Pocket squares/hankies and suits

Flickr: Stevendipolo

Is it me or is everyone getting a bid dandified with the pocket square, the folded handkerchief that goes nowhere near the nasal cavities or else?

It certainly seems that way. Since going tailored I've noticed a lot more people wearing them - and I do mean "wearing" rather than using them, they're purely decorative. My tailors at A Suit That Fits (sponsored link) offer one n the same fabric as a suit's lining for £10 when you order the whole shebang; the people working on my new suit right now at King and Allen (not a sponsored link but do mention me if you decided to buy a suit from them and I'll get a tiny voucher) build it in, in other words you can pull the breast pocket inside out and use that.

People are wearing them differently too. The neat triangle sticking out of the top pocket looks neat but a bit waiterish for my tastes. I'm quite attached to the thin, neat line of white over the top pocket of a dark suit with a crisp white shirt - well, I would be if I could persuade the bloody thing to stay at the above-pocket level neatly by the time I get to my meeting. What normally happens instead is that it sinks into the pocket and I might as well not have it by the time I arrive wherever I'm going. Any thoughts on remedies would be most welcome!

The other look I haven't yet mastered (I say "the" other, actually there are a fair few now that I think about it) is the "looks as though it's been stuffed into the pocket any old how, shouldn't match any of the other clothes the guy is wearing and somehow he gets away with it" look. Always seems to go with a suit that ought to look scruffy but is somehow immaculate too, I've noticed.

Could we men all stop whingeing about middle age?

There was a piece in yesterday's Times by William Leith. The link is here but due to the Times' Paywall you'd have to be a subscriber to see it. The upshot of the piece, "Is this really my face"?, is that the author is coming to terms with middle age. He's getting lines on his eyes, can see why people have "a bit of work", no longer recognises the guy in the mirror, has trouble accepting that he's not in his twenties any more.

I've read this article in a number of guises by different people and I have to say I'm fed up to the back teeth with it. William Leith - the latest of many to think he's discovering middle age before anyone else ever did - is 51. Poor bloody William - some people are even older. We all get lines, wrinkles, teeth needing work - most of us don't get paid to write about it. That's a privilege.

Actually I'm rather enjoying middle age. I went to a Madness gig on Friday and there were loads of us - the most ludicrous dad dancing ever, we were all having a brilliant time and would have been much more self-conscious 25 years ago. Experience brings you - one hopes - a steadier income and a steadier outlook than you might have had before. I'm genuinely happier than I've ever been, and don't get me started about the delight that is becoming a dad. Middle age, at the early stages at least, is treating me well.

So I disagree with Leith to an extent anyway. Nevertheless I think what really gets to me is that some of my friends are what can only be described as "female". Several are my age (46) and going through changes which are a great deal less comfortable than a bit of grey hair and the fact that your gut fills out more easily than it used to. Physical symptoms include stomach pain, heavy periods and associated iron loss, and then possible side effects from medication to stem the periods. Oh, and the inability to have kids, which will hit some harder than others. We get the clock ticking - they get an almighty bell tolling.

Not forgetting that as a society we're kind of down on women reaching middle age - especially now that there's so much emphasis on appearance and sexualisation. Women getting back to work struggle much more than a bloke with an uninterrupted career. It's better than it was when I was a kid but not where it needs to be yet.

There is of course nothing to be done about the physical stuff. The female body is what it is, it ages as it will and women pretty much have to get on with it, in the absence of any alternative.

Not us blokes, though, apparently. We go into the national press objecting to our paunches, sagging facial muscles and greying hair as if this were a disaster of epic proportions.

Personally I wish we'd just shut up about it - it beats dying prematurely, there's little physical discomfort by comparison to our female counterparts, there are plenty of compensations and quite honestly all this whining makes us look ridiculous.

Win a suit a month

No, I'm not running a competition - but Metro is. Just go to the Metro website by clicking here and then find the link that says "win".

