The Best of the Vest

The days of the Dandy are back and that’s a fact. Last week I clocked four young lads in Leeds on a Saturday night out, suited and booted-up to the max. Sharp threads breed confidence and like giants they swaggered past a group of shouty, red-faced Wetherspooners, wobbling into The Leopard Lounge for early-doors titillation.…

Surf, Sushi and Saxon Sheep

This month, I’ve been on it like Wallace and Gromit. The showroom lights of Michelsberg HQ have been burning long into the night and like Scotty in Star Trek, “I’ve giv’n her all she’s got captain, an’ I canna give her no more.” There’s been many an evening when I’ve shut up shop, my cheeks…

What Ho!

I’m halfway through Stephen Fry’s second Autobiography and it’s an absolute gem. When it comes to penning polished prose, he’s a master and it’s a joy to see our beautiful language used with such fondness and aplomb. As an actor, he was marvellous as the towering, mustachioed ‘Melchett’ in Blackadder – perhaps the best sitcom…

Wedding Bells & Summer Swells

This month I thought we’d kick things off with the meaning of life. Maslow would have us believe it is to reach ‘self-actualisation.’ Robin Williams, in the film Dead Poets Society, would probably just say ‘Carpe Diem.’ I like the phrase ‘smile and the world smiles with you’ and believe, although a bit schmaltzy, that…

Wardrobe Wonderland

If the eyes are the window to the soul, then a gents wardrobe, and its condition, are the window to his character and aspirations. Who can forget Ray Liotta’s wardrobe in Goodfella’s? – row after row of neatly hung suits, or, the evenly spaced crisp white shirts of Mickey Rourke’s in nine and a half…

A Cohiba Moment

Yesterday was officially the last day of summer and to make up for this rather miserable fact, mother nature provided us with one of those rare, truly beautiful evenings. After returning home from an enjoyable dinner with my wife, it was wonderfully warm outside, the air perfectly still. The sky, a riot of pinks and…

Putting on the Ritz

If there is one item of dress that I must wear before I die, it is white tie and tails. A velvet smoking jacket for that Cohiba moment after Sunday lunch comes a close second but full evening dress is the ultimate. Just check out the picture below by Slim Aarons which has become known…