A most beautiful suit of clothes / a beautiful ruin

This dress suit, circa 1790, resides in the Henry Ford Historic Costume Collection of Wayne University. I adore it, not least because this shade of green is one of my absolute favorite colors. Though beautifully cut and embroidered, and quite costly to produce even in its day, it hasn't survived in the best of shape. Much of the embroidery has suffered. There are patches of color loss in the green silk. And badly done alterations and/or repairs were made during the twentieth century, most likely so it could be worn in a theatrical production. Somewhere along the line it has also lost its coordinating waistcoat. Sad, all of that. But it does survive.

This awful addition at the back is surely the worst indignity of all. 

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Thank you to Paul Ellis, who featured some of these images on his wonderful Facebook page, Attire's Mind.

Also, a few years back I did another post with many more examples of suits from this same period - et voilà!

Encore les hommes - portraits and self-portraits

Portrait of a Young Man, by Cornelis de Zeeuw, 1565

Simon Pauquet, "inspecteur des ponts et chaussées", by Henri-Pierre Danloux, circa 1785.

Courtesy Stephen Rutledge.

Portrait of Monsieur Allard, by Léon Bonnat, circa 1880s.

Selbstporträt vor der Litfaßsäule, by Georg Scholz, 1926.

John Carpenter of Mount Tavy, by John Opie, 1807.

 Self-portrait, by Bertalan Székely, 1860.

Heinrich Wilhelm August Georg Pouff, royal Dutch captain, unknown artist, circa 1840s-50s.

Unknown, Belgian, circa mid-nineteenth century. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Orfeusz, by Károly Ferenczy, 1894.

Francis Wright Fabyan Jr., by Philip de László, 1931.

Portrait of a Man (Condottiere Malatesta Baglioni?), by Parmigianino, circa 1535.

Unknown, circa early twentieth century.

Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, X duque de Berwick y XVII duque de Alba, by Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor y Zaragoza, 1929.

Doppio Ritratto, by Giorgione, 1502.

Sergei Rachmaninov, by Konstantin Somov, 1925.

Self-portrait, by Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, 1894.

Ulrik Scheffer, by Alexander Roslin, 1763.

Count Platon Zubov, by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder, 1793.

Portrait of a Man (said to be a painting of Sir Henry Guildford), unknown artist, circa 1530-35.

Self-portrait, by Orest Adamovich Kiprensky, 1828.

Manuel Tolsá, by Rafael Ximeno y Planes, circa 1794-1796.

George Bustard Greaves, by George Romney, 1786.

Tyrone Power, by Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1936.

Self-portrait, by Howard Norton Cook, circa 1920s-30s.

Mikhail Benois, by Konstantin Korovin, 1926.

Ritratto d’Uomo, by Antonio Mancini, circa late-nineteenth-early-twentieth century.

 Selbstbildnis im Atelier des Künstlers mit Blick auf München, Bernhard Peter von Rausch, 1834.

Unknown, possibly a self-portrait, Austrian School, circa early to mid-eighteenth century.

Unknown, circa late-nineteenth century. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Portrait de jeune homme en redingote, French School, circa 1800.

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat, by Alexander Roslin, 1764.

Ecce Homo, by José de Ribera, circa 1620.

The courier Nikolai Nesterov, atelier of  Wilhelm Lapré, circa 1882.

Sir Thomas Wharton, by Anthony van Dyck, 1639.

Charles I while Prince of Wales, by Abraham van Blijenberch, circa 1617-20.

Self-portrait, by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, circa 1790s.

Unknown, unknown miniaturist, 1793. It is signed - with initials - but it isn't enough to identify the artist.

King Willem I of The Netherlands, by Matthijs van Bree, 1827.

Portrait of a Man and Dog, by Ignaz Marcel Gaugengigl, circa late-nineteenth century.

Self-portrait, by Giovanni Giacometti, 1889.

Gunnar Elving, unknown photographer, 1921.

Unknown, unknown artist, circa second quarter of the nineteenth century.