One entrant is going to get a tailored suit every month from A Suit That Fits (usual routine, that's a sponsored link for which I get loyalty points when people click through for the first time, there's no commitment from you). I have a few of these and they look fine. Recently they've been pushing the cotton jacket on the left; my guess is that it will crease up dreadfully very quickly although if I had a new suit every month I'd probably get one for the hell of it.

I have to admit that although the prize is generous - if the average cost of a suit from them is £350 that's around £4225 worth of prize if you add in the £25 fitting appointment, which I'm sure will also be free - but even if I won, would I really have a use for 12 tailored suits in my wardrobe?

Let me rephrase that. If I won I'm sure I'd find a use for that many suits. Dinner suit, cotton suit for fun, I haven't got a brown suit or anything in tweed - it becomes pretty easy when you're not paying.

I just wouldn't have room to store them, is all. I'm getting another suit, though - following the interview a couple of months back with King and Allen in the summer suits entry I thought I'd take him at his word and buy a pale grey one.

It's more expensive than A Suit That Fits - but I'm getting an additional fitting as standard next week. I'll let you know how I get on.

* As I was writing this entry news came in that ASTF had won the Multichannel Integration of the Year at The BT Retail Week Technology Awards last night. Not sure how much this sort of thing matters to people actually buying the suits, but congrats all round.

Shower gels for blokes

Shower gels are an odd breed. Some smell very strong, others smell of very little - and they all seem more or less to do the job. I've been lucky enough to be sent some samples. I've tried the lot and can assure you I'm very clean.

Pick of the bunch according to my tastes has to be Anthony for Men's hair and body gel. It's just as well I liked this one because the PRs had a bottle I can only assume was intended for a health club or something - they come in massive quantities if you'd care to pay that much. I found the blue chamomile blend soothing and refreshing at the same time, with a pleasant scent which didn't linger.

Trevor Sorbie's Mg offering is similar; does the job, sweet-ish clinical smell that doesn't hang around and then you're off. It isn't aimed at hair as well otherwise it might have been first choice for an idle tight-fisted fool like me (no doubt there'll be a dermatologist along shortly to explain that hair and skin are very different and should under no circumstances use the same cleaner - no matter, the Anthony suits me very nicely.

Another couple I've looked at are from Manatomicals. These aren't quite to my tastes and I think the manufacturer would be pleased to hear it. One's called "Young free and tingle" hair and body wash - I'm 46, married and a tingle makes me worried my circulation's on the blink. It does have a hell of a zingy, minty scent and certainly woke me up; regular readers will know that I'm fond of a dab of cologne so anything that's going to overpower that is probably not for me. But it's pleasant to use, as is the same company's other offering, called "Are you looking to get picked up?"

See the above personal details - 46, married - if I got caught with something with a name like that in my bathroom cabinet I'd probably be on some sort of register within minutes, or at least be considered some sort of weirdo. It has a more subtle blend of mint than the other one and if not for the name I'd be rather fond of it.

But then the fact that something's not aimed at me shouldn't be held against it.

Lacoste puts a new scent out

Lacoste, primarily known for its sports shirts, has put three new fragrances out there under the "Eau de Lacoste" banner. Pulling off the same trick as Polo, there are three editions with different coloured bottles. The marketing says they've recreated the classic polo shirt with the scents; I couldn't disagree more, the bottles are far too small to wear and made of glass.

OK, that's probably a bit literal.

The one they sent me was "Bleu", which is the refreshing aquatic version of the range. There's peppermint, fern and a bit of sage in there.

It's pleasant enough and available in smaller than usual quantities - 30ml for £25 is a fair price for someone like me who never gets to the end of a bottle of cologne without getting bored with it.

It might, though, be better for a younger person; there were a lot of scents like this with very floral overtones some 20 years ago; those of us who remember them from the first time around (and who look old enough) might end up looking a bit mid-life-crisis-ish as if we're trying to recapture our youth if we indulge it too much.

