Louis Christou on how his attempt to join the O.T.O. led to an interest in artist, occultist, Thelemite, visionary and hermenaut Austin Osman Spare. In my late twenties, I briefly dabbled in the murky waters — or in Sigmund Freud’s words, the black tide of mud — of occultism. I read Colin Wilson’s tome on… … Keep Reading
Zack Pinsent has been around the Chap since he was 17 years old and, when he had just left school, and has now become a very successful maker of Regency clothing, as well as organiser and host of the Grand Regency Ball at Brighton’s Royal Pavilion. So here we are in your Brighton tailoring atelier,… … Keep Reading
Minerva Miller steps out into the Tuscan sun with a gaggle of Italian, British and French devotees to dandyism. On a visit to Rome in April of this year, the Queen joked that she and the King enjoyed ‘any excuse to be in Italy’, and after a visit to Tuscany you can see her point.… … Keep Reading
After six years in the Nissen Hut, the bicycles, briefcases, hobby horses and bowler hats are coming out to play again. Contestants observe the Chap Olympiad motto: Slower, Drunker, Better-dressed The Chap Olympiad began in 2005 and soon became one of the summer’s social fixtures in London. Growing from 25 people, two bottles of gin,… … Keep Reading
I still find the Eurostar really rather wonderful. You get on a train at St. Pancras and alight some two hours later at Le Gare Du Nord into a different world, where the attitudes, tastes, smells, people and culture are as different from London as sand is to salt. Undeniably, it is quite an anomalous… … Keep Reading
From the eleventh floor balcony of a hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the horizon flashing with lightning, brassy wisps of Mariachi music wafting up from somewhere through the heat of the night, was the sense that we were definitely in Mexico. It had taken nearly 20 hours to reach this moment of Mexican awareness, though… … Keep Reading
On a recent trip to Rajasthan, I discovered that not only does India possess its famous wealth of history and architecture, but it is also one of the most natural habitats for the travelling Chap. My journey took me first to Delhi, only nine hours away by plane but, as soon as you land, the… … Keep Reading
New department to our online store collects the best of gentlemanly literature. Our webular emporium has benefitted from a new category of product, namely Chap Books. The shelves of this category are already filled with books we consider suitable reading material for Chaps and Chapettes, and more tomes are being added weekly. The range is…
Gustav Temple takes a saunter down memory lane to the nineties with Matthew De Abaitua. One can imagine Leadenall Market during the time of Charles Dickens, bustling with butchers, costermongers, blacksmiths and the odd lonely lawyer’s scrivener looking for love among the packing crates. Leadenhall’s Victorian cobbles stood in for Diagon Alley in the first…
Gustav Temple visits Master Hatter Jayesh Vaghela at Lock & Co to have his original Edwardian top hat restored. Where do you start when restoring an original Edwardian top hat such as mine?The first thing I do is give it a good clean, using plain old tap water. One of the main reasons for the…
Sunday 16th June is the Day of the Dad, when fathers across the land emerge from whatever wooden building they spend the rest of the year hiding in, to be showered with gifts from their offspring. We’ve all seen that look on pater’s face when he unwraps the hoe you bought him from the garden…
