On This Day...

Four Years Ago

Reginald Brumfitt, founder and chair of CHAIR (the Campaign to Have Armchairs in Restaurants), announced that he would be stepping down from his position at the end of the month. It was a decision he had reached with many regrets, after working for more than two decades for the improvement of seating in dining-out places, but felt let down by the lack of support on all sides.

Five Years Ago

Government-funded outreach workers were posted to remote areas of Fenland, Cumbria and the Quantocks to enable residents of outlying parts to take on board the benefits of digital radio, which would not be available to them for another 30 years, to share understanding and to come to terms with their loss in the waiting period and run-up to full roll-out.

Thirty Years Ago

A church in Soho played host to probably the best-dressed congregation ever, when stars of stage, screen and Savile Row came together to celebrate the life and work of sartorial supremo, Harold 'Binkie' Blowman. An engineer by training, Blowman left a lasting legacy to menswear in innovations to comfort and elegance founded on best scientific principles. First came the Sparta, a combination of spat and garter that deployed a cunning system of linked levering with adjustable cogs. This was followed by the pump-action collar-stud, the retractable trouser gusset and, memorably, of course, the quick-release cummerbund.

As the congregation rose for the final hymn, the silence in the nave was broken by the mingled sounds of twanging elastic, bowed whalebone and creaking starch collar, a fitting tribute to the doyen of men's tailoring.