For many residents of Clubland, without the proper attire, they will not even make it through the front door of your club. Thus, this week, we here at Clubland USA are focusing on fashion.
Whether you’ve practically been a permanent fixture at your club for the past 30 years or you’ve only just applied for a visa to Clubland, everyone could stand to benefit from some fashion advice.
In this week’s edition of Clubland USA, Ishaan Jajodia spoke with Lindsay Nicholas New York founder and namesake, to decipher the secret language our clothes speak, and to answer the age-old question, “what shall I wear to the club?”
Yours truly spoke with Capitol Hill Clothiers founder and owner Anthony Bolognese about how such a clubby city like D.C. could be so obsessed with status and yet so painfully indifferent to style.
This week’s Dispatches from Clubland were also brought to you by Ishaan Jajodia. What can we say? The man can write!
Please be sure to forward this Clubland USA issue, brought to subscribers by Double Dot Squash, with everyone who will love it. You’ll be our favourites if they subscribe here, or by using your unique referral link below. —BK
Dressing the Part
Tips for Clubland Fashion and Avoiding Faux Pas
By: Ishaan Jajodia
If you’ve ever thought, “what do I wear to the club?”, you’ve come to the right place.
For starters, by Clubland’s standards, I’m quite well-styled, but alas my limits are to men’s clothing. To help me on my quest (and fill the gaps of my knowledge), I spoke to Lindsay Nicholas, founder of Lindsay Nicholas New York.
Clothes are not merely clothes. They’re expected to do more than simply keep you warm or cool or cover your thighs, shoulders, and everything in between.
The big challenge of what to wear in Clubland is being able to talk through your clothes. When you put together an outfit, do you wonder what your clothes signify? It’s a “secret language”, Nicholas says, “that people speak to each other through their clothing”. Nicholas put it rather succinctly: wearing “something that’s really special that isn’t overt”.
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Capitol Threads and Clubhouse Creds
Dressing America’s most unfashionable city
By: Benjamin Kahn
Anthony Bolognese wears a lot of (well-fitted) hats. He founded and operates Capitol Hill Clothiers and Capitol Hill Photo providing him regular access to Washington professionals and insiders. And, if that’s not enough, he’s also an investor in two up-and-coming culinary establishments across the Potomac in Virginia, HYDE Social and Carbonara, both in Arlington.
Years ago, Bolognese was a young man becoming disillusioned with the experience of selling clothes from big box retailers. This would result in him launching Capitol Hill Clothiers in 2018 to provide the experience that he craved as a consumer.
“ I realized that what I was selling was trash that was way overpriced”, Bolognese said. “The customization options were woefully limited and I just knew that I could do better.”
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Dispatches from Clubland
Last Call! We raise a glass to the members of Wheeling Country Club in Wheeling, WV, who face the closure of their club at the end of the year, after almost 125 years of dutiful service to the fine men and women of Ohio County, WV; and to the members of the City Club Raleigh, in Raleigh, NC, which poured its last drink after almost half a century to its members.
Derby Party with the Earl of Derby. The Pendennis Club in Louisville, KY, hosted Edward R.W. Stanley, the 19th Earl of Derby, and Dr. Andrew O’Shaughnessy, for cocktails and dinner in the run-up to the Kentucky Derby. The fifth Earl of Derby gave his name to the iconic horse-racing format, which celebrated its 151st iteration in Kentucky on Saturday, May 3.
Court matters. Recently facing sticker shock, I found myself asking: what does a squash court time at Manhattan clubs cost? The norm appears to be $18 per player for 45 minutes, unless you’re at a non-university affiliated club, which are more generous than their university-affiliated counterparts. You know how much we hate nickel-and-diming, and Clubland believes that court time should be liberally granted.
Wigs and Briefs. It isn’t often that you hear two Pennsylvania hunt clubs arguing in front of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. You might ask: about what? The Punxsutawney Hunting Club and the Pitch Pine Hunting Club are suing the Game Commission of Pennsylvania for putting a camera on the Punxsutawney Hunting Club’s land that took photographs of members without their consent (and without a warrant), stoking their ire.
Sick of Clubland? Palm Beach, FL, has announced an indefinite ban on zoning applications for new clubs, following a discussion that was intended to distinguish between for-profit and member-owned-and-operated clubs. The planning board’s commissioner claimed, “we are capped out already”, and slammed his gavel on clubland.
Thank you for reading Clubland USA. Our next issue will be Tuesday, May 13 at 3pm.