Sunday 17 August 2008

The Cravat Has Landed

For some while (as readers of Thought Experiments might wearily recall) I have been urging a revival of the cravat, even periodically deluding myself into detecting the first tentative green shoots of such a revival. Well, I have had enough of waiting. Last night I took matters into my own hands and stepped out for the evening wearing... a cravat. The occasion was, admittedly, one with an element of fancy dress: the nextdoor neighbours were staging a Murder Mystery evening, and I had been alotted the role of an Eglish aristo delighting in the name Sir Cophagus. It was a woefully underwritten part, but I manage to inhabit it by channeling Boris Johnson - and, of course, by dressing appropriately, down to the cravat. Gentlemen, it felt good. It felt like coming home. The cravat revival is now officially under way. I have seen the future, and it works - even if it is a little fiddly to tie (let this rather creepy gent show you how).

32 comments:

  1. You are adorable, Nige. I think of you as Mr. Knightley of the blogosphere!

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  2. Too kind Susan. Your servant...

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  3. Dick Madeley, this is your look. and don't let Judy talk you out of it.

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  4. And as for you Malty - I invariably picture you in a cravat.

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  5. Arthur English ties Nige, tried a cravat in my teens, became a laughing stock, "That bloke thinks he's a toff"

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  6. Oh, and the cravat didn't match the dark blue, Italian cut, mohair suit.

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  7. Yes not a good look that Malty - and the cravat shld never be attempted in the teens. Like so many things...

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  8. My eldest brother, now a very distinguished middle-aged professor, smoked a pipe in his teens. He did, indeed, look ridiculous.

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  9. Susan, as you're a Hoyle Schweitzer acolyte I see you in a shiny Gul wetsuit complete with gloves, jibing, tacking and performing 360's in a carefree manner, hope your boards less that two point two meters.

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  10. Oh, Malty, I'm not hi-tech at all; sorry! I haven't owned a board since moving from Florida over twenty years ago, but I like to rent 'em if I'm somewhere that has water and wind.

    Tell you something i'd like to try, though (I saw a guy doing this on the North Sea in Germany a couple of years ago): Kite-surfing. Now *that* looks like a rush, and I wonder how hard it is. Tried it, Malty?

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  11. No susan, was shown how to pararapent in Chamonix years ago, tried it for a while, brilliant. Kite surfing has become popular, young persons sport though. Nige could try it on Carshalton ponds.

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  12. Well it wld make change from the most popular sport there - driving your car into the ponds, leaving an unsightly gap in those lovely 1820s railings that take months to replace. I wouldnt attempt kitesurfing in a cravat though.

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  13. Tyneside ponds (yes, there are some) tend to have Tesco's or Asda's finest chromed wirework in them. I remember Carshalton ponds collected a pram once, removed by the local bobbie in wellies, those railings still there? remarkable considering the high price scrap metal is achieving.

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  14. Sometimes the only way to restore order is to start the trend yourself, by wearing the cravat or waistcoat or cowboy boots with such chap aplomb or savagery that the lesser men fall into line.

    i own two ties but really don't like wearing them: they make me feel like a bank manager when i want to feel like a Michael Mann character (nb his heroes and villains never wear ties, with the exception of Cruise in Collateral who, however, rips it off after making his first kill as if to say 'yes, this is a Michael Mann film'.)

    Where do you stand on waistcoats, Nige?

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  15. Ah waistcoats Elberry - I'm still pondering the waistcoat question. It might well be my next move - I do rather like the things,and a cravat-waistcoat combo cld be deadly...

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  16. I've never worn a cravat but I have spent many infuriating hours fighting bow-ties - the only purpose of which is so you can do that cool 007 undo-and-drape-round-your-neck-thing after dinner.

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