What did Carlo wear?

What did Carlo wear on a daily basis? Let the Beechworth newspaper, The Ovens and Murray Advertiser, tell us. They printed an article in the April 7, 1915 edition with the heading Our Melbourne Letter, sub-heading Marked Personalities. The Marked personality that they wrote about was Carlo Catani. They start by telling us about his employment and then continue on with this

When there is anything to be done which concerned the Public Works Department the short, natty figure of Mr Catani is sure to appear some time during its stages. In age he is somewhere in the middle fifties. His hair is greying, and his dark bushy eyebrows are getting slightly bushier. But he is the same alert Italian that he was when he came to Victoria a young man in the seventies. His friends say that his hair may change in colour, but his clothes never for he seems to be wearing the same sac suit of navy serge he wore years ago. He is a busy man, and a public servant must be devoted to his work. There is a story by his friends that when Mr Catani thinks his suit needs changing he puts his head in at  his tailors and says 'Another of the same' and in due time another of the same comes home. 
The article continues with an account of his arrival in Australia and his various achievements. You can read it here.

On the right is a photo of Carlo from The Australasian of February 8, 1908* of Carlo - a rare and clear image of him standing up - is he wearing a 'sac suit of navy serge'?


So that is what Carlo wore - a 'sac suit of navy serge'. What is a sac suit? There is a description and illustration here in this blog, Mens Clothing line in 1888
https://mensfashionin1888.weebly.com/ Apparently the sac suit was worn from the mid 1880s until the early part of the 20th century, so it seems that Carlo kept to the style that he liked, rather than be a fashionista. Serge, as a matter of interest, is a type of material with an even sided twill weave, similar to garbadine.

This illustration here is of a Scottish Tweed sac suit, advertised in the Sydney Stock and Station Journal on May 31, 1910. It cost 35 shillings. It was described as 'well cut with nothing extreme about it' and I feel that this description would most likely apply to Carlo's navy serge sac suits. Carlo's suit coat in the photo, above, looks a little different from the one on the left, as the suit coat appears to be more cut away.

*The photo from The Australasian of February 8, 1908 can be found here. I am grateful to my friend and fellow Carlo aficionado, Isaac Hermann, for finding this photo for me.