The Duke of Windsor’s Sartorial Style | Country

 

His sporting clothes brought out the peacock in him. ”I believe in bright checks for sportsmen,” he once wrote. ”The louder they are, the better I like them.”

The Duke practically invented comfortable clothes.  As Kerry Taylor, the Sotheby’s specialist who has spent seven years preparing for this sale, explained, ”He was reacting to his buttoned-up and old-fashioned childhood.”

Ms. Taylor said the Duke so disliked suspenders that he invented pants with elastic in the waist.  He didn’t like buttons on pants, so insisted on zippers, which were large and primitive in the 1930’s.  He preferred buttons on the sleeves of his jackets — four, to be precise.  He always wore cuffs on his trousers, which infuriated his father.  After World War II broke out, he had his pants made in the United States because textiles were rationed in England and cuffs required extra fabric.

 

 Prince of Wales check sports suit.  Jacket by Scholte of London and stalking trousers (modified plus-fours) by Forster & Sons, 1923.  Altered in the mid 1930s when a zip was inserted.  Came with the removable blue cotton plus-four linings (more below).

 

A rust Harris tweed golfing suit, 11.12.24. Jacket by Scholte of London, trousers by Forster & Sons.  Jacket has a convertible collar for cold weather (I assume this means a button to which the lapel buttonhole fastens).  Trousers “cut high in the waist and originally supported by an inner elasticated girdle to maintain a looser hang.  The hems curve under to fasten to the cotton plus-four lining.

 

Pecan brown and beige wool Shepherd’s check suit, 1934. Jacket by Scholte of London, trousers/plus-fours by Forster & Sons.

 

Check tweed sport suit, and an incredible piece of work, 1930. Again, the hip pockets would appear to be crescent.

 

Button-in cotton plus-four lining. These trousers actually appear to be the 1934 Pecan brown and beige wool Shepherd’s check suit that was also shown above.  Just one oddity of a man who was very specific and detailed about his clothing.

clothing photos and detail link