Regardless, wearing this near mythic fabrication is as close as any us will get to being Cary Grant without donning a tuxedo.

It is a riff on the No.1 Sack Suit, made by Brooks Brothers and so very popular at the time. Cary Grant wouldn’t wear a sack.

No darts, that stayed the same, but the shoulder is anything but natural. Slightly roped and padded, built out to compliment his huge head and neck with a high but wide armhole, the suit hugs his neck in every action scene. The lapel must be 3 1/4″ to 3 1/2″ wide.

The trousers are double forward pleat, cut high and side strapped with one back right pocket and deep cuffs.

The coat is ventless, with besom pockets (no flaps) and a 3/2 roll (three buttons, rolled to the second).This suit is all business. Which is why I chose to commission it for The Icon Collection through my tailor, Leviner Wood. It took us six months just to find the perfect shade of cloth.

Interested? Give Larry a call.

What a great show. “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” is playing at the Empire Theater on Broad St., running through August 7. Yes, it is based on the Michael Caine and Steve Martin movie of the 1980′s. Except this is a musical (score by the guy who did “The Full Monty”). Go see it at once. You’ll laugh yourself into a puddle.

What made it even more interesting to a guy in custom clothing was a sort of universal message: dress for your audience. Or better yet: dress to influence your audience’s perception of you.

We all remember the basic premise of the movie, two con men, the French Riviera, a bet…

Do you remember the two con men? One a grifter playing the marks he meets along the way; the other set up in a mansion, with help, fleecing rich women on behalf of his country’s fight against forces seeking to depose him.

Guess which one is more successful?

During the course of the production, Lawrence, “The Prince”, wears a double-breasted white dinner jacket, a grey business suit, white shirt and dark tie, a double-breasted blue business suit with a conservative shirt and tie and a white linen suit, pale shirt and tie and a Panama hat.

Freddy, his protege, begins the play dressed as a sort of horrible tourist — mercifully in long trousers instead of shorts. He is slowly reworked into a junior version of his mentor (the Ruprick escapade and Sgt. Benson episode aside), his future brightens, and we know that he will one day own “some really great s*#!.”

Just as showing up is half the battle, the other half is looking the part.

It is scarcely a coincidence that not only are most “best-dressed” men more than forty years of age, but also that they rarely, if ever, wear ready-made clothes. For in addition to good looks and clothes sense, they have by and large, enough money to afford the invaluable collaboration of superb tailors like Bernard Weatherill and H. Harris in New York and E. Tautz in London; of such American shirtmakers as Dudley G. Eldridge, Brooks Brothers, and Sulka’s, and Turnbull & Asser of London…

– George Frazier, “The Art of Wearing Clothes”, Esquire Magazine 1960

For more of the article by one of the best dressed of all time, illustrated with photos of the best dressed , please go here.

That’s all changed with the casual society we live in these days. But that doesn’t mean that you have to dress like a surfer, if you’re not one.

Take the classic combination shown above. A khaki suit, ready-made but tailored to fit you, a white button down and a black silk knit tie. Shown with a straw hat, silk skull-and-bones pocket square and black monk straps. Classic, with a twist. Serious enough for a meeting and hip enough for a night out on the town. Best yet, it’s cool wearing and meant to be a bit casual.

Now take that same suit and add a blue checked shirt, navy silk knit tie and a large gingham navy and white pocket hank. That’s serious summer elegance with a playful edge. Shown here with the always appropriate saddle shoe, but it would look just as good with bucks.

That’s one suit, two ways. The beauty of the khaki suit is that the jacket goes really well over jeans and the trousers … well, you can’t ever have too many chinos in summer, right?

By the way, what do you think of the new look in the middle room? Surprised?

Rejoice you splendidly tailored men of the world! The BBC online has posed the question “is the suit dead?”

Why are we, Leviner Wood Custom Tailors and Shirtmakers, so pleased with the article? You’d think that we would be fretful over the loss of our livelihoods.

On the contrary!

In today’s economy, you need to stand out as a dependable, experienced professional. Your beautifully fitting suits, shirts and coordinating ties and well-polished shoes mark you as someone who knows what he’s doing and how to do it well. And that applies to your casual wardrobe, too. Don’t forget that custom khakis, flannels, cords and twills paired with your shirts and a sport coat or two will step up anyone’s dress down Friday.

Let ‘em know you mean business. It’s time for some sharp, new clothes. Because, you want to look like someone who has achieved a certain level of success. Just read the comments on the article from the BBC. Would you hire those guys?

Schedule an appointment with Larry today.

From time to time we like to introduce you to your fellow clients, especially since you’re as diverse a population as you are geographically scattered. You all have one thing in common: Leviner Wood’s custom tailoring; even if your reasons for choosing us to be your tailors are as different as you are, one to another.

LW: How and when did you first meet Larry?
First met Larry over 10 years ago. Larry was exhibiting his apparel in a major Richmond office complex, and my colleagues and I were curious and stopped by. As a result of what we saw and our interactions with Larry, several of us purchased apparel, including my contracting for monogrammed dress shirts.

LW: Was Leviner Wood your first experience with custom tailoring?
No, I have, in the past, used custom Italian tailors.

LW: Have you tried other tailors since? If so, how do they compare?
I can truly say no. I had, at the time, some suits under contract with other tailors – but took on no new contracts since [meeting Larry].

LW: What is it about Leviner Wood that is of most value to you as a client?
Quality of materials, workmanship, detailing to my specifications and taste, a partnership attitude toward clients.

LW:Why did you choose to have clothing made?
I am not blessed with an off the rack physique, including a 22 inch neck!

LW:What has been the most surprising part of the process?
Ease of process; my measurements are on file, as well as my swatch tastes … so I can call in orders from anywhere I am in the world … and my order is at my home upon my return.

