The copy discusses the “uniforme de WASP en vacances;” the phrase “go-to-hell” as coined by Tom Wolfe (“toujours vetu de blanc“); and “les pantalons flashys des Bostoniens… brodés de petits motifs évoquant la Nouvelle Angleterre.” — CC
Great idea Christian! Will embroidered a chino with some crossed french sticks or some wine bottles and St-Nectaire cheese! Hahaha
Will start a new collection with you!
@allen: Why do some people always seem to construe a trend post as an endorsement?
Anyway, don’t be mean to the French with your white flag jokes. Yes, they surrendered to the Germans in 1940 but they had already lost 94,000 men in a few short months. It wasn’t for lack of courage, just poor planning and leadership.
I do not know what the big deal is regarding the French surrender to Germany in World War II. Austria, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg also surrendered, or to use a more sensitive term “capitulated” to the Germans. Like those countries, France really had no choice. They had put all their eggs in one basket (the Maginot Line) and the Germans did not even attempt to cross it. They took over Belgium instead and swooped into France from the North. France, unfortunately had no Plan B. Just like in poker, you have to know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em…
And let’s not forget that Germany and Japan both surrendered at the conclusion of the same war. Is it somehow more palatable to surrender to Americans than to Germans?
When the French army and navy was lead by aristocrats and gentlemen they sometimes actually won. The French haven’t done well militarily since their revolution, when they cut off the heads of all their proper officers, as well as cutting off the head of Lavosier, their greatest scientist. France became a third rate nation and the joke of the world when they exterminated their Preppy-Ivy-Trad population. There’s a lesson to be learned from this……
A French army officer was talking with a British army officer, and asked him why the Brits wore red tunics. The Brit responded by saying hat if they were shot, they could keep fighting and no one would know that they had been shot, because the blood would not show.
And so ever since that fateful conversation, French army pants have been brown.
Poking fun of the frogs has a long and honorable history among the English-speaking peoples, and I have greatly enjoyed this thread for that reason.
But I’ll stick up for them as I would for any other member of Western civilization. I appreciate their enormous contributions to the arts, sciences, and more: Berlioz, Bizet, Braille, Cezanne, Chopin, Curie, Debussy, Degas, Descartes, Diesel, Foucault, Matisse, Monet, Offenbach, Pascal, Pasteur, Ravel, Satie, and many, many others.
But I’ve never thought of picking on the pore lil’ cheese-eating surrender monkeys to be “macho.” That’s just weird.
Just packed a few pairs of GTH trousers for a week back at the ancestral home in Maine, “en vacances” from New York City. Always welcome an opportunity to wear them.
Garlic and onions. And make those pants “scratch n sniff” for added authenticity. To be fair, I have had a couple of lovely French girlfriends in the past and I am still in contact with my French pen-friend from school. They’re not that bad…..
You know, if they offered a fleur de lys motif I might consider it.
We should come up with a list of French things they could embroider on their trousers:
Instead of frogs, frog legs
Instead of signal flags, white flags
Instead of crossed golf clubs, crossed cigarettes
Great idea Christian! Will embroidered a chino with some crossed french sticks or some wine bottles and St-Nectaire cheese! Hahaha
Will start a new collection with you!
Ha, I was almost going to say we should ask Francis what he thinks!
Please start a new collection of GTH pants with French-themed embroideries.
How about little noses pointed upwards?
Guillotines.
Good one.
The Eiffel Tower is an obvious choice.
Imagine Serge Gainsbourg in the go-to-hell pants with the crossed cigarettes (Gitanes).
Des croissants, peut-être?
crossed baguettes, berets stitched in multiple colors….
Pierre Laval, Admiral Darlan, Marshal Petain, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn
I was told by the system that my one word comment was “a bit to short” so I added this intro…
Bicycles.
I’m going to hell for liking this posting! Oh well what the frog.
These are the sorts of pants that make long summer days on the golfcourse fly by. keep eyes on the greens or on bf’s superb sense of fashion <—-sigh*
Maybe you should change the name of your blog to Cornball Preppy Style
@allen: Why do some people always seem to construe a trend post as an endorsement?
