Vintage Tuxedo

A nice and very recent find at a steal of a price, discovered in my lunch break...I spied the 'look' of the piece from a few feet away and the feel of the cloth and weight told me straight away that it had real age.
A good check over and a close look at build quality and tailoring told me it was very well made, the label inside told me that it was made just a hundred yards or so up the road from the charity shop that it now hung in!
My original thoughts were that it was a 1950's piece but further research and suggestions from several experts pointed it firmly in the 1940's...which was nice!

The silk/satin lined jacket is cut from a medium/heavy weight wool and has a double breasted front 1 button closure with crosgrain silk lapels, jetted skirt pockets, a welted breast pocket  and unvented rear, cut slightly short as was fairly common for the period.

The unvented rear of the jacket, the waist is slightly 'nipped' in but is not apparent from the photographs.

The 'crosgrain' silk peaked lapel detail.

Four button cuff.

Hand finished shoulder detail.

The single inside pocket and original makers label, the lining is a medium/heavy weight black satin-silk with the sleeves linings in white.

The full cut trousers are ever so slightly too big on the waist and will need taking in an inch or so, they do have side adjusters but nominally are 38" and when pulled in to my 36" waist they bunch a little on the side.

The right side pocket detail showing the silk trouser stripe and just the edge of the front watch pocket visible top right.

One of the side adjusters.

Internal brace buttons and silk-satin waistband with heavy cotton pocket linings.

The three button fly.

and one of the two 'HOOK-FLEX' fasteners.

Condition is just about mint with just one or two extremely minor faults that I only found by going over it with a very fine toothcomb, luckily none are visible when worn even at a foot away, no moth nips tears or holes and it still has a very good 'nap' on the cloth.

All in all I doubt it's been worn more than a couple of times....so Winner, winner chicken dinner!

Vintage Shaving Kit

As a collector you often find 'precious things' and realise you 'need' them before you really have a genuine need or use for them!
The above happened to me a few months back when at a car boot sale I purchased an old travelling shaving set in a leather and cloth case.(Sunday, 19 May 2013)Sunday, 19 May 2013)))0)It was an old set but not that old, so I then 'needed' an older version.... a bit of Internet based research later into such things opened up a whole new world of possible collecting interests of shiny things!
Being of a curious nature I had to try out the Gillette Tech razor with one of the unopened but old blades, having used it once I decided it was easy enough to get on with so bought some brand new blades off of a well known internet auction site and yes surprisingly they do still make them!
With the new blades(Astra's or Derby's IIRC?) I found I could get a shave every bit as good as a modern cartridge system razor at a fraction of the price though you have to shave slightly more frequently.
As for the shaving experience, well compared to squirting gunk out of a can onto your face and then flicking a 3 or 4 bladed modern techno razor over your chin or hot flannelling  your face then lathering up your face with a bristle brush and some Arko soap or similar and then using an aesthetically pleasing 60 year old weighty vintage razor ...well for me it's no contest....the constant lure of trying out all the various blades still available from all over the world wins hands down and it's good bye 2013 hello 1950!

Here's a few pictures of some of my rapidly growing 'vintage' shaving stuff.

 

A 'Rolls' razor on it's honing stone

 

A 'Rolls razor travelling set in it's mock crock leather case

 

Two Rolls razor sets, the leather cased set is alloy bodied from around 1948-ish, the one behind is a silver plated 'Imperial' from around 1938.

 

A 1950's leather cased travelling shaving set

 

and it's as new contents with a 'ball end' Tech.

 

A Gillette later 'Tech' razor c 1960s

 

A Gillette 'Flare Tip' Made in England c 1960's, these give great shaves...the knob at the end of the handle twists to open the 2 'silo' doors on the head so you can insert a blade you then twist it shut and shave away!

 

A Cussons 'Chubby' shaving soap container.