Word: cuff
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LONDON Designed for Coco Chanel, Verdura's trademark Maltese Cross cuff ($19,500) attracts a fashionable crowd at Obsidian...
...retail shoppers. "We feel that the custom-made customer is making a commitment to us," said Alexander, my tailor, "and we want to reciprocate with special treatment." he then brought me a bottle of water and delivered a stirring monologue on the history of the shirt cuff?the French cuff was apparently born when Napoleon ordered extra-long sleeves so that his soldiers could wipe their nose on the excess, then fold the cuff to hide the snot?that climaxed with "Are you ready to see our cuffs?" I was ready to invade Russia...
Most of what Alexander did was shepherd me through decisions. There are two basic shapes of shirt?regular cut for suits and slim cut for jeans?but close to a dozen collars and even more cuffs. In the end, I went slim cut, basic cutaway collar, no pocket, no monogram and cocktail cuff, which Alexander described as "the cuff for anyone with James Bond aspirations." Fabric choices were pretty basic. Most colors were represented, and there were a few interesting patterns, but the real decision was about thread count?100, 170 or 200, each of which had a corresponding price...
...consciously bizarre names, from Bitched From the Start (a Patti Smith lyric) to Adlai Stevenson. (J. Edgar Hoover is not the gayest pattern in the store; that would be Curaçao.) After considerable deliberation, I went with a pink-and-blue stripe called Equal Rights in a single-button cuff and a dark black-and-blue pattern called Levev in Napoleonic style...
...also checked out the slope of my neck, made sure I didn't wear a watch (lest she add a quarter of an inch to the cuff) and finally asked whether I felt uncomfortable about anything?you know, bodywise. Now, I'm not in the Burt Reynolds or Sean Connery league, but I did confess to a rogue tuft of chest hair in the spot between the top two buttons of a traditional dress shirt. If I wear a tie, no one knows. If I don't, I look like Teen Wolf. Agustina suggested this could be remedied with...