Posted by If you’ve a question for Laurence Elderbrook, email us.
Suave writes:
I would like to ask how he keeps his flannels so immaculate? Being a fellow suave fella, I need to know these things, so I can look impeccable whilst missing a straight one.
While Jo-Fitz asks the same question, adding:
Is this done by his valet/butler or does he have a bespoke professional service?
Over the years I have refined this process to something of an art. I use a three-pronged approach.
(1) Ensure you possess many sets of cream flannels. I would recommend 400 outfits as a bare minimum.
(2) Carry out a thorough recruitment process to ensure you get the right calibre of loyal manservant.
(3) Regularly admonish said loyal manservant to keep him on his toes. Whether it’s warranted or not, a good bellow in a chap’s face builds character. It’s a give-take relationship. Give bellows to the face and take immaculate cream flannels off him each morning.
The cream, the bone, the white, the off-white, the ivory, or the beige…?
Decisions, decisions.
The advice, as always, is crystal clear. Many thanks, Lawrence.
In the current economic climate, it ought to become a wee bit easier to find manservants of the right calibre too.
I have done some valeting myself, in my time, but that is another story all together.
Four hundred outfits – I am truly in awe.
And can I ask you Mr Elderbrook, if you were to squire a young lady, say to the opera, would you still wear cream flannels?
A formal occasion merely calls for a stiffer collar.