Gussying up for my gal

There's a company in New Zealand, Magnoli Clothiers, that claims to make vintage-style clothes to order. You send the measurements, select the fabric, select the style, etc. and the garment comes to you in few weeks via the mail.

The prices aren't bad (about $500 for a suit), so I was very excited when I learned about it, but the results are reportedly somewhat iffy, which is probably understandable, given the mail-order nature of the business. Members of an online vintage-clothes forum on which I mostly lurk have had mixed results, though they all seem to think highly of the guy who runs the company, who also posts to the forum. He does his best to made things right, it seems.

Anyway, I was browsing the site and noticed that he offers a replica of the tie that Bogart is wearing in the final scene of Casablanca (the scene at the airport, when Rick Blaine surprises Ilsa Lund by sending her off with Victor Lazlo). It's a red tie with a simple, slightly irregular white or cream pattern that is subtly vintage, and I knew right away I had to have it (it's handmade from 100% silk, which doesn't ensure that it's a great tie, of course, but it's not a snob when it comes to ties).

Having discovered it, I wanted to see if I could receive the tie in time for my wedding on Saturday. I bought it via the website late Tuesday afternoon and emailed the proprietor to see if he could ship it to me in time. He wrote right back saying he could, if I was willing to pay $35 for the required postage, which I immediately sent via Paypal (the only way he accepts payment).

Then I went to BAM to catch Max Ophuls' Letter from an Unknown Woman.

I arrived home about 9 pm, only to learn that he had received the payment for the extra postage, but not, somehow, the original payment. I had a little trouble figuring out the time difference between NYC and New Zealand, but as best as I could figure, it was then the middle of the afternoon there. I wrote back, asking if there was still time to get it shipped, but I didn't hear back from him for half an hour.

I gave up and went to dinner, only to find upon my return that he'd emailed me in the interim saying he could still get it to me if I could pay him within the hour.

But when he'd sent that blasted email, I had no idea, so I didn't know if it was too late or not.

But I sent the payment, anyway, hoping it would work out and trusting him to credit me the extra dough toward a future purchase if it didn't.

It turned out he'd decided to trust me, too, and had shipped the tie before he received payment, so, assuming nothing goes awry along the way, I'll be wearing a tie that both Rick Blaine and Humphrey Bogart would approve of when I get hitched on the 8th.

I'll also be sporting a beautiful black woolen suit from the early 1950s (it's a great suit, one I've never gotten to wear it before), brand new black cap-toed shoes purchased from Stapleton Shoe Co., a great little old-style shoe store in the financial district that has been around since 1952, a white shirt, a white cotton pocket square (I bought a trio of cotton pocket squares from Brooks Bros. for the occasion, one of each trimmed in grey, a muted pink, and blue, but they were meant to complement another tie, and I'm not sure they'll work with this one, so I'll have to pick up another), a white boutonniere (can't remember the name of the flower, but it's more carnation-esque -- though much nicer than a carnation -- than rose-ish), and, whenever we're outside, my new grey fedora (which was just a smidge too large, and I've since returned for one that fits better).

What can I say? I'm doing my darnedest to see to it that, for at least this one day, Flo has no regrets about throwing in her lot with me.

Posted by brett at 05:05 PM | TrackBack