Harvey Sobel (1934-2014) was a well-known interior designer in the Greater Toronto Area and abroad. He was born in Toronto, but lived in Hamilton – one his favourite cities. He was known for his great love of antiques, French décor and fresh flowers – overall, his extravagant taste in all aspects of life.
Mark Woodley, Sobel’s contractor, donated the Brioni sports coat to the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection in 1997. The coat itself is in almost perfect condition except for some pilling under the arms and minor stains, and reveals a lot about Sobel’s character and refined mannerisms.
FIGURE 1: Donation note from Mark Woodley (Harvey Sobel’s contractor). FRC1997.01.003
Below is a dialogue between Sobel and long time friend Sondi Goldblatt, whom he took on many of his exotic trips. Although the dialogue itself is made up, many of the facts and anecdotes are drawn from Sobel’s life. Beyond that, findings from a close study of the Brioni coat are also incorporated throughout the dialogue to reveal more about its historical and cultural biography.
________________
APRIL 13, 1985
Harvey: I had a bad dream last night – no, a horrible dream. I dreamt that I had to sell my sports coat.
Sondi: The one you’re wearing?
FIGURE 2: Briono Coat interior neck label. Label Reads: Brioni – V. BARBARINI – 79-ROMA. FRC1997.01.001
Harvey: No, not this coat, the Brioni coat! You know, the wool coat – the camel-coloured one with the white and navy vertical stripes. The one I commissioned in Rome in 79. Bespoke! Do you know how many hours it takes to make one of these coats? Brioni only makes five or six of them a day! I’m certain it was on one of our trips together, Sondi. The shop on Via Barbarini! Ringing any bells?
FIGURE 3: Mr. Porter. “Brioni: Behind the Brand.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfy8lQpJsJY (Accessed March 3, 2016).
Sondi: Harvey, I can’t keep up with your wardrobe investments.
Harvey: But that’s not even the worst part! I had to sell my coat to make money for food! I had no money for food, Sondi! And then, because I had no coat to wear, Peggy wouldn’t let me into the party! Peggy wouldn’t let ME into the party! She took me for some sort of panhandler – THE HOST!
Sondi: Now you know how Marx felt when they wouldn’t let him into the library!1
Harvey: Don’t make jokes, Sondi. The Brioni coat brings back a lot of memories from our trips through Europe.
Sondi: It’s just a coat, Harvey. Relax.
Harvey: It’s not just a coat! (Runs to get the coat from the closet)
It’s a representation of my life’s work. It’s a symbol of my love for all things beautiful and unique. It’s a…
FIGURE 4: Camel, navy and cream wool coat with a four button closure and notch lapel, Brioni. FRC1997.01.001
Sondi: It’s, ah…kind of ugly.
Harvey: I’m going to wear it tonight – to the costume party.
Sondi: As what? An over-the-top gay man?
Harvey: No, as a gentleman. As a representation of fine Italian tailoring – the continental. Suave, sophisticated, cultured. A true vision of Italian style with a hint of the collegiate. A reinvention of sprezzatura.
Sondi: So…as Hamilton’s first over-the-top gay man?
Harvey: Sondi, this coat is the essence of me. It’s one of a kind. It’s singular. It’s priceless. It’s terminal, as Kopytoff might say.2 I could never sell this coat. Let’s see…I can wear my knitted V-neck with that spotted bowtie I purchased in Paris. Yes, that should work.
FIGURE 5 & 6: Photograph of Harvey Sobel (far left) and friends at an art gallery costume party dated April 1985. FRC1997.01.001
Sondi: In a sea full of grey business suits, dare to be different.
Harvey: Exactly! It’s not about being gay. It’s not about being a man. It’s about experimenting. It’s about pushing the boundaries. It’s about breaking the “heterosexual assumption.”3 It’s about living this life to the fullest!4 What good did normal ever do anyone?
Sondi: I don’t think anyone assumes you’re heterosexual anymore, Harvey. You can cross that one off the list.
Harvey: Look here, Sondi. The last time I wore it I discovered a secret pocket within the right hip pocket.
Sondi: Interesting. I wonder what it’s for?
Harvey: Money, cigarettes, little black books?
Sondi: Wouldn’t exactly call yours “little.” You’re going to need a bigger pocket there, Harvey!
Harvey: Just wish the damned thing was a little lighter. This fabric is so thickly woven – almost a herringbone. I’ll be perspiring all evening under this horsehair canvas and silk inlay! There are already a few stains on the lining of the sleeves. Why tailors use white silk for lining is beyond me!
FIGURE 7: Interior navy silk lining, Brioni. FRC1997.01.001
Sondi: Baffling. Four buttons – perplexing. The Italians usually like two or three.
