The Blueblack Hussar…
We’re very proud that THE DANDY HIGHWAYMAN – music legend and style icon ADAM ANT has been spotted wearing a Pimpernel Duellist Waistcoat and red Pocket Square! Here are a couple of screen shots taken from some videos of Adam wearing Pimpernel on stage (courtesy of Rob Golding Photographic).
Adam is famous for scores of hits including ‘Antmusic’, ‘Stand and Deliver’ and ‘Prince Charming’. Here at Pimpernel we can’t wait for his new album- “Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter”- due to be released this year…
Pimpernel, the movie!
Pimpernel is proud to present our new short film, which aims to capture the essence of Pimpernel Clothing:
A bottle of Visualade…
Question: What do the Count of Monte Cristo, Sherlock Holmes, and the Wolfman have in common?
Answer: They all feature in the new Pimpernel Clothing Channel over on Youtube! Pimpernel has been merrily compiling a bevy of “Favourites”…. including all his best-loved period film trailers and music videos. And now feels his eyes are a little square. Ah, so many fun video clips, so little time- we hope you enjoy them!
Fragrance giveaway!
We’re very excited here about the launch of our new eau de toilette, Pimpernel Fragrance for Men!
Who better to craft this scent for us but the oldest perfume house in France? In the aromatic world of eighteenth century France, Jean de Galimard, Lord of Seranon, founded his perfumery and established himself as a supplier of fragrance to King Louis XV and his court at Versailles – known as ‘le cour parfumee‘.
You can read more about the history of le cour parfumee over at one of Pimpernel’s favourite blogs, Marie Antoinette’s Gossip Guide, where the lovely Lauren is also hosting a giveaway for us! One winner will be drawn to win a 100ml bottle of Pimpernel Fragrance for Men, in a period style glass bottle. (Two additional winners will receive 10% off on purchase of a bottle.)
To enter, head on over to Marie Antoinette’s Gossip Guide, and good luck!
Room at the top
Pimpernel popped down to London to visit the V&A the other day. You’ll no doubt be surprised to read that he walked straight past the Fashion galleries. Instead he made his way on up to the 3rd floor to the Theatre and Performance gallery. (This gallery opened last year, but Pimpernel travels by coach so it’s taken him a while to get there…).
There was one particular outfit that was on Pimpernel’s must-see list. Adam Ant (of New Wave 80s group Adam and the Ants) has always been a firm favourite of Pimpernel’s, for his music and his sense of style. (Is there one heroic historical look that Adam has left unworn? He’s been a Hussar, Pirate, Dandy Highwayman and the list goes on.) But it’s the outfit from Adam’s Prince Charming video that the V&A has on display. (And it was in good company, flanked by a spangled white catsuit of Mick Jagger’s and a colourful creation worn by Elton John.) The lighting was low- so please forgive the grainy photos (Mr. Gainsborough and his easel being Unavailable at short notice…)
Adam was responsible for the band’s style direction, and designed his own outfits:
I liked lots of rich textures and colours, loads of gold and silver – I made a lot of clothes myself: 18th-century men’s shirts are the sexiest shirts a man can wear.
(From here.)
Adam has also given all the band’s costumes to the V&A. A generous move indeed.
The first thing that struck Pimpernel was how well made the outfit looks. The V&A museum staff have also commented on how unusually well made it is for a stage costume. (Check out this interview with Adam about his costumes, which contains better shots of the pieces of the Prince Charming costume: http://www.adam-ant.net/vanda.html )
The jacket has a beautiful shape- very broad and structured in the shoulder and nipped in at the waist (a perfect 1980s meets c.1780s!) with long tails that turn back on themselves. The shape of the standup collar and lapels frames the cravat to perfection.
Yes, so there’s touches of furnishing fabric and lurex. And those silver breeches! But they work. The look is a masterpiece of glam, with quirky little details- ribbons, rosettes, that patent blue belt, the Tricolore sash. And did you notice those amazing patent buckle boots?
A peck of pocket books
Just launched for sale on our website- our new leather goods!
