Came across a rather lovely dinner jacket today in the Harborough branch of the British Heart Foundation. The label revealed that it had been made in 1963 for a Mr. C.G. Heath, by Bernard Weatherill of Conduit St. This was, of course, the family firm of the one-time Speaker of the House of Commons, who wasn’t merely a Director of the firm, but a competent tailor in his own right.
Unfortunately Mr C.G. Heath, whoever he was – perhaps the one who wrote A Brief Introduction to the Industrial Relations Act in 1971 – seems to have been a bit of a Stout Party – it rather flapped around me when I tried it on – otherwise I would have snapped it up. I already have one dinner jacket, but I always insist on dressing for dinner and it does no harm to have a little variety in one’s life.
Quite probably it’s still there – priced at £9.99 – and might make someone a nice Christmas present, as a little piece of both sartorial and political history. Single-breasted, by the way and reveres, rather than notched lapels.
One of my great-grandfathers was a tailor – for the once all-mighty KICS (the Kettering Industrial Co-Operative Society). He never became Speaker of the House of Commons, though he did lead a campaign against Myxamotosis (mainly in the Kettering area, I suppose). His arguments were based on the superiority of traditional ferret-based methods of rabbit control (as well, of course, as on the cruelty of the disease itself).
Weatherill’s firm was well thought of enough to have pieces in the collections of the V&A and the London College of Fashion. Here is an illustration of the latter -
A Weatherill jacket
My wardrobe would be empty without The Heart Foundation. Quite fancy this jacket myself…
Mine too. Almost all the clothes I possess came from charity shops, and the BHF is probably the best one in Harborough, particularly if you can’t afford Oxfam prices (they had a not very spectacular jacket in there today for £49.50!).
I think the jacket is still on sale, and I have noticed that most of the people buying these DJs when the charity shops sell them around Christmas do seem to be women. Le smoking – c’est chic, n’est-ce pas?
Oh Yes! A smoking jacket! I may even smoke more (than my usual half dozen a month) in order to get the use out of it. I would be the talk of the town all right with my BOAC cigarette case and a smoking jacket. Would a holder be going too far do you think? Or would people just think I was batting for the other side?
I’m sure a holder would be widely admired. A pipe, though, might well create the wrong impression. I’d be cautious, too, about sporting a monocle with this outfit.