Dressed to impress.

As a young man I was very fashion conscious and like many of my contemporaries with our working-class traditions of competitive dressing, I mostly copied what the ’stars’ of the time were wearing. If Frank Sinatra wore a suit with narrow lapels and three buttons, I had to have one. If Perry Como sported a handkerchief in his breast pocket folded in a certain way, so did I, and if Dean Martin’s shirt had a button down collar, so did mine.

At a time when a number of local lads favoured the ‘Teddy Boy’ look, I preferred the ’sharp’ Italian and transatlantic styles not normally available at your traditional British ‘gent’s outfitters’. This meant that I used to spend much of my time and hard earned wages in the West End stores were I could buy such items as ‘Arrow’ shirts from the USA and uncomfortable shoes imported from Milan. I even had suits ‘made to measure’ so that the smallest detail was just right.

Although I was dressed in the latest ‘gear’ from shops which were all the rage with young Londoners at the time and which, I guess, where the nearest thing to ’designer’ outlets back then: unlike today, the one thing that I never did was ..  

…     to wear the labels on the outside !

… and speaking of designer labels, I saw a picture in the paper this week of a very ordinary looking handbag covered in logos and priced at £14,000 ($24,000).

How the hell can a bloody handbag cost more than three times the basic annual state pension for a single person in this country ?

…    I wonder if Cherie Blair has one ?