already. The jacket has two medium-size inner waist pockets with metal zippers and a silly Valstar alien logo on one. A large hanger loop decorates the inner neck. The main interest for me are the large hip pockets, which I adore for looks alone. The button front is slow and cumbersome to use when done up fully, but closing just a few at the middle gives a nice, slouchy look not really accomplished with zipper jackets. Another high point are the sleeves that are cut high and taper to the wrist nicely, guaranteeing comfy use and form-fitting look.

After pondering these great and poor things, I will end by declaring that the Valstarino is one of my favourite short outer layer jackets. The maker offers it in hundreds of fabric and colour combinations, made from leather, suede, cotton, wool, lined, unlined, light, dark, that there really is a Valstarino for every man who fits into the cut. The look is clean enough to be worn with tailored trousers, and not many short outer layer jackets can accomplish the same. The largest, most convenient and affordable selection of Valstarinos can be found from Yoox. My thanks to American WWI materiel designers and Valstar for the jacket that has no peers.

Master tailor Chris Despos and tailoring savant Michael Anton have kindly answered questions of balance in men’s clothing, and the following link leads us back to the early days of style forums for men.

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/forum/showthread.php?60268-What-the-heck-is-balance

The P3 is a classic frame model shaped somewhere between the terrain of round and oval. In these frames, the bridge is cast or carved as part of the same piece as the frame around glasses. The P3 is not usually wide but it is higher than most frames, and the lower part curves more than the upper one. Both the frame borders and earpieces are thin in this shape, and the model is usually decorated with round metal attachments. The earliest mentions of the P3 in optical publications are dated in the 1930s, and these first versions sported earpieces attached to the middle of the frame along with cushions below the bridge.

Later on, earpieces rose up and were attached to the top piece of the frames and cushions disappeared from many versions. The bridge is usually shaped in the form of a keyhole. The curator of The British Optical Association’s Museum, Neil Handley, tells me that this model got its American name of P3 from the US army. During the Second World War, The U.S. Army Materiel Command distributed frames in this shape to myopic soldiers, and named them dryly.

This shape is known as Panto or PRO in Britain, while P3 means the pantoscopic, or meridian, sum where the longitudal and latitudal angles of the lens differ by three millimetres. The meridian of P3 frames in America was during the 1950s to 1960s, when an ever-increasing number of people took a liking to the frames they’d seen on soldiers’ faces, and chose the similar shape on their noses. Another name for the P3 is horn rim frames as this material was most popular before the progress of the plastics industry. A more rarefied material was tortoiseshell, hand-carved for that special artisanal make. Acetate is the most popular one today as horn frames are delicate and turtles shall not be touched anymore.

Both horns and tortoiseshells had a natural, beautiful colour alternating in shades of brown that was an important factor in the popularity of P3s, Pantos or PROs. This shape can be made from metals, too, as the shape alone has meaning for this name. Metals in the colour of gold have been more popular than silvery ones. Looking at some choice photos of old, I notice that P3s have been popular on the faces of writers, lawyers, journalists, architects, academics and men of other creative bents. This band of brothers also includes some discerning politicians.

As for naming names, I can link John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, James Dean, Mohamed ElBaradei, Tom Brokaw, Arthur M. Schlesinger Junior, history professor Matti Klinge, Finnish president Paasikivi and belligerent banker Björn Wahlroos. I feel the finest main colour for P3s is dark brown, this way the frames are also nice and dark for occasions as well. Beige versions are best in the shining of spring and summer. Those frames that are mottled, translucent and alternating in shades of brown are always interesting and lively. The P3 loses part of its charm in black or metallic, though the shape still stays.

The largest and most handy selection of P3 frames I’ve found is offered by the American Ben Silver, who has a shape to frame each occasion and taste.