SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Before John Berendt wrote the historic best seller "Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil," he wrote a series of columns for Esquire on good manners and classy men's clothing. He has updated and revised over 50 of those pieces now in a new book that can be quoted, cited and just enjoyed - "Class Act: A Gentleman's Guide To Dressing Well." And John Berendt joins us now from our studios in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
JOHN BERENDT: Good to be here.
SIMON: "Class Act" isn't just about clothing, is it? You cite your grandfather, for example.
BERENDT: Yes. My grandfather always had new dollar bills and coins - new coins in his pocket wherever he went because he used the new ones for tips to show his gratitude and his esteem for the person who did whatever job it was for him. My grandfather was the class act in my life.
SIMON: Well, tell us - what other ways?
BERENDT: He always wore a three-piece suit. Now, he's - that's another era, but he was always extremely well-dressed, and he was so entrenched in that kind of look and formality that when he came to the beach, he was dressed in a three-piece suit. I mean, he was locked into that look, which is a little too much, but it shows you how dedicated he was to whatever his look was. And that's what it was, very formal.
SIMON: Argyle socks. No less than the duchess of Argyle told you, not her family.
BERENDT: Esquire didn't want me to write fashionese (ph). In other words, I - like, what is the color to wear for spring? You know, all that. They wanted me to get to the social history, but the interesting aspects of various items of clothing, and one of them was Argyle socks. So I found that there was a duchess of Argyle still alive. I called her up, and she made it clear by the resoluteness of her reply that she'd been asked about Argyle socks before.
They have nothing to do with the family, she said - placing heavy emphasis on the first syllable of nothing. My late husband, the duke, appeared in an advertisement for Argyle socks in the 1950s, and it made me very angry. I was very cross. It's a thing that has always annoyed me, it's the wrong tartan, the wrong colors and the wrong spelling. After all, she said softly, one doesn't want, you know, to be known for a sock.
SIMON: Ha.
BERENDT: She is known for a sock, I'm sorry to tell.
SIMON: Yeah. We have the British navy to thank for the blue blazer?
BERENDT: Yes. The commander of the ship the HMS Blazer took a look at his motley crew one day and decreed that they would, from thenceforward, wear blue jackets. And those jackets became the blazer we know.
SIMON: And the whole idea was what? - you could reach any port, anywhere in the world, put that on and be a gentleman.
BERENDT: Well, it was a very neat-looking garment. It was dark blue, and it was - it dressed up the person who was wearing it. Everybody looks better in dark blue or black.
SIMON: Chinos have become such a mainstay today. Course, it traces back to a regimental commander of the British army in India who didn't want to see dust on uniforms.
BERENDT: Well, he was a stickler for the white uniform, and he was upset that whenever he went out to review his troops, the Punjab dust had made them all filthy. So he realized that he - nothing he could do about the dust, but he could do something about the uniforms. So he went to the quartermaster general and suggested that he dye the uniforms the color of dust. And so he did it by mixing coffee - and I forget what else, but three or four ingredients to make a dye that would turn the uniforms to dust color. And they called it khaki. It was a new color. Khaki is the Hindi word for dust-colored.
SIMON: Can I ask you to read a bit from your piece on motorcycle jackets?
BERENDT: (Reading) For all you need to know about the definitive motorcycle jacket and how to wear it, take a look at Marlon Brando in the 1953 movie "The Wild One." He plays the leader of a motorcycle gang and wears a lustrous, heavy-duty black leather jacket that has all the requisite features - epaulets, metal snaps, belted waist, zippered forearms and an oversize zipper running at an angle up the front. Brando wears the jacket like a second skin. He never takes it off. His swagger and his smoldering resentment deliver its message of random aggression. When the ingenue asks him, what are you rebelling against, he said, what you got?
SIMON: Now, I don't even have a driver's license. Can I wear a motorcycle jacket?
BERENDT: Well, you can, but the thing is, I like to picture Ronald Reagan. Would he ever be seen wearing a motorcycle jacket? I doubt it.
SIMON: John Berendt. His new book, "Class Act: A Gentleman's Guide To Dressing Well." Thank you so much for being with us.
BERENDT: Good to be here. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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