"Get it perfectly wrong." GQ's Glenn O'Brien said it the other day in his essay about the connection between narcissism and style. And on a day when I am searching for inspiration, it provides the necessary seed. Not to mention the photo of Lapo Elkann taken before he decided to dress like a celebrity. He looked a lot better once upon a time.
Inspiration has been hard to come by these past weeks. A combination of factors has prevented me from travelling, and it was those monthly trips that kept me fresh in the past. For a man who defined himself as in transit as I once did, months in the same spot are a cruel fate. But "getting it perfectly wrong" is a perfectly right way to remind us once again that it is the small well-done idiosyncrasy of dress (by which I do not mean the mis-buttoned jacket) that separates the expert from the beginner. Perfection is too easy to achieve, given adequate money and time.
I would never wear it but Mr. Elkann's teal blue chalk stripe achieves imperfection in an elegant way. His suit is the only idiosyncratic item in his ensemble, which would otherwise raise no eyebrows in the most conservative of crowds. But it is and he would. Which is all right, in that setting.
He got it perfectly wrong.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Get it Perfectly Wrong
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6 comments:
Really hard to tell what color his suit is. I also don't like the shirt collar. Frankly, I don't know where one would wear such a bold suit. Certainly not a business meeting or in court. Maybe a party of some sort. I prefer a much more subdued chalk stripe. In additon to the fact that he is wearing a more fitted suit with narrow pants which makes the look much more drastic than it should.
But it looks as if his PS is slithering from his pocket and is about to bite him! Is his name an anagram? Sorry, guess Mr. Elkann just isn’t my cup of tea.
Not a bad choice. Other photographs have shown that suit to be black or at least a particularly deep charcoal. I seem to recall that according to interviews he's given, it's handed down from Gianni Agnelli and worn sparingly as it's amongst his favourite garments
It's nice to see that the habit for poking fun at names of a non-Anglo Saxon nature is alive and well
B
Hmm, is there a difference between getting it 'perfectly' wrong and just getting it 'wrong'?
I suppose it's a question of personal taste. I don't much like the outfit, but I can't pin it down to any particular rule he's broken.
Maybe those stripes are a bit too broad for someone of his slender frame? There seems to be a lot of stripe and not much suit!
Elkann looks the bizz here. The look works. I was looking at a geezer on the metro the other day.One of the few who had put on some decent clothes. He had a very demure pin stripe with boring sshirt and tie and boring shoes . I though thats tidy but not elegant.Elkann is elegant here.
It seems to me that Lapo Elkann is an acquired taste: either people love what he wears, or castigate it. Regardless, his attire draws attention, and so is seldom on the radar for classic dressers like Will.
Barima,
How fortunate for us all that the rest of the world has long since outgrown the immature habit of innocently poking fun at that which is different! I hope we Anglo-Saxons can catch up soon. (Incidentally, many popular "Anglo-Saxon" names--like John, Michael, David, Joseph, and Daniel--are neither: they're from the Bible and therefore from Hebrew.)
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