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One discrete way to add some flair to a suit is by replacing buttons with more decorative fasteners. Cuff-links are, as the name suggests, used to join the cuffs of a shirt. There are several varieties of cuff-link, and several varieties of cuff.

Cuffs are either single or double cuffs, and can be connected so that they are “kissing”, or “barrel-style”. Double cuffs have a cuff that is twice the required length, but folded back on itself, making the cuff appear much thicker. If a cuff-link fastens a cuff barrel-style, it appears much like a normal cuff with a button. If the cuff is kissing, it is a tear-drop style shape, where both inner parts of the cuff are joined together, as if kissing.

Above, kissing.

To the left, barrel-style.

When I was in England last year, I bought six modern pairs of normal cuff-links, with swivelling backs. To attach them to the cuffs, you swivel the back, slide it through both holes in the cuff, and then swivel it 90°, so that the back is parallel with the shirt cuff, holding it in place. I also was given one pair of swivel-back cufflinks, with a purple front, and bought one pair with a round, black front in Sweden.

I also recently bought five pairs of cufflinks for a very low price on eBay. Some of the links I don’t think I will ever use, but some are fantastic. Four of the links are connected by a short piece of metal or chain, and you just tuck one end of the link through the cuff. The last link is connected via an extendable chain, I have never seen a cuff-link like it.

Lastly, regarding cuff-links, I bought a pair of cuff-links from a carboot sale, last Sunday, the 14th June, 2009. They are mother of pearl, seperate entirely so that you have four seperate items. One goes into each hole on the cuffs, and then they clip together, holding the cuff in place. These links are fantastic for when you need to roll up your shirt, as the links still stay in the shirt even when unclipped.

As much as I like Victorian head wear, bowlers and top hats have truly entered the realm of costume and are not something I feel I could wear on a regular basis. However, I do still love hats, so, some time ago,  I decided I would make the obvious step to wearing slightly more modern hats – homburgs, fedoras & panamas, the hats of the 30s and 40s.

I currently, as of this entry, own one homburg and two fedoras, and no panama hats. I plan to buy a panama after my holiday to England in September. Today, however, I will be writing about my fedoras, and save the homburg and future panama for another day.

As with so many of my vintage items, my two fedoras were bought by my wife, Emmie, at an outdoor flea market. There’s an older gentleman who sells things at a flea market every Saturday. He often has two or three hats, usually in quite small sizes. One Saturday, however, he had two hats in my size, and Emmie managed to purchase both for 120kr (£9.50 / $15.50). Both hats have the same head size, but one hat has a low, tapered crown, and a small brim, while the other hat has a high, untapered crown and a regular sized brim.

The smaller hat, which I usually refer to as a trilby to help distinguish between the two, was in perfect condition. The front of the brim snapped down very well, the crown was bashed nicely and the hat was clean and didn’t have strong smell. The crown is 5″ (13cm) high, and the brim is 1.75″ (4.25cm) wide.

The larger hat, however, was not in as good condition. The crown was badly creased, the brim had no snap, and the hat smelled distinctly of cigarette smoke. The hat was also exceptionally soft to the touch, and just touching the crown distorted the crown. The crown itself is very tall, a full 5.5″ (14cm) high, and the brim is 2″ wide (5cm). It looked awful on me, and I was a little sad. I opened up the crown and steamed it, to try and remove some of the memory of the bad crease the hat had.

After I had given the hat a good steaming, the brim got a snap back! It wasn’t perfect, and it had a concave curve rather than convex, but I felt that at least I was getting somewhere. Steaming the hat also helped with the smell, and hardened the felt in general. I tried giving the hat a diamond crease, but it didn’t suit me at all. I therefore decided to put in a centre crease, with two front dents, and it worked very well. I also steamed the brim, folded it down, and formed it into the shape it should be. I then left it to dry, and it dried perfectly. The brim now snaps very well indeed.

I would prefer the hat if the crown was a little shorter, as it is somewhat overbearing, yet despite that, it is an excellent hat and I will give the hat much use over winter. Unfortunately, I received both of these hats just in time for the heat of late spring and summer to arrive, and they are far too hot to wear. Once autumn arrives, I will most certaintly start wearing these fantastic hats, however. Hopefully, by next summer, I will have a nice panama hat to wear.

One hundred years ago, most shirts did not have an attached collar as they do today. The collars were separate, attached to the shirt with two shirt studs – one at the front, underneath where the neck-wear was tied, and another at the back, which would be hidden by one’s jacket.