We’ve designed our wallet (or “pocket book”) to be based on the look of original eighteenth century pocket books. (Important documents, deeds, bank bills, love letters would all have been safely stowed in a pocket book.) We’ve taken the original period design feature of the three point flap and tab on the outside. And once opened up, our pocket book maintains the period design of having two separate compartments.
But we’ve brought our version up to date a little: one hand-tooled compartment has been stitched to provide slots for those modern new-fangled credit card thingies. (And there’s a bigger recess behind to hold bank notes.) The other compartment is a supple tan leather coin pocket….
Our colour combination, scarlet lined with a contrasting pale green, may seem a modern colourway, but was actually a popular 18th century colour choice. (Yes, even that bright a scarlet! It is only age and use that has darkened a lot of the scarlet eighteenth century examples that remain. You can just see the scarlet ink-stained period original we have used as a prop in the top left corner of the shot below).
That same shot above shows our business card holder (or calling card holder, perhaps?). We’ve taken the external elements of the pocket book design, but inside (as you can see to the left) there’s a rigid recess to protect your cards which is lined with hand marbled paper. The flap is lined in contrast green, and embossed in gilt with Pimpernel’s mark.Apart from leather pocket books, examples of eighteenth century pocket books remain which are made out of fabric and beautifully embroidered. Sometimes by the giver, to be given perhaps as a prized gift to loved ones, or perhaps purchased for important occasions such as housewarming or wedding gifts. (Ah, gift giving! With Valentine’s Day approaching, Pimpernel thinks a pocket book could be just the ticket…)
For more beautiful period examples of eighteenth century pocket books, both leather and fabric, check out the following links:
http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/Dutch/c_dutchsurgeon.html
http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-190-001-904-C
and a beautiful example embroidered by Marie Antoinette in the Temple prison:
Honorable mention
We’re thrilled that our Duellist waistcoat has been featured in a piece on the Huffington Post website!
At the time of writing this blog post, our clothing has been ranked No. 1 out of the items featured. Pimpernel is bursting with pride, and hopes he doesn’t burst right out of his own waistcoat…
Click here to view the article. And please feel free to exercise your democratic right to vote 
New decade, new style icon?
2010 is shaping up to be a stylish year already thanks to Robert Downey’s Jr’s movie personification of legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes. Take one cult actor with lashings of charisma, add in an Oscar winning costume designer (Jenny Beavan) and tap into the current trend for all things Victorian/steampunk.
Result? A new movie costume style icon.
What’s so appealing about Robert Downey Jr’s Holmes is that we get the impression that, although everything else he does is premeditated, his appearance is not. His Holmes is a pugilist who isn’t afraid to get his hands (or suit) dirty, a man who never brushes his hair. He is a man who spends three weeks in his rooms wrestling with all manner of weighty issues in an amazing house gown which looks like it’s seen much better days. He is not, in short, a man who has much time for clothes.
Instead, Holmes “borrows” clothes from his sidekick Watson (played beautifully by Jude Law), but throws them on any old how. And mixes these pieces up with his own items, which are more exotic in colour- think plums and purples- and fabric- silks and corduroys- than Watson’s conservative palette of cottons and tweeds.
The sartorial contrast between Holmes and his sidekick Watson is nicely marked. Where Holmes has the flamboyant Bohemian look of someone whose profession has no dress code, Watson, ex-military and professional man of medicine always looks smart, starched, and somewhat fastidious. Just compare the way the two men wear their shirts in the scene below:
In his very immaculateness Watson doesn’t look half as stylish to our 21st century eyes as Holmes. In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine Jenny Beavan remarked that she put Watson in “really nice suits an army man would have had made by his army tailor for when he returned to civilian life.”
And, of course, it is a truth universally acknowledged that the brooding fellow in the floor length leather coat must be the villain…
Some costumes and props from the movie are apparently now on display at the London Film Museum. More info is here.
Pictures are all copyright © Warner Bros. Pictures and are reproduced here for research purposes only.
Special Discount Code for our blog readers!
