Ah, the colour purple.  Purple’s a difficult colour to wear since it must be treated with right reverence and careful consideration.  It is, however, very popular especially the choice of Cadbury Purple lining as an excellent foil for our Cad and The Dandy suits and jackets.

 Purple has a fascinating history.  The original colour of Tyrian purple is the colour of a dye made from snails and up to 12,000 of the slimy creatures were needed to produce just 1.5 g of dye.  The colour was therefore only worn by the wealthy who could afford it; the imperial robes of Roman emperors were purple whilst royal purple was worn by the medieval kings in Europe.

 Purple became main-stream in the 1850s, thanks to the upstart aniline dye mauve, invented by a talented young chemist called William Perkins.  Now that mauve could be produced cheaply and synthetically, it roared into society, becoming the undisputed colour of high fashion of the masses.  Purple as a colour for the elite had gone forever.

 Yet purple has once again hit the headlines, due the recent election campaigns.  Possibly bored with their red and blue insignia, both the Browns and the Camerons have recently been photographed wearing it.

 David and Samantha Cameron get it effortlessly and silkily right – both chose to dress in midnight blue and Cameron’s purple tie on a crisp white shirt looks commanding and business-like whilst his wife’s blue-green belt softens the lines of her simple dress.   To pose in the same colour could look perilously naff but here the overall effect is chic and co-ordinated.

 Poor old Gordon and Sarah Brown languish behind once again in the fashion stakes.  Gordon’s lilac tie is too soft set against his baby-blue shirt and the look lacks authority; Sarah’s delicate Titian hair suits purple well but her dress, especially the neckline, is too fussy.

 Marry purple to such partners as dark fuchsia to give it a spritz or tone it down with an olive or racing green.  Try not to kill it with black.  Purple is an excellent alternative to burgundy which is a mite too redolent of the old school uniform for many.

 However, despite purple’s links with authority and history, it also carries undertones of a maverick.  The Suffragettes chose it as one of their official colours whilst embarking on their campaigns to obtain the vote for women whilst it is also the colour of the UKIP party.

Finally if any politico has delusions of power and grandeur then they only need to hark back to Spitting Image’s portrayal of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in her last months –  as the mad Roman emperor Caligula, complete with demonic flashing eyes, laurels and imperial robes.  It’s a timely warning…..

As our French cousins would say.  There’s certainly an international flavour this month at Cad and the Dandy as interest in the World Cup 2010 starts to hot up. 

 Since our customers are noted for their wit, tact and discernment, the problem of openly declaring your world cup loyalties for the England football team could well be a conundrum in today’s international corporate environment.

 However, help is at hand (or at foot) to solve such a problem for those who may have to confront such a delicate problem.  Being an expert at substitution tactics, we have replaced the traditional jacket lining with lining inspired by the England football shirt.  Merely order one of these special suits and your prayers are answered.

 To proclaim your team loyalty, simply discreetly drape your suit jacket over your chair thus warning others not to encroach on enemy turf.

 Prices start at £425 to order and of course, you can expect the usual attention to detail and meticulous tailoring that is our hallmark.

 We offer the full range of other countries too just to give all customers a sporting chance. (At the moment it is Germany 1 – England 0 as a canny customer is already the proud possessor of a German shirt.). Further customisation is also available – if, for example, you fancy yourself as Wayne Rooney then you can order a customised number 10 shirt  and pretend you are married to Coleen.

 So at last you can show your true colours and not have to worry!

 Next step – Cad and the Dandy solve the problem of why England always screw up their penalty shoot-outs…..

“Save the date for our wedding!” read the message on the card. Unfortunately, most of these pre-invitation communications, so common in today’s world of planning mania, are nevertheless disappointingly meaningless missives. In addition to a request for a ring fence of a summer Saturday, I always think some more information could be provided – particularly as the deployment of such communiqués allows for late dispatch of the invitation itself. And what sort of information? Aside from the rough location of the wedding – i.e. which hemisphere it will take place in, the sort of information that every gentleman in possession of a decent wardrobe wishes to see; the dress code – will there be one?