P. S. It's also a good one for wearing very sparingly. I tried it out with two or three squirts, and although it would be an exaggeration to say my wife almost threw herself out of the window it was so overpowering, for a moment I thought she came close. One quick squirt will be ample and will last you for ages.

New range of body products from Organic Blue

Men tend not to buy a lot of body products as such. Most of us understand the value of soap and deodorants and that's a step up from our predecessors who were in their forties in 1971.

Things have changed and I've been sent a couple of samples from a range by Organic Blue. I didn't think it was promising; people who've had a look at the aftershaves I normally cover in here will be aware that I have a bit of a taste for the "ouch that costs a lot" school of products. This £7.99 (price on Amazon) body lotion is one of the costliest items in the range. I also tried the shower gel.

The gel, which washes hair and body alike, is pleasant enough. There's a citrussy lemongrass scent which is refreshing first thing in the morning and like all shower gels it got me clean.

I'm not usually a body lotion person but I dutifully put some on. Again the same rush of lemongrass, but the revelation was later in the day. After putting this on my feet some of my dry skin started to clear up (sorry for the mental image, you will read middle aged blokes' style blogs). This was with only one application. I've used it a few times since and without boring or repulsing you with details I'm more comfortable moving about in the heat, when I didn't think I was suffering particularly before.

Maybe all body lotions do this for you, although I did try one once before from the considerably-costlier Molton Brown and it didn't suit me quite as well nor smell as refreshing. You get quite a big bottle for your money; I shall certainly be replacing it when it eventually runs out.

I was so taken with it that I asked the PR whether there was a matching cologne. Apparently she's been urging them to do something like that for ages and I can't say I blame her. Until they do, the (pricey) Hermes Orange Vert is a reasonable match.

Anything but common scents

Readers of this blog will know I've got a thing about decent aftershaves, colognes, eaux de toilette (see that correct plural folks, who are you calling flash...) - so the first thing I'm going to do is recommend a book about them.  Called "Artisan Perfumery or Being Led By The Nose" it's by Alec Lawless, self-published and it's a rattling read.

Lawless takes you through the history of perfumery then looks at sourcing natural ingredients like sandalwood (exploding the popular myth that the sandalwood tree is an endangered species, which is only true in India), notes on the quality and storage of key ingredients and oils, how we process scents in our brains, how culture has affected tastes. A former wine dealer he's been aware of the importance of the olfactory sense long before he became a perfumier himself. My Amazon link to the book is below and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in the subject - it's a thoroughly engaging read on the subject of perfume by all means, but also offers insights into history, culture and psychology.

He's more interesting than that, though - Lawless runs Essentially Me, a service in which he makes bespoke perfume for people. You get a consultation, the chance to smell loads of individual scents from a wooden box of basic oils he carries around, then he blends based on your likes and dislikes. He's not interested in your partner's tastes yet, it has to come from you - and a particular element might work best as a base note/background scent or a binding rather than the leading smell anyway, so your initial consultation will only hint at what you're going to get.

He then sends two samples through and asks you to experiment wearing them, and asks you which you prefer. It's possible to arrive at a compromise answer; if it's overpowering for half an hour then settles to something you like, he can probably adjust the blend so that it settles faster.

You end up with a fully tailored, bespoke perfume - and yes, he describes it all as perfume and pretty much rubbishes the idea that one element is definitely for women and another for men. If you like it that's fine with him, and he'll keep the formula on record so he can provide it again - with the proviso that like a good wine, oils can develop in the bottle and with different crops over the years so something which appears identical on paper may vary a little once it's blended, bottled and delivered. It's not an impulse buy; £245 covers the whole process including your bottle. Divided by the chunks of his time you get and the average cost of perfume (the strong stuff, not the eau de toilette weaker versions many of us are used to) it's good value for what it is.

I spent a very pleasant lunch hour discussing it with him a few weeks ago. He's one of these interesting, engaged people who communicates his enthusiasm completely. If you were thinking of doing anything like this he'd be an excellent person to talk to.