Chester Jefferies – Glovemakers

There are several good glovemakers in the UK. Examples include Pickett’s and Dent’s. The former of these are high end glovemakers who supply the various Pickadilly retailers and tailors of London. Due to this fact, they are rather expensive and for the most part inaccessible to mere mortals such as us. However, there is an alternative glovemaker that not only produces gloves for us that are of almost (if not on par) the same quality as the said glovemakers but also are very reasonably priced. The glovemaker in question is Messrs. Chester Jefferies.

Brown deerskin 'City Gent' gloves

Founded in 1936, CJ’s are probably the country’s leading manufacturers of quality gloves. You will not get the same service from low end glovemakers and you’ll probably be charged an arm and a leg from the high end ones.

So, what makes CJ’s the glovemaker to go to for your gloves? Let me explain the various stages of ordering.

Warren, Ward & Penry-Jones

For those that don’t know, this is my official robemaker’s website:

http://sites.google.com/site/warrenwardpenryjones/

It was called ‘Bingley Robemakers’ until earlier this day. I changed it to Warren, Ward & Penry-Jones because it sounds much nicer (and the name has stuck with me for a long time already). As to the name, you’ll have to guess what/who it alludes to!

The website shows examples of my work as well as ordering information.

If you want me to make you a hood then do please contact me here or there.

The Mines

There was once a man who went down the mines,
He was then young and in his prime.
For days no one heard from him, then weeks turned to months,
The years then did past, the decades passed in time.

Around the shaft grew the hill berries,
The grasses and weeds within danced merrily.
The dew collected and coated the frost,
The leaves then all fell and all was now lost.

Two brothers came one day from afar,
And down the shaft they went into the marr,
The mine was all silent and still as it’d been,
Nothing living, moving or dead could be seen.

The tunnels led on to more tunnels and tunnels,
Deeper and deeper than an old badger’s burrow.
The sound of dripping from the waters above,
Add to the loneliness of brotherly love.

No light or air could guide them back now,
No map nor compass and so they did row.
Out of the shadows emerged a figure,
Dark and cold was his demeanour.

‘You’re both lost,’ he said, ‘I assume.
For hours you have wandered in these godforsaken rooms.
I know the mines like I know my life.
I’ll lead you out and save you from strife.’

The brothers were shocked, amazed and a-sadden
But to know they can leave they were finally a-gladdened.
They followed this man through corridors and shafts,
Under waterfalls and water filled baths.

He told them of years that have gone by,
Miners and the coaldust that blackened their eye.
The gasses and foul stenches that drifted the place,
Soot on their hands and black were their face.

A light they did spy from the tunnel yonder,
The door to the living as they stared in wonder.
They looked back to thank their saviour,
But a pile of bones they saw from there after.

White scarf

There were no ermine capes,
No velvet gowns and golden lace.
There were no pretty flowers fair,
Nor sweet and pungent smells in air.

The silk top hats are put away,
The bicornes saved for another day.
White cotton scarves they all worn,
Their edges frayed, their corners torn.

Processed down the pave’d lane,
One by one, they’re all the same.
Raven Guards stood side by side,
With mourning gowns as time they bide.

The Star Chamber he entered in,
They sat on chairs arranged in a ring.
A brocaded book with vellum leaves,
Dusted it with the edge of his sleeves.

The icy silence in the room,
As he prepared to read out the doom.
The world was still, the sun was dark,
The doors were shut, the space was stark.

He read “He is dead
These halls he will not longer tread
I wish his soul eternal peace
May his death give him his deserved release.”

All nodded and murmured, tears and sighs,
Pained were their hearts and wet were their eyes.
“I knew him so well, but in my arms he fell
Condolences and apologies, I bid thee good well.”

He closed the book and beckoned the Steward,
To open the doors and to lead them all forward.
Thus, they recessed, back out the Chamber,
The silence they kept as they remember.

