Champagne Coats

ueChampagne Coats

"Our most important issue is to prevail upon him [man] to discard his dismal attire of bygone days and dress him for the New Deal. . . .

"We would recommend that tailors have an ample supply of good gags . . . and possibly some good cocktail stories ready, and when the male is his unwitting self, quickly sell him on the idea of a canary yellow outing suit. . . .

"For the man without sex appeal we should design a suit in vivid red materials; red symbolizes love, fervor and fire. Certainly such a costume would give him a more pleasant experience than any emotional stimulus he may benefit from a cup of tea. . . ."

Such was some of the advice given the National Association of Merchant Tailors of America last week on 1934 styles in a 40-page booklet prepared by its Fashion Committee. The Association, joined by the Merchant Tailor Designers Association, settled down for a four-day annual convention at the Palmer House in Chicago to consider them. In the mezzanine were such exhibits as knickerslacks and directors' suits. In the Grand Ballroom were lively discussions of the color of waistcoats, the cut of coat tails. Haughtily ignoring the ready-to-wear industry which actually controls mass styles, the tailors recommended tuxedo vests of maroon and purple, claret and gold; opera capes of blue vicuna lined with scarlet and purple. The Fashion Committee was in favor of streamlining men's clothes: ". . . a stripe, for example, perpendicular through coat and trousers, but for the waistcoat navigating the torso horizontally. Pockets may trim their flaps back to lay neatly against the wind and there will be no buttons on the cuffs -- no outside plumb ing. . . ." But the very latest in fashions was the cocktail suit and the champagne coat. The cocktail suit, worn only between 4:30 and 6 of an afternoon, has a soft roll lapel in grey, blue-grey, blue or brown, with trousers of worsted in similar colors. Only a derby may be worn with it, in blue, grey or brown. But, warns the committee, "Al Smith's turn on the New Deal . . . has made the brown derby very unpopular.'' Champagne coats, designed like the dinner jackets, come in blue, quaker grey, bisque, green and champagne, may be worn with black welt-seamed trousers.

Sponsor of these and many another innovation in men's clothes is dapper Ray mond Godfrey Twyeffort, chairman of the Fashion Committee. He was conspicuous at the convention in a large-checked rope-shouldered suit of grey and red, with flaming red handkerchief, white spats and chamois gloves. (He kept the left one on.) He has no sympathy for men who do not believe in color. Cried he: "Color will bring back prosperity!"

Born in Manhattan 45 years ago, Tailor Twyeffort (Welsh for "two forts") went to Horace Mann School, then to England to prepare himself before taking over his father's famed shop. Creative, artistic, temperamental, he resembles the French couturier more than most of his Fifth Avenue colleagues. He changes clothes at least 30 times a week. He is reputed to get higher prices for clothes than any tailor in the U. S.

Although U. S. merchant tailors gross $80,000,000 annually (1932), they clothe less than one out of every 100 U. S. males. And tailors like Twyeffort and Bell of Manhattan, Dunne of Boston, Stewart of Philadelphia do only a fraction of that business. But the customers for whom they make $120 sack suits (1929 price: $150) are generally to be found sitting at the head of most directors' tables or behind ultra-modest little signs labeled "The President."

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