Hugo Vickers
Suits You, Sir
Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II
By Philip Mansel
Yale University Press 237pp £19.95 order from our bookshop
This is a book very much after my own heart. When I was ten, my parents took us to ski in St Moritz, and we stayed at the Kulm Hotel. I noticed that there was a hierarchy amongst the waiters. The Head Waiter wore white tie and evening tails at both lunch and dinner, and the most junior waiters always wore black bow ties and a short white jacket. Our waiter was in between. He wore white tie and white jacket at lunch, and black tie and evening tails at dinner.
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