Harvey: Yes, but why not four? Why not blue?
FIGURE 8: FRC1997.01.001
Sondi: Is this another attempt at breaking hegemonic masculinities?5 Are your buttons contesting “exemplars of masculinity”?6 Shall I alert the press?
Harvey: I’m not trying to make a huge political statement, Sondi. I still look like a man. But we live in a society that still holds a “stigma against men’s interest in fashion” – I’m going to help change that. 7
Sondi: Dialling. “Hello, press?”
Harvey: And these buttonholes, Sondi! Oh, Sondi, they don’t make them like this anymore – Milanese, handmade buttonholes. Generations from now won’t even know this type of craftsmanship existed!
FIGURE 9: Milanese buttonhole detail, Brioni. FRC1997.01.001
Sondi: The poor bastards.
Harvey: (Puts on the coat) Do you think I look muscular? I asked the tailor – a quaint little Fonticoli – to stick in a bit of shoulder padding to beefin’ me up.
Sondi: A modern day Adonis.
Harvey: It’s the tailor’s job to make the man look his best, you know?8 A little padding here, a little nip/tuck there. The great thing about buying bespoke is that they tailor the clothes to fit you – no conforming to Western size charts. That damn Quetelet ruined the world of fashion with his quantities!9 The average man? Hah!
Sondi: You a little self-conscious about your figure?
Harvey: Every man is, whether he likes to admit it or not. The Italian cut flatters me, Sondi. Perfectly cinched at the waist to give me enough definition.
Sondi: Classic case of non-economic commodity fetishism.10
Harvey: I beg your pardon?
Sondi: You’ve given that coat non-monetary exchange worth. You’ve masked its true cost with your ramblings on its ability to make you look and feel like your best self. You’ve “endowed it with a fetishlike ‘power’ that is unrelated to its true worth.”11
Harvey: Okay. But it doesn’t make me look too boxy, though? Does it, Sondi?
Sondi: No, Harvey. Even in a silk shirt with 1,000 carats of topaz buttons, you’re the perfect-looking gentleman.12 (He gets up to leave) Can’t wait to see you this evening!
Harvey: I’m thinking red bromeliads.
__________________________________________________________________
END NOTES
- Anthony Sullivan, “Karl Marx – Fashion and Capitalism,” in Thinking Through Fashion: A Guide to Key Theorists, eds. Agnes Rocamora and Anneke Smelik, 29. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2016.
- Igor Kopytoff, “The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process,” in The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, ed. Arjun Appadurai, 80-83 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
- Barry, Ben and Dylan Martin. “Gender Rebels: Inside the Wardrobe of Young Gay Men with Subversive Style.” (Ryerson University, 2015): 6.
- Kathy Renwald, “Renwald: Harvey Sobel was a Master of Magic,” The Hamilton Spectator, http://www.thespec.com/living-story/4646251-renwald-harvey-sobel-was-a-master-of-magic/ (accessed 5 March 2016).
- Denise N. Green and Susan B. Kaiser, “From Ephemeral to Everyday Costuming – Negotiations in Masculine Identities at the Burning Man Project,” Costume Society of America (2011): 9.
- Ibid., 9.
- Ben Barry and Dylan Martin, “Dapper Dudes: Young Men’s Fashion Consumption and Expressions of Masculinity,” Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion 2, 1 (2015): 12.
- Alison Matthews David, “Made to Measure? Tailoring and the ‘Normal’ Body in Nineteenth-Century France,” in Histories of the Normal and the Abnormal: Social and Cultural Histories of Norms and Normativity, ed. Waltraud Ernst, 150 (Kentucky: Routledge, 2006).
- Ibid., 150.
- Igor Kopytoff, “The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process,” in The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, ed. Arjun Appadurai, 83 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
- Ibid., 83.
- Mary K. Nolan, “Passages: Harvey Sobel ‘Enjoyed the Best of Everything,’” The Hamilton Spectator, http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4642186-passages-harvey-sobel-enjoyed-the-best-of-everything-/ (accessed 5 March 2016).
____________________________________________________________
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barry, Ben and Dylan Martin. “Dapper Dudes: Young Men’s Fashion Consumption and Expressions of Masculinity.” Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion 2, 1 (2015): 5-21.
David, Alison Matthews. “Made to Measure? Tailoring and the ‘Normal’ Body in Nineteenth-Century France.” In Histories of the Normal and the Abnormal: Social and Cultural Histories of Norms and Normativity, edited by Waltraud Ernst, 142-164. Kentucky: Routledge, 2006.
Green, Denise N. and Susan B. Kaiser. “From Ephermeal to Eeverday Costuming – Negotiations in Masculine Identities at the Burning Man Project.” Costume Society of America (2011): 1-22.
