CHAP Winter 24

Description

Our Winter edition gathers all the dandies, vamps, saints and sinners together under one glorious red-jacketed cover. Inside, we meet Zack Pinsent, costume clothier and host of the Grand Regency Ball at Brighton’s Royal Pavilion. Another red-liveried sartorial seer is Sergeant Tim Garner, who single-handedly upgraded the off-parade clothing of the Band of the Scots Guards when he joined them as a musician. A Brief History of Fortean Times, by the magazine’s news editor, recounts the emergence of ‘the world’s strangest magazine’ from the mind of Charles Fort in the early 20th century. The character of Leslie Charteris is seen to be every bit as debonair as his creation The Saint, while John Buchan’s The 39 Steps is recreated on the Nottinghamshire moors with some rather fetching sweaters. The immaculately attired guests at this year’s Grand Silver Jubilee Ball are captured in all their vintage finery, while the style of Elvis Presley is celebrated in a feature about his various tailors and clothiers. We also meet the man who clothed both Tom Ripley and Oscar Wilde in Ripley and The Happy Prince, while Rossano Brazzi’s Sicilian tailor is recalled in a feature about La Dolce Vita. The Hollywood vamp, from Theda Bara to Helena Bonham Carter, is celebrated, along with her fictional incarnations Irma Vep, Morticia Addams and Elvira. All this plus Gentlemanly Phobias, Charles Hawtrey, and Am I Chap?, the ultimate sartorial assessment.