The trench coat stands as one of fashion’s most enduring icons, a timeless blend of refined elegance, sophisticated precision, and rugged practicality. Its enduring appeal lies in its seductive harmony—functional yet effortlessly stylish, versatile enough for rain-slicked city streets or candlelit evenings, instantly recognizable, and always whispering of hidden depths and quiet intrigue the world over. As actors Humphry Bogard, David Nivid, and Micheal York proved, no man does not look dashing in this military inspired all weather coat.

The cinched waist teases hidden curves, the wide lapels frame a knowing gaze, and the long hem sways with the promise of secrets concealed beneath perfectly tailored lines. Its origins are deeply rooted in 19th-century advancements in waterproof fabrics, which revolutionized outerwear by providing reliable protection against the elements without the bulk, weight, or discomfort of earlier garments.

The invention of the trench coat is often debated between two British luxury brands, Burberry and Aquascutum. Aquascutum claims its roots go back to the 1850s, when founder John Emary patented a waterproof wool fabric called Aquascutum, Latin for “water shield.” The company supplied raincoats to British officers during the Crimean War (1853–1856), helping establish an early claim to the style. This long-standing rivalry illustrates how the trench coat developed from several parallel advances in fabric technology.

The story of the trench coat begins in the early 19th century, when Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh patented his groundbreaking waterproof rubberized fabric in 1823. By dissolving natural rubber in naphtha (derived from coal tar) and sandwiching it between layers of cloth (initially wool, later cotton), he created the first truly effective, lightweight waterproof material—known as the “mackintosh” or “mac.”

These early raincoats quickly found use in civilian life and among military officers for activities like riding, hunting, and campaigning, setting the stage for more refined weatherproof clothing. They marked a major leap forward from traditional heavy oiled or waxed fabrics, though they had drawbacks like stiffness in cold, stickiness in heat, and a persistent odor.

By the mid-19th century, British clothiers built on these innovations to meet growing military demands for functional, lighter alternatives to the cumbersome wool greatcoats of the Napoleonic and Crimean eras. In the 1850s, Aquascutum patented and popularized breathable waterproof wool fabrics, supplying officers during conflicts like the Crimean War with more practical raincoats, early precursors to the trench style.

Thomas Burberry followed in 1856, founding his company and inventing gabardine in 1879: a tightly woven, breathable twill (typically cotton or worsted wool) proofed strand by strand for superior water resistance without sacrificing ventilation.

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Burberry submitted officer raincoat designs to the War Office as early as 1901, incorporating features like double-breasted fronts and adjustable belts. Beneath its khaki veil and rigid shoulders lies a quiet temptation, forged in the demands of war, yet refined into an instrument of seduction, each loosened button a subtle confession.

The true peak culmination of the modern trench coat came during World War I (1914–1918). In the muddy, rain-soaked trenches of the Western Front, traditional greatcoats proved disastrously heavy, sodden, and restrictive—soldiers sometimes hacked off excess fabric with bayonets for mobility. British officers, who purchased their own kit privately (as these were not regulation issue for enlisted men), turned to Aquascutum and Burberry for tailored solutions.

These coats evolved into the recognizable form: khaki gabardine construction, double-breasted with 10 buttons, wide lapels, raglan sleeves, epaulettes (for rank insignia), storm flaps (to channel rain away from shoulders), gun flaps, D-rings on the belt (for maps, binoculars, or gear), cuff straps, and deep pockets. The lighter weight, better breathability, and weather resistance made them ideal for trench conditions, earning the nickname “trench coat” from widespread frontline use.

Popularity for these classic garments exploded in the interwar years and beyond, this military necessity laid the firm foundation for its postwar transformation into an iconic civilian fashion piece. Returning officers continued wearing their trench coats, introducing the style to everyday life.

Amplified by Hollywood glamour: Humphrey Bogart’s brooding, rain-drenched silhouette in Casablanca (1942), exuding dangerous charisma beneath the collar’s shadow; Audrey Hepburn’s gamine grace in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), transforming military utility into feminine mystique; and countless spies, detectives, and femme fatales who wielded the coat as both armor and invitation. The storm flap drapes across the chest like a whispered confidence, protecting what lies beneath while subtly accentuating every breath and shift of posture.

The trench coat was never standard issue for enlisted men. British officers, favored the fashion, and primarily drawn from the upper classes—purchased these premium garments privately from elite outfitters like Burberry and Aquascutum, who supplied them without formal mass contracts but through longstanding ties to the military establishment.

What began as an upper-class privilege, reserved for officers who could afford the private purchase, transformed postwar into a national emblem of intrigue. As the war demanded promotions from lower ranks, those fleeting “temporary gentlemen,” the allure of owning one only grew, cementing its status as a symbol of quiet authority and hidden elegance.

Tracing its wide lapels and storm flap, the coat exhales a veiled seduction: forged in the brutal anvil of war, yet chiseled for the ceremony of allure, where every fold and fastener invites a calculated peek into hidden realms. No self-respecting spy would be caught without a trench coat.

Today, the trench coat endures as a tantalizing wardrobe essential, exuding an aura of understated sophistication, effortless adaptability through the sultry whispers of changing seasons, and an intoxicating bond to its raw, heroic origins forged in the heat of battle. From the muddy trenches to the dimly lit streets of desire, it has morphed into a seductive canvas for self-expression, adored by those who crave its chameleon-like prowess, draping over rain-slicked pavements by day, then teasing the curves of twilight soirées by night.

In its deepest essence, it surpasses mere legacy: it is a provocative promise of impenetrable protection laced with dangerous allure, of hushed power that veils secrets while slowly, deliberately, baring the soul. Slide into its embrace, draw the belt tight against your form like a lover’s grasp, and surrender to its hypnotic allure; the world may gaze upon you, but the passions it ignites beneath remain a private inferno.

The true well-dressed gentleman understands the added panache of loosely tying the trench coat belt, as opposed to buckling it as one normally would with a belt.

New Year’s Day not only marks the moment that we begin striving to improve ourselves, but also the debut of my International Best and Worst Dressed List for the previous year. I took over this role in the tradition of the late Mr. Blackwell, a Hollywood columnist who produced this list for 48 years, before passing away in 2008.

For 17 years I have produced this list with the one exception being 2019 when a corrupt Federal Judge unconstitutionally gagged me from any public comment. You can see my previous year’s Best Dressed List Here.

This is also the year that I introduced my very own custom menswear collection in collaboration with Tailor On Tap. We are now offering distinctive suits, blazers, trousers, and dress shirts in the traditional style of Savile Row. For those who understand what eternal style really is, click here.

The 2025 edition of the International Best and Worst Dressed List has many familiar names. Some continue to embrace the fact that style is timeless. Others continue to pass off the latest fashion trend or hideous ghettoish wardrobes as true style, forgetting that unlike style, fashion is fleeting.

The core basis for inclusions on this list remains firm. This is not about politics... IT IS ABOUT STYLE. The ongoing trainwreck of transgender “fashion” continues to bastardize the true meaning of style, has only become more vile, putrid, and has only added to the grotesquely vile public displays that have no basis in style or fashion.

As we have said before, it is entirely acceptable to take risks with your personal style, but rules exist for a reason... and you have to know the rules before you can acceptably break them.

Just as you do not order fish at a steakhouse, you should not wear a jean jacket to a wedding, as you would not show up in a three-piece suit to a bowling alley. Workout clothes are for the gym and not the mall. As I noted in my 2018 book, Stone’s Rules, which includes a forward by Tucker Carlson, the best-dressed person is the one who is appropriately dressed for the activity in which they intend to engage. It is amazing how many people do not get this simple rule.

In past years, we have made it a point to highlight those who have shown us that they not only know style, but adhere to it on a daily basis. It is why we created the Lifetime Achievement category, in order to create room for the up and comers. With our 2025 International Best and Worst Dressed list, we unveiled the “Icon” award for those who continue to wow us with their sartorial splendor.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

In past years, White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow, CNN’s Mike Smerconish, CBS Sports Shannon Sharpe, Rocker Mark Ronson, New York PR Whiz Audrey Gelman, and Pennsylvania politico Gordon Woodrow and First Daughter Ivanka Trump all graced our Best Dressed List for multiple years– and all are celebrated again this year.

Melania Trump

America has not had a more stylish, chic, cultured, and well-dressed First Lady since Jackie Kennedy. We said this last year when she was the first official inductee to our Hall of Fame Style Icon Awards. Quite possibly our favorite look for the First Lady in 2025 was her beige’ish light brown three-piece pant trouser she debuted during her trip to the U.S. Capitol, where she secured $25 million for foster children through her “Be Best” initiative.

Josh Mankiewicz

The veteran journalist and Dateline host has been on this list too many times to count. In the past few years, he has been eating healthy and embracing the benefits of daily exercise. Mankiewicz can be subtle for the most part with his attire but is a master of using ties and pocket squares to showcase some personality. From pinstripe to solid colors, with or without a tie, and sometimes a more casual collared shirt. He has always dressed for the occasion.

King Charles

Whether it is Saville Row or Old Burlington, the reigning monarch refuses to have the paparazzi birddog him in anything but the best. The King has been known to have his jackets made by one tailor while his trousers are made by another. And that is the role of a monarch, look the part. We talk about dressing for the occasion, and thankfully for his highness, he always knows what to do.

BEST DRESSED

Monica Crowley

The former Fox News Anchor, turned Treasury Department official during President Trump’s first term, currently serves as the Chief of Protocol for the Department of State in the Golden Age. While we like her inclination to mainly embrace a pastel driven wardrobe, she can also pull off a simple black pantsuit with a crisp white shirt with ease. Versatile independent flair, simple, always correct.

Conor McGregor

The Notorious. The Greatest. Legendary UFC Championship mixed martial arts maestro. A true Irish patriot with deep love for mixed martial arts. Inside the octagon, he is bold, brash, and brazen, perfectly aligning with his personal persona when he exits the cage. When it comes to style, The Notorious has always been notoriously well appointed. Whether it’s a pinstripe, tartan, or plaid base, McGregor not only understands proper tailoring... but also how to utilize all elements of a three-piece suit just as well as the process of how to remove certain aspects to appear more casual when necessary. Our favorite looks have been his black tie look at Mar-a-Lago and the pinstripe perfection he embraced during his visit to the White House. This is his first year on the list.

Tulsi Gabbard

This lifelong public servant has gone from the state legislature to the United States Congress, to a leading Democratic candidate for President of the United States to being a Republican and now serving as the Director of National Intelligence. All the while, she was a combat medical specialist in the United States Army, even taking leave from her role as a State Representative to defend America abroad beginning in 2003. Today she is a Lt. Colonel in the US Army Reserve. Service before self defines her ethos professionally and personally, but her style is just as important. Hillary Clinton made pantsuits the butt of every joke. Director Gabbard has rehabilitated the pantsuit and set the sartorial tone for women who want to look the part, without wearing an oversized schmock like so many others.

Stephen A. Smith

The no holds barred Bronx-born sports analyst undoubtedly shaped the success of ESPN with his high-energy hot takes on the world of sports. From 1st & 10 to Pardon The Interruption to Jim Rome Is Burning, Stephen A’s bombastic commentary has earned him his own imprint at ESPN, where he now hosts First Take. Unlike the many athletes turned commentators who throw together clashing patterns and designs (not to mention horrendous tailoring), Stephen A is always bespoke. Though traditionally favoring slate grey suits, he integrates houndstooth and plaid with ease. When he wants to be loud, he is one of the few modern men to pull off fuchsias and purple fabrics with aplomb. Mrs. Stone and I love his role as mob fixer Brick on General Hospital, who plays opposite “Godfather of Port Charles,” mob boss Sonny Corinthos.

Anna Paulina Luna

Ms. Luna’s political stances might not be your cup of tea, but to doubt she is the most turned-out female member of the United States Congress is not up for discussion. Tulsi Gabbard certainly gave her the template for success sartorially, which she has wholeheartedly embraced since being sworn in in 2023. However, Ms. Luna’s crowning accomplishment in 2025 was pulling off a series of three-piece pantsuit looks, with a tie to boot! To do this consistently, without sacrificing feminine elements, is enough to earn her a spot on this year’s Best Dressed list.

Greg Kelly

Journalist Greg Kelly adheres to the K.I.S.S. method (Keep It Simple Stupid) when preparing for his live shows and Newsmax broadcasts. One cannot underestimate this approach, and we all have felt at some moments to take chances with our wardrobe, which is understandable. But as most of us like consistency in journalism, Kelly likes consistency in the simplicity of his ensemble. Kelly once mused on social media about taking over the authorship of this list on an annual basis, and I told him he could have it when I died.

Carolina Amesty

The incredibly devout Christian and former Florida State Representative has been on our radar for Best Dressed for a few years. Despite facing fabricated state charges from Governor Ron DeSantis and a bogus federal indictment, both of which have been dismissed. Amesty’s style mirrors a lot of the elements that earned First Lady Melania Trump a spot in our Hall of Fame Style Icon section. Always form fitting, versatile, and able to add subtle elements that pay homage to the greats like Jackie O. Pay attention to her shoes. Prada. This is her first year on the Best Dressed and won’t be her last!

ASAP Rocky

The New York born rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur has literally every reason to embrace the worst of rap and hip-hop culture stylistically, whether he’s stepping out for a quick walk or attending the annual MET Gala. Whether he’s dressing for the street, at a charity function, or an awards show... he dresses for the occasion. However, he caught our eye this year for his phenomenal look at the 2025 MET Gala. The simplicity of an all black look, mixed with a perfectly fitted three-piece suit, and double-breasted overcoat with flared collars made him not only the best dressed man in attendance, but also showed his refusal to dress in a feminizing or Hollyweird fashion. Thank you, President Trump for fighting for his return to the US from a Swedish prison in 2019.

Lara Trump

The former RNC Chairwoman, wife to Eric Trump, dedicated mother and newly minted Fox News host with her own show “My View“ that airs on the weekends, can’t be held down when it comes to style. From respectable casual to chic to the “I mean business,” look... you can never predict what will adorn the veteran news producer. Instead of this leading to a fever dream of horrible choices that you cannot make sense of, one can always count on the fact that when she enters the room, Mrs. Trump will always turn heads for all the right reasons.

Scott Bessent

The current Secretary of the United States Treasury is working overtime to restore the American economy, a job so stressful and vast that it would be understandable (not acceptable), if he was lax when it comes to his sartorial identity. Thankfully, the successful businessman and Yale graduate has proven his intelligence extends far beyond being one of the most brilliant economic minds in America. The fit, the cut, the classic ties all give us a perfect blend of Wall Street wizard-turned-public servant and true Ivy style.

