“From 1919 until 1959 \u2013- a space of forty years -\u2013 my principal tailor in London was Scholte. It is a firm which, alas, no longer exists…[Scholte] once told me that as a young man he had had to serve ten years of arduous apprenticeship before he was allowed to cut a suit for a client. He had the strictest ideas as to how a gentleman should and should not be dressed…he disapproved strongly of any form of exaggeration in the style of the coat…As befitted an artist and craftsman, Scholte had rigid standards concerning the perfect balance of proportions between shoulders and waist in the cut of a coat to clothe the masculine torso. Fruity [Metcalfe] who, for all his discretion of costume was always ready for some experiment, had sinned by demanding wider shoulders and a narrower waist. Thus, for some time, he was excluded from Scholte\u2019s sacred precints. These peculiar proportions were Scholte\u2019s secret formula.<\/p>\n
I never had a pair of trousers made by Scholte. I disliked his cut of them; they were made, as English trousers usually are, to be worn with braces high above the waist. So, preferring as I did to wear a belt rather than braces with trousers, in the American style, I invariably had them made by another tailor…It is impossible to name, seriously, the best-dressed or even the ten best-dressed men in the world. There are different styles, and certain men who wear each of them well. The details of a man\u2019s costume are a matter of individual taste \u2013 whether his lapels be broad or narrow or his trousers long or short. I prefer four buttons on my coat sleeves, for example, but I cannot give any logical reason why I do. Yet I am credited with having influenced styles in my time. It was quite unconscious; I have always tried to dress to my own individual taste.”<\/p>\n
~\u00a0 Duke of Windsor in his semi-autobiographical A Family Album<\/em>, 1960<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"