Disagreeable Menswear Post Of The Day

Crompton is on form again. Today it’s a report about his old jeans. After distinguishing between ‘thrift’ - which he doesn’t do as he’s ‘time poor’ - and vintage, he goes on to describe his second hand Levi’s. Basically they cost £300, but they have holes and patches. Our man is fine with that, as he thinks it adds character. It’s rather like a modern version of an aristocrat having a servant break in their shoes for them - except the shoes would not be in such a distressed condition afterwards. Crompton can speculate on some interesting provenance for these cast offs. That probably doesn’t include the last few possessions of some poor down and out on skid row.

The Levi’s are bound to match well with a bespoke, fur-lined, army surplus jacket.
 
Jesus Christ. Does he get any blowback at all in his comments? Someone needs to let us know they see the emperor with no clothes on and confirm they haven’t all drank the Kool aid. I’m sure he edits the responses but either there have to be some getting through or else traffic to his site is in steep decline. How many people are there left who are still taken in by his ever more desperate grasping for relevance? Surely the jig is up now?
 
...he goes on to describe his second hand Levi’s. Basically they cost £300, but they have holes and patches. Our man is fine with that, as he thinks it adds character.

I've said this before (about watches, not clothes), but I really don't understand this fetishisation of wear, or patina.

I quite like wear and patina - but I want it to be *my* wear and patina, not someone else's. When you do it, it becomes your story. You can look at scuffed toes, the scratch on the side of the watch, the torn and patched knee, and think of how it happened, or how such-and-such an item has been with you for years.

What's the point of having a pair of worn, torn jeans when it's not your wear and tear, but is the wear and tear of an entirely unknown person from a decade or two ago? There's no story there, no sentimentality, no link.

It's the same with watches, although thankfully the fad for "patina" seems to have faded (small pun for fxh fxh 's benefit!) recently. I remember seeing Instagram posts where someone would be wearing a Rolex with a cracked, faded bezel and scratched glass and people would almost be having orgasms over it in the comments, about the great patina and how the bezel looked cool. I could never understand the appeal.
 
When I think of ‘patina’ I think of something like a bannster in an old house that has been worn silky smooth due to decades of having hands rub up and down it. I don’t think of a busted up watch, a pair of raggedy forty year old jeans, or a pair of shoes that have had someone with no life rubbing polish in every night for a week.
 
I've said this before (about watches, not clothes), but I really don't understand this fetishisation of wear, or patina.

I quite like wear and patina - but I want it to be *my* wear and patina, not someone else's. When you do it, it becomes your story. You can look at scuffed toes, the scratch on the side of the watch, the torn and patched knee, and think of how it happened, or how such-and-such an item has been with you for years.

What's the point of having a pair of worn, torn jeans when it's not your wear and tear, but is the wear and tear of an entirely unknown person from a decade or two ago? There's no story there, no sentimentality, no link.

It's the same with watches, although thankfully the fad for "patina" seems to have faded (small pun for fxh fxh 's benefit!) recently. I remember seeing Instagram posts where someone would be wearing a Rolex with a cracked, faded bezel and scratched glass and people would almost be having orgasms over it in the comments, about the great patina and how the bezel looked cool. I could never understand the appeal.

Gud poast.

I sometimes ruminate on the idea of patina, along with my ruminations on aesthetics in general and, it seems an important aesthetic consideration for several cultures.

The Japanese have an aesthetic concept called 'iki', where patina, as an idea of age and, hard-worn experience plays a part.

I find counterparts to 'iki' in British, French and Italian cultures....
 
A bloke with plenty of money and plenty of clothes, but not plenty of taste.

 
The Levi’s are bound to match well with a bespoke, fur-lined, army surplus jacket.

....He's got a fur lined sheepskin jacket/My ma said they cost a packet/She won't even let me explain/That me and that twat Crompton were just not the same....

Jesus Christ. Does he get any blowback at all in his comments? Someone needs to let us know they see the emperor with no clothes on and confirm they haven’t all drank the Kool aid. I’m sure he edits the responses but either there have to be some getting through or else traffic to his site is in steep decline. How many people are there left who are still taken in by his ever more desperate grasping for relevance? Surely the jig is up now?

Death of a blog:



When I think of ‘patina’ I think of something like a bannster in an old house that has been worn silky smooth due to decades of having hands rub up and down it. I don’t think of a busted up watch, a pair of raggedy forty year old jeans, or a pair of shoes that have had someone with no life rubbing polish in every night for a week.
Patina, like fine art, is either real or fake. However, I do like the faux-patina of the new Omega 007 Seamaster, the release of which has been delayed.