Rev. Al Sharpton

Thin. Fit. Calm and collected. The Reverend is a lightning rod for sure, but his ability to go through a personal fitness transformation, while still sticking to the core tenets of style over fashion are nothing short of remarkable. Like his politics or not, the man is always well dressed. Long gone are the track suits and gold chains. Clean eating has allowed Sharpton to embrace the power of sartorial splendor.

Lara Logan

A career of respected journalism spanning over thirty years and the courage to survive an attack by radicalized Egyptians who sexually assaulted her would have been a sign for most to retire. Not Lara Logan. She not only has maintained her stellar career but has also maintained a strict adherence to actual style, not faux-fashion that so many journalists become enamored or co-opted with to please viewers and the bosses. She has always been talented and well dressed. She’s earned her place on the List.

John Tabacco

The Newsmax reporter, who hosts his show “Wise Guys” on the dogged alternative media platform, has stories to tell and advice to give his viewers and that is his job, one that he does extremely well. Tabacco dresses with old style flair and a touch of the ‘old neighborhood”. Last year he got an honorable mention; this year he moves to the List.

Kimberly Guilfoyle

The current US Ambassador to Greece, former Fox News commentator, and prosecutor has had a wide-ranging career. Her adherence to style has been the one constant over the decades. She has been on the list before, so we know SHE knows the rules. However, while we all slip from time to time, Guilfoyle’s record of being a jack-of-all trades professionally and brutal attacks from the media have not broken her dedication or understanding of authentic and purposeful decisions when it comes to her wardrobe or her duties as a US Ambassador. The dress she wore recently that outraged Greek society was not sheer or “see through”. It had a flesh tone body stocking. Critics step back!

Wayne Allyn Root

Everyone has always been told to diversify their investments, time, or emotional output on their passion projects. Wayne, who has been on this list before, has lived an extremely diversified life indeed. A producer for Ghost Adventures, a radio host, television host, a podcast host, a Vice Presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party. We would challenge anyone to find someone who masters the pinstripe suit, light blue dress shirt with a white collar and cuffs, plus a red power tie better than he does. He has a great tailor.

Bobby Jeffries

From Pennsylvania’s famed “Chocolate Bubble” in Hershey comes Bobby Jeffries—a devoted practitioner of Stone’s Rules—who has the look: impeccable tailoring, bold yet timeless classic style, and a striking Kennedy-esque charisma that evokes the golden age of American elegance. This staunch America First conservative activist, author, and rising political force, pairs sharply cut suits, crisp shirts, and timeless accessories with the unapologetic confidence of a true modern dandy. Whether on the campaign trail or rallying the faithful, “Bobby J” proves that principled patriotism and sartorial splendor are the perfect match. His impressive debut on my International Best-Dressed List is well-earned—and mark my words, it certainly won’t be his last.

Romero Britto

The Brazilian-born multimedia artist, who has called Miami home since the late 80’s possesses a talent that has attracted major brands like Apple, IBM, BMW, Absolut, and installations spanning from JFK Airport to Hyde Park across the pond in London. He has allowed his work to raise vast sums of money for over 250 organizations worldwide, from The Prince’s Trust to St. Judes Children’s Hospital. Britto’s style is as eclectic and chaotic (to some), as is his cubist and pop art masterpieces. Britto makes the Best Dressed for the first year in 2025 because he always dresses for the occasion (not merit enough alone) but injects his flair each time without sacrificing “fashion” before style. We are sure being one of the most collected artists in modern history and his standing as an institution at the annual international Art Basel festival in Miami Beach certainly stands as the most consequential honors under his belt, Best Dressed can be #3. His first year on the list.

WORST DRESSED

Before diving into some truly ungodly displays of absolutely horrific “fashion” repackaged by the entertainment industry, commentators, and industry “experts” as forward-thinking acts of bravery, we wanted to say that this year’s list will be brief.

There are far too many misguided souls to hold accountable for high crimes against good taste and breaking them down writ-large assumes the risk of proliferating these grotesque displays to the extent that younger generations mimic them to simply be “ironic.”

However, a casual reminder of former nominees and some newcomers to this list should serve as a casual reminder of unspeakable “fashion forward” atrocities against good taste.

Steve Bannon

Perhaps he thinks he is pioneering “Toothless Hobo Chic” but this unbathed, unshaven, greasy haired Jeffrey Epstein running-buddy looks downright slovenly. I doubt he has brushed his teeth in years. The recent photos released of Bannon with his friend Epstein, taken long after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes in Florida and Bannon was fired from his White House job, and shows that Bannon refers to the billionaire pedophile as his “Brother” in recently released emails. Perhaps with the money he’s getting from the CCP now to promote their AI he can afford a better wardrobe. But don’t bet on him taking a bath. Folks at TPUSA’s recent America Fest gathering in Phoenix told me he literally stunk. Disgusting.

Rosa DeLauro

It is hard to believe that this Congresswoman from Connecticut is actually an adult. Vile. Asinine. Childish. Embarrassing. Need I say more?

Rachel “Dick” Levine

Behold the unfortunate spectacle that is Admiral Rachel “Dick” Levine, a figure who assaults the eyes with a relentless parade of ill-fitting frocks, dowdy dresses, and a complete disregard for tailoring, proportion, or the basic principles of elegance. Levine looks terrible as a man or a woman. This Biden-era bureaucrat—known for parading in admiral’s uniforms that strain credibility and civilian outfits that scream “frump in a slump”—lacks even the faintest whisper of judgement. With shoulders that overwhelm, hems that sag, and a palette as dreary as a government memo, Levine embodies the very antithesis of sartorial sophistication: a walking, talking fashion catastrophe. Whether clumsily appropriating military regalia or stumbling through public appearances in matronly ensembles that no discerning eye could endorse, this perennial offender proves that some simply do not have the look—and never will. A regrettable fixture on my International Worst-Dressed List, and one that, alas, shows no signs of redemption.

John Fetterman

The towering Pennsylvania Senator who turned the U.S. Capitol into his personal gym locker room. Baggy Carhartt hoodies paired with gym shorts, sneakers, and a perpetual “just rolled out of bed” vibe – even at formal events like presidential inaugurations in freezing weather. This isn’t casual Friday; it’s perpetual slob Sunday. A grown man in one of the world’s most prestigious legislative bodies dressing like he’s heading to pickup basketball or a Sheetz run. Decorum demands dignity, but Fetterman delivers the opposite: a deliberate middle finger to tradition, respect, and basic tailoring. Suits exist for a reason, Senator – and this endless parade of sweatshop chic is a wardrobe misdemeanor that became a felony. For a man who exudes common-sense and a true moderate I just wish he would dress with the decorum of a US Senator.

Kat Cammack

Florida is known for the iconic “Florida Man” memes and legends, but Congresswoman Kat Cammack is what you would find in Merriam Webster’s Dictionary above the definition of “Florida Woman.” She rode her way to the United States Congress for sure, but not before securing an agreement with Taco Bell demanding two family size party packs daily in return for recognizing them on the floor of the House for their “organic ingredients.” She thinks she’s going to be Lt. Governor of Florida but she’s better dressed to be an inmate at the Clay County jail. The phrase 200 pounds of sh*t in a 100 pound bag comes to mind.

HONORABLE MENTION

Teddy Swims

To say Teddy Swims meteoric rise has led to him consistently smashing streaming records & Billboard #1 spots longer than any other artist in history. However, his cross-genre appeal musically, also is apparent sartorially. Yes, he periodically blends fashion (which is fleeting) with style (which is timeless), but this is acceptable because he understands the critical importance of dressing for the occasion. When he’s performing at the Vatican with opera icon Andrea Boccieli (the first ever concert held at the Vatican), he embraces a traditional approach with enough flair to be unique without creating a distraction. Too many stars on the uptick go full Hollyweird to appease fleeting fashion trends, justifying crimes against style to collect a check.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Congratulations to those who have earned a spot on the Best Dressed and for those who found themselves on the Worst Dressed, you have the entire year to rebound and show the world your sartorial sensibilities have made the grade in 2026!

Let me remind you again that I have introduced my own personal line of custom-made Menswear. If you aspire to be well, turned-out as every gentleman should please check out our exclusive line of suits, blazers, trousers, and dress shirts at RogerStoneSuits.com

If you have suggestions for the 2026 Best Dressed List, please e-mail stoneonstyle@stonezone.com with your ideas throughout the year.

And remember—fashion is fleeting; style is timeless.

A Harris Tweed sports jacket is more than outerwear—it’s a cornerstone of refined menswear, blending heritage craftsmanship with effortless versatility. With Fall upon us here’s why it deserves a place in every gentleman’s wardrobe:

First the is the timeless elegance and style- With its subtle, multicolored flecks and rich texture, a Harris Tweed jacket exudes understated sophistication that never dates. It’s the epitome of “quiet luxury,” transitioning seamlessly from countryside pursuits to urban evenings, and has been favored by icons from royalty to Hollywood stars.

Then there is the unmatched unmatched durability and longevity Handwoven from heavyweight virgin wool (typically 13-15 oz), it withstands decades of wear, repels water, and ages gracefully with a patina that improves over time. Unlike synthetic blends, it’s an heirloom piece you can pass down generations, making it a smart investment for the discerning man.

Then there is the versitily. Pair it with jeans for rugged casual, chinos and a turtleneck for smart-casual, or wool flannel trousers and oxford clothe button down shirt and club or rep stripe necktine for dressierevents—it’s adaptable across seasons (warm in winter, breathable when half-lined) and occasions, from hunts to football games to dinners. As suits fade from daily wear, the sports jacket fills the gap as a polished alternative.

Not all tweed is Haris tweed however. Owning one supports a living tradition of island weavers, protected by parliamentary law against counterfeits. In a fast-fashion world, it embodies slow luxury: sustainable, natural, and story-rich, signaling taste and discernment to those who appreciate quality.

Harris Tweed is a premium, handwoven woolen fabric originating from the Outer Hebrides islands of Scotland, specifically the islands of Lewis, Harris, Uist, Benbecula, and Barra. It is made exclusively from pure virgin wool that is dyed, spun, and woven by local islanders in their own homes using traditional treadle looms, with all finishing processes also completed on the islands. This unique production method, protected by the Harris Tweed Act of 1993 and overseen by the Harris Tweed Authority, ensures its authenticity—every meter must bear the iconic Orb trademark, a certification mark featuring a globe with a Maltese cross and 13 jewels, making it the oldest such mark in the UK.

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The fabric’s history dates back centuries, when island crofters wove it for personal use or barter, often paying rents in blankets. Its name derives from a 19th-century marketing push by Lady Catherine Herbert, wife of the Earl of Dunmore, who recognized its potential after inheriting the North Harris Estate in 1843. The wool, primarily from Cheviot and Scottish Blackface sheep, is dyed before spinning to create intricate, flecked patterns inspired by the rugged Hebridean landscape—subtle hues of heather, sea, and lichen (though natural dyes like crottle lichen are no longer used due to environmental protections). This results in a dense, textured cloth known for its depth, with hundreds of patterns like herringbones, checks, and plaids.

Harris Tweed is ecologically sound: low-impact, biodegradable, non-allergenic, and produced sustainably without volatile organic compounds. Production peaked at 7 million yards in 1966 but now hovers around 700,000 yards annually, emphasizing its rarity and artisanal nature.

In short, a Harris Tweed sports jacket isn’t just clothing—it’s a statement of enduring style and substance. Opt for a classic single-breasted, two or three button model in herringbone or check for maximum impact.

Every well dressed gentlemen must have an all-cotton oxford cloth button-down shirt originally offered by Brooks Brothers, but J. Press now offers the best version.

Kamakura, a Japanese purveyor also has a superior version, but their customer service is not dependable.

The shirt’s button-down collar was originally called a “polo-collar,” as the button-down feature was designed so the collar would remain in place instead of flapping up in your face during a vigorous game of polo. This classic — an import from England — was first sighted in 1897 on the polo fields of Long Island.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Bobby Kennedy, George H.W. Bush, and Andy Warhol sported this style on occasion. Fiat industrialist and notorious Playboy Gianni Agnelli famously wore his wristwatch on the outside of the cuff of his.

The “roll” of the collar is crucial. Lower-budget makers never get the collar roll or the length of the collar points right. J. Press has mastered this.

Eschew the permanent press "non-iron" model. The longer you own this all-cotton shirt and the more times you wash it, the softer and more comfortable it will become. Considered a more informal dress shirt; it is acceptable with a blazer, a sports jacket or a single-breasted suit, usually paired with a regimental striped tie, knit tie or saucy bow-tie.

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Never wear a button-down collared shirt with a double-breasted suit. The more formal double-breasted suit looks best with the more formal spread or long-point collar. Fred Astaire broke this rule, but you’re not Fred Astaire.

A Oxford cloth button-down with an unfastened collar, rolled-up sleeves and jeans makes for a comfortable, casual look. The shirt traditionally comes in white, light blue, pink, blue and white stripes and pink and white stripes. It also comes in yellow, but yellow is a tricky color for most men, depending on their complexion and coloring. Yellow looks good with a brown suit, but then a brown suit never looks good.

T.R. Sartor is an America First writer and style afficionado who has the honor and distinction of being targeted by the Jan. 6 probe because his gallant choice of clothing while protesting caught the eye of drab, envious feds. Sartor is an advocate of restoring begotten fashion standards to improve the aesthetic and, by extension, the character of the conservative movement. Sartor’s notion of the Regalia Americana, a wholistic national revival where standards of beauty are put at the forefront of our nation’s cultural, political and social spheres, is desperately needed for the MAGA movement to obtain its true potential. Here is Mr. Sartor’s Stone-endorsed manifesto:

In the world of style, especially classic style, no phrase is more frequently said by people than "I wish people dressed up more." I have been hearing this all-too-common phrase for the last ten years, ever since I cut my teeth at The Men's Wearhouse.

Naturally, as a young, eager man who was saying the same thing, I began asking why.

There are a million "Why we stopped wearing suits everyday" or "why buildings are ugly now" articles and videos, and nothing in that content actually offers a meaningful, serious solution to the American man's image problem. The closest you get are trendy how-to's or a vague "oh just give it a try for the hell of it." Even the best among the style world seem to have little interest in the broader cultural questions and strategies to not just make America beautiful again, but bring a sense of beauty and dignity back to the everyday American. After repeatedly returning to this question for a decade now, The Regalia Americana is the answer.

