if there is one thing a gentleman cannot do without – even if he can do without anything else, for is this not the essence of being one?
lord ribblesdale by john singer sargent

– it is a cigarette tip or holder. it might be seen as dangerous to smoke at all, and surely new legislation in france and italy, these bygone strongholds of the smokers paradises, the danger far surpassing nicotine addiction is that of dirtying ones hands. might it be remembered that the smoking saw his birth as evening dress through the fact that men retiring after dinner to discuss politics and business, and, of course, the women left behind in another salon, tried to protect themselves from the fumes of tobacco, they were so eagerly inhaling by donnig smoking jackets, often in bright colours, and even caps in fur, satin or brocade as to not get the hair perfumed by their vices.

the actor mark wenzel

everyone going for a drink into a bar in the evening knows that he can forget about wearing anything he had on that night for the rest of the week, and heavy smokers have the scent of poison clinging to their bodies as if nothing else would matter. it is, to be honest, not very appealing to women. apart from the fact that one reduces the habit of smoking if one makes himself the easy rule only to smoke in a smoking, it might be useful, due to the aformentioned facts, to have several smokings. the colour might vary, blue, red

and paisley have been adapted by some designers in the past to enlighten the often very formal black – but an utmost necessity is – the cigarrette holder.

in the times before the war gentleman used to wear gloves at each occasion, due to the filthyness of the streets of london, the ongoing, dusty traffic of hourse carriages (see his lordships riding outfit above) and so forth, and after six a pair of white glace gloves was inevitable. to protect these whites, one used cigarette tips. the tip for modernity, as it is, without the obligatory gloves, is obvious: who wants yellow fingers, remining of chinese opium caves, antiquity dealers and proletarians rather than of a refined man of the world? does one really want to clean fingers with a scrub, soap and the juice of a fresh citron, better used for a gin tonic at hand later?

the most famous of holders was undoubtedly audrey hepburn, whose device in one of here wonderful films (the name escapes me, was it breakfast at tiffany´s? i think, too) had the lenght of a lance, three meters long at least, in a shot that surely span a cinemascope ankle.

let her be our sparkling trophy of everlasting taste. and let us forgive the following lady for not having been provided with a holder, for she can surely do what she wants and we love her for that: the divine catherine.

the rest of the living take it for granted. a tip please! otherwise you leave the world with dirty hands – and the scarcety of white vests in present day life is scary enough, isn´t it?

Sunday, October 16, 2005, 17:49