This allowed for collars to be very heavily starched, to a level of cardboard-like stiffness. This also had the advantage of making sure that the collars were not damaged when the shirt was washed as the collars were removed. This was especially important for the wing collar, as being beaten and knocked, whether by hand or by machine, would bend the wing and make the collar shabbier. The largest disadvantage was that the collars were hard to clean, and indeed, were often just thrown away and new collars bought.

Today, there are not many who wear detachable collars. The shirts are uncommon, as are the collars, and most people don’t notice the difference, or care enough to pay the additional cost of the shirts, collars, and laundering of the collars.

A little over one month ago, on the 9th May, 2009, my wife, Emmie, was at an outdoor flea market, as she often is on a Saturday. A leather box drew her attention, and she went straight to it.

She opened it up, and lo and behold, it was full of collars. They were packed badly and several of the collars were warped a little, but they can be repaired, and the others were in perfect condition! She snapped it up straight away, without even thinking of the collar size. Once she got home I checked, and all the collars were labelled as a size 40 – I assumed this was 40cm (15.7″), which is also perfect for me, as I can wear both 15.5″ and 16″ collar shirts. I checked the shirts around my neck to be sure, and as I thought, they were perfect!

There were nine collars – four normal wing collars, two less-common wing collars, a very narrow burlington collar, a long-tipped collar, and a double round collar. New, without the box, these would be worth around £100, and Emmie bought the box and collars for less than £20!

Of course, the collars also require a collarless shirt, and studs to hold them in place. neither of which I had when Emmie bought them for me. However, I have made some progress regarding both studs and shirts, and plan to write about them soon.

I will christen this blog by posting about one of my absolute favourite vintage items – my top hat.

My wife, Emmie, bought the hat for me at a second hand shop for 150kr (£12.50 / $18). I wasn’t there at the time, but we share the same head size and she checked the hat on her, and felt it fit quite well. The hat came with a box, which was quite battered, and not a particularly good box for a top hat (Even inside the box, the hat is still held up by the base of the crown, rather than the brim, which means whenever you move the box the edge of the crown is knocked, which wears the hat down over time). However, I was thrilled.

When Emmie gave me the box and I took the hat out, I noticed that there was some newspaper at the bottom of the box, placed there I can only assume to prevent dust getting in through the holes in the hat box. A quick glance at the newspaper gave a date of the 22nd September, 1956. This immediately showed that the hat was not a modern creation, and I became even more excited. I noticed that the hat was made by “H.J. Olsson”, in a town quite near where I live.

For a while after that, however, I didn’t find much out about the hat. Nobody on the vintage forum I frequent, The Fedora Lounge, had any ideas regarding it, and I couldn’t find any information online from the names I had found on the hat’s lining.

One day, while looking at the hat, I noticed it was made in Eslöf. Until then I had read it as Eslöv, the name of a town quite near where I live, so I naturally assumed that the hat had come from there. A little bit of research revealed that Eslöf is the archaic name for Eslöv, so I thought it could assist with ageing the hat some more. I contacted the Eslöv library, asking if they would be able to provide any further information. I was quickly contacted by a librarian from Eslöv library, who, over a few e-mails, informed me that the hat shop was opened in 1890, and closed down in 1966, and for the last 20 years was not run by the Olsson family. She also informed me that the name of Eslöv was changed to Eslöf in 1927. This meant that the hat was created some time between 1890 and just before 1930 (Providing time for the linings with the old name of the town to be consumed).

I also checked the quality of the hat, the feel of the material used to create the hat, and the quality of the light reflection, and I am reasonably sure that the hat is made of silk plush. This makes the hat a much higher quality top hat, and makes the price Emmie bought it for even better! Once I have brushed and polished the hat, I will know for certain whether it is silk plush or melusine (felt).

I have recently aquired some hat brushes, so I can brush out the dust from the top hat. I am keeping my eye out for a velvet pad, which is required to polish the hat, so that it can get back the shine it deserves.

When I started this blog, I didn’t have much to discuss. Anything particularly personal went into my pen and paper journal, and I didn’t do much of interest. On top of that, I largely planned to discuss clothing and other vintage items, but I didn’t really have any. By the time I finally started building up a collection, it had been such a long time since I had updated my blog that I just didn’t feel up to it.

Therefore, I have archived all of my old entries, and made a list of subjects to write about. I’m going to write several entries with a delayed publishing date so that I will have a buffer, to assist with regular updating of the blog.

This blog will largely about items my wife and I have purchased, and as such I may sometimes run out of interesting things to write about. I hope I will be able to take photographs and be able to blog about interesting items even if I don’t purchase them, and I plan to also blog about my hobbies and some personal things, however, so I think I will be able to keep on top of this.