The Regalia Americana is a battle cry against the creeping supremacy of ugliness, depression, and indignity thrust upon our civilization. So many of our policy makers and thought leaders want to stir national pride and vigor through new economic policy or promises of prosperity, but how many really carry the image of and promise of a regal, distinctly beautiful America? The closest we've ever come was President Trump's executive order requiring all government buildings to be built in a classical style (which Biden struck down). However, we can go further than just restoring this. The public and private easily can and MUST come together to give Americans a more beautiful country to be proud of.

Even in the MAGA movement, where one would think there would be calls for an aesthetic and cultural revival in America, there is almost nothing. In a bid to be widely accessible and populist, there is little in the way of a distinct, desirable cultural image: Conservative artists identical to liberal ones, slovenly dressed and covered in gaudy tattoos.

So far, nobody has been able to justify how this downward veneration of the derelict and unpolished makes America great again. When this point is raised, many react defensively, swiftly pointing out the populist appeal and saying that these tattooed, slovenly icons are desirable because it relates to the "average American." However, this cultural image couldn't be more counter productive to making America Great Again.

Donald Trump isn't covered in tattoos, or poorly dressed at all. He is a shining example of a more regal, dignified America. So why should the cultural image of the MAGA movement and more broadly the American culture not be of dignity and elegance? These are not traits that are exclusive to the wealthy or inaccessible to the average American.

Historically speaking, even the hardest worked of the working class prioritized a sense of presentation and dignity. Even to the coal miner and ditch digger, one's Sunday best and even daily wear, was a source of pride and identity.

The very nature of this all-encompassing, innate sense of beauty and dignity through elegance, like all things, comes from God. As His creations, we are granted a right of dignity, we only need to choose it. An elegant, polished working class is a hallmark of a Christian society. Even today, in secular Europe, the echoes of personal polish and dignity can be found everywhere. This vital element of a Christian civilization which raises up all will be restored through the Regalia Americana.

Many see these ideas of regal, dignified elegance as something exclusive to those with wealth, or for European royals, but the Regalia Americana is unique among the civilized world, in that America's royalty were born from various backgrounds, many without claims to wealth, and built it through skill, merit, and rugged entrepreneurship. American elegance and dignity are priceless traits that belong to no income bracket or social class.

Regalia Americana was a major contributor to the Restored section of T.R's Sartorial. As a teenager and college student without much expendable income, and being around a lot of young men who thought wearing suits was too rich for their blood, I wanted to create a shop where any man, regardless of wealth, could browse for suits and explore his style. The first time a man sees himself as classically stylish, he will ALWAYS pursue this feeling. He will crave a sense of elegance and polish in his life, as he feels a new degree of self-respect and dignity. One of the major goals of the Regalia Americana is to give back to the average American man that vital sense of personal polish and dignity that has been cast aside in recent decades.

Regalia Americana is bigger than just art and clothing, it also demands an architectural revival. While this undertaking will be a little grander and more complex than an everyman's haberdashery, under the right leadership and with the right initiatives in the public and private sector, it can be done. There are numerous young architects out there with literal piles of design ideas for new buildings inspired by ornate, golden age elegance. All they need is organization and opportunities which, if taken seriously, can truly make new beautiful buildings which people want to see and admire. While strategic avenues are being explored for ways this could be done, likely the most effective route is going to come from public policy fostering and encouraging classical architectural stylings for new projects.

What is the Regalia Americana? It is the long-awaited call for a better America. It is an American beauty like nothing before. It is a Reconquista of our nation's image, unconcerned with GDP and voting trends. The Regalia Americana will raise up the work of American Royalty like Donald Trump, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, and many others. It will adopt their altruistic spirit to help build beautiful public works to inspire all Americans and make every American proud of their country again, and inspire a new, regal sense of dignity and pride in every household.

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To bring in the New Year, we return to a tradition, and for the 16th year, I post my International Best & Worst Dressed List. I undertook this tradition when the late Mr. Blackwell, a Hollywood columnist who produced his own List every year for 48 years, passed away in 2008.

I published NO List in 2020 because I was gagged from all public communication by a federal judge, and NO List for 2021 because my wife had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, from which I am happy to report through the healing power of Jesus Christ, she is in total remission.

And a year later, Mrs. Stone is still healthy and stronger now, more than ever!

You can check out my previous years’ lists right here on Stone Cold Truth by clicking this link!

2024 has certainly brought us many curveballs politically, socially, culturally, and, of course, sartorially.

Before we begin, it is important to remind everyone that this List is not about politics; IT IS ABOUT STYLE.

Once again, we must note that while fashion is fleeting, style is both timeless and enduring. Skirts may go up or down, and neckties may be wide or thin, but the double-breasted navy blue blazer with gold military buttons will always be in style. The little black cocktail dress will always look smashing. A seersucker suit is always appropriate between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

As we addressed in last year’s installment, the transgender sideshow has blurred many people’s understanding of what is true style and what is just an absolute dumpster-fire masquerading as “iconic,” “groundbreaking,” or “daring”.

Yes, those in the public eye often take risks when stepping out into the limelight, but let us not confuse taking a risk with the equivalent of dressing like a hobo on skid row.

We have made this point in the past, but feel it necessary to make it again in this age of sartorial error. Just as you do not order fish at a steakhouse, you should not wear a jean jacket to a wedding, as you would not show up in a three-piece suit to a bowling alley. Workout clothes are for the gym and not the mall. As I noted in my 2018 book, Stone’s Rules, which includes a forward by Tucker Carlson, the best-dressed person is the one who is appropriately dressed for the activity in which they intend to engage. It is amazing how many people do not get this simple rule.

In past years, we have made it a point to highlight those who have shown us that they not only know style but adhere to it on a daily basis. It is why we created the Lifetime Achievement category, in order to create room for the up and comers.

This year, we are unveiling the “Icon” award for those who continue to wow us with their sartorial splendor. Rather than list these exemplary dressers year after year, we have created this special category.

Style —unlike fashion— is timeless. And so it begins….

HALL OF FAME STYLE ICON AWARDS

Kicking it at Fox Business, former White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow, CNN’s Mike Smerconish, presidential daughter Ivanka Trump, NBC’s Josh Mankiewicz, rocker Mark Ronson, and New York PR whiz Audrey Gelman hold this status.

To the inductees, or the 1st Hall of Fame Style Icon Awards…. Here are the greats!

Tucker Carlson

He can be fly fishing, hosting his immensely popular and now totally independent broadcast, appearing at the Republican National Convention, or just out on the town…

Tucker is always a man for the occasion.

Appropriately dressed for the occasion at hand—check. Properly fitted and tailored— check. Mixing a conservative “Ivy” approach with a tie, shirt or other adornment that shows a little personality—check.

Yes, he leans into the WASPY end of the style sphere—and that is okay; he always makes it work. He clearly dresses as if he has not thought at all about it, which makes him a natural. He has already appeared in our Best Dressed and Lifetime Achievement categories, so now it is time to recognize him as an ICON.

Melania Trump

Honored on this List in previous years, joins the Style Icon category. America has not had a more stylish, chic, cultured, and well-dressed First Lady since Jackie Kennedy. With her husband’s second inauguration close at hand, everyone is wondering what she will wear and how she will outdo her Jackie O powder blue ensemble from 2017.

One thing is for sure: she will not miss the mark and will wow the world, once again, with her class and tasteful nod to the iconic and stylish women of the past while setting an example for the women of today and tomorrow.

King Charles

Whether it is Saville Row or Old Burlington, the reigning monarch refuses to have the paparazzi birddog him in anything but the best. The King has been known to have his jackets made by one tailor while his trousers are made by another. And that is the role of a monarch, look the part. We talk about dressing for the occasion, and thankfully for his highness, he always knows what to do.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The bulldog attorney and heir to the Kennedy clan has kept his family’s famous look en vogue. Notorious for his commitment to healthy living and exercise after struggling with addiction, he has a build that can fill out a suit, but he does not make the mistake so many professional athletes do with shoddy tailoring or conflicting patterns, colors, or designs.

He speaks to his fallen family members through his always narrow ties. JFK and RFK would be proud. He has earned his place on this List.

Charlene, Princess of Monaco

Her Royal Highness has spent decades attracting attention for her innovative, diverse, and stunning style, similar to that of Princess Diana. She has appeared before on our Best Dressed List, but has earned herself a fast-track to the Lifetime Achievement award due to her splendid cutout jumpsuit at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.

BEST DRESSED

Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City

Yes, he is dealing with a federal indictment, angling for a pardon from President-elect Donald J. Trump, and was just denied matching public funds for his upcoming re-election bid. But remember, this list is not about politics… it is about style.

Like any true dandy, that does not phase him. His use of the timeless Windsor Knot and widespread collar remains one of his most consistent and clear messages to the public regarding his sartorial acumen. Adams has also wisely embraced proper form-fit tailoring and never allows patterns to clash. He is the best-dressed Mayor of the Big Apple since “Beau James,” Mayor Jimmy Walker. Again, this List is about style – not politics – so there will be no further comment on his legal status.

Sylvester Stallone

I recently had an occasion to meet actor Sylvester Stallone at President Trump’s palatial home and private club Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida. He was impeccably attired in a sophisticated double-breasted suit. I inquired about his perfectly tailored suit and he told me that it had been custom-made for him for his role in the Paramount+ Tulsa King series.

This caused me to go online and notice that he is always smartly dressed. Sly has more than earned his spot on this year’s Best Dressed List.

Riley Keough

The granddaughter of Elvis Presley and star of hit shows like The Terminal List, Daisy Jones, and The Six, has thankfully not been co-opted by a Hollyweirdo wardrobe. She is probably one of the few celebrities who did not attend the Met Gala in something that looked like a blind person stitched together during a bad acid trip.

Stephen A. Smith

Veteran sportscaster and ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith has had an impeccable year sartorially. The man has personality on air, which nobody can argue—but he also lets it show with his wardrobe. Stephen A.’s outfits always make a statement, and while distinctive, they are never loud.

This is his first year on the List! Let us hope he keeps entertaining us with his commentary and well-tailored suits for years to come!

Donald Glover

Yes, Childish Gambino is top-rate. I will admit I have seen Mystery Team. King Tubby and CG’s Redbone. They are staples in the Stone household. He might not like my longtime friend, incoming President Donald J. Trump… but this List is not about politics, it is about style.

His New Jack City tailoring on his suits is something any man of style can appreciate. It is tough to pull off a loosely fitting but properly tailored suit on a small frame. Glover gets an A+ for this and for not falling into the insanity of what people expect on the red carpet.

Zendaya

A returning favorite on our International Best & Worst Dressed List, I contemplated entering the musician-turned-starlet into the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Like a good wine, Zendaya’s style gets better each year—so why not at least one more year on the Best Dressed category? Last year, she embraced pink and pastels, this year she has been all over the map… in the best way. There is no color, cut, or design she cannot pull off!

Jamie Dornan

Anthtropid is by far my favorite flick of Dornan’s, though most know him as Christian Grey in the film adaption of 50 Shades of Grey.

The rugby fanatic and charitable giver that he is, you might expect to catch him slipping sartorially.

He does not. The Irish-born actor mixes tweed and his native-born style with a little aplomb… it works every time! This is his first inclusion in the Best Dressed category.

Greg Kelly

Greg Kelly does double duty at both Newsmax and 77WABC Radio and does both with aplomb; his style is somber, correct, and understated while remaining natty.

Although Kelly favors a somewhat wider necktie, whether in a navy blazer and what the English call “odd trousers,” usually of gray flannel or one of his well-cut suits. Kelly always looks dashing and appropriately clad for either his Newsmax show or while dining in the more popular boîtes in Manhattan. At this point, Kelly may move next year to the Hall of Fame Style Icon Awards and, therefore, a permanent place on this List.

Pierce Brosnan

The James Bond actor-turned-November Man’s appearance at Wimbledon 2024 was iconic. He apparently raided the wardrobe before he left the set of the Bond films and has kept to it. At work of play, Brosnan is always the well-turned-out gentleman. This is his first year on the List.

Julia Garner

This blonde bombshell seems to be able to slip into anything and make it a masterpiece. Last year we lauded her Barbieesque outfit at the Golden Globes.

This year, she has favored open-shoulder ensembles that are proactive yet conservative at the same time.

Bravo!

Congressman Cory Mills

The Congressman from Florida’s 7th District is by far one the snazziest dressers in Congress. Yes, he is a combat veteran who does not need to impress people. Yet he still does. Mills does not spare any expense either; he is tailored by the best. But if you find him at a BBQ or cook-off in Sanford, not only will he eat, but he will be dressed like the rest of us.

Anna Eskamani, State Representative (FL)

Yes, she is far-left, but her wardrobe is always right. The Iranian immigrant is almost always working on affordable housing and a higher minimum wage…. but that does not stop her from dressing to the nines. Again, our List is not about politics but about style.

While Hillary Clinton has forever ruined the pantsuit, Eskamani pulls it off with ease. This is her first year on the List—she means business!

Sid Rosenberg

Sid Rosenberg favors designer Joseph Abboud’s sports jackets and suits when he hits the streets, sports bars, or travels internationally. His wise choice of Joseph Abboud’s silhouette subtlety accentuates Sid’s athletic build. This is his first year on the list, but certainly not his last.

Jon Yapo

A political fixer who knows how to get down with the get down. You can catch him at Wally’s or at Kres, always appropriately dressed.

One thing he totally understands… style over fashion. He has appeared on the Best Dressed category before and gets a second appearance this year. If he keeps it up, he will be a serious contender for the Hall of Fame Style Icon Award next year.

HONORABLE MENTION

John Tabacco

I endeavor in the compilation of this list to avoid repetition and while it is easy to pinpoint those who are poorly attired, it is much more difficult to choose those who are truly well-turned-out.

John Tabacco, who hosts Wise Guys on Newsmax, is exceptionally well-dressed with a distinctly Italian-influenced flare. We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge his sartorial superiority. He was on last year’s List and is a strong contender to return next year.

WORST DRESSED

Sean “P Diddy” Combs

While this might seem like a layup, it most certainly is not. We are not talking about the “Freak Off” king’s orange jumpsuit as he awaits trial at the MDC in New York.

We are talking about the days leading up to his arrest, which he knew was coming. Imagine being someone with immense fame and wealth, yet you step out for a night on the town wearing what looks like something a half-rate street painter would wear.

Had the “jacket” been white, he would have looked like a medical examiner. Puffy did not even bother to conceal his drawstrings and sported a black t-shirt that someone would buy at a gas station near one of those motels outside of LaGuardia where you get three for $20.

At any rate, at least he was not walking around with a bottle of baby oil in hand.

Ellen Degeneres

The disgraced daytime TV host has never been known for her style and 2024 has marked an extremely low point for Degeneres, who infamously fled the United States last month.

