Our car recently got a flat tyre, and I leapt at the opportunity to prove that while ostensibly an office-bound aesthete I’m also man enough to change a wheel. However, once the jack and wheel brace had been fished out of the car’s trunk a problem arose. And the problem was that my trousers were cut so slim that I couldn’t easily kneel down in them to use the wheel brace.
This happened one Sunday afternoon and I was wearing a pair of jeans, some casual shoes and an old shirt. Yet wearing a 21st century iteration of a garment originally designed for Californian miners rendered me near-incapable of even the lightest manual labour. It was one more reason to dislike tight clothes.
The origins of the current skinny look lie in the work of Hedi Slimane, who, in the first years of this century, dramatically slimmed down the prevailing male silhouette while designing for Dior Homme. This established a dominant aesthetic that real guys simply cannot emulate – very few men over the age of thirty look good in the clothes, regardless of the intensity their gym routine. It’s probably no coincidence that when applied to tailoring this second-skin silhouette neatly side steps the need to use decent fabric, because a tight suit isn’t going to drape whether it’s made of luxurious 18oz flannel or cheap 9oz twill.
Casting one’s eye over the style icons of the past, from JFK to Gianni Agnelli, it’s obvious that men’s clothes are at their best when they create a silhouette, rather than merely skim frail flesh. This is something that Tom Ford knew when he launched his menswear line, but, judging by Daniel Craig’s “spray-on” suits in Skyfall, he now appears to have forgotten. The good news is that men who use tailors are well placed to distinguish themselves with an elegant, but fuller silhouette that’s cut to flatter their body shape. The bad news is that this fails to address my need for some proper jeans.
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12 comments:
Costco, Will.
They've dispensed with makebelieve ballroom.
Well put and described.
I'm not sure the slim tight silhouette originated with Hedi Slimane in the 1900's. I have a Spy cartoon dated around 1885 hanging in my hall of Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington and subsequently (I think) 9th Duke of Devonshire. He's wearing a pear of pants whose slim cut and flood length would be immediately recognisable by Thom Browne.
Joe, this century didn't start in the 1900s...
I went shopping with a friend and his son at the weekend. We waited while his son tried on various pairs of trousers and I spotted a nice pair of flannels, which you don't see often off-the-peg nowadays, but even though they claimed to approximate my size, the legs were simply too tight.
I tried several pairs until the waist size became silly (these designers seem to think that even men with portly mid-sections have legs like those of a flamingo.
As the son paid for his purchases I mentioned to the assistant manager that all the trousers on sale seemed to have legs made for people with an eating disorder. He replied 'Really? I wear them myself.' There is no hope.
"Joe, this century didn't start in the 1900s..."
Ooops how silly of me.....but this just makes my point stronger by about 120 years!
Saying who did it first is idle pedantry. Slimane and, arguably, Thom Browne led the wave during the most recent fashion cycle, which is to what the author refers, but wearing clothes too tightly or too loosely is how the pendulum of fashion has swung for centuries, if not longer.
Those jeans look about right to me! Especially with those sleek loafers
Downunder, loafers are necessary with those jeans, as the wearer cannot bend down to tie shoelaces!
"Saying who did it first is idle pedantry."
Much of this blog is about pedantry....LOL.....enjoyable pedantry but pedantry nonetheless.
If one insists on wearing fashionable clothing, that's what you deserve. Jeans are workwear. If you want to be able to work in them buy Wranglers or Levi Classic fit. These johnny-come-lately designers don't have a clue. They just figure if they can make something in denim enough of the callow young will buy them to get rich. There certainly isn't any reason for a mature adult to condone such nonsense. Frankly, you've no one to blame but yourself, Mansel.
2% elastane always helps!
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