Gentry style

Since its inception in 1711 fashion has been at the heart of Royal Ascot every bit as much as the strained galloping beasts. Perhaps now the focus has shifted further still towards style. Traditionally viewed as a chance for women to reveal their hideous tastes, with the crazed fervor surrounding the hats (the hats!) and the news-friendly outlandishness of ‘Ladies Day’. Men have often been left behind in the fashion stakes at Ascot. However, men can compete with one another and on a much more subtle, stylish level.

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Madonna (49 years & 9 months) launches her sexy new album Hard Candy with its first single “4 minutes” and blog-world goes crazy. Outrageous ! Acting sexy at nearly 50 ! BEING sexy at 50 ! Whatever next !  Whereas The Rolling Stones - combined ages 254 premiere their new concert movie and the only surprise seems to be that 64 year old Mick Jagger is several inches shorter than his current girlfriend.  No mention that she is twenty-four years his junior.

Double standards? You betchya !  But if we want advice on how to grow old gracefully (or even disgracefully) it’s to the stars of the silver screen that Gentry turns to see how it’s done.

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We made the decision only to use London’s City Airport this summer, which means no long haul flights, but also no charter flights, no lost baggage, no broken down terminals, and so no suffering.. We’ve opted for the hot, flashy Cote d’Azur in July and, as we start to assemble our summer wardrobe we’re doing all we can to avoid the pitfalls of High Fashion. Below, a few must-haves for our travel bags, and a couple of travel bags to put it all in…

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It’s not easy being a father. You’re not as soft, friendly or as consistent a source of nourishment as your partner. It’s never you in the Pampers ads. It’s never you in the nursery rhymes. Yet there you are, goggle-eyed, staring down at the flesh-teddy you somehow created. You’re overjoyed and exhausted. Exhilarated and knackered. No, it’s not easy being a father.

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A great deal of the gentry who make up that spiffing elite called Society reside in castles and manors on vast estates in the country and need to visit London on occasion to take care of various business matters, snort through the foul air and — historically — attend Parliament, which sits from February through August. It is this popular jaunt from the country and the various festivities of the period that we call the London Season. This has also been the alluring stretch of time in which anxious parents would hope to marry-off their daughters to the visiting nobility. Of course, the ladies and gentleman would always look their best during this social whirl, with a new outfit for each and every event.

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At this time of year, fragrance is oh-so-important. The flowers, the cut grass and smoky barbeques fill the air with a welcoming whiff. While your senses are heightened during the summer months, so are those of your contemporaries. It’s one of the curiosities of the season that just a little more effort is made. People dress better, act more amiably and, invariably, smell more alluring. Some of the scents currently available perfectly capture the ineffable glow of summer. Gentry looks at both Acqua di Genova and Classica by Santa Maria Novella.

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The truth is, penny loafers never really go away, they just vacation on the coast of Maine when the sartorial going gets tough. From time to time, however, penny loafers reign supreme – in the 1930s when they were invented, in the 1950s as worn by Montgomery Clift, in the 1960s, when sockless American campuses made them de rigeur, in the early 1980s, when the world went preppy. Penny loafers are stayers, as likely to disappear as, um, a bad penny.
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Whereas a gentleman carries an umbrella or a walking stick he “wears” a cane. The umbrella and the walking stick are functional accoutrements; but a gentleman’s cane is a finishing touch to his wardrobe. He should give equal attention to the selection of his cane as to his choice of wardrobe, the nature of the day’s business being uppermost in his mind.

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Always on the lookout for a modern take on the classic man’s wardrobe, I was lust-struck at first sight with Stockholm-based men’s clothier, Our Legacy. Part Tender is the Night, part aristocratic younger son, part sharp-eyed commonsensible Scandinavian designer – Our Legacy aims to provide neatly tailored shirts, comfy khakis and smart jackets that are playing the long game. In brief, you can grow old with grace in Our Legacy.

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The Cannes Film Festival was designed as a reaction against the ’suspicious’ dominance of the Italians and Germans at the the Venice Film Festival. Thus, it has always bestowed a deep critical affection upon daring storytellers not afraid to strut beyond the comfort zone of the industry. Such a desire to facilitate ‘the new’ and ‘the different’ has produced some remarkable winners, from Carol Reed’s shadow fable The Third Man to Roland Joffe’s attritional The Mission, and from Henri-Georges Clouzot’s nerve-shredding Le Salaire de la Peur to Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola’s masterwork. However, affording such dynamism means that for every twenty minute standing ovation, there is the equally renowned booing and catcalling. Studios order reshoots, producers make frantic calls to editors, directors reach for the bottle, ripping into flops at Cannes has become one of the festival’s more unseemly traditions. Thomas Clay’s reportedly unlikeable Soi Cowboy is the latest film to suffer the humilation of mass walkout, cruel whispers sealing it’s immediate fate. Gentry thinks it’s time to pay tribute to some of the movies that have received the notorious critical poo-pooing of Cannes.

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