When not on television, she cannot seem to find anything to wear except hoodies and sweatpants. There is a time and place for such attire: at the gym! It is almost as if she is raiding a teenager’s closet, rather than attempting to dress with any class or purpose.

Sam Smith, “Musician”

Some have called his attempts at high-fashion, or dare we stay style, “daring.” Yes, they are “daring” if they are supposed to be daringly grotesque or absolutely vomit-inducing. A once-promising musical talent is far too caught up in the zeitgeist of outrage and protest. Smith does not seem to be able to choose between men’s clothes and women’s, which might be a good start if he is to ever improve his “look.”

Billie Eilish

To the surprise of many, we actually like Billie Eilish’s beats, but when it comes to her manner of dress, she needs to completely rethink her wardrobe.

Eilish makes the Worst Dressed category for her crimes against good taste. What the hell are you wearing?

United States Senator John Fetterman

If Ellen Degeneres came back to the United States and got elected to the US Senate, her and Fetterman could form the “Hobo” caucus. We understand that Fetterman is a large guy, but that is no excuse to dress like a slovenly bum. You know it is bad when Steve Bannon looks like he is straight out of GQ magazine in comparison.

Invest in at least ONE properly tailored suit, Senator!

Lil Nas X

We get that he is leaning heavily into the Satanic shtick, not that we agree with it. As we have addressed before, there is merit in challenging boundaries and being proactive.

However, with Lil Nas X, it is just outrageous, for outrage’s sake. It is boring and frankly weird at this point. His wardrobe is all over the place; dresses, oversized fits, and again… just absolute weirdness.

He has done the bizarre. He has made people go “WTF” too many times to count. Wear something tasteful for once!

President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy

We have shipped this guy billions of dollars, but he cannot bother to wear a suit even when he met President-elect Trump in Paris for the dedication the Notre-Dame Cathedral or when he addressed a joint session of Congress? I understand that it is a costume emulating Fidel Castro wearing fatigues to eventuate his role as a rebel, but on more formal occasions, the entire ensemble is disrespectful to the American taxpayer. Funny though, he can wear a suit and tie to address Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum.

Jill Biden

At this point, can anyone be convinced that her entire wardrobe is not made entirely of
clearance window curtains and tablecloths? Jackie O is rolling in her grave each day “Dr.” Biden rolls out of bed and dresses for the day.

A Vogue cover she does not deserve. Funny how Melania Trump, without question the best-dressed First Lady since Jackie O, never appeared on the cover of that magazine.

This is not political; my International Best & Worst Dressed List never is. In fact, her husband, President Joe Biden, was actually on last year’s Best Dressed List and his choice of tasteful neckwear cannot be denied. The current First Lady’s fashion choices leave so much to be desired.

Stephen K. Bannon

Steve Bannon is the resident MAGA hobo. I think he got most of his wardrobe at Goodwill. As you know, Bannon has been in the Worst Dressed category before, but this year he seems to think that an all black ensemble at the New York Republican’s annual gala would let him escape.

I honestly think Steve dumpster-dives for his wardrobe. If this is his attempt to look like “everyman,” he just looks slovenly. Better grooming would also help. No one can doubt his impact, but his influence will be magnified if he cleaned up his act. Sorry Steve, style is not you. We must remind everyone that the International Best & Worst Dressed is not a political, social, or stylistic dig. It is just pure sartorial analysis and opinion.

NEXT YEAR

If you have suggestions for the 2024 List, please e-mail stoneonstyle@stonezone.com with your ideas throughout the year.

And remember—fashion is fleeting; style is timeless.

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It takes just as much time to be well dressed as it does to be poorly dressed—but the way a man is groomed and dressed is how he presents himself to the world.

The designer Mary Quant once said about clothing, “People like you better without knowing why, because people always react well to a person they like the looks of.” It was Mark Twain who said, “Clothes make the man.”

It takes just as much time to be well dressed as it does to be poorly dressed—but the way a man is groomed and dressed is how he presents himself to the world.

The designer Mary Quant once said about clothing, “People like you better without knowing why, because people always react well to a person they like the looks of.” It was Mark Twain who said, “Clothes make the man.”

Because I favor a distinctive manner of dress, and because I confess a weakness for bold pinstripes and occasionally wear a homberg hat and because I favor a full cut trouser that hangs from the shoulder ,suspended by a pair of braces (called suspenders  in the United States) haters on-line insist that I dress like a "Batman villain". They know nothing.

In 1960 George Frazier wrote a seminal piece on the Art of Dressing well. Well, many of the tailors and other sources he mentions are long gone. His philosophy of dress is well worth recounting:

"The Art of Wearing Clothes" by George Frazier, Esquire September 1960

Hugo JACOMET

The history of this rare masculine art and of the men who practice it supremely well.

Many a vagrant vogue has prevailed and perished in the hundred-and-fifty-odd years since George Bryan (Beau) Brummell resigned from the tony Tenth Hussars upon being denied permission to wear a uniform of his own design, but the criterion by which men are adjudged either beautifully or badly dressed is still what it was in that dandified day when people cherished the belief that the Beau achieved the flawless fit of his gloves by having the fingers made by one man and the thumbs by another.

Now, as then, an impeccably turned-out male is characterized by the same "certain exquisite propriety" of dress that Lord Byron admired so abundantly in Brummell. "If John Bull turns to look after you,

" the Beau once observed, "you are not well-dressed, but either too stiff, too tight, or too fashionable."

This was Brummell's bequest—his irreproachably tasteful simplicity.

What's more, it is the one constant in the fickleness of fashion, nor has any mode, no matter how maniac, ever proved it spinach—neither the cult of pipe-stemmed perfection that caused any true Edwardian dandy to shudder at the thought of having, as Max Beerbohm put it, "the incomparable set of his trousers spoilt by the perching of any dear little child upon his knee"; nor the autograph-slickered, bell-bottomed callowness of the "cake-eaters" and "sheiks" who found their laureate in John Held, Jr.

; nor the casual coolness of all the beer jackets of Princeton springtimes; nor the abortive and itinerant "Italian style"; nor, for that matter, even the natural-shouldered, pleatless-trousered look that is known as "Ivy League," but that by any name at all would still be the Brooks Brothers No. 1 sack suit.

Prior to Brummell, men had dressed to almost freakish excess. Thus, according to Hayden's Dictionary of Dates, Sir Walter Raleigh wore:". . . a white-satin-pinked vest close-sleeved to the wrist, and over the body a doublet finely flowered, and embroidered with pearls, and in the feather of his hat a large ruby and pearl drop at the bottom of the sprig in place of a button. His breeches, with his stockings and ribbon garters, fringed at the end, all white; and buff shoes, which, on great court days, were so gorgeously covered with precious stones as to have exceeded the value of 6,600 pounds; and he had a suit of armor of solid silver, with sword and hilt blazing with diamonds, rubies and pearls.

"Nor was Lord Buckingham, James I's favorite, any shrinking violet either, for, as Hayden has it, he "had his diamonds tacked so loosely on [his robe] that when he chose to shake a few off on the ground, he obtained all the fame he desired from the pickers-up.

"And then, too, there was Prince von Kaunitz, who achieved the desired shad of his wig by strolling back and forth while four lackeys sprayed it with different tints of scented powder. Indeed, in those pre-Brummell years, men were such peacocks that The Times of London used to describe their clothes in as minute and fascinated detail as it did women's.

With the Beau's arrival in London, however, restraint in male attire became the order of the day and, for that matter, of every debonair day thereafter. It is, in fact, almost impossible to exaggerate Brummell's influence, for as Virginia Woolf has said, "Without a single noble, important, or valuable action to his credit, he cuts a figure; he stands for a symbol; his ghost walks among us still.

" Indeed, because of him alone simplicity became the hallmark of the well-dressed man, whether he be a Victorian Prime Minister named Lord Melbourne, an American general named A. J. Drexel Biddle, a former Secretary of State named Dean Acheson, or a song-and-dance man out of Omaha named Fred Astaire.

But Brummell, far from being a prophet without honor, was a legend even in his own lifetime—a circumstance, incidentally, that he helped propagate by circulating rumors to the effect that, among other primping practices, he mixed champagne in his boot polish, employed three different coiffeurs to do his hair (one for the temples, another for the crown, and a third for the front), and had once jilted a rich and beautiful noblewoman because he couldn't abide the way she ate cabbage.

Nevertheless, his fussiness was genuine and it was a matter of record that he refused to take off his hat to ladies for fear that he might not be able to get it back on his head at the precisely rakish angle. Furthermore, his concern for himself was so rapt that he was able to identify his troop only because one of its members had "a very large blue nose.

" Yet for all his affectations, he was possessed of a sense of beauty that bordered on genius. So flawless was the fit of Brummell's coat that, according to Byron, "It seemed as if the body thought."Indeed, next to the Beau himself, Byron must have been Brummell's most ardent admirer—a circumstance, by the way, that must seem a little incredible, for, as famous as he was, as handsome, as talented, as nobly-born, and as much a lion among the ladies, Byron, who achieved his own wind-blown "Byronic" look by putting his hair up in curlers at bedtime, spent sleepless nights tossing over his inability to tie a neckcloth with any of Brummell's surpassing skill.

As it happened, the Beau, who took three hours to dress and used to change his clothes three times a day, made such a ritual of tying his neckcloth that the Prince of Wales, who, it was said, "would rather be amiable and familiar with his tailor than agreeable and friendly with the most illustrious members of the aristocracy," considered it a privilege to be permitted to observe the ceremony. The trick was to wrinkle the twelve-inch-wide white muslin which was wound horizontally around the neck, into the five-or-so inches between the chin and shoulder blades.

This "creasing down," as it was known, was accomplished by Brummell's reclining in his chair as if he were being shaved and, when the cloth was finally wound around his neck, sinking his head, ever so slowly, until the muslin wrinkled to perfection, for, as Virginia Woolf has said, "If one wrinkle was too deep or too shallow, the cloth was thrown into a basket and the attempt renewed.

" Once, when a visitor inquired what Brummell's valet was carrying as he descended from his master's dressing room, he was informed, "These are our failures, sir." This was what has since come to be known as "studied carelessness"—"the perfect art," as Kathleen Campbell has said, "which conceals art, that satisfying spontaneity which can be achieved only by taking intense thought.

"Nowadays, it is to be observed in such seeming trifles as the way that a well-dressed man wears a handkerchief in his breast pocket. Unlike the wrong way—a squarish effect which, though the handkerchief is merely thrust into the pocket, gives a highly contrived look—it consists of fluffing the handkerchief so painstakingly that it seems merely to have been thrust into the pocket. But even studied carelessness cannot make a man well-dressed if he lacks, in Max Beerbohm's words, "physical distinction, a sense of beauty, and either cash or credit.

" Moreover, if age cannot wither, neither, for that matter, can custom-tailoring stale the man who has those attributes.It is scarcely a coincidence that not only are most "best-dressed" men more than forty years of age, but also that they rarely, if ever, wear ready-made clothes. For in addition to good looks and clothes sense, they have by and large, enough money to afford the invaluable collaboration of superb tailors like Bernard Weatherill and H. Harris in New York and E. Tautz in London; of such American shirtmakers as Dudley G. Eldridge, Brooks Brothers, and Sulka's, and Turnbull & Asser of London; of bootmakers like Lobb of St. James's Street in London (which is, incidentally, one of the most beautiful shops in the world) and the Boston Bootmakers of Boston; of tiemakers like Dudley G. Eldridge, Sulka's, and Brooks Brothers in this country and Turnbull & Asser abroad; and, equally important, of barbers as skilled as, say, the celebrated Vincent Battaglia of the Plaza Hotel.

"Best-dressed" men are, almost without exception, committed to nothing but the best (though not necessarily the most expensive), and even their shoes must be polished (and, frequently, boned) to perfection—just as was the case in Regency London when the death of one Lieutenant-Colonel Kelly of the First Foot Guards sent all the dandies racing to hire his valet, who was rumored to have a secret formula that had imparted the incomparable sheen to his late master's footwear.

When, incidentally, the valet let it be known that he expected a salary of two hundred pounds a year, Brummell told him, "If you will make it guineas, I shall be happy to attend upon you.

" As things were to turn out, there was a certain ominousness about this anecdote, for it reveals Brummell at the critical moment when he was beginning to lose one of the three ingredients that combine to make a man well-dressed—in this case, his credit with his tailor, Schweitzer & Davidson of Cork Street, Piccadilly. When, a bit later on, he began to lose his trim figure as well, he was no longer the glass of fashion mirroring the most elegant of all eras.Obviously, the credentials required for recognition as an authentically well-dressed man are not very readily come by. Thus in the case of a certain attractive young New York advertising executive who wears suits, shirts, and ties of impeccable taste, the disqualification lies in his weakness for bizarre footwear, particularly during the summer, when he frequently appears in what Murray Kempton has described as "those obscene ventilated shoes.

"Yet for all the range of varied views expressed about men's clothes—reactions extending all the way from Thoreau's admonition to "Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes," and Hawthorne's austere conviction that "Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves will in general become of no more value than their dress," to Max Beerbohm's airy belief that no man can cut a dashing figure unless he is sufficiently clothes-conscious not to be distracted by a job or family—there is at least a measure of accord about the fact that, though clothes do not necessarily make the man, they do, if becoming, make him confident and content. "A man," said Dickens' Mark Tapley, "may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well-dressed. There ain't much credit in that.

"Brummell, for instance, had, like most flawlessly turned-out men, an air of such unassailable authority that he provided a shining example for Scott Fitzgerald's later claim that "Gentlemen's clothes are a symbol of the 'power that man must hold and that passes from race to race.' " It may well have been a desire for this sense of security that derives from being well-dressed that prompted young American officers in the First World War to put on new white gloves before going into battle. Actually, the gloves need not have been new—merely spotlessly clean—for in men's clothes (far more so than in women's) age lends a certain reassuring patina. "Trust not," warned Carlyle, "the heart of that man for whom old clothes are not venerable," an attitude that was subsequently endorsed by Rupert Brooke, who sang of "the good smell of old clothes.

"Part of the appeal of old clothes lies, of course, in the fact that one becomes almost dependent upon them. They are, as it were, known quantities, and, rather than discard them, one goes to great lengths to keep them serviceable, having, for instance, a favorite jacket relined or the frayed collars and cuffs of a well-cut shirt turned. One of the most attractive items in Joseph Bryan III's wardrobe, for example, is a dinner coat that, except for having been relined and having had its buttons tightened, is precisely as it was when his father had it made in 1912.

