Personal Style: The Signature and Eccentricities

As you further develop your personal style you will begin to see there are some things you constantly do or don't do. These are your signatures and your eccentricities. Many will develop without you consciously seeking them out. These things will make any look you put together yours.

Your signature is a beautiful thing and something unique to your person. Sometimes they are a cultural thing and many in your culture might develop it, for example Americans and OCBDs. Other times you will find that they are only your thing although others may ape you if you reach prominence.

Eccentricities have an attractive quality that influences others. Some replicate and most will duplicate. Other gentlemen will be inspired by your quirks. Also these signatures help your confidence because they come natural to you. While you may enjoy stiff starched collars, you may find that the club collared shirts are your favorites. Others will take notice and complement you on them; that is when you know that you truly own it and it is now a part of your personal styles.

Let us take a look at some examples of Signatures:

Sator, a master of the sartorial arts with a penchant for historical modes, wears historically influenced waistcoats.

Here is a waistcoat with shawl collared lapel. He fashioned it after a waistcoat ad he saw from the Edwardian era. He liked the peaking or exaggerated downward curve of the waistcoats of that era. After much research, he realized that their intent was to elongate the figure. This practice still exists but less curving is done; it can be seen in modern db waistcoats.

Here is a close-up for all the details.

While this slipped waistcoat is something not very different from what is available today it is special. The slipping is usually lighter than waistcoats and never black in contemporary examples. Also the buttons on most waistcoats are meant to blend in and not to contrast as heavily as those on Sator's waistcoat. This is an example of Sator's exuberance and eccentric study of past modes that allowed him to duplicate cues from the past and incorporate them into his dress today.

Our next example is HRH Prince Michael of Kent. He is known for several things, his command of the Russian language, his resemblance to the last Czar of Russia, his magnificent Jesus beard, and his huge tie knots.

Prince Michael's ties are quite thick all the way through but it is the huge knots that are of interest. His bespoke ties are made thicker because he likes the knots to be large and the tie to have body. It also seems that he gets long medium spread collars to accommodate his thick tie knot. A thing of his own, while not for me, it actually harmonizes with the rest of his appearance. The big beard, collar, and tie knot rest naturally near each other.This picture illustrates more evidently how the collar accommodates the tie.

So, I leave you with another song full of wisdom.

May your drums beat loud,

The Eccentric Orange Gentleman