Word: peterman
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Here is an item from Peterman's "Owner's Manual" No. 72, Fall '98: "Sir Rupert met him just beyond the gate of Penworth House. At first he thought he recognized the man. An old mate from Rugby ...No, that would have been foolish. MI5 wouldn't have chanced it. Not like this anyway. Still, the man had the right look about him. The windowpane blazer. Nicely non-bureaucratic." Windowpane Blazer. $225. Too much Bond, I think--a little over the top. So is this, from the same catalog: "Fabiana whistled for the stable boy. He came. She whipped...
...Peterman's world, on the other hand, has never been one particular place. Rather, Peterman retails an evoked time, a diffuse, multifaceted past located somewhere between the two World Wars, sometimes drifting back into the Edwardian. A thought along these lines appears in the text presenting an Indian Elephant Caftan (No. AAF7744. Silk crepe de Chine. $180. Bangalore, India): "Comeliness and the passions of the past happen to mean a lot to me, perhaps...
Seinfeld parodied Peterman--the tribute, perhaps, of one insubstantial '90s style to another. Illusion is everything, self-deception is indispensable, and Peterman works behind a scrim of pastness, sometimes hilarious but curiously sweet nonetheless. Peterman sells interesting and fairly good-quality stuff (though he lately got caught in a crunch of high inventory, debt and cash-flow problems). The danger, of course, is that you may get the thing in the mail and try it on (a Sherlock Holmes hat or cape, say, or one of those flouncy, too-much-by-half fin-de-siecle velvet gowns: "We drank Veuve...
...speaking of Peterman only at his extreme, though I confess I think the Peterman contribution has been more to the culture of fantasy than to clothing. I search for Peterman moments in real life. For example: A foreign correspondent, old Asia hand, Brit I've known for years, has us up to his tiny, steamy Manhattan apartment for dinner. He makes Peking duck, and when he notices an awkward pause in the conversation, pops his head out of the kitchen and begins an anecdote in that fluting voice of his: "You know, once when I was playing...
...PETERMAN Seinfeld ends, his firm goes under. Who's stuck hearing those exotic tales? Poor Mrs. Peterman...