There is, after all, a certain amount of experimentation, of trial-and-error involved in wearing new things, a peril, by the way, that Dickens noted in Great Expectations, where he says, "Probably every new and eagerly expected garment ever put on since clothes came in falls a trifle short of the wearer's expectations." Furthermore, it is a fact that old clothes—provided, of course, that they are of the highest quality—have become molded to one's body, which is why no first-rate tailor considers his job completed until he has altered certain minor shortcomings that become apparent only after a customer has worn a suit a half-dozen-or-so times. Once a suit has received its maker's approval, however, it requires infinitely less care than do inferior garments.Hetherington Turnbull, the head of F. L. Dunne's (a bespoke tailor of such prestige that when John P. Marquand did a reverent article about it for Vogue, he asked that his recompense be a Dunne suit) has not had his dinner coat pressed once in the more-than-thirty years since it was made.

As it happens, however, the best-dressed American men—at least for the most part—not only cherish venerable clothes, but cherish venerable milieux as well. Like their apparel, they, too, are full of tradition, being, rather more often than not, products of such sanctified New England private schools as St. Mark's, Groton, and St. Paul's, and of ivied universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton; living, not in such youthful and characterless cities as Los Angeles, but in either what Roger Angell has termed "The Effete East"—which is to say the hallowed ground of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and the posher precincts of Long Island—or in such proper outposts as Richmond and San Francisco; and belonging to such select clubs as the Racquet & Tennis and the Brook in Manhattan, the Southampton on Long Island, the Somerset in Boston, the Philadelphia in Philadelphia, and, as nonresident members, Buck's and White's in London.

They walk, so to speak, in beauty, and at dusk, when not playing backgammon at such sanctuaries, they turn up at beatified bars like the ones in the St. Regis in New York and the Ritz-Carlton in Boston. Furthermore, they not only respect, but quite often indeed are exceedingly fond of the men who sell them clothes—which, after all, is the way they were brought up, down through the years since Christmas vacations when Brooks Brothers was where, in a manner of speaking, they hung their childhood, and with such correct consequences that, in their navy-blue overcoats from Rowes of London, they were proper and personable little gentlemen indeed. And afterwards, on the mornings of their weddings, it would have been absolutely unthinkable not to have had a Brooks Brothers representative on hand to tie their and their ushers' ascots.

For this, everything considered, is the authentically well-dressed American man's way of life, even unto J. P. Morgan's having customarily greeted one Brooks employee with a deferential, "Good morning, Mr. Webb," and having had Mr. Webb reply, "Good morning, Jack." Always there is noblesse oblige.Almost without exception, the best-dressed men have, very simply and very vernacularly, colossal class. And being, in most cases, to the manor born, they feel no urgency, as do less secure men, to be either obvious or extravagant. Thus although there was nothing in the least amiss about the fact that the late Herbert Bayard Swope (whose claims to chicness were deflated one night when Damon Runyon pointed out to Leonard Lyons the unpardonable offense of Swope's creased sleeves) happened to favor expensive monogrammed hosiery, it is, nevertheless, not without a certain significance that, for both daytime and formal evening occasions, A. J. Drexel Biddle wears black-ribbed "fine lisle vat-dyed" socks (which have nylon reinforced toes and heels) that cost him only a dollar a pair at Jacob Reed's in Philadelphia.

Although it would be altogether too arbitrary to single out Biddle, the sixty-three-year-old Adjutant General of Pennsylvania, as the best-dressed man in the United States, it would, at the same time, be something of a task to find a male more elegant than he, not only in this country, but anywhere else in the world. Other well-dressed men are the first to acknowledge this, none, however, any more tangibly than Ahmet Ertegun, a son of the late Turkish Ambassador to the United States.

Some years ago, when Ertegun somehow came into possession of a suit that had been made for Biddle by E. Tautz of London in 1923, he promptly put it into a protective cellophane covering and hung it in a closet. It has remained there ever since, emerging only when he wears it on some opulent occasion or when he permits clothes-conscious male visitors the privilege of admiring its splendid cut, caressing its incomparable stitching.

On the elegant face of things, one would probably imagine that "Tony" Biddle has closet upon closet of clothes. Actually, this Main Line Philadelphian, whose father was the epic figure about whom the playThe Happiest Millionaire was written and whom himself was one of the most extraordinary participants in the Second World War, has so sparse a wardrobe that Lord Byron, for one, and Lieutenant General Rafael Trujillo, Jr., for another, would feel that it amounted to not having a stitch to their names.

On June 20, 1812, for example, Byron, according to Leslie A. Marchand, his most incisive biographer:

". . . bought '12 Fine white Quilting Waistcoats'; on July 1 'A spfine Olive Court dress Coat lined Completely thro wh White Silk, 20 Elegantly Cut & Highly polished Steele buttons, A very rich Embroidered Court dress Waistcoat, and A pair rich black Silk Breeches.' In August and September he added dozens of other items, bringing the total bill on September 18 to £243.10s."As for Trujillo, his taste in clothes is apparently as undiscriminating as it is in certain other matters. He once commissioned a New York tailor to make him—sight unseen!—fourteen suits at $285 each, four sports jackets at $196 apiece, ten sports shirts at from $20 to $30 each, twenty-five $33 dress shirts, fifty $7.50 neckties, and four pairs of slacks at $88 a pair.

Even in its entirety, Biddle's wardrobe seems, by contrast, almost monastic. It includes seven so-called business suits—two double- and one single-breasted navy-blue serge; one double- and one single-breasted dark-blue pin-stripe flannel; one single-breasted charcoal-grey flannel. (They were made by either H. Harris of New York, who charges $225 and up for a two-piece suit, or E. Tautz of London who charges, as to do most topnotch British tailors, almost a quarter less.

All have skeleton alpaca linings and the sleeves have three buttons and open buttonholes. The single-breasteds have three-button, notched-lapel jackets.) For formal daytime wear, Biddle has a charcoal-grey cheviot cutaway, a single-breasted white waistcoat, and black trousers with broad white stripes. (With these, he wears a black silk ascot and a wide wing collar.) For semiformal daytime occasions, he has a charcoal-grey single-breasted cheviot sack coat and trousers, in either black or Cambridge grey, with broad white stripes. Besides a ready-made Aquascutum raincoat, Biddle owns three outer coats—a double-breasted blue chinchilla ($175 from Tautz), a single-breasted light drab covert cloth ($225, H. Harris), and a double-breasted polo coat with white bone buttons ($325, Harris). He has, in addition to a tweed cap, four hats, all of them purchased at Lock's in London too many years ago for him to recall exactly what they cost. One is a high-silk, one an opera hat, and the other two homburgs—one black and one green.

For formal evening wear, Biddle has tails ($175, Tautz), a double-breasted dinner coat with satin shawl lapels ($150, Tautz), and, for warm weather, two single-breasted, shawl-collared white gabardine dinner coats ($98 each, Tautz). His evening shirts, with which he wears a conventionally-shaped bow tie, have pleats, roll collars, and are made for him by Dudley G. Eldridge of New York at $28 each.Biddle's sports clothes include three tweed jackets ($160 each, Harris), three pairs of charcoal-grey flannel slacks, and a half-dozen button-down shirts made by Eldridge out of silk that he, Biddle, bought in Spain. His shoes, of which he has three pairs of black for daytime wear and one patent leather and one calfskin for evening wear, were made by Paulsen & Stone of London, who also made for him, for sports wear, a pair of black moccasins, a pair of black loafers, and two pairs of white canvas shoes with brown leather toes and rubber soles (which he wears with either prewar white flannels or an ancient double-breasted light-grey sharkskin suit).

Biddle's neck-band shirts, which are either starched dickey bosoms (elongated so that the bosoms extend below the middle button of his jacket) or semi-starched pleated bosoms, have white cuffs and bodies of either grey or light blue. They cost $26 each and are made by Eldridge, who also makes his stiff white collars ($3 each) and his ties ($7.50 each), which run to solid black silks and discreet shepherd checks and are shaped so as to make a knot small enough to fit neatly into a hard collar. His underwear is ready-made and comes from Jacob Reed's.As for his military wardrobe, it seems downright skimpy when compared with what, according to Leslie A. Marchand, Lord Byron had on hand during his service in Greece:

"Two Braided Plaid Jackets, 4 pair of Trowsers, Red Cloth Jacket braided with Black, Red Cloth Jacket trimmed with Gold Lace, Four Full Dress Uniform Coats trimmed with Gold Lace, Two Pair Blue Trowsers trimmed with Gold Lace . . . 2 Helmets with Gilt Ornaments (Homeric helmets, gilt with an overtowering plume, under which . . . were his coat of arms and the motto 'Crede Byron'), Six Pair of Gold Lace Epaulets, One Pair of Silver Lace Epaulets, 5 Gold Lace Sword Knots, and various guns and equipment, including ten swords and a sword stick."Biddle somehow manages to squeeze by on a total of five uniforms.

Like all men with innate clothes sense, Biddle eschews such abominations as ankle-length socks, matching tie-and-handkerchief sets, huge cuff links, conspicuous tie clasps, and, most hideous of all, cellophane hat covers. Indeed, well-dressed men, almost without exception, are interested in something novel in clothing, only when it is both as attractive and functional as, say the duffer coat, which proved its value to the Royal Navy in the Second World War.Naturally, Biddle's coat sleeves are not only uncreased, but also of such length as to permit a fraction-of-an-inch of his shirt cuff to show—as, similarly, the neck of his jacket is cut so that the back of his shirt collar is exposed. As for the width of his trousers and coat lapels, it is determined, not by the extreme narrowness that is something of a rage these days, but by, respectively, the length of his foot and the breadth of his shoulders. He selects, in short, clothes that become him. For anyone who is not as "clean favored and imperially slim . . . and admirably schooled in every grace" as Biddle is, the Biddle style of dress would be preposterous. Few things are more precarious than the indiscriminate aping of another man's wardrobe.

If, for example, the Cary Grant of To Catch a Thief was culpable of anything, it was less his onetime activities as a "cat burglar" than the fact that his clothes in that movie aroused such demonstrative admiration among women that any number of men were inspired to try to copy the actor's wardrobe. For the most part, the results were disastrous. It should be noted, by the way, that women should never be permitted to counsel men about clothes. "No woman," says author Finis Farr, "really knows anything about men's clothes. How could she? After all, she's conditioned to obsolescence, to the principle that things go out of fashion. Well-dressed men know that nothing worth-while is ever outmoded, that a superb tailor's work is ageless.

"It is, of course, a manifestation of A. J. Drexel Biddle's clothes sense that he patronizes such superb tailors as E. Tautz in London and H. Harris in New York. Conceivably, he might, with equally impressive results, go to any one of several others, among them Kilgour, French & Stanbury, Strachan & Hunt, E. C. Squires, Davis & Anderson, and Sandon in London and, in New York, F. L. Dunne, Bernard Weatherill, Pat Sylvestri, Lord of New York, Brooks Brothers, and Rosenthal-Maretz. If, as is most unlikely, he happened to be residing in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he could avail himself of the services of T and T, which, though not stylistically creative, can, like its Hong Kong counterparts, produce hand-stitched, authentically custom-tailored suits for as little as $75 each.Although the British, by and large, are more skilled and less expensive than the Americans, not even the very best of them is superior to Weatherill and Harris, which, if not necessarily without peer, are certainly unsurpassed in this country. It is almost impossible, however, to generalize about American tailors, for, unlike their London counterparts, few of them are cast in the same mold. On the one hand, for example, are the Weatherill's and Harris', which, though quite able to turn out any style of suit, are assertively uninfluenced by fads, and, on the other, the likes of Lord of New York, whose clientele, for the most part, is disposed toward the Ivy League cut. But of all American tailors, no two, notwithstanding their conspicuous dissimilarities, are more representative than Weatherill, which is hallowed, and Lord, which is youthful and, despite no genuine feeling for tradition, immensely worth-while because of the meticulous workmanship of its Peter D'Annunzio.

Bernard Weatherill, which has been thriving in New York City for more than thirty-five years, is owned by Charles Weatherill (whose brother Bernard has a shop in London), is terribly British, and, as such, posh, polite, and paneled. Yet for all its innate respect for the old, Weatherill has a lively enough interest in the new to enable it to satisfy even the most progressive-minded members of the well-heeled younger generation. It is also very horsy, indeed, being unquestionably the foremost American maker of sidesaddle habits and riding breeches (which it measures to within one-sixteenth of an inch in New York and, because of prohibitive labor costs in this country, then has executed in London).

Such, in fact, is its artistry at this sort of thing that it is the only American tailoring establishment to have made a "Regulation Club evening and driving kit" for a member of the London Coaching Club.Weatherill charges $260 and up for a three-piece suit, takes some three weeks to turn it out, and feels that a perfect fit is achieved only with one's third suit. In the tradition of British bespoke tailoring, it favors four buttons with buttonholes on the sleeves of business suits and a single one on sports jackets (though it does think it rather jolly to add a second one—on the side of the sleeve next to the body—that permits the wearer to button the sleeves tightly around the wrists in foul weather). Where Weatherill (along with other topnotch American firms) has a distinct advantage over the British is in its ability to make a superb tropical-weight suit. Moreover, unlike London establishments, it does not feel that if a tailor is satisfied with a garment, the customer should be too.

One day at Weatherill in London, for example, a cutter suddenly grabbed his shears and began slashing a suit because of his umbrage at the fact that the customer who was trying it on had not expressed his satisfaction promptly enough. Weatherill in New York does, however, like to keep a fatherly eye on its garments and, for four dollars, it will hand-press (which takes an hour or more) any suit, no matter how ancient, that came from its work benches.

Unlike Weatherill, Lord of New York is brash, explorative, and highly disorganized. Chronologically, Lord of New York is a branch of a genealogy that goes all the way back to 1835 and Brooks Brothers' natural-shoulder—or, as it is precisely known, No. 1—sack suit. Around the turn of the century, Arthur Rosenberg, then the foremost tailor in New Haven, began to exploit this style among Yale undergraduates, and, not long afterwards, J. Press, also of New Haven, fell into line.

