Inside The Duke of Windsor's Wardrobe
Favouring pattern and comfort over stiff formality, the man who wouldn't be King impresses VS with his impeccable style.
By Estella Shardlow on Friday 9th December, 2011
When I asked E Tautz designer Patrick Grant to name a 20th century figure whose style he particuarly admired he unhesitatingly cited The Duke of Windsor. “[He] was a very iconic dresser; the way that he combined patterns and textures was very interesting and that flavours a lot of the ways we put our clothing together today.”
Until then I knew little of this particular Royal’s fashion sense, despite being au fait with the wonderful couture dresses and Cartier jewels sported by his notorious wife. Then a few months later GQ chose to dedicate a fashion spread to the man who wouldn’t be king. With English heritage looks being such a mainstay in Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks for several consecutive seasons now, apparently men should once again be looking to Edward for sartorial inspiration.
One look at a photo of the Duke taken by Horst for Vogue in 1964, and it’s easy to see why Grant, GQ and the rest of the fashion world are so enamoured with the Duke’s style. There he stands in a boldly pinstriped, midnight-blue shetland tweed suit, a pale blue checked shirt and plaid silk tie. It was time to shift my gaze off Wallis Simpson’s Dior dresses and onto his dapper herringbone ensembles and louche velvet lounge suits.
”I was in fact produced as a leader of fashion, with the clothiers as my showmen and the world as my audience,” the Duke once recalled. In his lifetime he was certainly regarded as one of the world’s best-dressed men. An inventory of his wardrobe taken in 1960 recorded that he owned a staggering 15 evening suits, 55 lounge suits and three formal suits, along with more than 100 pairs of shoes. Imelda Marcos, eat your heart out. He had no need to dispose of anything since, remarkably, his measurements stayed the same throughout his life – in over half a century his waist went from 29 inches to 31 inches.
He was remarkably modern in making clothing choices for comfort, an approach that he referred to as ‘Dress Soft’. It’s apparent in the way he would have his pockets cut wider on the left side of the trousers to accommodate his ever-present cigarette case. He invented trousers with elastic in the waist because he loathed wearing suspenders and insisted on zippers on his trousers rather than button flies.
Indeed, the Duke’s taste in clothes was no less anti-establishment than his romantic life. Many of the hallmarks of his wardrobe are direct rebukes of the traditional, conservative dress favoured by his father’s generation. “He was reacting to his buttoned-up and old-fashioned childhood,” explains vintage fashion expert Kerry Taylor. He would pair a double-breasted, chalk-stripe suit with a striped shirt and a woven houndstooth-check tie, or a checked shirt and striped tie with a plaid sport jacket. Tartan, backless formal waistcoats, argyle socks and the drape-cut suit all made regular appearances. Reportedly his insistence on having cuffs on his trousers infuriated his father, George V.
Boosting his stature was also a motivation behind the silhouettes that he sported, since he stood at just 5′ 5” tall. Jacket waists were uniformly set high to elongate his legs, for instance. Tweaking the proportions meant he could still carry off bold patterns, which are usually something for the diminutive to avoid.
Despite the bold strides he made in modern dressing, Edward was equally a great ambassador for traditional English manufacturing. He frequently opted for British-made materials, such as Scottish tweeds and Fair Isle sweaters, in order to support traditional industries like weaving and dyeing. Meanwhile Savile Row's bespoke tailoring allowed him to indulge his outlandish tastes and to edit traditional garments to suit his lifestyle. The Duke used the same tailor, Scholte of Savile Row, to make his jackets from 1919 to 1959. His outfits may have been directional, but he was always immaculately turned out.
Even momentous world events couldn’t hamper Edward's quest for style: after World War II broke out, he had his trousers made in the United States because textiles were rationed in England and his beloved cuffs required extra fabric.
His politics may have been dubious, his reign the briefest in modern British history, but the Duke of Windsor certainly could dress.
