Swatch Book, 4.21.18
Some writing about clothes I liked these past couple weeks.
The Spirit of Appomattox - David Isle
On the 153rd anniversary of the closing of the Civil War:
Lee was a Southern aristocrat, with generations of Virginia heritage, who rode a rocket on a straight line from the second in his class at West Point to decorations in the Mexican-American War to both sides of the Civil War fighting over his services, to finally taking control of the Army of Northern Virginia. Ron Chernow relates in his recent biography of Grant that on the fateful day of surrender, Lee “startled his officers by appearing in a spotless gray uniform, buttoned tightly to the throat….Every garment he wore had been chosen with extreme care: the intricately wrought dress sword with the gilded hilt; long, embroidered buckskin gauntlets; silk sash fitted around the waist; and high boots with an ornamental design of red silk, set off by prominent spurs. When his officers questioned him about this magnificent display, Lee confided, ‘I have probably to be General Grant’s prisoner [he was not to be] and thought I must make my best appearance.”
Fifteen years after setting off a civil war in Iraq, it seems like we're one step closer to launching a grand intervention in Syria's. Yes, we have 2,000 troops there already, but if Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons again, we could be talking about serious numbers of boots on the ground. Wars are about appearances: "We can't just let South Carolina take Ft. Sumter" was about maintaining the appearance of a United States; "We can't let Assad murder his own people with the wrong weapons" is about maintaining the appearance of an international understanding about proper warfare. In either case, neither of the offending parties cared enough about appearances to avoid catastrophic, "tragic" hostilities. But at the end of the day, Ulysses S. Grant showed up accept Lee's surrender in a "slouched hat without cord; common soldier’s blouse, unbuttoned, on which, however, the four stars; high boots, mud-splashed to the top; trousers tucked inside; no sword." So who knows what appearances really get you.
DeRay Mckesson Used a Plastic Jacket to Educate Gala Attendees about Police Violence - Rachel Tashjian
Some words about words:
Over his signature Patagonia vest and a pair of complementary nylon pants by Phlemuns, Mckesson wore a see-through La Roxx jacket, which stylist Franc Fernandez printed with four statistics below two Jean-Michel Basquiat-style crowns: “One in three killed by strangers are killed by police;” “Police arrest more people for weed than for all the violent crimes combined;” “America’s 100 richest have as much wealth as black population;” and “White high school dropouts have more wealth than black college graduates.”
“We’re always trying to take the work with us wherever we go,” McKesson said in a phone interview on Friday. “What is interesting is that there are so many things about mass incarceration, police violence, and the racial wealth gap that people just don’t know. They haven’t seen the information presented in a certain way. So we wanted to present things that were true, that were conversation starters, that would help people, whether they spoke to me or not, think about the problem differently.”
When he's not giving free advertising to Twitter/protesting injustice, McKesson serves looks. And of course he talks about taking his work with him. Olivia Whittick suggests that slogan tees are "designed in anticipation of a conversation, aware that merely being a social body is an invitation to communication," and McKesson is someone uniquely situated to take on that kind of emotional labor.
In the N.B.A., a Game of Clothes Horse - Matthew Schneier
The Cleveland Cavaliers showed up to a playoff game in head-to-toe Thom Browne:
The scheme was hatched a while ago by Dwyane Wade and Browne, then kept alive by LeBron James after Wade was traded back to the Miami Heat in February.
“All of us suiting up together was just a new idea and something we all wanted to try,” James, a four-time winner of the league’s Most Valuable Player Award, wrote in an email.
For players at the top of the professional basketball food chain, just showing up has become an opportunity to preen. No matter that the corridors may be lined with trash cans. The walk from the team bus to the locker room is a runway, with attendant paparazzi.
“It’s become a way to one-up each other,” said Calyann Barnett, a stylist who works with players like Wade and the Pelicans’ Rajon Rondo. “It’s become almost like high school. Who’s going to have on the best outfit? Everyone’s going for that Best Dressed. Now, what is Best Dressed? It’s as many labels as you can throw on.”
