When Jam Good tells you to do something...you do it. Jam is a poster on Ask Andy and one of the most amazing resources of men's Traditional clothing I've ever come across. Jam asked that I post some more from "M" The Civilized Man. Jam, I'm sitting in an airport after a triple Americano with my knee bouncing to King Sunny Ade and the above is all I have left from my scans. But this is for you, sir.I promise more when I get back to my scanner. Above is a nice winter Glenn Plaid from Paul Stuart. This was from an issue in 1985. Isn't it great? Why women allow themselves to be pushed around by designers and fashion speaks to a whole host of issues I'll refrain from... seeing I'm getting on a plane in an hour and there's a nasty Florida thunderstorm raging and I need all the good Karma I can get. Glenn Plaid was in style in 1985, 1935 and certainly today. Maybe even 20 years from now. Who knows. I know this. Jam Good knows more about this fabric, cut, model, photographer, ad agency and suit than I'll ever know. Is the suit Trad? Good Lord, no. With that haircut and all those pleats and darts. No, not Trad. But it's "M" so who cares.
I picked up the very first issue of M (That my failing memory places Charles rather than Philip on.) and immediately subscribed. I maintained that subscription until it morphed into a GQ subscription, which disgusted me, as I had canceled my GQ subscription many years earlier. Its promise was that it would be a men’s clothing magazine for grownups. And my hope was that it would be a worthy successor to the original Esquire and contain graphic layouts and articles of the depth and brilliance that Playboy once possessed from its inception through perhaps the mid ‘60’s.
ReplyDeleteFor me M never lived up to that promise. Frankly, I found the articles superficial and not very well researched. Similarly, I found the clothing layouts lacking, both in terms of the items selected, and how they are displayed. Not GQ bad, but wanting. It appeared to me that the entire effort was likely cash constrained.
What should such a magazine look like? Pickup a Paul Stuart catalog. If you know how to present clothing more attractively, do so, but I’d be entirely happy with such a standard. Throw in some well researched, in-depth articles on topics of interest by a few talented writers, and either add or omit Playboy’s undraped lovelies.
Then send me a subscription form while I reach for my checkbook.
...and no scrunched-up OCBD collar can compete with that crisp white broadcloth forward point.
ReplyDeleteGreat shot.
ReplyDeleteThis is yet another of those "What is Trad?" moments isn't it?
That suit from Stuart isn't AAAT style at all. But I'm going to be bold and say that it is Trad.
The more we learn about Trad the more it becomes very clear just how big and diverse the style really is. Check the old J. Press items on ACL's Blog. The rules we know from AAAT are are starting to look like just a subset of Trad not Trad itself these days.
Please feel free to shoot me. ;)
Best -
Russell.
Tim,
ReplyDeleteLooking back, I was always somewhat embarrased about buying M. Thought I should be buying The Economist or Foreign Affairs magazine. Today, the quality of M rises far above what's out there. It fits right into my, "Not as good as it was but better than it will be" theory of Trad.
Russell, I'm far from a strict Trad. My love of English suiting and shoes is well known. French Trad is also a favorite. Brioni makes trousers that fit me well. Man, I'm all over the place.
How can anyone bemoan tasteful dress because it doesn't fit into some set of rules I'll never understand. Especially in today's world where so few make any effort at all.
In the most gentle way that we can possibly manage we just need to look at that set of rules & where they come from & what they're based on.
ReplyDeleteIt needn't be a revolution doing this, just a re-evaluation of our Trad.
The old OPH 'rules' were great to kick start our Tradly movement, but maybe now we can move beyond them and away from a jokey gift book for the Christmas 1980 market & dig into the real Traditional American style.
No heads need to roll to do this. We can just say that AAAC in '04 was then, but we are now interested in AAAT in '08.
There's a place for everyone in this too, even the old style 'Orthodox' Trads. More than most they need to be aware of how unorthodox their 'orthodoxy' is!
Russ.
"Updated Traditional" was a phrase coined in the mid '70s to describe RL's re-interpretation of the then somewhat moribund Ivy League style, with added panache. Same Anglo fabrications but with darted jackets and beltless trousers. Kind of a nationally available modified Paul Stuart. Most US makers followed suit, including Southwick with its first Southwick brand darted suits in '77. They had been a maker for PS for some years. As an entre into updated traditional, Norman Hilton was RL's financial backer until there was a disagreement over NH's chief tailor's reluctance providing RL with the soft shoulders he required. Seems most AAAC Tradsters require a codified-policy-manual-orthodoxy as guidance in defending the conformity of the faith. Me too, me too, I've got madras! Some are just coming to a post graduate realization that darted jackets are more flattering to most physiques, blasphemous as that may be. AAAC orthodox contempoary "Trad" seems to be predominantly a collegiate mode of dress differentiating oneself from campus hoi polloi, with little recgognition of the historic/nostalgic aspects of the term "trad", Harris nothwithstanding. Most post graduate trads, as with the host, will eventually adapt and adopt aspects of updated traditional and/or Le Style Anglais without completely abandoning "trad" roots. Ironically, the roots are between The Wars adoration of Ted 8. Yours in obfuscation, Alexander Noir Gilchrist, "Buffy"
ReplyDelete^ It sounds like an oxymoron but in fact the Trads are amongst the few chaps who doing something new with the Classic American style today.
ReplyDeleteWASP, Preppy & Ivy League are all well documented. Neoprep is a continuum, never set in stone always Neo, season after season at J. Crew. But the Trads are the ones with a fresh take on our style.
- An often overlooked fact, but a real strength of AAAT.
Russ.
Tintin, what do you know about King Sunny Ade?
ReplyDeleteHe's a nice break from my favorites, Lawrence Welk and Slim Whitman.
ReplyDelete