Here's a subject I very rarely write about: shopping. Or, to be more precise (and more high-brow), clothes and fashion! I've always kept this blog within a limited range of subject matters: science, philosophy, movies, books, photography, poetry etc. I've now decided that I'm going to increase the oeuvre - enhance the repertoire - of this blog. Don't get me wrong. This is not something I am doing because I want this blog to be more interesting. It already is interesting! - Oh no, fashion and clothes are subjects I have strong opinions about. It's a subject close to my heart. Yes, my heart is rather shallow so sue me! I consciously think about what I wear and what others are wearing all the time. I do enjoy wearing clothes. But I've just never written about it. Clothes make the man, and every contemporary 21st century gentlemen should know how to dress well. All too often I see men just not cutting it in the sartorial department! The truth is that times have changed. Not a long time ago men always looked dapper - they went out wearing suits and hats - in fact, if you didn't wear a suit and hat you were deemed not respectable. Nowadays jeans and t-shirt are pretty much de-rigueur. A pity really. Look - I'm no fashion snob - and yes there is more to life then what you wear - but I think clothes and the way people wear them is an interesting topic ripe for discussion. It's interesting for several reasons. Clothes tell people who you are. What you believe in. How educated you are - your social status. Clothes can give an indicator of the kind of lover you might be in bed: a roaring lion or a squeaky mouse.
I think about what I wear. What matters to me are things like colour combinations, the fitting, the style, layering. Of the four - the fitting is the most important. Clothes should fit as if they were made especially for you. As if (and this metaphor is stretching it a little), as if - you crawled out of your mothers womb wearing the clothes on your back...
Anyway, today I popped into Topman in London's (crazily madly and tortuously busy) Oxford Street - with the intention of doing a bit of lazy browsing (a vicarious pleasure of mine) and (as is often the case) I ended up buying something. A navy blue blazer. £100. I tried it out on the shop floor - on top of my dark jeans, polo top with upturned collars, and black trainers - and instantly fell in love with it. It felt as if it was made just for me! The navy blue colour and the fitting was what did it. The blazer was very snug under the arms and projected a slim silhouette. It had smallish lapels and tapered at the waist. I figured it would go well with a crisp white shirt or even a pink one. I'd be able to yank it up a few notches in the style stakes by donning a t-shirt underneath - for that little bit of trampishness!
Alright - I tell you what - I'll take a picture of myself wearing it - and post it on the blog. What do you say? Would you like to see me wearing it? I bet you would.
The arms need to be shortened a little though. When holding your arms out straight the blazers sleeves should be short enough to allow some of the shirt cuff to peep through. It's not bespoke; well no suit off the rack will fit perfectly unless you're Mr Average. I usually shop at All Saints - more expensive and mainly subdued colours (blues, blacks and greys). I wouldn't wear a Topman suit at a job interview though. The quality isn't as great as say TM Lewin, Reiss, Charles Thwytt etc. And also, with Topman suits being a more 'young' and 'stylish' - you might not be taken seriously by interviewers! Image is important you know - and people who tend to focus too much on fashion and not work-dashion (is that even a word!) are not very good (except me - I'm that rare exception - the smart dandy!). The interesting thing about Topman is that their main market is YOUNG PEOPLE. Let me explain. If a young person were to go and buy a smart office shirt from say TM Lewin - they'd find that its not really designed for them. The shirt has too much excess cloth hanging from the arms and the belly region. It's not 'fitted'. On a young person they'd be too much excess cloth. The reason being that TM Lewin shirts are really designed for middle aged men who have 'bulk' around their shoulders and tummies! A fatty bulk that accumulates with age. I have no bulk whatsoever about me (and nor do I intend to have any in the future), and so I struggle to find a TM Lewin shirt that fits properly. Their new John Francomb 'fully fitted' range is actually not bad - but for perfectly fitting (but not necessarily the best quality) Topman is Topdog!
See I told you I had a lot to say about clothes...
I could literally go on like this you know. I could talk about shoes and how I love brogues till my tongue wilted. I could talk about jeans and who I think makes the best one's till your ears popped. What are the quintessentials of good dress sense? I could talk about the philosophy and biology of clothing till your legs fell off. Why do women always look at men's shoes? Why are shoes important to women when it comes to selecting a mate? Why do politicians wear what they do? What's the secret of dressing so you look skinnier? Answer: dark colours that are of similar hue and vertical lines. Is dress sense an innate quality that you either have or have not? How much of good dress sense can be learnt? Are Italians really the sharpest dressers and if so why? Are Indians really the worst? Answer: yes! And so forth ad infinitum...
Maybe it's time for me to shut up now.
Yes, it is time for me to shut up. Besides, its almost six o'clock and I need to pop into the Turkish tailor on Stoke Newington High Street and pick up my navy blue blazer - the sleeve needed shortening remember! - £12 quid he's charging me for sleeve shortening. Bloody rip off!
Maybe it's time for me to shut up now.
Yes, it is time for me to shut up. Besides, its almost six o'clock and I need to pop into the Turkish tailor on Stoke Newington High Street and pick up my navy blue blazer - the sleeve needed shortening remember! - £12 quid he's charging me for sleeve shortening. Bloody rip off!