Dress codes at British weddings are notoriously uncommon. This is partly because British weddings do not, generally, follow the modern American dictat of black tie – a form of evening dress that would require the words ‘Black Tie’ or, more correctly, ‘Evening Semi-Formal’ – and partly because the traditional expectation that gentlemen wear ‘Day Formal’ or ‘Morning Dress’ has withered away. When British people invite people to their weddings, they do so in the hope that the smart invitation, luxurious venue and promise of flowers, Pachelbel and champagne will imply to the invited that they should, at the very least, make an effort in their dress.
Any hushed words of ‘Don’t worry’ or ‘It doesn’t matter’ muttered by a grinning bride on her big day to a lazy dresser who has, amidst such splendour, seen the fault with their careless ways are disingenuous; brides and grooms have told me in confidence that the presence of very well-dressed gentlemen simply makes their day of nuptials even more special – one told me; “It adds glamour, it adds art. It might sound superficial, and you always want those you love at your celebration, but…having a couple of dandies dotted about the lawn, makes me feel like my wedding is a proper one!”

As a rule I wear morning dress to all daytime weddings that have not stipulated a dress code. The reason I do this is not for mere sartorial ‘correctness’ but because the presence of morning dress confers a sense of formality, a tipping-of-the-hat to the wedding couple that the wearer acknowledges the occasion for what it is – a formal and sober unification of two people. However, there are occasions on which a little enquiry is necessary to establish the appropriateness of this formality. For one thing, wedding style is a factor; a churchless wedding on a beach in the Caribbean is scarcely the place for a silk topper and a double breasted waistcoat. As the styles of wedding vary, so must the dress code. The most important thing to enquire about is the formality of the groom’s party – if they are marching down the aisle, whether it be constructed of sand, marble or palm leaves, it is a faux pas to trump their formality; wearing white tie to a black tie wedding is a classic example. When I enquired of a groom if he was wearing morning dress, he was initially dumbfounded and said; “We’re just wearing the normal wedding stuff – cravat and long jacket.” While uncertain, this statement was all that was required; if the groom does it, and the invitation does not ward against it, you can, and should, do it yourself.

When the invitation wards against it, either expressly or, more commonly, impliedly by requesting ‘lounge suits’ (a stipulation I find increasingly depressing) it is possible to avoid the humdrum of the request by crafting a look, now antiquated, that is sometimes called ‘morning dress lite’ – the ‘stroller.’ This look traditionally involved the use of a dark jacket with light grey, sometimes patterned, trousers and often the use of a waistcoat, double or single breasted. The ‘stroller’ look was originally completed by the use of a white or French collared shirt and the employment of a silver-grey houndstooth tie. The most striking aspect of this form of dress is the contrast between the jacket and trousers – demonstrably not a suit. As such, there are those who suggest that the modern ‘stroller’ does not always need to be a dark jacket – it could be a Prince of Wales check jacket with black trousers; the most vital thing is that the contrast must be glaring. Monochrome, with perhaps a few dabs of colour, is preferable as this is a nod to the sobriety and formality of a marital union. Additionally, I would advocate single breasted jackets with waistcoats, rather than without – the only jacket to be worn without a waistcoat in such an ensemble is a double-breasted.

By Winston Chesterfield

Michael Foot, then leader of the Labour Party, scuppered his chances of winning the 1983 election because he wore a donkey jacket to the Cenotaph ceremony on Armstice Day.

Mr Foot seemed unaware that something eminently suitable for braving the cold on an Aldermaston protest march,looked shockingly out of place when set against the sleekly-groomed Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

 Foot, completely oblivious to the furore this “lack of respect” caused, attempted to defuse the situation by alluding to the fact the Queen Mother commented that it appeared to be “a smart, sensible coat”.

 Being of a slightly ingénue turn, he did not realise that the Queen Mother was either being ironic (irony not being a marked trait inherited by socialists) or simply being kind.

 After all, if anyone knew how to turn clothes to an advantage, it was the Queen Mother.  Faced with the death of her mother, the Countess of Strathmore, on the eve of an important state visit to Paris in 1938, Norman Hartnell, (royal dress designer) in a touch of genius remade her wardrobe entirely in white.

 White was the official colour of mourning in France and the Queen Mother dazzled French society in a series of snowy-white, Winterhalter-inspired crinolines whilst, at the same time ensuring protocol was satisfied.

 As the saying goes: “Cometh the Hour, cometh the Man” to which we could safely add, “Cometh the Clothes”.