Kopytoff, Igor. “The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process.” In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, edited by Arjun Appadurai, 64-91. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Nolan, Mary K. “Passages: Harvey Sobel ‘Enjoyed the Best of Everything.’” The Hamilton Spectator. http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4642186-passages-harvey-sobel-enjoyed-the-best-of-everything-/ (accessed 5 March 2016).
Renwald, Kathy. “Renwald: Harvey Sobel was a Master of Magic.” The Hamilton Spectator. http://www.thespec.com/living-story/4646251-renwald-harvey-sobel-was-a-master-of-magic/ (accessed 5 March 2016).
Sullivan, Anthony. “Karl Marx – Fashion and Capitalism.” In Thinking Through Fashion: A Guide to Key Theorists, edited by Agnes Rocamora and Anneke Smelik, 28-45. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2016.
“Trend Setter – Man of Exquisite Taste – Harvey Sobel Remembered.” The Bay Observer. http://bayobserver.ca/trend-setter-man-exquisite-taste-harvey- sobel-remembered/ (accessed 5 March 2016).
This was a really enjoyable read, Dan! You took a very creative approach to this project, by writing a dialogue between the coat’s former owner, and his friend. The mixture of Sobel’s life events, garment description, and theory were woven nicely together so that it wasn’t too heavy with theory, or too carried away with anecdotes at any one point. Great work.
Thanks, Gabby!
I’m impressed with the creative story-line you’ve created with this post, Dan! The dialogue illuminates not only information about the jacket itself, but also the theory that we’ve been studying this year in a creative and accessible way. In terms of your content, the discussion of heteronormative masculinity was an interesting one. I never would have looked at the piece from this point of view, but looking at it and seeing the photos you included it makes complete sense. The small details on the jacket, such as the blue buttons, do indicate a stylistic difference from traditional and normative jackets of the time. Following, then, do you think that an unconventional style sense in 1979 indicates some level of rebellion against or ‘disagreement’ with heteronormative masculinity? Do you think the same is true of the year 2016? Overall a great read.
Thanks, Rachel. During the 60s-70s men and women in Western societies did start to experiment and break gender binaries in dress (i.e. the Carnaby Boys in London, YSL’s pant suit for women from Paris and the youthquake movement in the US/UK). I’m sure this wave of experimentation would have been picked up in Italian tailoring, but in a more refined manner for prominent brands like Brioni. I’d have to do a lot more digging to find out if Italian tailors were concerned with breaking hegemonic masculinities – but, there’s no doubt in my mind that Sobel did in many ways!
Great approach to this project. You made a topic that may be somewhat dry at times, quite an enjoyable read. Gtrach is absolutely right, this was a great way of implementing theory as well as disscussing topics such as Marx in a way that didn’t feel forced. This is a great example of a writing assignment that shows one can satisfy all the requirements of a paper, while still being intellectually stimulating for the reader. Also, it was great that you had a link to milanese button holes because I had no idea what that entailed! One aspect that stuck out in my mind was when Harvey stated “Generations from now won’t even know this type of craftsmanship existed!” It’s an interesting notion to say the least and perhaps you’re right these types of craftsmanship may disappear. I wasn’t sure if a machine could produce a similar button hole, but what I found was that something as small as a buttonhole finishing technique is extremely important in the bespoke suit community! So perhaps these types of techniques will not be lost to future generations, only time will tell. In that same vein, do you think all these details were commissioned? Do you think the buttons, lining, and stripes were all details that Mr. Sorbel requested? If so, these details give striking insight into his personality! All in all, this was a great read, it was not only interesting but informative as well.
Thanks, Sam. Considering that a lot of people don’t know what bespoke tailoring even is, I assumed that Milanese buttonhole making followed suit (no pun intended!). If you watched the video, it’s a very long and tedious process, which is why a lot of mass producers make simple machine-made buttonholes. It’s also another reason why bespoke tailoring is so expensive today!
Whether Sobel selected every cut and colour of his jacket, I’ll never know (he’s now passed), but considering the fact that he was a designer, himself, and was very picky when it came to selecting furniture and materials for his own projects, I’d like to think that he was very much involved in the process of making the jacket!
The style of your blog post was innovative. The dialogue between the two gentlemen brought the story of this Brioni jacket to life. It was interesting to read about the stigma in men’s fashion during the 80’s. Having lived through that period, I would agree with your statement that the 80’s was about pushing boundaries. Both my grandfather and uncle were tailors and they taught us to appreciate the various elements that go into a well-made jacket such as the handmade button holes. While it may have been considered pushing boundaries at the time, I think for them it was more about showcasing their talents to their family and customers.