Few illustrations from Apparel Arts cause me to scratch my head and wonder what the illustrator was thinking, but this 1934 drawing is one of them. Each of the elements is fine on its own, especially the Optimo panama, but the spacing of the secondary stripes in the trousers conflicts with the jacket pattern.
Replace the faux Norfolk jacket with one that matches the trousers and the ensemble would probably warrant an extra base hit if not an outright home run.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Louche?
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4 comments:
I rather like this outfit. It is daring and out of the ordinary.
Rules are meant to be broken and experimentation is always nice to see, which is why I love Thom Browne's work - he created something new and fresh. Yes, it may not be a conventional look and it may scare classic fans, but I love that he tried something new, which caught the attention of many men, some of whom also like the look and have tried it.
Viewed quickly and casually the pattern matching here almost works for my eye. But viewed more critically, it breaks down. For me, pattern matching goes beyond scale. The visual intensity of the pattern, by which I mean how strong a visual impact the pattern makes independent of scale, is even more critical. Here we have two patterns that DO contrast in scale but which, at least in this drawing, have similar pattern intensities to me eye. While some might find it jarring, for me, it’s just rather muddled.
Nice shoes, but how would this poor man walk on those tiny feet? ;-)
This was actually fairly fashionable here in England for a while; the jacket is not so much a fake Norfolk as just a (then standard) belted one. However, they were nearly as short lived as other fads of the time, such as mess jackets. Note also the (in my mind rather English also) habit of few cuff buttons. I personally do not think the patterns would be that jarring in real life.
I saw this on a Argentinian millionaire I ran across at an international business affair hosted by Emory's Goizueta B-School. From a distance, it didn't make much of an impact. As you approached, to my eyes, it certainly looked great. His jacket was a sort of blue and he didn't have the secondary stripe. His only had the faint stripe.
Overall I liked it.
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