4

Ask the ‘expert’: How do you keep your flannels so immaculate?

Bowled on 31st October, 2008 at 11:58 by Laurence Elderbrook
Category: Ask the 'expert'

If you’ve a question for Laurence Elderbrook, email us.

Suave writes:

I would like to ask how he keeps his flannels so immaculate? Being a fellow suave fella, I need to know these things, so I can look impeccable whilst missing a straight one.

While Jo-Fitz asks the same question, adding:

Is this done by his valet/butler or does he have a bespoke professional service?

Over the years I have refined this process to something of an art. I use a three-pronged approach.

(1) Ensure you possess many sets of cream flannels. I would recommend 400 outfits as a bare minimum.

(2) Carry out a thorough recruitment process to ensure you get the right calibre of loyal manservant.

(3) Regularly admonish said loyal manservant to keep him on his toes. Whether it’s warranted or not, a good bellow in a chap’s face builds character. It’s a give-take relationship. Give bellows to the face and take immaculate cream flannels off him each morning.

More Laurence Elderbrook

"Hey, careful, man, there’s a beverage here"

Make an appeal
  1. Reply
    Pettsvaldo   //   October 31st, 2008 at 12:55

    The cream, the bone, the white, the off-white, the ivory, or the beige…?

    Decisions, decisions.

  2. Reply
    Ged Ladd   //   November 1st, 2008 at 14:18

    The advice, as always, is crystal clear. Many thanks, Lawrence.

    In the current economic climate, it ought to become a wee bit easier to find manservants of the right calibre too.

    I have done some valeting myself, in my time, but that is another story all together.

  3. Reply
    Jo Fitz   //   November 2nd, 2008 at 10:29

    Four hundred outfits – I am truly in awe.
    And can I ask you Mr Elderbrook, if you were to squire a young lady, say to the opera, would you still wear cream flannels?

  4. Reply
    Laurence Elderbrook   //   November 2nd, 2008 at 12:29

    A formal occasion merely calls for a stiffer collar.

Discussion Area - Make an appeal

Comment RSS | TrackBack URL

Cricket history

Photographs on this site by Sarah Ansell

sarah_ansell.jpeg