As a nonagenarian, Nicholas Parsons radiates polite yet firm resolve on matters of neckwear: “I think the cravat is a very elegant form of dress, a colourful and sophisticated accessory. I own at least 30. What I don’t understand is, people wear an open neck shirt with a beautifully tailored jacket. This goes against the … Keep Reading
Upon receiving an invitation to visit the famed Captain Fawcett factory of all things hirsute in Norfolk, my first concerns were sartorial. Would such a visit require the donning of white coats, plastic sunglasses and special safety equipment and, most importantly, would I be permitted to smoke my pipe? I buried these deep concerns for … Keep Reading
2019 was a significant year for The Chap, with the celebration of 20 years of anarcho-dandyism and publication of our 100th edition in May. This special centenary edition featured the greatest chap of all time, Terry-Thomas, on the front cover and an interview with the greatest living chap Leslie Phillips. We also marked this momentous … Keep Reading
For 20 years, satirical gentlemen’s quarterly The Chap has been providing chaps all over the world with crucial advice on sartorial rectitude and anarcho-dandyist etiquette. Best of The Chap brings together in one volume all the features from the last 100 issues that have defined the publication’s manifesto. Best of The Chap includes features from … Keep Reading
From a new collaboration with famed lip weasel stiffener Captain Fawcett comes Debonair, a moustache wax for gentlemen. The creation of Debonair was personally supervised by Gustav Temple at the Captain Fawcett Grooming Factory, following a stunningly simple brief: give me a moustache wax, my good man, that conjures up old leather armchairs and aromatic … Keep Reading
A sumptuous offering in a lavish gift box containing all four elements of The Chap's Flaneur men's grooming range. At the heart of the set is Flâneur eau de cologne, the gentlemen’s fragrance based on classic men’s scents of the early 20th century. On a masculine base of amber, patchouli, vetiver and vanilla come … Keep Reading
2019 marked the 70th anniversary of the original release of Ealing classic Kind Hearts and Coronets. StudioCanal have lovingly restored the film for this special anniversary re-release, with every scene cleaned up and restored to its former cinematic glory. Dennis Price stars as the vengeful Louis Mazzini, who murders all those who stand in his … Keep Reading
The vinyl edition of the official Peaky Blinders soundtrack has six pages of sartorial sleevenotes by The Chap. While the costume styling of the series is rooted in sartorial accuracy for the period, immediately after the First World War, the music on this triple album abandons all temptation to stay in that era. The songs, … Keep Reading
Kentucky is regarded as the first of the Southern states, sitting south of the Ohio River on the eastern side of the United States. It is a green and pleasant land, literally. There are miles of gently rolling hills, clean air and plentiful amounts of fine pure mineral water. All these elements play a large … Keep Reading
One of the fourteen countries that straddle the Equator, Ecuador took its name from that imaginary line and offers an engaging place for the traveller to explore with much historical interest, museums and art galleries but, more significantly, it’s the best place in the world to buy a Panama hat. I took a trip out … Keep Reading
Why am I writing about Disneyland in The Chap, you ask? Because, for the past four years, Disneyland in Anaheim California been the epicentre (not Epcot Center – that one’s in Florida,) of Dapper Day, and Rose Callahan and I had been invited by the event’s organizer to give a presentation about our book I … Keep Reading
2019 was a significant year for The Chap, with the celebration of 20 years of anarcho-dandyism and publication of our 100th edition in May. This special centenary edition featured the greatest chap of all time, Terry-Thomas, on the front cover and an interview with the greatest living chap Leslie Phillips. We also marked this momentous anniversary with publication of Best of The Chap, a collection of the finest articles from the last 100 editions in a splendid 300-page hardback volume. This was also the year we launched our very own eau de cologne, Flâneur, as well as its accompanying range…
Knightsbridge is the only London Underground station with six consecutive consonants in its name, but this is not the only remarkable aspect of that borough. Once ejected from the tube station into the glittering lee of Harrods, one can be forgiven for thinking one has been accidentally teleported into a Hollywood film with a Christmas setting. One of those rom coms where they only show pretty, shiny people with plenty of money, fussing over their kids outside Macey’s. But the folk taking selfies in front of the enormous Chanel window display are not Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd; they are…
Fans of classic film noir of the 1940s are in for a treat with Motherless Brooklyn. Production designer Beth Mickle has restyled New York as a gritty, chiaroscuro city where everyone casts long shadows and on every street corner there’s a cool jazz joint full of sharply dressed hep cats. Willem Dafoe’s character Paul Randolph, a washed up engineer involved in a paternity scandal with his brother Moses (Alec Baldwin), lives above the sort of tatty Brooklyn hatters that would have vintage shoppers drooling if they discovered it in present-day New York. Costume stylist Amy Roth has used the clothes…
Images of southern Spain, usually composed of matadors, barrels of sherry, women in flamenco dresses and orange trees wilting in the heat, do not commonly include tweed jackets. It’s rarely cold enough in Andalucia to don even a waistcoat, never mind a full tweed ensemble. Yet during the 1930s there emerged, from the royal and aristocratic country set, an Andalucian take on the Hacking Jacket that came to be known as the Teba Jacket. It was named after the snappily titled Don Carlos Mitjans y Fitz-James Stuart, XXI Conde de Teba y XV Conde de Baños, Grande de España, or…