Eventually, two Rosenberg employees, Sam Rosenthal and Moe Maretz, went out on their own as Rosenthal-Maretz; then Bill Fenn and Jack Feinstein left David T. Langrock to form Fenn-Feinstein (now associated with Frank Brothers). Somewhat later on, Mort Sill and (a year later) Jonas Arnold quit Press and opened a shop in Harvard Square, Cambridge, which they called Chipp.Then, with his partner's departure to form Sill (New York and Harvard Square), Jonas Arnold entered into an agreement whereby two former Press employees—Sid Winston and the late Lou Prager—were permitted to use Chipp as the name of the shop they were about to open in New York. Arnold, who closed his Cambridge store several years ago, is still a partner in the New York Chipp's. In 1952, Lord of New York was begat by Chipp—or, more accurately, by three of its former employees, Ken Frank, Mike Fers, and Peter D'Annunzio. Lord charges $195 and up for a two-piece hand-stitched suit lined with tie silk. Unlike Chipp, it neither charges extra for open buttonholes on jacket sleeves nor does it line coat collars with foulard. Unlike J. Press, it resists such gimmicks as lining the breast pocket of a jacket with foulard that can be turned inside-out to serve as a handkerchief.

In recent years the renaissance of interest in men's clothes and the increased number of tasteful men's shops have, rather ironically, provided the creative dresser with progressively fewer opportunities to express himself. By the same token, though, the American male, who for decades had been something of a sartorial fright, suddenly began to look presentable—so conspicuously so, in fact, that recently Osbert Lancaster, the cartoonist for the London Daily Express, returned from a visit to the United States and promptly abandoned drawing the garish-looking man who for years had represented his conception of the American male. In its stead was a subdued, almost Brooks-Brotherish figure. "The old self-confident, easily-bamboozled, back-slapping person is a figure of the past," said Lancaster.

It could hardly have been otherwise, for nowadays even the smallest town has a men's shop that carries the same suits and haberdashery that are on sale at, say Madison Avenue and Forty-fifth Street in New York. New Bedford, Massachusetts, for example, has Marty Sullivan's, a store so attuned to the fickleness of fashion that it has its buyers and designers spend part of their Manhattan visitations in such bars-and-grills as P. J. Clarke's, which attracts an extremely creatively-dressed Ivy League clientele.

Furthermore, shops like Sullivan's—Eddie Jacobs' in Baltimore; Dick Carroll's in Los Angeles; and, in New York, Casual-aire, Paul Stuart's, Phil's, to name a few—are far from expensive. What's more, at their best—Atkinson's in Los Angeles and Pasadena, California, and the Andover Shops in Cambridge and Andover, Massachusetts, which derive much of their appeal from the superb workmanship of Frank Spade, the head tailor, and the creativeness of co-owner, Charles Davidson—they are superlatively tasteful. Even in 1960, however, not all ready-made suits are low-priced. Oxxford, for example, turns out a suit that costs $235 and up, is impeccably tailored, and has a following among affluent men who are either too impatient to hold still for custom fittings or dislike investing in a garment without knowing how it will look when finished.

From the point of view of style, the best ready-made American suit is turned out by Norman Hilton, a young, enterprising, and discerning Princeton alumnus who, among other things, makes blazers and sports coats for Brooks Brothers. (Contrary to prevalent opinion, Brooks Brothers does not manufacture all its wares, but has certain items made to its specifications and on its own models. Only the label "Brooks Brothers Makers" means a Brooks-manufactured garment.)

Although Brooks Brothers (which also goes in for custom clothes) can no longer be regarded as the unique pace-setter it was prior to the recent renaissance of interest in men's clothes, it still carries come matchless items, notably its neckwear and shirts, particularly its white buttondown in Pima broadcloth, which costs $8.50 and, among ready-made shirts, is in a class by itself.

By and large, however, elegance resides in the individual. No Bernard Weatherill, no Brooks Brothers, No E. Tautz, no Dudley Eldridge can do more than minister to its tastes. It is never easily come by and, once achieved, it must be vigilantly preserved

—by boning one's shoes and putting trees in them at night, by using molded hangers, and by all such other good care as is constantly stressed in the imaginative and informative Wallachs ads that appear three times a week in The New York Times andHerald Tribune and, while of a somewhat different tone, compare, for candor, readability, informativeness, and wit with the extraordinary ads for Zareh of Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts, one of the few authentically tasteful men's shops in the United States. And elegance must also be guarded pridefully. When a radio interviewer accused the late Michael Arlen of not being able to write so well as Evelyn Waugh, Arlen said, "Ah, yes, that's quite true, but I dress better than Evelyn."Elegance, however, need not be visible. Moss Hart, for example, is partial to monogrammed solid-gold collar stays. Freddie Cripps, the celebrated London dandy, is equally unconcerned with making an impression on anybody but himself, his chief indulgence being a refusal to have his underwear made anywhere but in Vienna, to which he commutes regularly for fittings. But elegance need not be expensive either. In the case of the late William Rhinelander Stewart, for example, elegance was nothing more costly than not venturing out in the evening without first having his rumpled paper money ironed flat by his valet!

----------------------

"I don't consider myself 'the well-dressed man. I don't make any effort in that direction. I do take a little pains occasionally with my clothes but just to feel comfortable. I also like to wear things that others don't. I rather enjoy fooling around with a new note here and there to see how it comes off."I don't think a man's clothes should be conspicuous. If they are noticed, it should be because of their conservativeness. It depends, of course, on the individual as to how the whole thing comes off."I like colors. Red silk handkerchiefs and colored shirts and socks too."I like double-breasted suits and they'll come back, by gosh. All those little tailor shops that have signs in their windows, 'Have your outmoded double-breasted suit made into a single,' may have to change their tune. But they can never say, 'Have your single made into a double.' Aha! It won't work!"

—Fred Astaire

"P.S. I forgot to mention that I often take a brand-new suit or hat and throw it up against the wall a few times to get that stiff, square newness out of it."

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"One is prepared for most daytime and some evening occasions, if he has a navy-blue serge, and a charcoal-grey—and possibly a light-grey—flannel suit. Their number and weights depend upon one's means, requirements, and the climate in which one lives—just as the choice between a single- or double-breasted jacket should be guided by one's judgment as to which would prove the more appropriate to his build.

"Then, too, to meet his basic requirements, one should have a dinner jacket. A navy-blue overcoat will satisfy both his daytime and evening requirements.

"As to cut: I personally prefer a jacket to fit precisely around the neck and the shoulders, and under the arms. For accommodation of these requirements permits the jacket to be perceptibly but not exaggeratedly cut in at the waist, as well as to be draped on the back, and to end in a slight flair—and withal, to render the appearance of hanging loosely from the shoulders.

"Then, of course, if one's activities require it, a full evening dress suit would be indicated. Aside from the coat's necessarily fitting snugly at the waist, care should be taken to see that the bottom of the white waistcoat is covered by the front of the coat.

"I very much admire the beneficial nation-wide influence of the ready-made clothing industry upon the maintenance of good taste in masculine attire—and the industry's capability of making clothes available at reasonable prices. The reason most of my clothes are custom-made is because, due to my measurements, I encounter considerable difficulty in the matter of sizes. If I find a ready-made jacket that fits me around the shoulders, there would be enough room in the trousers and in the rest of the jacket to accommodate several others besides myself. On the other hand, if I find a pair of trousers with a proper-fitting waistline, the shoulders of the jacket would be so snug as to preclude satisfactory alteration."

—A. J. Drexel Biddle

Madras, Wikipedia tells us is a lightweight cotton fabric with typically patterned texture and plaid design, used primarily for summer mens trousers, shirts and sports jacket (although, egad, never together!)

The fabric takes its name from the former English name of the city of Chennai, India. This cloth also was identified by the colloquial name, Madrasi checks. Madras today is available as plaid patterns in regular cotton, seersucker and as patchwork madras.

Madras is notable because the front and back of the fabric are indistinguishable. One style popular during the 1960s was called bleeding Madras. It used dyes that were not colorfast in a typically plaiddesign, resulting in bleeding and fading colors that yielded a new look to the fabric each time it was laundered.

Patchwork madras is fabric that is derived from cutting several madras plaid fabrics into strips, and sewing them back together as squares of 3 inch sizes, that form a mixed pattern of various plaids criss crossing. This smashing  is in a three button sports jacket or a full cut trouser.

Full cut shorts for the Hamptons or the Cape. Neck ties and belts work too. Madras began in the 1960s on Ivy campuses and became a peppy staple, embraced by WASPS everywhere. Ted Kennedy sported madras at Harvard before he got thrown out for cheating. As a student, Bill Buckley wore madras shorts to a Yale Political Union meeting. Grace Kelly wore a madras skirt as did Dina Merrill. A cocktail party must.

Southern Republican power-broker and long-time Mississippi Republican National Committeeman Clarke T. Reed  ( When Clarke Reed say yes he means no..Ronald Reagan) always showed up in a patchwork madras sports coat and charcoal slacks and sub-dude elephant club tie at each Republican Conventions as did early Goldwaterite and Nebraska Republican National Committeeman Dick Herman.

Eisenhower Cabinet Secretary Bern Shanley of New Jersey wore a madras sportscoat to the 1964 convention. Bill Weld and Tucker Carlson clearly have them in their closets. (Welds ancestors are so old-money when asked where they got their hats they said “We dont get  our hats, we have our hats.”) Madras reeks of martinis, G and Ts trust funds and old old money, perfect for GOP.

Jacket or trousers are cool when when paired with a Brooks Brothers or J. Press  all-cotton button down and proper club tie, ribbon belt optional. Bow-tie friendly.

Each pattern unique and available in any hue. Bass Wee-Juns, horse-bit Gucci loafers or white lace-up bucks with red soles. Socks discouraged. Right in Nantucket, Ocean Reef, Cape Cod or Greenwich.

You don’t have to be old money to dress like it. A crested pinky-ring, a splash of Aqua di Parma, a Cuban cigar, a Bombay Sapphire martini. Old Money.

Nothing shows both polish and utility like the nattily tucked pocket handkerchief or “pocket square” in the breast pocket of a man’s blazer, sport coat or suit jacket. The material and style of your fold or free-form puff is key.

Fine white Irish linen by day, great for wiping pizza off your fingers or mopping your brow before a TV interview. Night time calls for foulards, paisleys, polka dots and solids of darker colors. I myself prefer the insouciant “dunk” with four tips showing. Ronald Reagan folded his straight and showed exactly 1 1/2 inch above his pocket welt, perfect given his broad shoulders.

Look at the greatest dressers in history — Philadelphia socialite and diplomat Angier Biddle Duke, Sir Anthony Eden, Fred Astaire, the Duke of Windsor, John F. Kennedy and Gary Cooper — they all sport the well placed pocket adornment.

A rogue knows a fine cotton handkerchief can be indispensable if a fellow were to “get lucky” if you know what I mean.

Artsy types show more, business types show less and L.A. types like the puff. No one does the puff better than George Hamilton. Never, never, never should the pocket square be of the same pattern as your ties. You are not “Reverend Ike”.

The pocket square, properly contrived, finishes a man’s look. With good tailoring and well chosen neck wear the look connotes power, taste, refinement, manners. The naked pocket connotes the opposite, working class, tasteless, base, crude, ignorant.

Men, get with it.

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What does every stylish gent need when the mercury climbs but the work-day still beckons?

Hint, it’s a classic, it’s comfortable in steamy climes, it’s retro and it’s making a huge summer comeback.

It’s that cool summer staple — the seersucker suit.

A seersucker suit is one of the most iconic styles dating from the 1920’s and is now making a huge comeback.

What sets seersucker apart from other materials? It’s the ‘coolest’ material to wear in hot and humid weather. ‘Coolest’, as in temperature, and ‘coolest’ as in hip baby! There is nothing like it.

It’s easily cleaned, never needs pressing, and no other suit will keep the hot and humid weather off your back.

Even the origin of the word “seersucker” is steeped in exotic legend. “Seersucker” comes from the ancient Persian “shir o shakkar” which translates to “milk and sugar.”

The combination of smooth stripes (smooth like milk) and rough stripes (rough as sugar) morphed into “seersucker” when it became popular during the British colonial period in India, as the most desired material for British officers in that notoriously hot colonial posting.

It’s this combination of smooth and rough which gives seersucker its trademark “pucker.”

The cooling property of seersucker comes from the puckering, which raises some of the fabric away from the body allowing for less skin contact and more air circulation.

For years seersucker was seen primarily as material for uniforms and was widely used as such. However, it made a lasting impact in the summer wardrobe of southern gentlemen starting in the twenty’s.

What man of sufficient caliber doesn’t recall actor Gregory Peck in his vested seersucker suit in the film “To Kill A Mockingbird?”

The biggest attraction with wearing seersucker has to be its rumpled look.

This is because seersucker has a lack of inherent structure.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

According to Haspel, the original purveyors of the seersucker suit, there are definite rules when contemplating seersucker.

Number one is fit.

Never wear a seersucker suit straight off the rack. It’s going to look shapeless and droopy.

If you’re going to sport seersucker, whether a jacket, trousers or a full suit, have it fitted. A nice, custom, tailored fit makes all the difference in the world.

Aside from fit, seersucker offers a wide variety of color combinations for every occasion.

Traditionally seersucker came in grey and white.

With its increase in popularity, seersucker has seen a broader color spectrum such as red and tan, blue and white, navy and black, tan and white, shades of blue, and basic black.

Seersucker can now be worn as shorts too.

The key here is to wash them so the material loosens up, giving a relaxed look.

In choosing what kind of shirt to wear under your seersucker jacket, the choices are varied.

For a less traditional look, a nice clean fitted t-shirt can look smart yet informal.

For a dressier look, a crisp white shirt always goes well with seersucker.

Never wear a seersucker tie with a seersucker suit. God, no!

In picking a tie, the rule is something conservative with appropriate color and a texture that’s not seersucker.

A madras plaid tie or polka-dot can be just the thing. A bow-tie works here if you are Tucker Carlson or George Will… or even if you’re not. A colorful pocket-square is de riguer.

Two-tone “spectator shoes” complete the look.

Highly polished penny loafers go as well as brogues or wing-tips. White bucks with red rubber soles are a style classic.

Socks are, of course, optional.

A seersucker suit carries with it a certain flair which recalls the nobility and charm of the southern gentleman.

At the same time, wearing seersucker places a man in the company of such icons as Ronald Reagan, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Eddie Remayne, James Coburn, and Gregory Peck.

The look is dressy, sharp, cool, comfortable and ‘old but new.”

For those who have known seersucker, I tip my hat. For those who are new to it, I welcome you to the ‘coolness’ of seersucker.

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On this New Year's Day we return to a tradition, and for the 15th year I post my International Best & Worst Dressed List. I undertook this tradition when the late Mr. Blackwell, a Hollywood columnist who produced his own List every year for 48 years, passed away in 2008. I published NO List in 2020, because I was gagged from all public communication by a federal judge and NO List for 2021, because my wife had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, from which, I am happy to report, she is in total remission.

