Item 5: Replica of suit worn by Max Beerbohm (1993)

While a youthful literary notable in the 1890s, Beerbohm used formal evening wear, complete with a ubiquitous top hat, to forge a distinctive image as a sophisticated Aesthete enjoying London’s nightlife. In later years, after withdrawing from English society for a quieter and more frugal life in Italy, Beerbohm continued dressing with great care, but turned three-piece suits with double-breasted vests into his signature garments. At every stage of his career, his style remained influential. His was a look studied and copied, even decades after his death in 1956. This reproduction of one of his most characteristic suits—its creation a mark of his ongoing celebrity—was made by a firm of Savile Row tailors.

Private collection