Experimentation

[Frederic Leighton]

"It is a foolish affectation for a man to rail against wearing what is the fashion, since what everybody else is wearing is certain to look right. Old gentlemen look best in the fashions of their youth, but a young man had better follow the fashions of the day.

"There is a happy medium to be observed, however, between being over-dressed and under-dressed. All such exaggerated styles as mark the would-be swell should be rigorously avoided. To look like an animated figure out of a tailor's show-card is the ambition of a shop-boy, not a gentleman."

That was London in 1893. I came across these paragraphs two years ago. I had recently changed my point of view on many topics and, in my early thirties, I had just reinvented myself. As a consequence, and in a very natural way, my style completely changed. I started reading about Victorian fashion and purchasing vintage clothing in shops and markets. History had always been one of my passions and London was offering me completely new, exciting experiences. I built up a new wardrobe with vintage suits from different decades, fedora panama and homburg hats, even two bowler, a boater and a top hat that I never wore (okay, I wore quite a few times, and still wear, the boater during the summer). I eventually shaved in a handlebar mustache the full beard I had been taking care of since the time I was 17.

I don't work in an office. I'm a musician and can do all I want with my own image. My personality is drawn to experimenting a lot and playing with myself, with the way people see me and with time. The way the idea of beauty changed across time fascinates me and I can't force myself to stop playing with forgotten [read 'expired'] ideals of beauty.

Every now and then I shave my mustache off (like now) and style my hair in a less old fashioned way. I don't really do anything crazy - I don't take the tube in rush hour wearing a top hat; I never wore the two morning dresses I own; I don't walk with a stick and I don't have a monocle, if you find this reassuring. I do have few suits from the 60s, some from before, few old coats (wonderful fabrics as thick as armors). I do like waistcoats, I don't like cluttered style, wearing too many colors, matching contrasting patterns; I would say I am pretty straightforward and respectful of traditional recommendations when I choose my outfit. It's just not the outfit of this time, not the outfit of my age, not what guys of my age wear.

I get loads of compliments and girls seem to appreciate. More interesting are the funny comments I sometimes receive, especially in pubs and from half-drunk men. Altogether, great opportunities to exchange few words with people. Today I was hanging around Fortnum & Mason [for the first time] and someone kindly asked if they could take a photo of me for their fashion blog. "Yes, why not" has become my usual answer and I don't even blush any more. I often wonder about this wonderful, mysterious things - time, style, beauty and society. I feel a bit lost at times, I guess, but also quite excited and very busy exploring myself. Always learning.

True - the only way to pass unnoticed is to wear what people of your age usually wear. If I were 65, no one would notice my fedora. But is it essential to pass unnoticed? I do believe in 'sobriety' as the base of elegance, but all this is not about elegance.. and I'm not afraid of smiling back to people smiling to me.

I greatly enjoy some bravery and variety in the way people dress, especially when they feel at ease with their choice. Okay, I did it first. Now it's your turn to talk about the way you see yourself.

Below: Paul Gauguin in [summer?] 1895.

[Costi]

So there is a new motto inspired from Gauguin's photo: "pull out all the stops"!

[NJS]

So there is a new motto inspired from Gauguin's photo: "pull out all the stops"!

But - what's the point?

[Costi]

It's counterpoint
Visually illustrated.

[uppercase]

I like your approach Frederic Leighton.

[Frederic Leighton]

@ Uppercase - Thank you! is your approach very different?
@Costi - Have a harmonious day!

[Costi]

@Costi - Have a harmonious day!

Point taken! Counterpoint to follow...

I'm not afraid of smiling back to people smiling to me.

That's the line I liked most. We'd do good to think about it. Engage, not hover.

[Frederic Leighton]

What I see in the street, what I read in the Evening Standard while commuting, what I find in the blogs online, even the exhibition at the Barbican - someone wants me to believe that James Bond is the new cool and jamesbondness is the proper attribute for the real man.

In July 1926, The Chicago Tribune reported that a vending machine dispensing pink talcum powder had appeared in an upscale hotel washroom. An editorial that followed used the story to protest the feminization of American men, and blamed the talcum powder on [Rudolph] Valentino and his films. The piece infuriated Valentino and he challenged the writer to a boxing match since dueling was illegal. Neither challenge was answered. [...]

After Valentino challenged the Tribune's anonymous writer to a boxing match, the New York Evening Journal boxing writer, Frank O'Neill, volunteered to fight in his place. Valentino won the bout which took place on the roof of New York's Ambassador Hotel.

Boxing heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, who trained Valentino and other Hollywood notables of the era in boxing, said of him "He was the most virile and masculine of men. The women were like flies to a honeypot. He could never shake them off, anywhere he went. What a lovely, lucky guy."

The paragraphs above (from wikipedia) tell another story from a different time. I appreciate the way past widens my perception of present and makes me think that nothing is forever or ultimately better than something else. For a closer look to our past(s) read this Photo History of Male Affection.

In this globalized universe where it seems that everybody's watching the same movies and eating the same food, there are still abysmal and overwhelming fractures separating one culture from another. How can two peoples, one of which unknowing of Totò, truly understand each other? —Umberto Eco

Totò on youtube.

[NJS]

Isn't the 'Bond' phenomenon (even craze), just the result of the effect of the power of marketing on masses of people who are (too) easily influenced? - Remember those hugely successful TV commercials -"For mash, get Smash"; "For hands that do dishes that feel soft as your face, use mild green fairy liquid"; "Graded grains make finer flour"; "Get the Colgate ring of confidence" etc. etc..

