Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe
sherlock attire intro
The new BBC Sherlock special is almost here, but are you ready? Get back into (Victorian) style with the very best in Holmes-inspired attire.
By Guest Editor Livia Formisani
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Deerstalker Cap:
Deerstalker Cap: The absolute #1 item on a Holmes fan’s list, this hat was introduced by illustrator Sidney Paget for The Strand, where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories were first published, before getting picked up for countless theatre and screen adaptations and becoming the most recognisable icon of the famous detective. amazon.co.uk
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Inverness Cape:
Inverness Cape: The Inverness cape, also credited to Paget, is deeply tied to the image of Sherlock Holmes. Interestingly, the original overcoat worn by Holmes in Conan Doyle’s novels is actually an Ulster coat, a more informal daytime piece with an outer cape reaching only to the elbows. gentlemansemporium.com
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Magnifying Glass:
Magnifying Glass: “It is has always been an axiom of mine that little things are infinitely the most important”, says Holmes who, in his first novel A Study in Scarlet, is described as using “a powerful convex glass” to examine the crime scene. The magnifying glass would go on to become a defining emblem of the detective trade. amazon.com
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Pipe And Tobacco Slipper:
Pipe And Tobacco Slipper: The Calabash pipe, introduced in the first stage and movie adaptations, is widely associated with Sherlock Holmes. The detective has several pipes, in line with his mastery of tobacco types (he famously authored a monography on tobacco ashes) which he keeps in the toe end of a Persian slipper – a quirk that never ceases to amaze Watson. amazon.com [Photo: Joe Haupt/Flickr]
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Smoking Jacket:
Smoking Jacket: Holmes could spend days in his sitting room without going out: thinking, reading, doing chemistry experiments or playing the violin. He famously does all this while wearing his signature smoking jacket – akin to a modern dressing gown. According to Watson’s accounts, Holmes owns three of them: a blue, a purple, and a “mouse-coloured” one. For trivia fans: London-based brand Derek Rose produces the gowns featured in Sherlock. derek-rose.com
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Violin:
Violin: Always found the melancholic melodies played by Holmes on his Stradivarius fascinating? It’s never too late to learn the violin, though reaching Holmes’s level of mastery might take some time – that is, unless you’re coached by Eos Counsell, a member of renowned string quartet Bond, as Benedict Cumberbatch was. amazon.co.uk
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Day Cravat:
Day Cravat: In A Study in Scarlet, Holmes quickly dons a “cravat and an Ulster” to spring into action, a habit repeated in numerous screen adaptations. Robert Downey Jr. wears day cravats in the latest Sherlock blockbusters, while Cumberbatch wears a more modern scarf in the TV series (but tied similarly to a day cravat). If you’re attending a formal occasion during the day, we suggest wearing an Ascot instead. etsy.com
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Boxing Gloves:
Boxing Gloves: Watson diligently reports that Holmes is “an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman”. While his fighting abilities prove more than useful on many occasions, it is Holmes’s talent for boxing that emerges as the most remarkable. In The Sign of Four, a professional boxer enthusiastically recognises him as a worthy opponent he once met in the ring. ebay.com
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Pocket Watch:
Pocket Watch: The most diffused type of watch in Holmes’s times, as wristwatches wouldn’t become popular until a few decades later. Besides carrying one, as all gentlemen of the time did, Holmes famously analyses the pocket watch of Watson’s brother in The Sign of Four. amazon.com
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Tea:
Tea: Holmes has been known to not eat for days on end when absorbed in one of his cases, but he seems to be more than inclined to drinking tea. Which tea, you ask? While no specific blend is ever mentioned in the novels, fans seem to agree on Lapsang Souchong, a smoky black tea from China. twinings.co.uk
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Walking Stick:
Walking Stick: An essential component of Victorian attire, walking sticks or canes were a popular accessory in Holmes’s times. They could also be used for fencing in “bartitsu”, a jujitsu-based martial art of the time developed in London, which has recently made a comeback. Conan Doyle cites bartitsu as the technique Holmes used against Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. amazon.com
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Gladstone Bag:
Gladstone Bag: This type of leather bag, named after a British prime minister, was first designed in London by J. G. Beard. Conan Doyle mentions it only in one short story, but its flair and practicality are perfectly in line with Sherlockian style. Search for a vintage doctor’s bag to recreate the same look. ebay.com/
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Pocket Flask
Pocket Flask: A very popular item in the Victorian era, the pocket flask was a handy accessory for carrying a beverage of choice in order to warm up when travelling, hunting or fishing. Holmes carries a flask while waiting for a criminal to appear at the crime scene in the short story The Naval Treaty.amazon.co.uk
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Pocket Notebook:
Pocket Notebook: A page from Holmes’s notebook bearing the news that he had been found by Moriarty is all Watson is left with in The Final Problem, but it can safely be assumed that the detective often made use of his pocket notebook in his investigations. etsy.com
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
Latchkey:
Latchkey: Holmes has a latchkey to enter his Baker Street apartment when it’s past Mrs Hudson’s bedtime. Feeling romantic? You, too, can be part of the exclusive set of people with a key to 221B. amazon.com
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Sherlockiana: Vintage Sherlock Style For Your Wardrobe.
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