Anyway, don’t be mean to the French with your white flag jokes. Yes, they surrendered to the Germans in 1940 but they had already lost 94,000 men in a few short months. It wasn’t for lack of courage, just poor planning and leadership.
I believe these pants will only work in the color brown.
In regards to the white flags:
There have been 53 major wars in Europe
France had been a belligerent in 49 of them.
In 185 battles that France had fought over the past 800 years, their armies had won 132 times, lost 43 times and drawn only 10.
Giving the French military the best record of any country in Europe
Am I to understand that “IBM Ivy” and “Cornball Preppy Style” represent the two extremes of the spectrum?
I do not know what the big deal is regarding the French surrender to Germany in World War II. Austria, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg also surrendered, or to use a more sensitive term “capitulated” to the Germans. Like those countries, France really had no choice. They had put all their eggs in one basket (the Maginot Line) and the Germans did not even attempt to cross it. They took over Belgium instead and swooped into France from the North. France, unfortunately had no Plan B. Just like in poker, you have to know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em…
And let’s not forget that Germany and Japan both surrendered at the conclusion of the same war. Is it somehow more palatable to surrender to Americans than to Germans?
For sale 200,000 French bolt-action rifles. Rarely used, slightly damaged, dropped once.
Okay, Martin. That was the laugh out loud moment of the morning.
When the French army and navy was lead by aristocrats and gentlemen they sometimes actually won. The French haven’t done well militarily since their revolution, when they cut off the heads of all their proper officers, as well as cutting off the head of Lavosier, their greatest scientist. France became a third rate nation and the joke of the world when they exterminated their Preppy-Ivy-Trad population. There’s a lesson to be learned from this……
A French army officer was talking with a British army officer, and asked him why the Brits wore red tunics. The Brit responded by saying hat if they were shot, they could keep fighting and no one would know that they had been shot, because the blood would not show.
And so ever since that fateful conversation, French army pants have been brown.
@Henry: Thus my earlier reference to brown pants. I’m glad someone else knew the joke.
Poking fun of the frogs has a long and honorable history among the English-speaking peoples, and I have greatly enjoyed this thread for that reason.
But I’ll stick up for them as I would for any other member of Western civilization. I appreciate their enormous contributions to the arts, sciences, and more: Berlioz, Bizet, Braille, Cezanne, Chopin, Curie, Debussy, Degas, Descartes, Diesel, Foucault, Matisse, Monet, Offenbach, Pascal, Pasteur, Ravel, Satie, and many, many others.
But I’ve never thought of picking on the pore lil’ cheese-eating surrender monkeys to be “macho.” That’s just weird.
Ditto, Henry. If I were stuck on an island with the music, art and literature of only one nation, it would be France.
Always fun to laugh at them, though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BexbokFOV78
I’d think that pétanque balls or pastis bottles would be most in the spirit of the thing.
He’s even funnier on Scotsmen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OFghmyotRs&NR=1
Yeah, the golf routine is hilarious.
ZUT ALORS! Everything sounds better in French.
I wish I could leave muggy Boston and visit the Polo store in Paris tout de suite.
Robin Williams on the French: https://youtu.be/wAFtw4KaYz4
Just packed a few pairs of GTH trousers for a week back at the ancestral home in Maine, “en vacances” from New York City. Always welcome an opportunity to wear them.
Garlic and onions. And make those pants “scratch n sniff” for added authenticity. To be fair, I have had a couple of lovely French girlfriends in the past and I am still in contact with my French pen-friend from school. They’re not that bad…..
Trousers embroidered with little mimes, looking like Marcel Marceau?
I wouldn’t wear critter pants with a patch madras jacket.
I would like to see critter pants with geese on them instead of ducks. Foie gras.
For those of us of French descent that live in the South, we just choose to believe our critter pants have crawfish on them rather than lobsters.
Yes, but, with CRAAAAZY pants a solid color blazer must be worn for balance. Always: 2 plain, 1 fancy.