Club Chair Bulletin #23
Bitter cold and the Politics of Personal Style
What’s he been up to?
Last week’s meeting is available here, and the club’s directory is available here.
I’d like to start this bulletin with a brief word of gratitude for all the new faces. I’m glad to be joined by such esteemed company, it’s got me excited for the club in the forthcoming year, there’s plenty in the works already.
This is ramblier than prior bulletins, but the focus is on perhaps the most important discourse surrounding fashion currently. We’ll get to that in due time though.
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The Winter Look Formula
It’s been bloody cold round my ends as of late, there’s been a couple of moves I’ve fallen on to beat back the baltic and battle on. This being an unusual climate for these parts means my wardrobe is not entirely suited to the weather, some clever solutions are required.
Firstly, we’re far enough below freezing to make use of the double jumper, believe it or not there is a trick to doing this in a way that isn’t absurd. Mixing fabrics is the key, I’ve been starting with a close-fitting wool knit, almost always my cream submariner, and then picking something in a jersey or cotton knit to go overtop, hoodie/ sweatshirt or a fleece. Two very warm layers, over-top which you can still get a good coat.
My other saviour has been a rapidly expanding selection of statement hats and scarves (that rapid expansion having been brought on by the rather rapid drop in temperatures). Though there is a slight risk toward kitsch, I’ve become quite partial to a matched set, or at least a harmonious combination, something like a blackwatch tartan scarf with a dark green beanie. Worn with the appropriate amount of conviction and it’s very satisfying.
I also don’t know where I’d be this winter without my duck boots, perhaps in a doctor’s office being treated for trench foot. I have to say they afford you a certain amount of smugness as you charge straight through the inevitable slush of a changeable English winter.
On the Radar
Shaggy Dog Insights
Since the last bulletin, Zach from aimeleondad has published a pair of excellent videos offering some more insight into J. Press’ iconic shaggy dog knits. Chief among these insights is the fact that the two fits are made by two separate mills, each of which also produce under their own labels.
Take a look at the videos for all the information, if there was ever someone who knows about Shaggy Dogs it’s Zach.
“Timeless Style” is real, but you don’t want it
Over the past month or so there’s been a growing discourse over the nature of “timeless” and “personal” style, thoughts from Jonah at Blackbird Spyplane, and a subsequent rebuttal from Nico at The Bengal Stripe were on my mind when I came across this video from Mina Le. I think they all have a lot of value, this isn’t a further rebuttal but an attempt by me to take a step back and see the forest for the trees on this matter.
Consensus generally lands on the idea that the only way to achieve timeless style is to have a deeply personal style, and yet at the same time there are discourses around the death of personal style. Consideration of politic in Le’s video warrants discussion also, with the recognition that a desire for a unique personal style might be symptomatic of a wider hyper-individualist mindset under our current dominant ideologies.
In that same vein, I have a concern for the pursuit of timeless style. Whilst it’s clear that trends now are at large weaponised as advertisement, I’m left wondering whether without trends there can still be movements. Fashion has, on many occasions, been a clear tool for agents of social change, the Black Ivy of the Civil Rights Movement or punk dress, if we all seek to dress totally timelessly, and individually, then will we ever have a sense of community through clothing again? Would folk be able to rally together for a common cause with the same interpersonal recognisability?
There’s a balance to strike somewhere between rejecting the consumerist hamster wheel whilst still accepting change when it comes. Subrina Heyink does a phenomenal job of summarising this. Personal style is not a constructive ability but a transformative one, the ability to translate the prevailing fashions du jour into your own dialect. Style is perhaps like sailing, you don’t get to choose which way to wind blows, but you can adjust your sails, and plan your route to still get the heading you desire. This is sort of the essence which I’ve derived from the summation of all the above-linked works.
The danger is that in pursuing personal style one can get bogged down in uniqueness, and that political issue rears its head again. As fashion obessesives we are terrified of conformity, and in our era of ultra-fast trend cycles and core-ification there are multiple concurrent zeitgeists which one may or may not accidentally end up aligned with. Personal style cannot solely come from what you want, lest you embark on a process of sartorial isolationism.
My final takeaway is that you should read/ watch everything I’ve mentioned in this quasi-rant, and come to your own conclusions, it feels too big for me to reduce it to a couple paragraphs in an only-slightly-serious fashion blog. There are some big questions around the pursuit of timeless and personal style that I feel are yet to be answered, in fact I don’t believe we yet know if they are answerable.
The Art of Getting Dressed
I’d like, today, to talk a little about the process of getting dressed. That is to say, the physical act of taking clothes from wherever you choose to keep them, and putting them onto your body, the selection of which clothes being only one part of the process.
Well done. Thanks!