Having said that, modern generations have always had their contemporary fictional male 'heroes'. My father's generation had Biggles and Sexton Blake. Fleming told his niece that he did not see Bond as a hero but that has not stopped him becoming one - and on a global scale. The same goes for heroes of the games' fields. Every modern generation has had them. So far as the fictional heroes are concerned, they tend to possess what are generally recognized as desirable, masculine characteristics in the modern age, and they galvanize life into an ideal template of appearance, character and activity.

Whether having such templates is completely desirable might well be debateable - but they lessen the need for original thought for those would find thinking difficult, and are probably fairly harmless.

I am not sure that any such template has ever been represented by any hero of epicene appearance and effeminate behaviour; probably because, despite all the mighty noise of the 'right-on' minority pressure groups of the modern age, it would not have any real mass appeal; which, in the final analysis, is just as well for the survival of the species .

NJS

[bond_and_beyond]

Isn't the 'Bond' phenomenon (even craze), just the result of the effect of the power of marketing on masses of people who are (too) easily influenced? - Remember those hugely successful TV commercials -"For mash, get Smash"; "For hands that do dishes that feel soft as your face, use mild green fairy liquid"; "Graded grains make finer flour"; "Get the Colgate ring of confidence" etc. etc..

Having said that, modern generations have always had their contemporary fictional male 'heroes'. My father's generation had Biggles and Sexton Blake. Fleming told his niece that he did not see Bond as a hero but that has not stopped him becoming one - and on a global scale. The same goes for heroes of the games' fields. Every modern generation has had them. So far as the fictional heroes are concerned, they tend to possess what are generally recognized as desirable, masculine characteristics in the modern age, and they galvanize life into an ideal template of appearance, character and activity.

Whether having such templates is completely desirable might well be debateable - but they lessen the need for original thought for those would find thinking difficult, and are probably fairly harmless.

I am not sure that any such template has ever been represented by any hero of epicene appearance and effeminate behaviour; probably because, despite all the mighty noise of the 'right-on' minority pressure groups of the modern age, it would not have any real mass appeal; which, in the final analysis, is just as well for the survival of the species .

NJS

To be fair, there was probably even more of a Bond-craze in the 60s than there is today (1965's Thunderball was the highest grossing (inflation adjusted) Bond flick until Skyfall). Remarkably the Bond character has remained a phenomenon literally for generations, and the latest "craze" is just a continuation of that.

Perhaps that is because Bond, in essence, represents what most men would want to be on a basic level, with enough adjustments made by the filmmakers to adopt the character to the times the individual films are set in.

BB

[Frederic Leighton]

@ NJS - Very interesting reading, thank you!
@ BB - thank you for your thoughts!

I believe the fear of effeminacy has been stealing some depth to manliness during the last decades and this was made even more visible to me by the article I linked above. At the same time, I can't really say that those men concerned with banning any possible hint of effeminacy from their character do display a higher degree of manliness. In one case an acquaintance of mine, one of those brave soldiers fighting in the crusades of manliness, was left by his wife once she found out that he was having an affair with a man. Those old photos of men hugging each other make me think that our behavior -- in this lucky age of democracy and freedoms -- is after all constrained and that men can become the worst dictators for themselves.

EDIT: By the way, do you like the patch ticket pocket on Gauguin's coat?

[bond_and_beyond]

At the same time, I can't really say that those men concerned with banning any possible hint of effeminacy from their character do display a higher degree of manliness. In one case an acquaintance of mine, one of those brave soldiers fighting in the crusades of manliness, was left by his wife once she found out that he was having an affair with a man.

Classic case of "over compensation"! A man who is unsure about his own sexuality taking every opportunity to portray himself as a "macho man" so that no one will believe he is leaning "the other way".

Interestingly I know a fella that does the opposite: acting very effeminate so that no one will mistake him for being straight!

BB

[alden]

How can two peoples, one of which unknowing of Totò, truly understand each other? —Umberto Eco

See the great Toto here...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhl6dToYxUg

or the opening moments here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GG2wKSvG2o

Cheers

[alden]

For a closer look to our past(s) read this Photo History of Male Affection.

I think the Sicilians, in general, are about as macho as men are allowed to be anymore (and their native women and female tourists, who often come to sample the wares, love them for it.) But Sicilian men embrace each other and exchange a kiss on meeting the same way women do.

As an adopted Sicilian, I do the same. Sometimes when visitors come down to the island from abroad, they are greeted with a solid hug my yours truly. If the inadvertent trauma has affected any of you, I publicly apologize.

Cheers

[alden]

someone wants me to believe that James Bond is the new cool and jamesbondness is the proper attribute for the real man.

The new Bond and most of the modern male archetypes, the Stallones, assorted Conans and Spidermans are cartoon characters. They are the stuffed toys that Hollywoods' 11-14 yrs old female focus groups most want to play with. Cartoon characters are more easily assimilated into the leisurely fantasies of the suburbs than human ones that tend to scare the pants of us like a good, focussed, wide screen, Technicolor look in the mirror.

"Suit the action to the impulse, the impulse to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep overtly the modesty of nature. For anything so o'erdone is every bit the purpose of Fantasy, whose end both at the first and now, was and is, to hide as 'twere, the mirror from nature..."

-The Bond from Stratford on Avon

Cheers