the Chap... By Wisbeach
An advice column in which readers are invited to pose pertinent questions on sartorial and etiquette matters, and even those of a romantic nature. Send your questions to wisbeach@thechap.co.uk
Shane Larkin: I possess several waistcoats, two of which have breast pockets. If sans jacket, would I be mocked mercilessly if I sported a small pocket square therein?
square into the upper left pocket of yours, everyone will assume it is an obscure eccentric tradition and will not dare to question it.
...
Montague Gristle: I have been reading the diaries of Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon, reviewed in issue 108. It has occurred to me that my failure to establish myself as a man of letters has been due to my lack of a nickname. Can you advise on a suitable appendage that would rest between my Montague and my Gristle?
WISBEACH: Sir, you would be mocked more mercilessly, at least by readers of this publication, were you to remove your jacket and there was no waistcoat underneath. What you choose to keep in your waistcoat pockets is your own affair. Mine, for example, contain a pocket watch, a cigar cutter, a meerschaum pipe, a pipe lighter, several pipe cleaners, a lucky netsuke stolen from Madam Sing-Sing’s house of ill repute (Shanghai), a silver snuffbox, a tin of Captain Fawcett’s Expedition Strength moustache wax and a small voodoo doll of Jeremy Clarkson. If you wish to insert a pocket
WISBEACH: What an agreeable task to be set, if I may say so, sir! Let us not forget that Chips Channon’s achievements included serving cocktails spiked with Benzedrine to the Queens of Spain and Romania “to make the party go” and a diary entry from 1938 that read “an unbelievable day in
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