History – Custom Tailors & Designers Association

June 6, 2018

Published by D-D Lazenby on June 6, 2018

The Change of Taste

Custom tailors and clothiers are famously wary of Fashion. We generally offer (or at least market) the more mature, manly virtue of Style, usually based on notions of “classic” or “timeless” taste and proportion that transcend trends. For the rest of the world, however, clothing and fashion are so closely connected that they’re virtually synonymous, a happy roiling riot of whim and consumption. Even as we watch the show from the ancient ramparts of tailored menswear, we do well to remember that our fortress is itself built on shifting sands. What drives fashion trends? “Novelty,” while absolutely true in and […]

May 3, 2018

Published by D-D Lazenby on May 3, 2018

An Appreciation, an Introduction, and an Appeal

I was walking down 7th Avenue at 57th in Manhattan on a crisp September morning when I saw her. A bronze-colored hacking coat, impeccably cut with svelte, liquid drape, worn over a cream cashmere turtleneck. A trim cream pencil skirt, hitting just below stockinged knees, snapping tight with each step of her ankle-height heels. The embodiment of New York chic. She was also ancient. Time had stooped her shoulders and twisted her frame. Her closely cropped hair was thin and grey. She walked slowly, with one hand firmly on the stiff handle of her companion (seeing eye?) dog and the […]

February 1, 2018

Published by D-D Lazenby on February 1, 2018

About that lapel buttonhole: why is it even there?

Have you ever thought that it’s a bit odd to have a buttonhole on your jacket lapel, but no button on the other side? Why is it even there in the first place? Like so many things in menswear, there are a handful of origin stories, many of which have very practical beginnings. This historical context has always been one of the reasons that I love being in the custom clothing business. It’s fun to research the genesis of sartorial tradition and style. And I’ve learned that my clients love learning about the history too. So, about the buttonhole in question…while doing my […]