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?

One of the things that kicks off the warm weather months for us here at Leviner Wood Custom Tailors and Shirtmakers is the Run for the Roses. Derby Day. Otherwise known as the beginning of Mint Julep season. Yup. Gone are the days when we’d no sooner put ice in our bourbon than pink bunny ears on our dogs for the Easter Parade. These days, we like cold beverages. So mix up a batch of simple syrup with us and get ready for the summer. Oh, it’s also a great base for those other summer staples: sweet tea and fresh squeezed lemonade.

Simple Syrup

1 cup white sugar

1 cup water

Combine and boil until sugar is dissolved. Bottle and keep in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. A little vodka (a tablespoon) can be added to keep it from crystallising. If you’d like to flavor the syrup, boil with orange. lemon or lime slices. Fresh herbs like basil, rosemary and thyme or a one inch chunk of fresh ginger also make interesting variations.

The sterling julep cup is optional, but does keep the drink very cold. So do Tervis Tumblers, which don’t ding when you drop your third drink when you hit the trifecta.

or on a casual Friday at the office….

… a Saturday morning, on the way to get coffee…

a quality merino or cashmere sweater, made of the best fibers that won’t break and scratch, itch or pill within a month of buying it …

… makes the perfect layer or outerwear no matter where you’re headed. If you don’t see a style or color you like, ask.

Raffi sweaters in the softest 100% Merino Wool (from $75) or Cashmere (from $225) available now at Leviner Wood Custom Clothiers and Shirtmakers.

(Mongolian Cashmere topcoat by Leviner Wood. Coat model’s own.)

Here’s another alternative that goes equally well with jeans and your best suit, as modeled by our man Bo.

We know how stressful the first quarter of the new year can get, and adding in the cold, icy and dark days can affect your mood for the worse. Which is why we at Leviner Wood always recommend wrapping yourself in understated luxury. You have to touch it to believe it. Let winter throw its best and worst your way. Wrap yourself up and you can take it. Pure Mongolian cashmere in a classic caramel color made to your measure. It may look like camel hair, but this is the best of the best, ounce for ounce one of the warmest fabrics in the world and so soft that your significant other will want to slip it on as a bathrobe.

Valentine’s Day is coming up. That paints a nice picture, doesn’t it?

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.

We at Leviner Wood would love to recommend a dry sparkling Shiraz, if you can find it, and a sparkling wine is always well matched with whatever you are eating. Not a fan of bubbles? Here are a few other suggestions:

Beaujolais Noveau. This year’s (2010) offering is great!

White Burgundy

Cabernet Sauvignon

Californian Chardonnay

Merlot

Pinot Noir

Syrah.

Aren’t they just wonderful? Completely harmless at this stage. The problem is that they lay 50 -100 eggs that hatch into these:

And these little guys eat cotton and wool. So if you see any of this sort of thing lying around:

(Images and carpet beetle information courtesy of Save My Sweaters)

and your suits, sweaters and Lacoste shirts have developed holes, but you haven’t seen a single moth… you’ve been bitten by the Carpet Beetle.

Here’s what you have to do. Payback’s a bitch.

1. Run your clothes through a clothes dryer set on high for one hour.

2. Or you can microwave your clothing for a minute.

3. Freezing your clothes for three days will kill larvae and eggs, too.

4. Visit Leviner Wood Custom Tailors and Shirtmakers for new sportcoats, suits, sweaters and golf shirts.

What’s that? They’ve eaten one of your favorite sweaters/suits/trousers? Fortunately, there’s Reweaving of Richmond. Click the link for an explanation of the process and estimated costs, etc. Then give Larry a call at 804.928.7946 or at the studio: 1.800.669.8437.

First popularized in the 1920′s as a fabric for a topcoat when college students noticed a visiting British polo team wearing them between chukkas, camel’s-hair is a traditional and very stylish addition to any well-dressed man’s wardrobe.

But is it really camel’s hair?

Yes. The animal in question is the Bactrian Camel, the two-humped sort, that lives in the cold deserts of Central Asia — think Gobi.

Camel hair is gathered through shearing and gathering the hair that falls off during the spring molting season. Imagine trailing along after some grazing mammal for a mile or two just to collect his sheddings. (Far simpler to stroll into the studio to commission your coat.) The long and lustrous fibers are then woven or blended with a bit of fine wool to produce the luxurious hand and texture that has been sought after since that polo game long ago.

A full-length, half-belted, double-breasted camel’s hair polo coat with a turn back cuffs is a beautiful thing. But let’s face it, here in the South, it is rare that we need something that heavy walking from our climate controlled houses, into the heated garage and car to drive to our climate controlled offices.

May we suggest instead an Ivy League classic? The two, three or six (DB) button, patch-pocketed camel’s hair sportcoat. Perfect with gray flannel, navy worsted, black gabardine, brown twill, olive corduroy trousers and jeans. For a very sophisticated casual look, pair yours with Oxford gray trousers, a gray cashmere turtleneck and brown suede shoes (or brown Chelsea boots) and belt.

One of the questions we get asked the most at Leviner Wood is if brown shoes go with gray suits. The short answer is “yes, very well.”

The Brits are adamant about it: no brown in town. And that applies to shoes, suits, hats and the like. The Italians are more forgiving, wearing whatever they feel like wearing whenever they feel like wearing it. Case in point: brown suede shoes. According to the Italians, they go with just about everything. Which is interesting when you know that it was an Englishman who popularized the practice.

The Prince of Wales, the one who married Mrs. Simpson and abdicated the throne, set the style compass for fashionable men of the 20′s and 30′s. He introduced Fair Isle sweaters (and saved a cottage industry that continues to boom), belts rather than suspenders, soft hats, turn down attached collars and secured the popularity of the tuxedo or dinner jacket for informal occasions. It was also he who decided to wear brown “reverse calf” (suede) shoes with a navy flannel suit while touring America.

It was a short step, if you’ll pardon the pun, to the brown shoe, in suede or leather, as a normal pairing with all flannel, from the odd gray flannel trousers (originally worn with tweed jackets and other country clothing) of the university student to the gray flannel suits which adorned the backs of Fred Astaire, Gianni Agnelli, Cary Grant and the rest of the sartorial icons of the golden age.

Allen Edmond’s semi-brogue Strand model in a beautiful walnut calf finish. Suitable for wear with just about everything except a tux. Available at Leviner Wood Custom Tailors and Shirtmakers.

“Hey Larry, can you do non-iron shirts?”

You asked. We listened.

Only ours come with a custom clothier’s twist. Leviner Wood announces its semi-custom, wrinkle-free and stain-free non-iron shirt menu.

• Choose from a regular, slim or full cut.
• Your choice of button-down, spread, point, contrasting or matching fabric collar.
• French and barrel cuffs available. Chest pockets are too, if you like them.
• Monogram them in white, navy, burgundy or black.
• Long-sleeve? Short-sleeve? Sport or Dress shirts? You pick.

Each of our non-iron shirts features an extra long tail to keep it tucked in when you move. Each fabric is made in one of the finest mills in the world and treated with a special finish that keeps the hand supple, the shirts spotless and neat throughout your day. Our shirts are rated 3.8 d.p. out of a possible 4.0 for wrinkle-free garments. And, they look as good as they feel with all the details of a finely made dress shirt. Our full-make non-iron shirts are top-stitched with single-needle tailoring on the arms, bottoms, sleeves and cuffs. Other fine-shirting details are what you’ve come to expect from a custom shirt: split yokes, button plackets on the arms and indestructible pearlized buttons.

Semi-custom means that we can offer our dress shirts at USD $125.00. Choose a swatch or three. You asked. we listened.