It was hard enough coming up with the list of the Best and Worst Dressed ladies and gentlemen prior to the development of the transgender phenomena in which men wear women's clothing, and vice versa. 

This makes it even more difficult. 

This List is, however, not political, as I would note that late Senator Ted Kennedy was in my Best Dressed List for several years and MAGA podcaster Steve Bannon once again graces our Worst Dressed List this year. The List is nonpartisan and entirely non-ideological and I have to fight the urge to inject politics into it. Blackwell spent decades reporting on who were the very best and very worst dressed people in the world. His scorn or imprimatur could be the kiss of death or key to the city for the aspiring actress, socialite or business titan, and his withering criticism could destroy the up and coming.

As I have carried on this tradition in the years since with the Daily Caller, 2023 will be no different. While this year has been full of political, social, and cultural calamities, it has also been populated with some of the best and worst sartorial events around the world. There have been legendary statements of impeccable taste and utterly shocking crimes against not only good taste, but the basic tenets of true style. 

Once again, we must note that while fashion is fleeting, style is both timeless and enduring. Skirts may go up or down, and neckties may be wide or thin, but the double-breasted Navy-blue blazer with gold military buttons will always be in style. The little black cocktail dress will always look smashing. A seersucker suit is always appropriate between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  

We’ve made this point in the past, but feel it necessary to make it again in this age of sartorial error. Just as you don't order fish at a steakhouse, you should not wear a jean jacket to a wedding, as you wouldn't show up in a three piece suit to a bowling alley. Work out clothes are for the Gym and not the Mall. As I noted in my 2018 book "Stone's Rules" which Includes a forward by Tucker Carlson, the best dressed person is the one who is appropriately dressed for the activity in which they intend to engage. It's amazing how many people don't get this simple rule.

A "Lifetime Achievement" category became necessary when a handful of true dandies and swans dominated the List for several years. In order to create room for the up and coming, we moved them to this category of sartorial perfection.

Read more

Below I answer a lot of questions I get about the way I dress:

You've developed an iconic aesthetic both with your clothing choices and overall lifestyle. What would you consider to be essential elements of your style?

It takes just as much time to be well dressed as it does to be poorly dressed—but the way a man is groomed and dressed is how he presents himself to the world.

The designer Mary Quant once said about clothing, "People like you better without knowing why, because people always react well to a person they like the looks of." It was Mark Twain who said, "Clothes make the man."

It is not true that it is excessively expensive for a gentleman to dress with style and meticulous attention to detail at a reasonable cost. The key to dressing well is firstly to always be properly dressed for the activity one is going to embark on. In other words, don't wear gym clothes to a supper club and don't wear a dinner suit in the gym. Don't wear workout clothes or sweats for shopping or the mall. Always be appropriately clad for what you are doing. If you are in public, you must give some thought to how you are dressed.

The way you dress, mustn't appear studied or as if you've thought about it. The Italians refer to as sprezzatura, a natural ability to thoughtlessly throw together outfits.

One should combine tweeds, plaids, linens, polka dots, blazers, sport coats, and pinstripe double and single-breasted English tailored suits with appropriate shirting and neckwear.

It must all appear as you put it together thoughtlessly—like you "through it together." Gianni Agnelli was the master of this thrown together look of casual high style. This Italian playboy lawyer was the chairman of Fiat and bedded some of the most gorgeous international beauties of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. He famously wore his watch over the cuff of his button-down Brooks Brothers shirt that was always mixed with an understated but finely Roman tailored Italian suit with cream linens in the winter months when he stayed in the Caribbean. Agnelli called himself the "Avvocata," using the Italian word for attorney, which he pronounced as the "Avocado."

Walk us through your styling process. Is it an "effortless" process or do you spend a fair amount of time curating your looks?

As I said, it's a natural process which is thrown together given the fine elements you can assemble online at a reasonable price to utilize in your personal style. 

Very fine gently used or new quality men's style staples can be found on eBay and Etsy. Poshmark has been disappointing lately with their cancellation of purchased items and lack of communication with their customers. 

All the basics of a proper men's attire for both formal and leisure occasions can be acquired or in some places even made, online. 

The Chinese tailor on eBay by the name of "jolenta.1900" will make fine seersucker suits and excellent blazers to your specifications at more than reasonable prices. It is important that you measure accurately and be very specific in your desires.

One must not shy away from the idea that clean, gently or never used garments are not in excellent condition and can be had for a fraction of their original price. 

A navy double-breasted blazer, a gray herringbone three-button sport jacket. A brown herringbone tweed jacket with leather elbow patches. The aforementioned topcoats are all requirements at some point.

You will also need a double-breasted camel hair polo coat, a gray tweed Chesterfield either in fly front or double-breasted style, a naval peacoat, cutaway collar dress shirts, polo style button-down collar shirts, and a solid collection of tasty neckwear. Add an array of high quality used gently or never used neckties in knits, solids, and regimental stripes.

A great trouser starts at the shoulder. That's because a proper fitting pair of men's pleated trousers must be held in place by braces (which Americans call "suspenders") so that the trousers actually hang properly.

High-quality braces or suspenders are harder to find but the most reputable and revered brand is Albert Thurston. 

I have seen some snarky online comments about my trousers appearing "baggy," but those who think so misunderstand the aesthetic—the suit flows. 

The key, of course, is the way the line of your jacket and your trousers fit to create a smooth silhouette. Therefore I prefer a fuller cut trouser that literally hangs at the waist comfortably. This can also work for single and double-pleated khaki trousers, as well as pleated gray flannel trousers—all basic necessities.

Pleats in your trousers can be flattering if the reverse pleat is chosen. Plain front trousers are more available and can look clean, but a pleated fuller cut trouser was a requirement for every suit I've ever had made—although I have not had a new suit made in thirty years.

The cutaway collar is considered more formal, but I have seen Eric Metaxas wear it with a tweed sport jacket with aplomb. 

A short-sleeved knit-collared polo shirt in navy is indispensable - it can be worn with any type of sport jacket and always looks great. Izod Lacoste got this look from actual polo players on Long Island in the 1920s. These can certainly be found online and are still marketed by Polo Ralph Lauren, among others. Avoid ostentatious large logos on the shirt breast, however. These also work in white, red, gray, or wedgewood blue.

It's not just what one wears in public or in the company of others—but what one wears all the time that is a requirement of true personal style. Even when home alone and seeing no one, you have the satisfaction of knowing you are well-turned-out. Fine silk pajamas, silk robes, velvet smoking jackets, the moccasins at MyPillow are excellent (use promo code "STONE"), I order them in black. Again, all these items can be found online at reasonable prices. You can even have your pajamas monogrammed if you so desired. No it is not expensive on-line if you know where and how to shop.

My interest in custom tailoring was initially caused by the fact that in my prime I had 44 inch shoulders but a 31 inch waist—this meant that no suit that was mass-produced, off-the-peg could accommodate both my shoulder without the trousers requiring so much tailoring that the pockets on the back were next to each other. It's unacceptable. This required me to start having clothing made to fit me properly. Having a few classic pieces made and taking good care of them should keep a gentleman well dressed for a lifetime—as has been the case with me. 

A relationship with a qualified tailor who can make simple alterations allows those on the hunt for fashion staple bargains online to purchase at a slightly larger size and have the jacket tailored to fit in the waist and body. When added to the modest costs of acquisition online, you're still paying far less than the fine garment originally sold for. The only unchangeable element in a well-tailored jacket is the shoulder—everything else can be taken in or let out. If the shoulder fits; miracles can be done with a jacket that is slightly too big for you. Miracles can be done by a good tailor.

Unfortunately, because most men's clothing is mass-produced, few manufacturers leave enough fabric in the seams of a jacket to allow the jacket to be "let out." With that being said, any jacket where the shoulder fits but the waste is abundant can be tailored inexpensively. 

Having a few pieces made to your exact fit and specifications or purchasing classic pieces that fit you are the keys to having the basics from which to pluck the elements of your own sprezzatura. 

Again, one does not have to be super wealthy or even rich to dress well if one is willing to take good care of the quality garments they do own and shop diligently for tasteful, basic pieces every gentleman should own.

A young gentleman needs the basic wardrobe of a solid medium or dark gray suit, preferably three-buttoned rolled to two. The same suit in navy, a navy blazer, a tweed jacket, a quality pair of dark gray or medium gray trousers that fit properly, quality khakis (the best are at Bills Khakis), some well-cut jeans, some quality pajamas.

After acquiring some appropriate shirts and neckwear, this basic collection can sustain any gentleman. One can expand into the other highly desirable elements of style I list here as requirements as your finances allow. 

Now we go to socks. It is a sin for a gentleman to show any part of the ankle or leg. You'll need them in navy, gray, brown, and tan. Socks must cover the calves and remain in place. Prior to the invention of polyester, men used ridiculously looking garters to keep their socks in place. 

Some men indulge in a more robust selection of socks that include patterns and checks or other styling. It's a matter of personal taste but I generally stick to the solids. Again, proper length is key.

Angier Biddle Duke was an ambassador and a Brahmin on Philadelphia's Main Line who Esquire and the tabloids regularly cited as the best-dressed man in the country. In fact, Duke owned ten of the exact same dark double-breasted suits and wore the same solid dark navy tie with highly polished wingtips every single day. He had a uniform. It worked, although I don't recommend this route, as his dressing had to get boring even to him.

A monogrammed velvet bedroom slipper is an indulgence if you can afford it. The best are made by Stubbs & Wootton. They can produce a slipper to your personal specifications and do so quickly and are extremely reliable but not inexpensive. Lower price brands can be found on eBay and Etsy. These can be worn in the home or with socks and jeans. Those that I own were custom-made thirty years ago by John Locke - I could scarcely afford them today.

What's the key to making a major entrance?

Sadly, I must usually travel with paid security but the key to dressing well is whether you're going to be seen or not. My friend Jeffrey Tucker said it best, "First, there are clothes for public consumption: clothing in which to present yourself to others and thereby convey an elevated message about yourself. These are types of clothes you wear to work, to the store, out on the town, at a wedding, at church, at parties, or wherever people are going to see you. The primary objective here is that you look presentable, that you are civilized, a gentleman and not a beast." 

What should every gentleman have in his wardrobe?

One indispensable item is the silk knit squared bottomed solid necktie in jet black. It can be worn with any type of collar and, if you are running through the airport to catch a flight and your suitcase breaks open, can be used to tie the suitcase closed. I think this necktie could be used to tow a car—it's a sharp looking staple that works with many great outfits you throw together. Every man must own one. This is an indispensable item.

Another item a gentleman should own is a baker's dozen of fine white cotton handkerchiefs and pull together a tasteful collection of pocket squares, which can be printed, patterned or paisley- one must stuff in their breast pocket as if one hasn't thought about how it looks. Leaving the house without either a white linen or patterned pocket square stuffed in your breast pocket is like leaving the house naked. They are a staple.  

Give us a visual of your closet. What brands, garments, color schemes fill the space?

I've already outlined some must haves for the well-dressed gentlemen. A few others are; a vintage Brooks Brothers or J. Press button-down collar shirt. Brooks Brothers once made the ideal version but as the company changed ownership — belonging at various times to American, German, and Italian owners — the brand changed manufacturing locations so many times that they lost the ability to produce the proper roll of the collar.

The collar was referred to as the "polo collar" because the buttoned button stopped the collar from flapping in the face of a polo player rushing down the field in a chukka. Brooks Brother seized and popularized this button-down collar which originally had a certain insouciant role.

J. Press of New Haven — Brooks Brothers chief competitor — always maintained the proper roll. They still maintain a button on their shirt pocket which I am not a fan of, but they've got the collar right. Kamakura, a Japanese Ivy League company made Brooks Brothers own version better than they did at a much more reasonable price. I turned Larry Kudlow and Charlie Rose on to this company.

Who would you consider the best dressed man in history or today?

I am inspired by the style of Gary Cooper, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Jr., Cab Calloway, the Duke of Windsor Edward VIII, Fred Astaire, Rudolph Valentino, Cary Grant, and the aforementioned Gianni Agnelli, among a few.

Fred Astaire was among the great dressers of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. One of the few men so well-dressed that he could break the general rule that one did not wear the less formal button-down shirt with a more formal double-breasted suit. Where generally the cutaway or spearpoint collar is more appropriate for the formality of the suit. Only Astaire could break this rule with aplomb—sometimes topped with a jaunty tyrolean hat, popular in the 1930s.

Astaire would famously throw a new suit or jacket against the wall several times to "knock the newness out of it" before wearing it! His dressing is an inspiration. The idea is not to copy them but to get inspiration from the way they throw together solids, plaids, stripes, and fabrics.

Today, Former White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow now of FoxBusiness, is an always incisive tasteful dresser, as is Greg Kelly of Newsmax and WABC. These men are inspirations to any young gentlemen who wants to dress tastefully and well. Mike Smerconish of CNN and Josh Mankiewicz of NBC's Dadeline are always extraordinarily well-turned-out.

I remember meeting you in Miami at a hotel restaurant. You were wearing this perfect combination of patterns; the tie had dots and your suit had subtle striping, etc. I would have never thought to put the pieces together, but you did and it looked absolutely iconic. How do you put pieces together like that? Is it a natural ability?

Again, it's "sprezzatura." You must know the rules before you can break them. Mixing plaids, stripes, and dots can be tricky, but can be done to great effect.

Were you always so bold with your style?

I haven't thought about it. I just believe if you look good; you feel good.

What are some trends that you are into now. Or, perhaps a better question, does Roger Stone do trends? Or is a classic aesthetic always preferred?

One must understand the difference between style and fashion. Style is immutable; it's classic, it's standard—it always works.

Fashion is fleeting. Lapels get narrower and wider. Neckties get wider and narrower. When buying vintage or gently used pieces to assemble your wardrobe, one should avoid extremes in lapel sizes to keep the piece timeless.

The four-inch-wide neckties of the 40s and again in the 70s lack elegance, and as John F. Kennedy, Cary Grant, Sean Connery, and David Niven proved; a trim, elegant knot can be smashing. Connery wore such a solid black knit tie with a three-piece nailhead gray suit as James Bond in Goldfinger—it's perfection. 

I can't emphasize enough how one can piece together a personal style, getting all the necessary basics garments on Etsy, eBay, and Amazon. Live It helps to know one's proper sizes before you find that excellent, high-quality Ivy League and classic style clothing at great prices online. One need not be wealthy to dress well.

Tasteful and proper selection of shoes is also key and the mixing of brown suede shoes with gray or gray pinstripe trousers became acceptable when Edward VIII wore them on a visit to New York City. 

