Dress Like Django

Chiefbigeasy

The word I have heard bandied about is “neckerchief.” That brought up a few more examples in a search. The John Henric referral is a good resource.

DoubleWhisky

I'm building a trio right now and all though we are not exactly "Django style" we definitely lean towards old school flavour so I think it would be nice to lead the audience also with their eyes into our time machine.

Do you guys try to be period correct when dressing? Like wide legs, high waist and correct materials? For me who is not overly familar with the fashion world I find it very hard to find good old school style clothing as most of what is labeled "vintage","retro", "1930s/40s" etc. almost everytime is some slim fit - low waist ultra modern stuff. A better one I found is this:

https://www.hkmandel.de/herren-bundfaltenhosen-shop-hkmandel.html

Do you know good resources where I can find good old school style clothes?

Buco

I never period dressed for a gig, don't even know where would I start to look for the vintage suits like that. I think Duved spends a small fortune on the stuff. Few times I met him in person, his suits are custom made, 100% wool, super nice work.

Interestingly, the question of dress code came up in one of the bands I play with. I was one of the offenders with jeans. My reasoning was, every time I see the restaurant manager, he's always dressed very casually; always in jeans with either a T-shirt or sometimes a dress shirt. It's an upscale place though, French bistro, wine bar (Bistrot Lepic, don't miss it if in DC area). Our clarinetist reasoning was, customers are almost always dressed up, and the musicians should look at least as nice as the customers.

I suppose if we adopted the idea from this thread that would take of itself. I think though, it would be lost on the restaurant goers where half of them just come out for "dinner with jazz" which is how these evenings are billed. If we played a concert that was advertised as gypsy jazz, then I could see myself dress up like that because people would be familiar with the music they're going to listen and they would get the dressing part. Or most would.

I did hear once Bucky and John Pizzarelli say if you want to get hired, show up for the gig shaved and dressed up. So there's that too.

Buco

Found a site with silk scarves. They use the same patterns as the ties and bowties and this one from the vintage selection

https://www.bows-n-ties.com/Paisley-Patterned-Scarf-in-Merlot.html

I'm looking for my first bow tie because Bill got us a backyard gig, 20s themed.

bbwood_98

Some quick comments:

Period - meh - cosplay in this way is not really my idea of an ok thing.

Having said this - During school I was always taught that the musicians needed to be the best dressed people in the room. . . My teacher (great guitarist Mark Mazzatenta) used to tell us - it's a jazz gig; so perhaps the tux or suit and tie is not totally necessary, but people need to know you dressed up to do this - go all out!

Some advice from a great panel at the 2020 Jazz congress here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP4xOlWv0iQ (the moment with Mcbride at 18:00.

Bowties are cool however (and frankly a B$#$H to tie . . .).

Currently I am trying to elevate how I dress for gigs . . It's a struggle!

Cheers,

B.

bbwood_98

Also @buco - wow - that site is killer!

billyshakes

Bowties are cool however (and frankly a B$#$H to tie . . .).

I'll add additional color to this statement. The knot itself is very simple to tie. Almost like tying your shoe (if you loop & swoop, not 2 bunny ears). That said, what Ben says above applies to making it look good. It might take me 30 secs to tie the knot, but then 5 minutes of futzing with it to try to make it look good, only to give up and re-tie it. Repeat process.

Buco

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/114209#Comment_114209

I think that's a commercial offshoot of

https://www.tie-a-tie.net/

Site I've used since early 2000s to learn new tie knots. I became a fan of Pratt knot through it, a symmetrical knot which was a reason I started to search for different ways because the basic knot I knew ends up being non symmetrical. It's pretty cool that it's still around. A guy named Hendrik is behind it. I just ordered a couple of bowties from it to return a favor a little.

Also, ways to tie a scarf are there too

https://www.tie-a-tie.net/how-to-tie-a-scarf/

littlemark

Is ok if a tie isn't symmetrical. Not all knots are supposed to be.

Buco

Sure, it's fine. It's the "four in hand", on a plus side it narrower than the others and some people prefer that. But it bothered me that it looks slightly crooked when tied.