LW:What has been the most fun part of the process?
Larry’s personality … it’s quite unique.

LW:What has been the biggest frustration that you’ve experienced with custom tailoring and how can we improve to make your experience even better?
Quality and consistency. As stated above, Leviner Wood scores 100%!

LW: What would you tell others who may be thinking of going the custom route?
Discuss with Larry your desires. Allow him to suggest based upon these discussions – and trust his judgement.

LW: Do you participate in online forums, follow blogs, or seek out information on clothing or other luxury items?
Not generally, although I will be following the Leviner Wood blog.

Questions? Comments? Got a story? Contact larry{at}levinerwood{dot}com. We’ll get the process started.

Of the many questions we get asked here at Leviner Wood Custom Tailors and Shirtmakers, none is as frequently brought up as those concerning the folds of cloth over the chest and shoulder blades of a suit coat, what we call “drape.”

Just to confuse the issue a bit more, there are drape cuts and coats cut with drape. The most famous drape cut was invented in the 1930′s by a man named Scholte at Anderson & Sheppard of Savile Row. It’s most famous proponent was Fred Astaire, a man who knew how to move a suit. Before Scholte, if you wanted to get some extra room for movement out of your coat  (for golf, shooting, riding, driving…), you would have had pleats or a bi-swing back built into your suit.

Scholte invented the cut after seeing how Guardsmen’s military overcoats made them look very athletic with strong shoulders and suppressed waists and lots of cloth. He replicated this look by building up the chest and shoulder blades of his coats. The look is very relaxed and soft compared with the strictly heavily padded and sharp lines of a jacket by Huntsman, say. The cut came to be known as the Drape Cut, the London Cut, and the London Blade. There is a very clear shot of drape across the chest in the photo of Bogie, above. Eventually, the drape cut was exaggerated into the zoot suit and the 80′s power suit. But in its true form, it is still a very elegant silhouette. Evidence of draping can be seen in the illustration below (from Gentlemen’s Gazette). It shows the small folds at the sleevehead, under the arms and the fullness at the chest tapering into the suppressed waist.

Today’s suits and sportcoats are all cut with some amount of drape across the shoulder blades — even the clean, slim cuts favored by the Italians. All coats have to have some fullness across the back to allow you to move your arms forward (to drive your car, reach for the keyboard, hail a cab, whatever.) The advantage to having your clothing made is that you can control the amount of drape, and therefore the amount of comfort, built into the coat. But take it all out and you would feel like you were wearing a straightjacket.

At least we think it’d be crazy. There is a method to our madness, after all.

“I wear this one less often, because of its cut which suggests rather the fashions of an earlier age.” So said The Duke of Windsor in A Family Album.

He was referring to a navy fur-lined overcoat with an Astrakhan collar made for him by Simpson & London Ltd. in 1934 and seen above. It reached almost to his ankles and fell in pleats down the back below the waist line. Fashionable man-about-town that he was, he knew that this coat, although perfect for a bitterly cold day in New York, had no real place in his wardrobe after the 1950′s. Fashions had changed, as he so rightly noted in his memoirs.

The Duke of Windsor continued to wear many of the suits and hats that he had commissioned in the 1930′s and 1940′s. He had more suits, jackets and trousers made up in the 1950′s and I imagine continued right up until his death. He was a clotheshorse after all, and he was very stylish.

The point of all this is that when your clothes are cut with an eye toward enduring style, they will last you forever. Lapels will narrow and widen. Skinny suits will come and go. Pleats will be back. The great secret in creating custom clothing is that you can follow the vagaries of fashion — when it suits you — and ignore them when they don’t.

In other words, Leviner Wood Custom Clothiers and Shirtmakers are here to make you look good all the time. Own your look, be precisely tailored, work with us to create clothing with enduring style and you will never have to pack away a fashionable mistake again.

It’s about that time again, Easter on Parade, which is what we’ve taken to calling the Monument Avenue Easter promenade, is just around the corner. Which means that we here at Leviner Wood get a lot of questions about what to wear. As you can tell by the photo above, not everyone cares enough to inquire about the rules. But for those of you who like to dress both seasonally and appropriately, here we go.

Your suspicions are correct, it is far too early to wear what used to be called summer clothing. So no white linen suits or brown and white or black and white spectator shoes or white bucks.

Having covered the white end of the spectrum, onto the gray areas.

Seersucker. There is a lot of white in seersucker and so, it is considered a summer fabric. That means the rules apply. Break it out with your summer whites after Memorial Day and put it away after Labor Day. We’ll make an exception for seersucker trousers or a sportcoat if the temperatures top 90ºF. Hot is hot and only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun (at least improperly prepared).

Linen and cotton. Our forecast is calling for 85º and sunny. Tan, khaki, light blue, pincord, light gray and yellow are all fair game. Easter is a festive holiday. You can have some fun and stay cool. Have at them.

Tropical weight wool. Most of what we sell falls into the lightweight wool territory, what we call three season or year ’round suits. There is a lighter wool yet and it is made for the hot weather in a plain or open weave. As wool is a natural wicking agent, it will move perspiration away from the body keeping you relatively comfortable from Church to the porch party. Choose lighter colors like tans, or the range of light grays from dove to Oxford, and gray-blue. Or is it blue-gray?

And finally, your hat. What’s Easter weekend without Der Bingle crooning about bonnets and the Easter parade? Join the fun. If it’s cold (no chance of that we hear), you may stick with your light weight fur felt. Personally, we follow the lead of man about town and author Harry Kollatz. This is a man who wears his hats well. If Harry’s in straw, it’s good enough for us.

(via his blog: The Blue Raccoon and used without permission. We’ll take it down if you’d like Harry.)