Alan Flusser Interview

[pchong]

Dear storeynicholas...I find myself in disagreement with you once again.

I think your argument based on Cecil and Hitchcock is flawed because neither are able to be or do what their charges are able to. Cecil can hardly be a beautiful lady, nor Alfred able to be as physical as Cary's role demands in NBNW.

Thus my difficulty, and criticism of Alan is that he is able to easily practice what he preach. Michael's picture of him above shows an a lack of understanding or practice in elegance. He looks awful.

Moreover, I do not subscribe to the view that the best teachers are necessarily recognizable as the best incarnation of the principles that they are very well adapted to teach. Maybe it's akin to being a film director: Cecil B de Mille directed his 'young fellow' Gloria Swanson to the peak of fame - but he could hardly have taken her place now, could he? The same goes for Hitchcock and Cary Grant - and there we are - back to that bloody North By Northwest suit again....But that is not the end of it because there is an old saw that there is no such verb as 'to teach' - just that 'to learn' and, in my experience it is certainly true that the best 'teachers' do their best by making us desire to learn and to understand that this process never stops. If Alan Flusser has done much to inspire the quest in his area of understanding, then he may appear on Charlie Rose, Nude With Violin, and not have compromised himself. Several feverish entries since this thread began, is there any to deny that he has inspired that - and debate?
NJS

[sartorius]

I think your argument based on Cecil and Hitchcock is flawed because neither are able to be or do what their charges are able to. Cecil can hardly be a beautiful lady, nor Alfred able to be as physical as Cary's role demands in NBNW.

In a nutshell, directors are directors, not actors - the two are completely different.

I once asked a great cutter how many suits he had of his own (he he always looked the same - immaculate - but the same) and he said that he had - and I forget the exact figure - but it was about eight - and he added ' when you're in the business, you don't bother'

The imprtant word here is "immaculate". He was immaculate regardless of the fact his 8 suits were identical. He took the time and attention necessary to be immaculate and, had he not, I'm sure he would not have been the great cutter you describe.

[Costi]

In a sense, style is like a foreign language: there is the passive vocabulary (words and phrases one understands when hearing or reading them) and the active vocabulary (terms one uses to express own ideas). They almost never coincide - not even for a native speaker. There are people who have a good eye for style (i.e. “passive” style), but are not as successful in creating a personal style or applying it in their own lives (i.e. “active” style). NJS’s director / actor parallel is very suggestive in this sense. Mr. Flusser does not propose himself as the epytome of masculine style, but as a person capable of guiding others in matters of style. Maybe his sense of style is there all right, but he is not very successful in actively applying it to himself (a paradox, but not an impossibility). Therefore, I think it would be reasonable to judge the results of his work, i.e. what people he dresses look like. Ideas?

[alden]

Or, to put it another way, is an arbiter of taste required to personally manifest the qualities he professes?

Costi, this was a rhetorical question. I am not really sure of the answer. Balzac wrote passionately about elegance but we understand that he was probably not an elegant dresser himself. A good deal of his passion seems to be admiration and longing. If we look at Hardy Amies’s own works, we have to grin. The Duke of Bedford dressed pretty well but in an almost stereotypical way.

Flusser, the writer, has done loads to communicate some fundamental “information” on dress. No one would dare assert the contrary. Some might challenge the fine points regarding the formulas he offers, but these fine points would be recognized by a few thousand men in the world today. And Flusser does not write books for a few thousand but for the mass of men who need elementary help. That being said, there is no reason why enlightened men should muzzle themselves for Mr. Flusser’s comfort.

Mr. Flusser embodies in his own dress an “improved level” of dress as compared to the norm, and in reality, that is what he writes about and that is all we should expect from him.

and here I empathize with you, Nicholas, and truly appreciate your chivalrous defense

An act can only be chivalrous if it is undertaken in the defense of someone being attacked.

Cheers

[storeynicholas]

[quote="pchong"]Dear storeynicholas...I find myself in disagreement with you once again.