As they walked upon that cold path,
The wind took away their scarves in the aftermath.
No velvet or ermine will satisfy the land,
All water plain, all food now bland.

Hoods in the liripipeline

1. Member of the New Sheridan Club [MNSC] (unofficial) *COMPLETED*

London full-shape [f3] black stuff/silk lined red watered silk faced 3″ and bound all edges silver grey watered silk

Journals and Eulogies

I have picked up my journal today. It has been about two years since my last entry. Reflecting on the contents of the 4 volumes that I have produced, it is rather startling.

My journal entries began in 1999 after an argument with my sister. As the entries and years go by I seem to write exclusively upsetting stuff and only at times when I am distressed to the point of wanting a cathartic release with the pen and paper. I’ll have to estimate that at least 90% of my entries are full of woes and anxieties. I could barely find much joy. I also discovered how i came to realise certain things; like how I discovered my homosexuality (there was no point of realisation but gradual debate in my mind) and discovery of my every growing enstrangement with my family, especially my parents.

When I read some of the stuff I wrote these past few years, I could not help by begin to cry. My constant questioning about my existence, the parleying with my will to die, the debate about my personal beliefs and my constant fight to find hope in a sea of despair. It brought it all back to me.

Bookster custom made waistcoat

I have been obsessed with waistcoats; granted given my other sartorial pursuits. However, many waistcoats that are sold on the high street are flawed in many ways. First, they are often made of plasticy fabrics that wear out and pill over time and second, they are badly cut that it makes you look like a slob or some emo. They are sometimes too short (given that many wear their trousers so low that a big wide gap the size of Rohan appears between the hem of the waistcoat and the waistband of the trousers.) And many of the fabrics used are just ludicrous, gaudy and vulgar; think of what Heston from the BBC daytime drama Doctors wears…

Therefore, you can only get good waistcoats from either the venerable tailors of Savile Row and certain high end retailers or have them made to order from those who know how to make a proper waistcoat. There are two companies that can do this currently online. David Edward London specialises in formal day wear waistcoats (the kind used for morning dress) and Bookster who specialises in using tweed and country. The latter now uses suiting cloth as well so you could have a waistcoat for City and business wear.

The Band Wagon…

[MEME] Using only song names from one particular artist, cleverly answer these questions.

Pick Your Artist:
Thousands of years of Chinese guqin tradition – what else?

Are you male or female?
君子吟 (Ode of the Gentleman)

Your favorite colour?
赤壁賦 (Song of the Red Cliffs)

Describe yourself:
幽蘭 (Solitary Orchid)

How do you feel?
離騷 (On Encountering Sorrow)

Describe where you currently live:
玉樓春曉 (Spring Dawn in the Jade Tower)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
四大景 (Four Great Views)

Your best friend is?
伯牙弔子期 (Bo Ya Mourns Ziqi)

What’s the weather like?
陽春 (Sunny Spring)

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called?
瀟湘水雲 (Water and Mists of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers)

What is life to you:
琴書樂道 (Qin Books and Delighting in The Way)

Your last relationship was:
無媒意 (No-intermediary Modal Prelude)

Your current relationship?
山中思友人 (Thinking of a Friend in the Mountains)

Your sex life, or lack thereof?
三癖操 (The Three Addictions)

Your greatest fear?
古怨 (Ancient Lament)

The best advice you have to give?
讀易 (Reading the Book of Changes)

If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
梅梢月 (Moon upon the Plum Blossom Top)

How would you like to die?
莊周夢蝶 (Zhuangzi Dreams He is a Butterfly)

Your motto?
列子御風 (Leizi Rides the Winds)

Charlie’s Classification of Academic Lace

In the spirit of the Groves Classification of Academic Dress Patterns, I need something similar for academic lace… This is not a definite list; there are dates and other things to sort out.

Top: {L1a}. Bottom: {L1b}.

Tumblr

I now have a tumblr blog:

http://sakusyora.tumblr.com/

You will read my musings there.