Along with the many benefits of bespoke clothing comes the ability to drive one's self into a metaphorical ditch. And Winston Churchill, whose more obvious eccentricity was his liking for jumpsuits of his own design, does it again in the photo.
Look closely at Churchill's shoes and you'll see zippers where there are usually shoe laces. Any man needing an incentive to never let himself get to the point where he can no longer lace his own shoes should post this photo next to his treadmill. Those are some really ugly oxfords.
Surely some young assistant could have been assigned to lace him up. Roosevelt's shoes are conventional and he couldn't bend over unaided either.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Churchill Zips Up
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
9 comments:
Would he not still need to bend down to zip up his shoes? Perhaps, it's simply quicker. Either way, Will, I agree completely. At first glance, before reading your entry, I thought he had actually forgotten his laces.
I do like, though, how Churchill's pocket square appears to be giving us all "the finger."
Captoe oxfords with zippers?! Good Lord, you're quite right Will, they are atrocious. But then again, what can one expect of a (former) member of the Liberal party? However, I think WC compensated for this with some particularly natty chalk striped flannel suits. If you can avert your gaze from the zippered horrors for a moment, you can spot one in this photo. Well done.
I agree, the shoes are terrible. However, I would be satisfied if the average person would dress according to Churchill's standards. It would be better to see that rather than all the black suits, and square shoes we see today.
Bending down might not have been the problem. It could have been arthritic fingers. You'd still think elastic sided shoes would have been easier and more attractive.
The shoes are ugly, sure. Velcro sneakers would have been uglier. The man still looks excessively sharp, and the zippers on his shoes give him a sort of individualism. If it were anyone else, you could glove slap him... but Churchill's eccentricity makes him even more interesting to me.
Anyone who aspires to have any style at all would settle for one tenth of the panache of Sir Winston Churchill. He stands in the pantheon of all-time great statesmen and orators, and he wasn't a bad writer either. Not too many have received the Nobel Prize in Literature for writing their memoirs. He did.
Absolutely everything but the shoes is perfect.
As for Roosevelt: He gets top marks!
I like the front zipper jodhpur. It is a style still commonly seen in equestrian circles. The common supplier for the style in the US is a firm in Laurel, MD. Look for AM Kroop boots.
http://www.kroopboots.com/shoes.asp
They have a small web site but the jodhpurs are pictured. They can be ordered is several custom configurations of soles and leather. The result is a very close fit at the ankle and darned comfortable boot.
I do agree re the heinousness of WC's shoes, but fashion is a curious animal, no? Yohji Yamamoto came out with zip-up oxfords a few years ago. The only thing I can say about Churchill, vis-a-vis that questionable footwear, is that he made his own statement for his own reasons—rather than following the sartorial pack. Surely there is something to be said for that, which means his shoes get my vote, on expressing-personality grounds alone. Perhaps it was because he was half American? :)
Post a Comment