Crockett + Tubbs ≠ Jeeves + Wooster

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Ran across the following in a New York Times article about the impact of the TV series Miami Vice on men’s fashion — specifically, the rise of the Floppy Suit:

When he orchestrated the look of the original show, Mr. Mann was venturing into stylistic territory already staked out by Italian designers...[like] Giorgio Armani, the man generally credited with introducing the world to the unconstructed suit — that is, without padding, a lining or internal stiffening. This might be as good a time as any to amend the old canard about Mr. Armani being the inventor of the floppy suit. It was long a staple of Neapolitan haberdashery, developed by tailors sent to London by wealthy patrons to apprentice on Savile Row. Being superior craftsmen, the tailors absorbed everything there was to know about British cuts and suit construction. Being Neapolitans, they blithely tossed out the window most of the knowledge they had acquired. It is generally too hot in Naples to dress like Bertie Wooster. [emphasis mine]

Jeeves would doubtless be gratified to know that his efforts have made Mr. Wooster synonymous with conservative Savile Row tailoring.