It was there that the Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII also introduced the gray glen plaid double-breasted suit with a blue windowpane overlay. The tabloid media of the 30s made the suit an iconic item and hundreds of designers rushed many fine copies into the market. Some can be found at a reasonable price today. It's a stunning suit every gentleman should own if possible. It also works in a single-breasted style—again, preferably with three buttons... but that's up to you.

The importance of a well-cut navy blazer cannot be underemphasized (in the three or two-button style, and most certainly at least one double-breasted version with fine gold buttons). They can be dressed up with gray flannels or down with well-fitting jeans or properly hanging khaki, gray flannel trousers and even cream linen trousers. The darker your choices, the more formal your ensemble. 

All gentlemen's jackets in the single-breasted style were originally three buttons. It was actually the young John F. Kennedy living with his father, Ambassador to the United Kingdom Joseph P. Kennedy, who invented the two-button jacket, which he had custom-made by fine English tailors while daddy was the ambassador and he was studying in London. The two-button jacket became the staple in American suiting and three-button jackets were still only favored by Italians and Germans.

The buttons on your navy blazers, whether single or double-breasted, must always be both interesting and of high-quality. The standard double-breasted navy blazer has six buttons, although I interestingly found a photo of Prince Phillip with an eight-button jacket. It was exquisite.

Mixing a sport jacket with properly fitting "odd trousers" is less formal than a well cut and commanding suit in the style of Gary Cooper or English movie star Jack Buchanon. Bold beaded and chalk pinstripe suits are always in good taste.

My critics say I look like a Batman villain because I wore a black homburg hat to my federal trial in Washington D.C. Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, and John Foster Dulles, who popularized this look in the UK and the United States.

One idiotic reporter asked me why I was wearing a "derby"—I guess he meant a "bowler" which, while popular in the financial district in London in the 60s, generally makes one look like a vaudeville comedian. I would never wear one.

The official etiquette for a presidential inauguration requires the wearing of a "morning suit" for the swearing in ceremony, and white tie and tails for the inaugural ball that balls that night. I wore this correct outfit to Trump's 2017 inauguration for which, of course, I was mocked.

The morning coat is the most flattering hip-hugging swallowtail coat a man can wear and is properly paired with striped trousers and a gray or fawn waistcoat which can be either double or single-breasted. A spearpoint, cutaway or a wing collar is paired with a well-knotted silver wedding tie. This is what JFK, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan wore to their inauguration until George H. W. Bush ended the tradition by wearing a nondescript solid blue suit—a major fashion faux pas.

The outfit also requires a top hat which can either be of the collapsible silk type or of a shiny black beaver fur. JFK, who hated and never wore hats, was enamored of the top hat he wore for his inauguration.

In fact, it was JFK who killed the thriving U.S. hat industry which was largely centered in George Bush's Connecticut. Until Kennedy appeared bare headed on the campaign trail, no gentlemen would think of leaving his home for work or leisure without wearing a hat. Overnight, hat sales in the United States plummeted as the bare-headed Kennedy became a national fashion plate and hero.

High quality homburg hats fedoras, as well as fine straw and Panama hats for summer months can all be found online in both new and gently used varieties.

A word about the bow tie. Few men can pull it off. Tucker Carlson could but abandoned it while writer George Will made it his trademark. The blue and white polka-dotted bow tie worn by Winston Churchill is an instant classic. The bow tie, however, must be hand-tied. A clip-on bow tie looks stupid and is strictly verboten. The process of tying a bow tie is the same as tying your shoe and you can master it. The key is for your bow tie to be slightly askew as to show that you hand-tied it. This nuance must be subtle. Bow ties should be avoided with double-breasted suits, but done right, they are a key element of style.

The ascot is another clothing item that not every man can get away with. Most men look like they are a fop or a 1930s Hollywood producer. Carry Grant could pull it off. So could David Niven and Clark Gable. You may want only to sport this look at home!

The Washington Post has never written anything favorable about me in forty years in American politics, however, Robin Givhan wrote this excellent piece for the WaPo when I was standing trial for federal charges in Washington D.C.

Even those who hate me at The New York Times had to acknowledge my personal style. Other than that, their coverage of my trial was inaccurate, misleading, incomplete, and biased. It's the fake news.

For more about how a well-turned gentleman should dress, I refer you to How to Dress Like a Man by Jeffrey Tucker, a seminal piece every gentleman who seeks to be properly and well-dressed should read.

ROGER STONE has a daily webcast at StoneZONE.LIVE every weekday at 5 P.M. ET. Follow him on Twitter at @RogerJStoneJr.

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So for the first time, I have created a video version for my premium Substack subscribers. You can access this, and all the upcoming content on my Substack blog for just $7 a month (or save a little bit by paying $70 a year).

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On this New Year's Day we return to a tradition, and for the 14th year I post my International Best & Worst Dressed List. I undertook this tradition when the late Mr. Blackwell, a Hollywood columnist who produced his own List every year for 48 years, passed away in 2008. I published no List in 2020 because I was gagged from all public content by a federal judge and no List for 2021 because my wife had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, from which, I am happy to report, she is in total remission.

It was hard enough coming up with the List of the Best and Worst Dressed ladies and gentlemen prior to the development of the transgender phenomena in which men wear women's clothing and vice versa. This makes it even more difficult. This List is, however, not political, as I would note that late Senator Ted Kennedy was in my Best Dressed List for several years and MAGA podcaster Steve Bannon once again graces our Worst Dressed List this year. The List is nonpartisan and entirely non-ideological.

The designer Mary Quant once said about clothing, "People like you better without knowing why, because people always react well to a person they like the looks of." It was Mark Twain who said, "Clothes make the man," although in this case, clothes make the man and woman.

Read more

I published no list in 2019 and 2020 because I was gagged from all public content by a federal judge and no list for 2021 because my wife had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, from which, I am happy to report, she is in total remission. 

I also cannot track down the list for 2013. It will be added if found.

While the most recent list is free and available to all, the rest do require a paid subscription to my Substack. It is only $7 a month to access, and as I lay out in my welcome post linked here, I believe it is well worth it for any Stone fan.

Get your first year of Stone Cold Truth for 20% off by clicking the button below:

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Click any of the links below to access the previous lists going back to 2008. The formatting of each list is largely preserved, so some are laid out different than others. But the spirit of this list is alive and well in each, with each list serving as a sort of time capsule.

2024 Best and Worst Dressed List

2023 Best and Worst Dressed List

2022 Best and Worst Dressed List

2018 Best and Worst Dressed List

2017 Best and Worst Dressed List

2016 Best and Worst Dressed List

2015 Best and Worst Dressed List

2014 Best and Worst Dressed List

2012 Best and Worst Dressed List

2011 Best and Worst Dressed List

2010 Best and Worst Dressed List

2009 Best and Worst Dressed List

2008 Best and Worst Dressed List

Blackwell spent decades reporting on who were the very best and very worst dressed people in the world. His scorn or imprimatur could be the kiss of death or key to the city for the aspiring actress, socialite or business titan and his withering criticism could destroy the up and coming . I have carried on this tradition as the men’s style correspondent for The Daily Caller, for the last twelve years, this year being lucky number thirteen.

Once again we must note that while fashion is fleeting, style is both timeless and enduring. Skirts may go up or down, and neckties may be wide or thin, but the double-breasted Navy-blue blazer with gold military buttons will always be in style. The little black cocktail dress will always look smashing. We’ve made this point in the past, but feel it necessary to make it again in this age of sartorial error

2018 has been a year of stylistic triumphs and some rather incredible crimes against good taste. The key to dressing well has always been being appropriately clad; you shouldn’t wear work-out lycra to a shopping mall just as you wouldn’t wear black-tie to go bowling.

An important point we make each year is that what passes for style today is in fact fashion. After monitoring the worlds of media, sports, politics, music, and fashion we have narrowed down who has style and who truly does not.

Read more

It is important to note that while fashion is fleeting, style is both timeless and enduring. Skirts may go up or down, and neckties may be wide or thin, but the double-breasted Navy-blue blazer with gold military buttons will always be in style. The little black cocktail dress will always look smashing.

As the state of fashion in America has declined rapidly, we have seen some really horrid faux pas, but 2016 has also brought some alternative styles that make sense for the growing Millennial population.

An important point we make each year is that what passes for style today is in fact fashion. After monitoring the worlds of media, sports, politics, music, and fashion we have narrowed down who has style and who truly does not.

As I said fashion is ever-changing, while style is timeless. Some on this list will excel in both categories, while others offer a well-rounded understanding of both.

This year’s list is full of new faces and we are also continuing our LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Award, which honors those who have demonstrated an everlasting dedication to style.

In past years, CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, Presidential daughter Ivanka Trump, NBC’s Josh Mankciewicz, CBS Sports Shannon Sharpe and NY restaurateur Ken Aretsky all graced our best dressed list for multiple years ultimately graduating to our LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT category. We salute them all as this pantheon is joined by those inducted this year.

This year’s LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT awards go to: Milo Yiannopoulos, Gordon Woodrow,  Kimberly Guilfoyle, Audrey Gelman, Michael Smerconish, Justin Trudeau, and Mark Ronson.

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In our 11th year of Mr. Stones International Best and Worst Dressed, we thank Mr. Blackwell for inspiring this annual tradition, which I carried on under his name for nearly a decade.

I am honored to have assumed this responsibility and continue to cover Mens Fashion for The Daily Caller. As the state of fashion in America has declined rapidly, we have seen some really horrid faux pas, but 2016 has also brought some alternative styles that make sense for the growing Millennial population.

An important point we make each year is that what passes for style today is in fact fashion. After monitoring the worlds of media, sports, politics, music, and fashion we have narrowed down who has style and who truly does not.

Fashion is ever-changing, while style is timeless. Some on this list will excel in both categories, while others offer a well-rounded understanding of both.

This years list is full of new faces and we are also debuting our Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors those who have demonstrated an everlasting dedication to style.

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Our tradition of honoring Mr. Blackwell’s decades long Best and Worst Dressed ends this year, allowing for the presentation of Mr. Stone’s Best and Worst Dressed for our TENTH YEAR. I am privileged to cover the Men’s Fashion scene for The Daily Caller.Ten years of sorting the Best and Worst. 2015 is no different…or better. The State of Fashion in American is not good. These very few stand out. Most people simply don’t care how they look. Sad…As we have said in the past, most of what passes for style today is in fact fashion. We vigilantly monitor the world of media, sports, politics, academia, art, and fashion to determine who has style and who truly does not.

Selecting those who are truly masters of style, is far more difficult than observing those who have regularly committed crimes against good taste and style.

While fashion changes, style remains timeless. There is a difference between style and fashion. Fashion is what you can buy, style is self-expression and how you live. How hard is this, people? Not!

It took me some time to figure this out. So we search for those who keep it simple, clean and swank – without being vulgar.

Don Lemon has fallen off the BEST list. Not so for Hillary Clinton, and the WORST list, where she might forever remain. That brown suit at the last debate? Dreadful. We have new faces this year. We will move some multi-year winners to the HALL OF FAME at the end.

Buckle your seat belts.

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It is that time of year when those of us who paid attention to such things recall the tradition of the late Hollywood designer Mr. Blackwell – who, for nearly 50 years, released an eagerly anticipated annual list that began as a chronicle of the world’s best and worst dressed people. The flamboyant, media-savvy Blackwell spared no one celebrities, movie stars, athletes, socialites and captains of industry were all under his microscope.

Since Blackwell’s death in 2008, we here at the Stone On Style have proudly picked up the torch, continuing this New Years tradition, but in its original “Best/Worst” format. It is a proud pursuit, and inasmuch as it truly is a labor of love, it is also an increasingly difficult endeavor, as the state of dress for the public-at-large continues to slide.

We vigilantly monitor the world of media, entertainment, sports, politics, academia, art and fashion to determine who has style and who truly doesnt. As an aside, we do recognize that we write this at a time where more gain notoriety for undressing, rather than dressing. The number of naked selfies from actresses and models that have leaked drive millions to view the latest celebrity nude.

But alas, we digress. For that is an entirely separate list.

The biggest challenge we face—by far—is filling the ‘best dressed’ category. For people are foolish. There are several rules of dressing that virtually no one follows anymore, and it gets uglier with each passing year. The fact that it really isn’t all that hard to get it right makes it all the more puzzling. First, always be appropriately dressed for the activity you are engaging in. Second, it is vitally important that your clothes be comfortable, and therefore (third) your clothes must fit. Simple, right?

Much of what passes for style today is in fact simply fashion. While style is constant, fashion is temporary. While fashion changes, style remains timeless. There is a difference between style and fashion. Fashion is what you can buy, style is self-expression and how you live. How hard is this, people? Not!

Good taste today was good taste thirty years ago and will be good taste thirty years from now (picture a well cut navy blue blazer with brass buttons). As such, we here at the Stone on Style try to avoid inadvertently lauding the work of any particular stylist or fashion adviser simply for not being dumb.

Simplicity is the greatest elegance( Stones Rules). It took me some time to figure this out. So we search for those who keep it simple, clean and swank without being vulgar.

We could go on and on, but it is time to get to the point.

First, some housekeeping.

Larry Kudlow is always on point.

We have bestowed EMERITUS status upon WABC Radio host Larry Kudlow, Sofia Loren, Rolling Stones Drummer Charlie Watts, NBC Talking head Josh Mankiewicz, entertainer Andre 3000, Carla Bruni, Jay Z and others who continue to dress with elegance and nowadays just crowd the list. It should never be said that any of the above “did not make the list this year” or anything of the sort, for they are honored and here in spirit until we deem otherwise.

There are many new faces on this years list. And some old favorites have fallen. Justin Timberlake was on the list when Tom Ford was dressing him in a nightclub elegant look that evoked the Rat Pack and 1960s Vegas. Now, with Ford out of the picture, the exceptionally talented Timberlake has retreated into slovenliness. We happened to catch him live in Miami. He was dressed like the guy who parked our car at the stadium. Terrible. Off the list! So consistency is key. You can change your look but not your taste level! We are always watching…

WTF John Waters?

Jesse Ventura and Michael Moore are beyond hope. We wont even comment on them further. We have had so many laughs at their expense already it’s just old and sad. This is also not a costume contest, so the likes of Lady Gaga, John Waters, Tim Burton and his peculiar estranged wife Helena Bonham Carter are ineligible for consideration in any form. Forever.

Bill Clinton made our list- for best dressed- last year after he was seen in a natty spread color shirt. Hes come a long way from being dressed by Donna Karan. Hillary made our list this year- for worst dressed. If she has a fashion adviser he/she should be shot but candidly I suspect she is picking all the wrong clothes herself.

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