Tweed cap: a successful complement to image
Many men cannot imagine a cap as a fashion accessory. The bright and original headwear is considered to be a retiree item or a thing for troubled adolescents on the outskirts. Though in Great Britain tweed cap is a constant fashion item of a gentleman who leads an active life. It is time to get rid of prejudices!
Cap: a stylish everyday item
Fashion adepts refer cap to casual style. However, it doesn’t mean that it can be worn only with jeans, loose shirts and T-shirts. Beloved cardigans, jumpers, pullovers belong to the same style. A well-chosen tweed cap can help to refresh a usual image and give new look.
It is believed that six-piece cap was brought into fashion by the English sportsmen. In due course a funny knob, which had fastened the pieces on the top of the head, disappeared, and it became obvious that informal clothes can also be elegant. Owing to the tweed cap an Englishman stayed respectable while golfing or riding a bike.
The secret of a win-win image of a London dandy consists in a skill to combine things perfectly and to follow his individual style firmly. Not without reason many English writers including Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie dressed their smart characters in tweed caps.
What can be worn with a tweed cap?
The members of the Pickwick club recommended choosing tweed cap which matches to tweed jacket or three-piece suit and lapelled trousers, thanks to which the clothes stayed clean in any weather. When cycling races grew in fashion, tweed cap was worn with trousers with braces, which were knee-length, so that a trouser leg could not get into bicycle chain. Today trousers with similar cut and a little changed cap have strong presence in women’s business style.
Another inspiring example is a combination of tweed cap with classical double-breasted overcoat on the model of Sherlock Holmes. Besides, the marvellous image of the great detective is a merit of production designers. Sir Conan Doyle himself preferred to keep silent about the wardrobe of his character. Nevertheless this image was really successful, and since then Homes was pictured in a great number of British editions of this detective saga exactly in this way.
However, the Victorian chic seems to be too conservative for modern fashionistas. Currently a soft tweed cap is worn with a loose neck gaiter. A more dynamic but a little questionable variant is a cap in combination with suede jacket in Burberry style. The only thing which is extremely inappropriate with a tweed cap is a leather tanker jacket in gangster style.
Modern designers try to bring tweed cap into the world of couture fashion, not only men’s, but also women’s. Tommy Hilfiger has recently represented on the runway models in traditional caps made of tweed Harris and in magnificent overcoats with insets of patent leather. According to critics tweed cap can become one of few distinctive details in highly restricted style of large corporations owing to a wide variety of colours and prints.
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