POOLE REVIVES 1920s SUIT

As the Gatsby bandwagon rolls out to accompany the film, so America’s 1920s era is under scrutiny, its style and glitzy social scene prompting a wave of Roaring Twenties-inspired imitations for lighting up the Summer season, as we highlighted to coincide with the launch of the film.

Twenties flapper frocks, headbands, hair do’s and make-up are all the rage – and that’s just for the ladies. On the men’s front, 1920’s evening gigs have prompted dressing up among a young set hitherto resolutely casual.

Henry Poole, that doyen of Savile Row, shows that it has its finger on the pulse, by resurrecting a style from one of its former customers who was a giant figure of the Twenties era.

William Randolph Hearst, the American newspaper tycoon that Orson Welles took as his inspiration for the film ‘Citizen Kane’, placed his first order with Poole in 1888 and continued to be a  customer throughout his lifetime. He was at the height of his powers in the 1920s, when he had built up a string of newspapers across America, had taken up with his life-long mistress Marion Davies, and was building Hearst Castle – which inspired the huge mansion of Xanadu in the Welles film.

Hearst’s preferred look was classic but he had the physique and the presence to be a good style figure, even in his 50s, as he was in the 1920s.

The suit that Poole has resurrected is a classic three piece, as shown here on Hearst, made in a chalk striped suiting. A copy of this cloth was specially woven for Poole in Yorkshire, in a 10oz weight of Super 100s and cashmere, a dark grey/blue.

In the Twenties, suit weights were undoubtedly heavier than this but for today’s customers, Poole felt this was the right weight. The new suit is single breasted, with wide peaked lapels, slanted pockets, trousers modified to a narrower cut for present taste.

It will form the centrepiece of Poole’s display at the Coronation Festival in Buckingham Palace  gardens next month – this year’s most prestigious event for Poole and other Royal Warrant Holders. Full coverage next month.

At top, Orson Welles in 'Citizen Kane' in the chalk stripe suit similar to the one worn by Hearst, above, made by Henry Poole, and the new suit above. Hearst was so furious at the film that he tried to have it banned and so it was largely throughout America. It was only in the 1950s, after his death, that it came to be recognised as the great film it is and rated as one of the greatest films of all time. Poole's latest version of Hearst's suit is on display in their Savile Row window.