Nathaniel Adams: There are placards, designed in a Charles Rennie Mackintosh Glasgow School-style font, placed near the entrances to Disneyland in Anaheim California, which read: “Warning: The Disneyland Resort contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.” The claim of a state with so many… … Keep Reading
Hip-hop was invented by languid 1920s socialite Edith Sitwell, argues Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer. Hip-Hop, that much maligned and derided of cultural phenomena, officially turned 40 years old last summer. In August 1973, a chap called Clive played some records at a party in a recreation room on Sedgewick Avenue in the Bronx, to… … Keep Reading
Emma Hughes: Nowadays, there really is no such thing as a free lunch. Working days are interminable, BlackBerrys keep their owners tethered to the office and professions that were once looked upon as a gentle form of day-care for the feckless and inept are tightly regulated. Even journalists, for whom a gruelling shift traditionally consisted… … Keep Reading
G Robert Ogilvy, a North American citizen, unashamedly passes judgement on the manner in which the people of today clothe themselves. A few weeks ago I was sitting in my car in a parking lot outside a drugstore – I had just read a trend piece in the New York Times lifestyle section and found… … Keep Reading
Steve Pittard: England’s ill-fated Ashes campaign featured an entourage worthy of a gangster rapper. Also, the team’s ridiculously detailed dietary nonsense – piri-piri breaded tofu with tomato salsa, if you please – equalled any precious pop diva’s riders. Yet nobody addressed the most elementary consideration of all… selecting players capable of growing a moustache. Captain… … Keep Reading
Mr. Fox van Rutter’s photograph was sent by a lady friend, who perhaps is more qualified to answer the following questions than we are. Why is he wearing a newspaper for a shirt, a pair of curtains for a waistcoat, a cushion cover for a cravat and a Santa Claus cuddly toy for an epaulette?… … Keep Reading
“This is a picture of me relaxing to the music of my 1922 Victor Victrola-50 portable gramophone in the garden,” writes Michael Kramer (or rather someone wrote on his behalf, for he clearly isn’t human). Even the shop dummies in British Home Stores are slightly better dressed than this piece of impertinent plastic. … Keep Reading
“My name is Allan Robinson and, after reading your fine periodical for some time and seeing many foreign Chaps winning the coveted label of being a chap, have decided to put down my pipe and move from my club chair to the writing bureau, to send you a photographical plate recording the jolly day out… … Keep Reading
“It is in my belief,” somberly intones Gavin Ingo, “that a true gentleman aims to improve himself in all matters, and always remains positive in a stiff situation.” There may be some truth in that, but if so, why are you seated in a room with such nouveau riche furnishings and such a ghastly rug… … Keep Reading
Rev’d Oliver Harrison: Somewhere between the vulgarity of checking the time on one’s phone and the sheer pomposity of tugging out a pocketwatch’s gold chain lies the wristwatch. And of all the accoutrements a man might acquire, it is surely his watch that says most about him. Here I must confess to a penchant for… … Keep Reading
Steve Pittard: Armchair sleuths tackling Cluedo this Christmas might be in for a shock. The traditional Hampshire country mansion has been bulldozed to make way for an Essex style gangster’s gaff. The library has gone, with an integrated garage in its stead. The biggest crime here is not Dr Black’s demise, but the wholesale killing… … Keep Reading
William Smith, newly installed as Head Cutter at Douglas Hayward, incredibly finds the time to pen an instructive tract on overcoats. As the nights draw in and the weather turns, the annual ritual of retrieving heavy, woollen overcoats from their summer hideaways begins. The heady scent of mothballs brings a feeling of impending frosty days,… … Keep Reading