A lawless (festive?) list of 15 things I’m into this month
From the 5 affordable menswear items I’m hoping to find under the tree, to 3 key observations from the Fashion Awards and 1 celebration of Ryan O’Neal’s personal style
This week your inbox is in receipt of your latest 15-in-5. A rundown of the 15 tips, trends, clothes and ideas which have been bothering my brain this month, broken into five digestible categories.
Expect thoughts on the Fashion Awards, affordable(ish) menswear bits you shouldn’t be sad about receiving this Christmas, my take on Peach Fuzz (AKA the colour of the year) and all the small things bringing me - and in turn, potentially you - joy right now.
5 Affordable menswear items it would be fine to find under the tree this year
1 | A witchy Albus Lumen blazer
I’m very taken with oversized blazers. My current favourite is a wool viscose navy blue number (“Conde”) from Studio Nicholson. I’m also into those from Australian label Albus Lumen. Boxy yet flattering and with a contemporary-feeling three button fastening; layer over a T-shirt in the summer or a roomy shirt and roll neck (a la Lydia Tår) in the colder months.
2 | A Pair of weird Merrell slipper shoes
I love a gross shoe. These are gross - but also cosy, and they’d look knowing, arch and quite chic worn with your new oversized blazer, some wide-legged and slightly-cropped jeans, and a roomy oatmeal sweater. They can also be zipped together to make them easier to transport. I mean…
3 | A jumper the colour of the 10 kgs of chocolate I intend to eat this Xmas
Brown is a vastly underrated colour for clothing, in my opinion. This voluminous roll neck from Le Bonnet is a perfect take on the shade. Wear with high-waisted white jeans from L.E.J, some trainers and a knowing smirk - much like the model below - safe in the knowledge that you look like an extra elegant elf on le shelf.
4 | And some wide leg trousers in the same hue
If you’re already buying one brown piece, you might as well invest in two. The slightly wider cut of these trousers from Cos would look great with a black mock neck cashmere sweater and an oversized charcoal blazer. Some white tennis shoes, ideally from Jil Sander, would complete the look.
5 | Plus some overalls, in which to paint!
I’m itching to start painting again - it’s currently too dark in the evenings to crack onto a canvas - but as soon as I do, I’ll be wearing these brilliantly impractical all-white denim dungarees from Carhartt WIP. So long as someone buys them for me this Christmas, of course. They’re second on my actual gift list to actual oil paint thinner - true story.
4 little things bringing me joy every day
1 | Chinoiserie Dressers
I recently popped into Liberty for a Saturday morning mooch and instantly regretted it. I love London’s most historic (looking) department store as much as any of the 10 million tourists I was elbowing my way through to get around it; but a weekend visit to a shop which looks like it was designed as a set for a Richard Curtis movie in the lead up to Christmas was a fool’s errand.
One positive to come out of my jostly excursion was a chance encounter with the 19th century Mongolian sideboard pictured below. It was being sold by the Liberty Oriental carpets concession on the third floor (you know, the place that proffers postage stamp-sized silk rugs from Afghanistan for the same price as a new Tesla), and I fell instantly - like an opium addict into a pipe - for its charms.
The dresser costs nearly £5k, so it will unlikely ever be mine, but it brings me joy to imagine it positioned pride of place in my living room (the subtle flashes of primary yellow and red will look great against the predictable Hague Blue of my walls).
Sometimes I think there’s more pleasure to be derived in the desiring of something than there is in the act of actually possessing it.
Though that won’t stop me from trying my hardest to acquire the vastly more affordable Barker & Stonehouse version, pictured below.
2 | The meatiness of this Studio Nicholson Merino wool jumper
I treated myself to this dense merino wool sweater from Studio Nicholson a few weeks ago and I’ve barely taken it off. To the untrained eye it’s arguably the same as any of the other navy blue jumpers I own; but the beauty of the thing is the bouncy weight of the fabric which makes it hang off the body, the high cut of the waist and the batwing swoop of the underarm, all of which afford it a slouchiness not found in inferior knitwear.
