Author: Nick Hilton

We’ve been hearing some anti- “Made In China” sentiment around the store lately. I have a problem with this.

True, over the years we have been burned with some worse-than-shoddy Chinese goods which we should never have purchased.  But I’ve had crap from Italy, too.  Shouldn’t have bought that either. It was always an attempt to replace something good with something less costly.  Chinese make some dynamite vases. And phones.

Personally, I have an anti-crap bias, and crap is crap, no matter where you make it.

The consumer says “I won’t pay that for this!”  Then retailers complain to manufacturers about prices being too high, so the manufacturers go to China (or India, Bangladesh, Phillipines) to get things made more cheaply.  And everybody tries to pretend that the cheaper product is just as good as the more expensive one but here’s the dirty little secret: if it were just as good it wouldn’t be cheaper. Sorry. At least in the apparel industry, where the reality is what you touch, what you see. But if that’s all you can afford, then you buy it and you convince yourself it’s just as good, but you know you’re only fooling yourself.

It has nothing to do with where it’s made. Or it shouldn’t anyway. If the Chinese decided to make a really great shirt – I mean as good as, say, Robert Talbott makes – they could for sure. Would it be cheaper? A bit. But they’ve shot themselves in the foot, because “Made in China” is synonymous with MUCH cheaper, so everyone would say it’s a rip-off. But that’s another story.

So don’t be put off by Made In China. Or Made In Yonkers, Tehran, Moscow. That’s just xenophobic nonsense. But if you want to know why it’s good, not good, worth the price, etc., just ask.

Recently, I accompanied my father on a visit to his doctor. As we were sitting in the antiseptic waiting room, a somewhat shabby looking man entered and proceeded through the doors to the inner office.  He was wearing an old worn blazer, a pair of ill-fitting grey pants, a rumpled shirt, rep tie. I assumed he must have been the patient before my father and, being of a certain age, was returning from a response to the call of nature. A moment later he opened the door and summoned my father into his office. Immediately, I became concerned for my father’s health. 

This doctor was recommended to us as a leader in his field yet his appearance had a negative effect on my judgment of his authority. If he doesn’t respect himself enough to care how he appears why should I? Like it or not, people judge us by our appearance. What you do is important, isn’t it? Take pride in your appearance to show yourself and others that you take it seriously.  Respect yourself enough and people will respect you.

 We stay at Browns Hotel in Albemarle Street. Jennifer has loved the quaintness and the discreet atmosphere of the place ever since she took on the task of reinterpreting the look of Burberrys’ “English Lady” sportswear collections for an upper-East-Side Bloomingdales shopper, when she had to be there a lot. The rooms are cozy and the service incredible. Once we were delayed by an airline strike and we arrived at Browns, enervated and beyond exhaustion, at 3:30 on a Monday morning. In our room about two minutes, there came a knock on the door and a waitress with a full trolley of tea, hot milk and sandwiches. “Just thought you’d be needing something after such a journey,” she said, turning quickly to go, without even a hint of the Okay-it’s-tip-me-time.

                                            I’d been on the job for a while before it occurred to me I might have something to learn, humility never having been my strong suit. So one beautiful March morning I set off from Browns for Anderson and Shepherd, Ltd., to my father’s (and my grandfather’s) way of thinking, the cat’s pajamas of tailordom. I snuck in, sort of awed by the place, on auto-pilot, really. I’d been in the business forever, pretty sure I’m an expert, but in this place I felt like a little-leaguer in Yankee Stadium. Piles of fabric bolts stacked neatly on tables and a mirror in the back. No racks, no “try-ons,” no samples to show workmanship or silhouette. It was all a matter of trust. The implication of all this was, if you had the balls to come into this place you must know what you were going to get to begin with. Mr. Nelson approached me.  

            “Sir?”   

            I mumbled about never having been in before, but my grandfather blah, blah, blah. The mention of a family member’s being a customer was all it took.  With this the slight, red-haired gent started hauling away at the piles of goods to find me the right, all purpose, all-weather Anderson and Shepherd starter suit. We settled on a charcoal gray nail-head pattern from Wain Shiell. 2500 pounds sterling it was to cost, give or take. I didn’t bat an eye; too scared. I had been on the other side of the deal for long enough, telling people their Norman Hilton suit was going to cost them 2500 bucks. I knew how to play it. Flinch when he tells you the price and you take yourself out of that magical realm where you and the salesman know that the goods is worth every penny. This is the special understanding that develops between the connoisseur and the purveyor of the goods; it says The Satisfaction This Product Gives Is Worth Any Price. A wink, a nod. No problemo.

He then escorted me to the spacious measuring room, where another chap joined him and he spoke the measurements while the second guy – a notch lower down in rank, and thus, in the English mentality of class and status, not worthy of introduction – wrote the numbers Mr. Nelson spoke. And such a lot of numbers, more than just over-arm, chest, coat-waist and seat, they measured for the button placement, the ½-back width, each shoulder to the floor.

It went on and on. I paid my deposit and went home to wait.

Those of us who only need a tuxedo for New Year’s season get to don our sartorially black tie once a year.  So what happens? You buy the tuxedo and wear it for the night, go home and pack it away? It’s time to get a little more for your money. Tuxedo jackets are a great way to step up your style. When worn with a pair of black jeans and a white shirt, it’s perfect and simple. You don’t have to do much to spice it up since the jacket is going to scream louder than anything else your wearing.  Midnight blue dinner suits have been a trend and are a little easier to invest in because they work with almost all denim.  Polish off the look with a cool loafer and you’re ready to strut.

The same goes for velvet jackets. Velvet is a great fabric especially for the typ

e of chilly days that we’ve been experiencing. This is all about taking clothing that is already in your wardrobe and making each piece work a little harder
.