Old Money Style

[Gruto]

We often discuss style details, rules, the right way to wear a garment. What is the hidden center of this discussion? Is it, what Boyer calls old money style or sprezzatura, "the look of not trying too hard, of not getting everything right, that shows superiority masked by diffidence and ease", "the gentle pretense, the subtle art which hides the effort"?

[manicturncoat]

I think so. In Italy the highest compliment you can give a man in matters of style is to say that he has "disinvoltura" or is "disinvolto" which roughly translated means an ease and indifference in manner, basically, making it look easy. This, of course, is practically impossible to fake, it is innate and intangible.

[Ferrando]

Yes, it's that offhand ease that seems to be the key here. Trying too hard to look "right" leaves no room for a man's character to show through.

It's the difference between the soft look of a slightly askew, hand-tied bow tie and the harder-edged symmetry of an obviously pre-tied version.

It's the difference between combining a splendidly paterned or textured waistcoat with a plain black tie, and the matched set of vest (usually backless) and tie (always pre-tied) that seems to announce "wedding rental."

[Gruto]

making it look easy.

I've been reading af French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu. Here are som quotes from "Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste" (1979):

"It is no accident that the opposition between "scholastic" (or "pedantic") and the mondain, the effortlessly elegant, is at the heart of debates over taste and culture in every age: behind two ways of producing or appreciating cultural works, it very clearly designates two contrasting modes of acquisition, and, in the modern period at least, two different realtionships to the education system."

"The ideology of natural taste ... only recognizes as legitimate the relation to culture (or language) which least bears the visible marks of its genesis, which has nothing "academic", "scholastic", "bookish", "affected" or "studied" about it, but manifests by its ease and natutalness that true culture is nature - a new mystery of immaculate conception."

"The competence of the "connoissseur", an unconscious mastery of the instruments of appropriation which derives from slow familarization and is the basis of familarity with works, is an "art", a practical mastery which, like an art of thinking or an art of living, cannot be transmitted solely by precept and prescription."

[Gruto]

After reading Boyer I picked up The Book of the Courtier by Castiglione. Really, an amazing description of how a man should appear. 500 years old but very alive. Here are some quotes from ch. 1:

"We can trustfully say that true art is what does not seem to be an art."

"To reveal intense application and skill robs everything of grace."

"Although nonchalance is praiseworthy as such ... it degenerates as easily into affection."

"The affection of wanting to appear a bold fellow."