There is a tone to this lovely post that immediately made me fall into a still, reflective state of mind. Though I’ve only been there twice, I suppose I have my own private New York which resembles the one you describe. I think a lot of guys favor the uniform approach to dressing. I wear basically the same clothes I wore 50 years ago when I was washing dishes in restaurants, which is pretty ridiculous, really. Of course, the choice not to have a style is a style, and maybe it’s simply best to acknowledge that one’s choices are largely overdetermined by the culture at large and not deceive oneself about free will. I read a while back that New Balance sneakers are standard wear for old white guys. And here I wound up in them without ever knowing that. At the time, I just wanted to buy an American-manufactured shoe to help out my fellow countrymen, but clearly other forces were at work! I’m not sure there’s any point in doing a complete makeover out of shame. Should I wear Dockers, like I had tried to do in my professional life, or should I dress like Keith Richards, although we would be similar in no other regard? Am I a Bobo, following my sad, mimetic paradigm? Probably. But it’s just a brief moment between the two darknesses, so nothing to fret about. Anyway, great post and congratulations.
I really love this one. I love the paragraph about the record player and also the line about the buildings like a family in an argument about time. I love a good personification of buildings. It's like a Proustian thing for me. After a while, walking the same routes, buildings become static, dead things I stop noticing, but whenever someone personifies them, it's that immediate rush of feeling of being in a new city where the buildings do feel alive. There's a line in one of Nabokov stories I read a long time ago about buildings playing leapfrog that I always remember. Unless I'm conflating two stories, I think it was one where the couples young son had just died, so the poignancy of the grief against the image of a world so alive that the buildings are playing is really something... Anyway, I digress... Speaking of influencing, I read both The Street (which I loved) and Veblen's Theory of... because of you. Hah. I don't know what to do with the knowledge of that book, though. It's like, yes, I guess this is true, but also are we really this hollow, etc? I decided just not to think about it too much, lol.
Funny! sociological view of HOW people change according to their Jobs even in their outfit..I have in mind Magritte portraits , the grey men with bomb hats. a uniform and yet everyone Is different inside.. WHAT IS MOST EVIDENT..especially among young people Is the GLOBALIZED LOOK worn by the "élite"of architects nouvelle vague..black Total black even in eyeglass frame..and a certain Mood between I CREATE INVENT DESIGN,I M AN ARTIST !AND..WE BELONG TO THE RANKS OF THE ELECT!!!poor minds..If YOU have SOMETHING to Say and show..you don t Need to be disguised as a painter,engineer, intellectual..ARCHITECT!!!Renzo Piano has designed almost the whole world and YET..he looks like an ordinary employee..!.... however..Focusing on E.Allen world..welcome to the marvellous cardigans large Velvet trousers oversize blazers...and a certain scruffy Mood, well calculated..that Is to say CASUAL..
Eccellent incitement to reflect back to the past and present..everything changes..even outfits...
Speaking of uniforms that become bourgeois, I was recently blown away by the revelation that Coco Chanel's little black dresses were in imitation of French maid's uniforms. I had to stop wearing them a while back when I began to feel like I was wearing a different kind of uniform (the uniform of the woman looking for acceptance and/or a relationship, somehow -- I could be wrong, but that's how it felt).
There is a tone to this lovely post that immediately made me fall into a still, reflective state of mind. Though I’ve only been there twice, I suppose I have my own private New York which resembles the one you describe. I think a lot of guys favor the uniform approach to dressing. I wear basically the same clothes I wore 50 years ago when I was washing dishes in restaurants, which is pretty ridiculous, really. Of course, the choice not to have a style is a style, and maybe it’s simply best to acknowledge that one’s choices are largely overdetermined by the culture at large and not deceive oneself about free will. I read a while back that New Balance sneakers are standard wear for old white guys. And here I wound up in them without ever knowing that. At the time, I just wanted to buy an American-manufactured shoe to help out my fellow countrymen, but clearly other forces were at work! I’m not sure there’s any point in doing a complete makeover out of shame. Should I wear Dockers, like I had tried to do in my professional life, or should I dress like Keith Richards, although we would be similar in no other regard? Am I a Bobo, following my sad, mimetic paradigm? Probably. But it’s just a brief moment between the two darknesses, so nothing to fret about. Anyway, great post and congratulations.
Analog sharing and discovery is so precious!
I really love this one. I love the paragraph about the record player and also the line about the buildings like a family in an argument about time. I love a good personification of buildings. It's like a Proustian thing for me. After a while, walking the same routes, buildings become static, dead things I stop noticing, but whenever someone personifies them, it's that immediate rush of feeling of being in a new city where the buildings do feel alive. There's a line in one of Nabokov stories I read a long time ago about buildings playing leapfrog that I always remember. Unless I'm conflating two stories, I think it was one where the couples young son had just died, so the poignancy of the grief against the image of a world so alive that the buildings are playing is really something... Anyway, I digress... Speaking of influencing, I read both The Street (which I loved) and Veblen's Theory of... because of you. Hah. I don't know what to do with the knowledge of that book, though. It's like, yes, I guess this is true, but also are we really this hollow, etc? I decided just not to think about it too much, lol.
Funny! sociological view of HOW people change according to their Jobs even in their outfit..I have in mind Magritte portraits , the grey men with bomb hats. a uniform and yet everyone Is different inside.. WHAT IS MOST EVIDENT..especially among young people Is the GLOBALIZED LOOK worn by the "élite"of architects nouvelle vague..black Total black even in eyeglass frame..and a certain Mood between I CREATE INVENT DESIGN,I M AN ARTIST !AND..WE BELONG TO THE RANKS OF THE ELECT!!!poor minds..If YOU have SOMETHING to Say and show..you don t Need to be disguised as a painter,engineer, intellectual..ARCHITECT!!!Renzo Piano has designed almost the whole world and YET..he looks like an ordinary employee..!.... however..Focusing on E.Allen world..welcome to the marvellous cardigans large Velvet trousers oversize blazers...and a certain scruffy Mood, well calculated..that Is to say CASUAL..
Eccellent incitement to reflect back to the past and present..everything changes..even outfits...
Thanks
Mall rat cultural apppropriation!
This was the perfect thing to read while sitting in my winter garden wearing a cable cardigan and listening to songbirds
Speaking of uniforms that become bourgeois, I was recently blown away by the revelation that Coco Chanel's little black dresses were in imitation of French maid's uniforms. I had to stop wearing them a while back when I began to feel like I was wearing a different kind of uniform (the uniform of the woman looking for acceptance and/or a relationship, somehow -- I could be wrong, but that's how it felt).
And CONGRATULATIONS on being longlisted!!! :)
so so good