Double-breasted suits, and what the Guardian says

An article appeared in the Guardian this week (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/12/return-double-breasted-jacket) lauding the return of the double-breasted coat. (This was pointed out to me; the Grauniad is not my news organ of choice – but I digress.) This I found very interesting, both for what it said and what it didn’t say. Now, let me be honest right from the start: I am a fan of double-breasted, and have a blazer and several suits in that configuration. But the Grauniad article revealed, I thought, a great deal more about the author – Mr Simon Chilvers – than necessarily double-breasted coats themselves.

Let us begin with preconceptions. Mr Chilvers initially dismissed double-breasted as the preserve of “Posh boys guffawing at boating events, overweight scruffy politicians, nightclub bouncers and pinstriped bankers power-dressing in the 1980s”. Hmm. Well. I suspect that an average Henley Regatta would yield as many “posh boys” in single-breasted blazers as double-breasted; by “overweight scruffy politicians” I think he is adopting an ad hominem approach (and, dear readers, I think we all know to whom he refers); when I think of nightclub bouncers (which I do very infrequently) I cannot say that ‘double-breasted’ is the phrase which pops unbidden into my mind; and as for pinstriped bankers, well, what is so very wrong with pinstripes?

But let us not be uncharitable. The thesis behind the article is that double-breasted coats are coming back into popularity, with, as the author acknowledges, the unlikely pairing of HRH The Prince of Wales and Mr David Beckham showing us the way. Well now. His Royal Highness has long been a devotee of the double-breasted style, and is also a firmly established style icon for anyone who takes gentlemen’s attire seriously. In this, he follows his great-uncle, the late Duke of Windsor, who, more than any other member of the Royal Family, made the world of fashion his own. But Mr Beckham? I think not. We shall return to this.

Still, if there is “a new, gentlemanly mood in menswear”, then we should all rejoice. A good suit, worn properly, will give a man a feeling of comfort, security and superiority unlike anything else. Why, then, have double-breasted coats fallen into this slough of despond from which they seem to need rescuing?

First, I suspect, is an insidious notion that double-breasted does not suit the, ahem, fuller-figured gentleman. This is twaddle, and reflects, I think, only the sporting of badly-fitting coats by fatties. If the suit is cut properly, then a double-breasted coat will make the most of any physique. It can give a sleekness to any shape, particularly, I would suggest, if worn in fairly bold stripes. I hope I make no offence when I suggest that Nicholas Soames MP is immaculately and elegantly dressed despite being on the larger side, and double-breasted suits are a key part of his armoury.

A whiff of 80s Wall Street excess must also play a part. After all, banking is not a profession the stock of which (if you will forgive the pun) is at an all-time high. Some of this is false-memory syndrome. If you watch, say, the incomparable Wall Street, Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen are usually seen in single-breasted suits. (You may also notice that Michael Douglas is seldom, if ever, seen in the red braces which are held to be iconic of the film and the era.) But the ingrained perception must have some hold. If boldness and élan are not you, then, very well. I take the opposite view; a boldly-striped double-breasted suit can announce to the world at large that the wearer is a man of business, a man who takes care of his appearance, but also a man not to bend like a sapling in the wind of received wisdom and popular thought. Let’s face it; any gentleman who deviates from a plain dark suit, a white shirt, and a monochrome tie is – alas –going to attract notice in this mundane modern world. So why worry?

One more point on Mr Chilvers’s article. He quotes the head of menswear design at Asos: “We simplified the cut and used a single fastening to keep it modern and a little rock’n’roll.” Well, bully for you. But if you are looking for a “new, gentlemanly mood”, then you will not be seeking to appear “a little rock’n’roll”. Have a single fastening – two-plus-two, rather than four-plus-two – looks to me simply a bit, well, 80s (pace my comments above) and I find the more common four-plus-two much more pleasing to the eye. There is also, I must warn, a tendency when wearing a two-plus-two for the fastening to disappear under the gut, incipient or not, of any but the slightest gentleman.

I must now have a few words on Mr Beckham. I have never met him, and he is no doubt an estimable fellow, talented at association football and, I am sure, an all-round good egg. But I cannot pin him up as a style icon. The extensive body art notwithstanding (and really, my dear, just no), he has committed pretty much every solecism available to a gentleman. Not all of this is his fault; he is, after all, a footballer. But shiny suits, belt buckles visible below waistcoats, metallic ties, let alone the sarong and the nail varnish – these are not the elements of a style icon.

So let us celebrate the “return” of the double-breasted coat, and look for its proper exponents. I will offer only two: HRH The Prince of Wales, always immaculately dressed, and the late but great Cary Grant. That’s style.

Finally. Anyone who keeps his coat buttoned when sitting down is guilty of two things – caring too much about form over function, and inflicting discomfort on himself. Just unbutton the coat. It will crease and bunch less, it will feel better, and you will feel less like a fashion plate; but more, I hope, of a man.