3 | Drawing
Given that I can’t paint, currently, I’ve started drawing again, and I can’t seem to stop. I’m drawing pictures of my friend’s children as Christmas presents, and I. drew the illustrations for my book, The Closet. Each of the chapters is named after an item of clothing from the wardrobe of my past, and each chapter head features a picture of said item, drawn by me. See the white socks below, and the Puma Mostros below them.
There’s something about the act of drawing which I find very relaxing. Witnessing something come together on page out of a few lines and scribbles is ace. It’s also much less messy than oil painting - though I can’t wait to start doing that again, too.
So many people I speak to about the joy of drawing are quick to assert, “I can’t do it, I was rubbish at it at school”, but I’m of the firm belief that anyone who puts their mind to it can replicate something of life on paper. It doesn’t need to be beautiful, or perfect, it just needs to be honest and observational. (Top tip: your eyes should spend approximately 75 per cent of the time on your subject, and 25 per cent on the page. The biggest mistake people make when drawing is imagining the thing that’s in front of them rather than actually seeing it).
I use a mechanical pencil with 0.5mm thick HB leads. It’s also essential to have good, heavy weight paper with a very slight grain and an excellent eraser.
3 Observations from the Fashion Awards 2023
1 | Phoebe Philo CAN design menswear and SHOULD do more of it
Cult designer Phoebe Philo dressed the semi-messianic (the cheers when he took the stage!) outgoing editor of British Vogue Edward Enninful for the Fashion Awards last week.
I thought, at first, that Enninful was wearing Giorgio Armani (the roomy DB cut and greige tone of the thing is very Mr A), but Philo it was. Could this be the first sniff of a PP menswear offering, following the recent launch of her womenswear brand? I hope so.
That said, I also hope that she does the first run as a collaboration with Uniqlo so real people can afford to buy it - £4k for a trench coat ain’t it.
2 | 2024 is going to be Charlie Casely Hayford’s year
Leading menswear designer Charlie Casely Hayford accepted a posthumous award for his dad Joe, who died last year, at the awards last Monday. His speech was gracious, his suit was cut for the Gods, and it felt like everyone’s favourite softly spoken menswear designer was back.
With a recent collaboration with Sunspel now in stores, there are whispers of even bigger things for Casely Hayford next year - watch this space for more - which would not only be excellent news because he’s such a lovely man, it would also be great for our wardrobes. Casely Hayford’s way with drapey-yet-idiosyncratic tailored separates is second to no one.
3 | If tailoring is dead, evening wear is LIVING
Everyone keeps banging on about the suit being dead - which is probably true if you mean the boring two-pieces which no one wears to work anymore - but evening suits such as tuxedos, three pieces, velvet jackets and sleekly tailored separates were everywhere at the Fashion Awards. There were also considerably more bowties than I’d witnessed in recent years. Long live evening wear!
2 Books I can’t put down right now
1 | Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton
I’ll level with you - I’ve been feeling a touch anxious of late. Perhaps it’s got something to do with working in the media - a world where constant comparison to one’s peers is par for the course - maybe it’s the dominance of Instagram in my life or potentially it’s just because I’m getting older (I’m the same sodding age as Princess Diana was when she died). Whatever the reason, I stumbled across Alain de Botton’s book Status Anxiety in a soft, Sunday afternoon search for answers and I haven’t been able to put it down since.
I’m sure some of you will already have read it - it’s been out for a while - but de Botton’s analysis of why we spend our lives craving approval from a world of strangers we’ll likely never meet is searing, refreshing and validating. It’s also made me realise that I need to restrict my Instagram usage, stat. Here are a few of my favourite quotes from the book:
On Ambition: “Anxiety is the handmaiden of contemporary ambition.”
