Tea at Trianon: How to Wear a Pocket Square

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, May 6, 2019

How to Wear a Pocket Square

From GQ:

The pocket square arrived on the sartorial scene back in the 16th century. It was linked to the handkerchief, which was historically intended for hygiene purposes, but the pocket square prioritised look and feel over basic practicality. It rose to popularity across the upper class in Europe, communicating wealth, status and, of course, style. The square size became uniform in the 18th century, supposedly down to Marie Antoinette. It's said that she urged her husband, Louis XVI, to offer just one size option to his acquaintances. And so the common measurement of 16 by 16 inches that we know today was adopted. The square was shifted to the left breast pocket the following century, when two-piece suits really started to dominate men's fashion. (Read more.)