Pimpernel is thrilled that our decks of playing cards are being highlighted in the latest issue of Skirmish magazine! (Skirmish is the world’s leading multi-period historical re-enactment and living history magazine- and aims to cover all periods in world history from the last 3000 years…)
Sounds like cause enough for celebration! So, we’d like to offer you lovely people 10% off the full price of any of our decks of playing cards. Simply enter the promo code WP1789 at checkout to receive your 10% discount.
(This offer will expire at midnight UK time on December 17th 2009.)
Pimpernel hopes this might help you with your final Christmas gift shopping (Pimpernel always leaves his present shopping to the last minute, so he feels your pain). Or you could just treat yourself
Wilde Wilde West
Perhaps one of the most difficult things for us to do is choose a notable and joyous dress for men. There would be more joy in life, if we were to accustom ourselves to use all the beautiful colours we can in fashioning our own clothes… At present we have lost all nobility of dress…
Well said indeed! This is the kind of strong stuff that Pimpernel wishes he’d said, but Oscar Wilde got there first. Mr. Wilde delivered these remarks back in 1882, during an extensive lecture tour he gave in America. The title of the lecture was ‘The Practical Application of the Principles of the Aesthetic Theory to Exterior and Interior House Decoration, With Observations upon Dress and Personal Ornaments.’ (Admittedly not the catchiest of titles and a bit of a mouthful by anyone’s standards. You can read the full text of it here.)
After the rather splendid menswear of the eighteenth century (and earlier) with lavish embellishment, embroidery, bullion and fabulous patterned silks of every colour you can imagine, menswear in the nineteenth century must certainly have seemed a lot less exciting. And just what did Oscar consider the epitome of elegant men’s dress? He considers the draped garments of the Ancient Greeks, allows himself a little excitement over menswear at the time of Charles I (see the Van Dyck portrait of Charles I to the left). He also decides that “the dress of the last century in England is also peculiarly gracious and graceful. There is nothing bizarre or strange about it, but it is full of harmony and beauty.”
And then he makes a surprising choice…
In all my journeys through the country, the only well-dressed men that I saw – and in saying this I earnestly deprecate the polished indignation of your Fifth Avenue dandies–were the Western miners. Their wide-brimmed hats, which shaded their faces from the sun and protected them from the rain, and the cloak, which is by far the most beautiful piece of drapery ever invented, may well be dwelt on with admiration. Their high boots, too, were sensible and practical. They wore only what was comfortable, and therefore beautiful.
This was an echo of the same rationale that would prompt Wilde to explain his own stage dress of black velvet jacket, lace cravat, silk knee breeches, and patent leather pumps thus: “When a man is going to walk or row, or perform feats which require a display of strength and muscle, the trousers are done away with and knee breeches are worn.”
Opinion on Wilde in America was divided but never neutral. Critics loved or hated him. But, surprisingly perhaps, where he was most loved was the West. Or rather, at that time, the Wild West. Not long before Wilde arrived in America, Pat Garrett had gunned down Billy the Kid. Wilde himself would pass through Jesse James’ home town in Kansas and learn that James himself had just been assassinated by a member of his own gang. But this love was reciprocated, for Wilde seemed to fall for the West, its rough romance, its lawless heroes and perhaps its vast possibility for freedom.
And then, smitten, he began to embrace the West’s dress. In her fascinating article Oscar Wilde’s West on the Literary Traveler website, Jan Wellington writes about Oscar’s reception, and admiration of how he carried himself:
In Denver, a reporter for the Times described Wilde in his flowing locks, wide-brimmed hat, and the long duster he had recently adopted as “not unlike a Texas ranger who had struck it rich.” The Denver Republican declared approvingly “that if placed in a mining camp dance hall, [the Aesthete] would pass for a real bold, bad man.” The Leadville miners, whom Wilde dined with, recalled that “[t]hat Oscar Wilde is some art guy, but he can drink any of us under the table and afterwards carry us home two at a time”.
Pimpernel very much admires Mr. Wilde’s embracing of a dress aesthetic that combines the beautiful and the practical, his rejection of wearing garment’s simply because they were the current fashion. His enthusiastic adoption of clothing that spoke to him and appealed as a statement of some higher truth. After all, in his duster coat and wide hat perhaps Oscar felt he carried with him a little part of the untamed free spirit of the Wild Wild West.