On Striving to be a Somebody: “People who hold important positions in society are commonly labelled "somebodies," and their inverse "nobodies"- both of which are, of course, nonsensical descriptors, for we are all, by necessity, individuals with distinct identities and comparable claims on existence. Such words are nevertheless an apt vehicle for conveying the disparate treatment accorded to different groups. Those without status are all but invisible: they are treated brusquely by others, their complexities trampled upon and their singularities ignored.”
On the Perils of Achieving Desire vs Simply Desiring: “We are tempted to believe that certain achievements and possessions will give us enduring satisfaction. We are invited to imagine ourselves scaling the steep cliff face of happiness in order to reach a wide, high plateau on which we will live out the rest of our lives; we are not reminded that soon after gaining the summit, we will be called down again into fresh lowlands of anxiety and desire.”
2 | Good Material by Dolly Alderton
I started writing my own book after my best friend Lauren (a star of its pages) finished reading Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love. My friend was so taken with the Sunday Times Style columnist’s witty examination of contemporary relationships that she bought it for me as a birthday present and, subsequently, challenged me to tell my own story - “I can see you writing a book like that, Tay.” She egged me on, encouragingly.
I feel on one hand, therefore, that I owe Alderton a debt of gratitude. On the other, it makes reading her other books all the more pleasurable - safe in the knowledge that I’ll come away inspired, Good Material (her latest), being a case in point.
A clever, funny novel told from the perspective of a 30-something man named Andy, the book is peak Alderton; bright, refreshing, clever and - dare I say it - slightly (worryingly?) affirming. I’m currently half way through, and it’s got me good.
1 Moment to appreciate Ryan O’Neal’s timeless style
Ryan O’Neal, who died last Friday, was a troubled chap. The golden-hued Hollywood superstar struggled with substance abuse throughout his life and he had an infamously short fuse. But that doesn’t stop him from having been something of a style leader in his time.
Most people remember O’Neal for the shearling coat and preppy tailored separates he sported in the Golden Globe-winning 1970 movie Love Story. For me, though, it was the way he wore tailoring in his private life which set him apart - the sharp lines of his safari suits, his wide-lapelled two-pieces and the close-cut tuxedos he wore to awards ceremonies bouncing off the leonine set of his muzzle and the playful poofiness of his hair in a manner only matched by Robert Redford (though I’d argue that O’Neal was more handsome in his day).
A style lesson from O’Neals Life? The wider your lapels, the closer to style dominance you’ll be. Oh, and if you’ve got good hair, don’t be afraid to flaunt it. Life’s too short to spend it in a barber’s chair.
+ 1 thing I’m not feeling
Peach fuzz
So-called “Peach Fuzz” is Pantone’s colour of the year. “The colour needed to express our desire to want to be close to those we love, and the joy we get when allowing ourselves to tune into who we are and just savour that moment of quiet time.” Lamented Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Colour Institute. “[It also] needed to be a colour that’s warm and welcoming… [and] conveyed a message of compassion and empathy, one that was nurturing, whose cosy sensibility brought people together and elicited a feeling of tactility.”
Sure.
Fun fact: Very few people look good in peach fuzz. Ryan O’Neal would have looked awful in peach fuzz, as the hue - somewhere between white flesh and sun-bleached orange - would have been far too similar to his own complexion. Darker skin tones can just about pull it off, but even then the hue has the potential to wash out and look a bit, well, meh.
My advice? Steer clear of this year’s colour of the year. Interior spaces don’t look good decked out in it either, unless you’re talking that great exposed plaster in a bathroom vibe, which will just about work.
And here’s some Christmas cheer!
If you’d like me to sign your copy of my book The Closet for Christmas, email me at theclosetconfidential01@gmail.com and I can provide you with all the details you need.
Buy the Liberty one, Teo, it will bring you happiness for ever and it’s way more durable than a car and also less than half the price of a Chanel 2.55 so when you look at it like that it’s a steal