Russell Westbrook is shaking. But seriously, this is such a touching gesture. In February, Cleveland rather unceremoniously traded away a big chunk of its roster in order to improve its chances at making the postseason, yet Dwyane Wade, a longtime Thom Browne stan who was one of those trades, gave his blessing for James to continue his vision (even though he could've used it for his own teammates in the playoffs). When the Boston Celtics' Gordon Hayward suffered a gruesome injury in October, Vinson Cunningham wrote about the solidarity and "quiet brotherhood" on display when James consoled Hayward's teammate Kyrie Irving, who himself left the Cavaliers in a huff. The banana boat bond, it seems, is "stronger and even more admirable than the competitive urge that makes sports possible."
James Comey's Blistering Interview about Donald Trump - Amy Davidson Sorkin
Getting dressed up to sell some books:
"I don’t know whether folks notice this, but, in Washington, Democrats tend to wear blue—men tend to wear blue ties. Republicans tend to wear red ties,” James Comey, the former director of the F.B.I., told George Stephanopoulos in an interview, sections of which were aired on “20/20,” on Sunday night (ABC News posted other clips and a full transcript online). Comey, whose six-feet-eight-inch frame seemed folded into his chair, didn’t wear any tie for the interview. Stephanopoulos had just asked Comey about how he’d decided what to put on for the press conference on July 5, 2016, when he announced that there would be no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton related to her private e-mail server. “I chose a gold tie that morning, ’cause I didn’t want to wear either of the normal gang colors,” he said.
Hilarious! It's a good thing Comey didn't wear any offending colors, or he might get thrown into a gang database and onto the fast-track to a prison stint. But that's also a joke, see, because the justice system wouldn't be so careless and mass incarceration isn't a real thing. Per Comey, all those mis-read bodies piled up in jails and prison cells as a result of structural design, but "there was nothing 'mass' about it." And lo, James Comey is a Chelsea boot boy! The former FBI director is fighting to convince the public that Trump's treatment of him should overshadow the fact that he arguably pushed him across the election's finish line and into power. It's almost as though he's leaning into the dressy tradition of the teddy boys, a group of street toughs whose posh looks overshadowed their propensity for combat in the cultural memory. Funny one, that Comey. Slippery, even.
Talking to Jason Jules about John Simons, Patron Saint of English Ivy - Derek Guy
Jules, a personal Big Mood, talks about a documentary he made about a man who had a Ivy clothing shop in London:
I think the clothes meant different things to different people. I imagine skinheads and suedeheads were reacting against the hippie movement at the time. There was a sort of neatness about the look that appealed to their working class roots, but the clothes also embodied a certain aspirational element. It was looking a bit more accomplished than what your wage packet might suggest. The early mods, on the other hand, often had good jobs and they liked dressing a certain way. But the appeal was still essentially aspirational – looking a bit outward at the time, as opposed to the more insular mindset of the previous generation of kids just coming out of the war.
That kind of sounds like the story of the ‘Lo Heads.
There are some parallels. I think the thing that makes it different is that John’s shop somewhat tempered what people wore. For example, as a kid, if I went into Ralph Lauren or Harrod’s, I knew I would be followed. It was a given, regardless of what I wore. Whereas if I went to John’s shop, I knew I would be welcomed. So for me, and I’m sure a lot of people, going to alternative sources to buy something wasn’t an attractive option. John shop was always the primary source in that way. That meant you interacted with the shop as more than just a retail outlet.
It's refreshing to hear about a shop putting forth an aspirational look and include everyone who wants to rock it. Jules speaks about how, now, there are "designers inside brands such as Ralph Lauren, Burberry, and Gucci that recognize the value of those outsider perspectives," hinting at Polo's embrace of its of its Lo Life/Lo Head fans (plug), Christopher Bailey's chav indulgence, and Alessandro Michele's elevation of bootleg. But those labels weren't always so welcoming to the riff-raff, so big-ups to the ones who have always been down.
Get These Cameras Out Of My Apartment of the Week (via Ryan Cecil Smith)
