Wanted to see Simon Pemberton‘s award-winning work in a small exhibition at the V&A, but first trundled across to Regent Street to look for a new suit. Had been disappointed to find that a suit series I have used for years, via Gieves & Hawkes, was no longer available. Didn’t much like the Jaeger styles – and it was Sale time, so problematic anyway.
So we pottered down Saville Row, thinking it might just be time for made-to-measure, but suspecting that it would be too expensive. Then went back into G&H, on a hunch, to find that made-to-measure there would be only slightly more expensive – and that there was a sale of cloth on. So, somewhat accidentally, it looks as if I may be well suited this fall.
Have always been fascinated by good shop window displays in places like New Bond Street – and my eye was particularly caught by a safe in the belly of a gorilla at what point, and then several blocks on, what I recognised as Vought Corsairs in a Patek Philippe window. They also had a fish illustration, which echoed later in the afternoon when we went on to the V&A – and happened upon the Ichthys font by Colin Reid, which is extraordinary.
In the middle, lunch in the restaurant on the top floor of of Waterstone’s, having bought yet more books in the hope of reading at least a few next week. Am part way through several books at the moment, including The Winds of Dune, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
Among the books I bought today were Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (which I’m keen to read again), Nicola Tesla’s My Inventions and Other Writings, Ferdinand von Schirach’s The Girl Who Wasn’t There (I enjoyed his earlier book, The Collini Case), Brendan Simms’ The Longest Afternoon, Adam Thorpe’s On Silbury Hill, and Don Winslow’s The Cartel – blurbed as “the War and Peace of dope-war books.” We’ll see.