I think your argument based on Cecil and Hitchcock is flawed because neither are able to be or do what their charges are able to. Cecil can hardly be a beautiful lady, nor Alfred able to be as physical as Cary's role demands in NBNW.

Thus my difficulty, and criticism of Alan is that he is able to easily practice what he preach. Michael's picture of him above shows an a lack of understanding or practice in elegance. He looks awful.
END OF QUOTE


I don't acept that the analogy between an instructive writer and a film director is flawed at all. Indeed, the more that I consider it, the better it is. If an instructive writer, such as Alan Flusser, successfully enables the promotion of elegant dressing in a significant number of men (there is a question) then he deserves his acclaim for that, regardless of how he dresses at any particular time. Another analogy might be a cabinet maker who turns out wonderful bespoke furniture but, at home, he uses self-assembly kits: would a potential customer for the bespoke furniture be exercising reasonable judgement in rejecting the cabinet maker not on the basis of his product but because the cabinet maker has cheap furniture in his home - or to reject a great car mechanic because he drives an old banger? In terms of PR they would do better to keep their private possessions to themselves but to make such a rejection would be illogical. However, maybe Alan Flusser is running the risk of having his books judged by the cover when he dresses as he does in the pictures in this thread but that is just bad advertising. It does not come close to invalidating the substance of the books.

It has often been observed that several great writers have been great dressers but not all great dressers are great writers and many great men have eschewed the trash of this world - even the very finest trash - altogether - "If I were not Alexander, would that I were Diogenes."

It is not logical to reject opinion, advice or direction for an irrelevant reason even if the window-dressing is all over the place.

I have known several people who look like vagrants but if you ask them a complex question in their field they can make the stars rush out from a darkened sky in their demonstration of understanding and resolution.

NJS

[Sator]

What I found interesting about that interview was that, although Flusser has previously implied that his preference for the drape cut was a product of his Anglophilia, he admits there that the preference for a looser, easier cut (and softer construction) is actually more of a classically American thing.

A.A. Whife suggests that the drape cut may be of American or Continental in origin. Scholte was Dutch, and German texts of the early 20th century omit the front waist seam in the same manner as contemporary American cutting texts. In German, the word for the American English "sack coat" (lounge coat in British English) is to this day "ein Sakko". If you read the original texts to vintage Esquire/Apparel arts publications they will talk about "sack suits" and "sack coats".

As for the Duke of Windsor - so admired by Americans, ever since his manner of dress on visits caused a sensation on that continent - he was actually an Americanophile. He thought that the English manner of dress was too stuck up, and he wanted to introduce the easier and more casual American style to the British Isles. He even abdicated the British Monarchy to marry an American. Little wonder he went for the more American/Continental styled A&S sack coat, largely eschewing what he thought was the more "stuck up" structured coat of more classically British tailors.

I cannot but feel that Flusser represents a continuation that American sloppiness and easiness in dress, taken to an extent far greater than that advocated by the Duke of Windsor, whose manner of dress retained some semblance of British tidiness.

Here is a 1950's British caricature of how Americans dress:





The resemblance to Flusser is uncanny...

[Costi]

An act can only be chivalrous if it is undertaken in the defense of someone being attacked.

Michael, I didn't mean it in that way, but in the sense of voluntarily taking the "other" side, if that other side cannot present its views, for the sake of the argument. "Defense" in a legal sense, if you wish, as a lawyer does regardless whether he is intimately convinced of the arguments he presents in favour of his client. Chivalrous, in the sense that nobody asked NJS to take anyone's side, it was a spontaneous reaction, but he probably felt the need for a counterweight, for an element of balance in the discussion. At least this is how I understand it...

[storeynicholas]

Costi - It is also because I like arguments - even a good feud but feuds are generally reserved for bureaucrats. But where better to find a good argument than here? Something else occurs to me (three pages in) - maybe Alan Flusser's PR machine is just on another plane?
NJS

[alden]

I am pretty sure Johnny Cochran would have avoided answering the question about Flusser’s dress as well and preferred to create a diversion by defending his writing, status as a global icon of dress, his good works, defense of animal rights, helping of old ladies crossing streets etc.

“Blood? That’s not blood, it’s a crimson pocket square, your honor.”

NJS, now that the cavalry charge is over, the Indians have been sent packing and the children back in their wagons, can you please comment on the subject of this thread (let me see what it is) Flussers’s dress?

Mamma mia!

[sartorius]

maybe Alan Flusser's PR machine is just on another plane?

I think that is beyond debate. If anyone with a nose for PR had been present when the picture was taken, they would surely at least have suggested a location without cabling running along the carpet!

[ottovbvs]

The picture, of course, is awful. He looks just as dishevelled as I described above when I saw him about a year ago in a rather countrified get up. And yet the effect at the time was quite stylish.Just because he doesn't follow his own precepts hardly invalidates the precepts.If that was the case where would all those drinking and smoking doctors be, not to mention the politicians caught in flagrante delicto. Flusser has achieved public prominence largely as a consequence of writing some books, and there aren't many after all, which lay out the basic rules which have been created over about 200 years. And there are basic rules. They can be transgressed but it needs to be done with some skill and Flusser doesn't seem to have this skill in large supply. Nevertheless his published versions of the rules are, unlike his own appearance, seldom far off the mark. His interview which started this thread was IMHO full of sound sense even if he didn't look great himself. He would indeed, as I said previously, appear to be a prophet without honor in his own (metaphorical) land.

[angelo]

ottovbvs wrote:

Just because he doesn't follow his own precepts hardly invalidates the precepts......Flusser has achieved public prominence largely as a consequence of writing some books, and there aren't many after all, which lay out the basic rules which have been created over about 200 years. And there are basic rules. They can be transgressed but it needs to be done with some skill and Flusser doesn't seem to have this skill in large supply..........

ottvbvs,
I completely agree with Your observations. I have seen many pictures of AF and he is always trying to add to his outfit some notes or accessories aimed to breaking the rules ,that he knows very vell. However In the large majority of cases his attempts are modest or unsuccessfull at all.
As usual, good teachers are not necessarily good performers.

Angelo

[storeynicholas]

I am pretty sure Johnny Cochran would have avoided answering the question about Flusser’s dress as well and preferred to create a diversion by defending his writing, status as a global icon of dress, his good works, defense of animal rights, helping of old ladies crossing streets etc.

“Blood? That’s not blood, it’s a crimson pocket square, your honor.”

NJS, now that the cavalry charge is over, the Indians have been sent packing and the children back in their wagons, can you please comment on the subject of this thread (let me see what it is) Flussers’s dress?

Mamma mia!

I think that the likeliest explanation is that he has recently bought a copy of Dressing in The Dark but not yet having read it through, he has started experimenting with what he believes, from the mere title, to be the author's advice - and the results we see here: probably not as good as dressing in the light.
NJS

[Trey]

Gentlemen:

As a lawyer myself, going back to Michael's reference to Cochran and as it relates to Flusser's ill-fitting and just plain sorry ensemble I hereby pen my closing argument, entitled "Ode to Flusser":

Mr. Flusser, if the clothes do not fit,
we Loungers cannot acquit.
Your attire is beyond poor taste,
as if you dressed in haste,
Or perhaps you spent too much time,
debating color schemes, collar spreads, etc. in committing this sartorial crime.
Your look is contrived.
We Loungers would not be buried in your ensemble - dead or alive.
Your Charlie Rose appearance was a waste of time.
Sir, we Loungers find you guilty of your charged crime.
Rather than preach to the masses how they should dress
Let us Loungers make a point to you that we wish to stress,
Mr. Flusser, as Hamlet said, first "to thine own self be true",
Then perhaps we Loungers will consider taking advice from you.

Happy thoughts,

Trey

[ottovbvs]

"As usual, good teachers are not necessarily good performers."

Some of course are both, one thinks of Luciano Barbera who often breaks rules but always looks great. Poor old Flusser is really getting aflogging here. His big problem really is weight. He's put on a huge amount over the past 15 years. I actually had something made by him about 15 years ago in the days when he used to have space in Saks in NYC. It was/is very nice.