I sometimes ruminate on the idea of patina, along with my ruminations on aesthetics in general and, it seems an important aesthetic consideration for several cultures.

The Japanese have an aesthetic concept called 'iki', where patina, as an idea of age and, hard-worn experience plays a part.

I find counterparts to 'iki' in British, French and Italian cultures....
 
Ten years later, they still haven't realised that "patina" means a layer - of dirt, or oxidation etc. - not "wear". Jeans can't have a patina. Not unless it's skid marks.
 
Distressed is probably the correct word in that context.

Yes. Distressed jeans, worn briefcase, watch with patina.

Also, what's so special about those jeans? I squinted hard at the crotch pic snapped by Crompers's sidekick photographer chum. 300 quid for that? How very middle class.
 
Isn’t the photographer a Brooklyn hipster?
Do they really fly back and forth across the Atlantic just to take his picture? Sustainable indeed!
 
Vintage denim was a thing long before Mr. C came into style. Decades before. So no one should care what he thinks on the subject.

I buy old clothing for its beauty, and for its uniqueness.

I buy old Army fatigues for the amazing feel of the cotton sateen. I buy horsehide for wearing-in that would take me 20 years (or more) of daily beating. And I buy vintage jeans for their character and story - the little rips, patches and wear marks that make them the only one in existence.


I've never been in an Army Navy shop and said OMG, that thateen is tho, tho thexy. Despite horsehide being stout leather you can beat on cowhide for 20 years and it will survive with patina too. Where the fuck is he beating up his leather jacket anyway? On his bicycle? Posing like a ponce for pics? He wears it daily? With thateen?

Denim is ubiquitous and every pair has their own character and story but you want the jeans with that tell the story of how some other guys ball sack the rubbed them in just the right way. I've worn used denim with someone else's story all over them. I didn't curate or collect them, I was poor and that is what my old lady bought me. I don't care if that pair was sharted in by Levi or Strauss. I liken vintage denim to vintage Carhartt jackets. Look at them on eBay. They look ugly after being used so as to create their story. Yet dougheads will buy them because they are vintage? No, show me deadstock 1960's not 1980's used.

I don't want someone else's patina. I don't want someone else's shoe creases.

Someone else's Barbour patina? Ewww. Just as bad as beat up Filson tin cloth.
 
The Japanese have an aesthetic concept called 'iki', where patina, as an idea of age and, hard-worn experience plays a part.

Hmmm... the "sabi" part of the Japanese expression "wabi sabi" () is probably more synonymous with patina, and the wear and imperfection that comes with age.

I posted a video in another thread of how they 'distress' jeans with a "Laser".

How things go in circles.

Back in the 1980s, distressed jeans were cool - they'd be deliberately worn by being tumbled in massive industrial machines with gravel or rocks, or be rubbed against sanding machines.

Of course, some people decided that wasn't authentic, and over time those factory-worn jeans became uncool. Instead, the emphasis was on "wearing in" the jeans yourself, so that they developed creases and fades in response to the way that you wore them, and the way that they fitted you.

Now, if Crompton is to be believed, it's cool to go out and spend ludicrous sums of money on pre-worn jeans - but this time, rather than a machine that's done the wearing-in, it's a person who's done the wearing for you.

So pre-worn jeans from factory = bad; but pre-worn jeans by human = good.
 
Not to excuse the inexcusable, as Crompton is the epitome of disagreeable but the major issue is: he has way too many clothes ( as do many Igents) to develop patina/ wabi sabi/ well-worn effect etc so he has to resort to artifice like trying to justify three-digit 'vintage' jeans and other nonsense.

I am not a trainers/ sneakers guy so Common Projects is as relevant to me as a tofu sausage but If I spent almost 400 dollars on it, I won't use it to run around in the park and play football with my kids. Ditto a multi-ply cashmere shawl collar sweater costing thousands and I use it essentially as a bib to look after my three month old subjecting it to spittle and other body discharge.

Crompton knows the price of nothing and the value of nothing.
 
Outide of Pitti or wherever else he has to play the sartiorialist he probably doesn't havy much use for all this tailored stuff. When you take a look at where his blog has gone over the past few years you can tell he's a casual guy at heart. Tailored clothing may be the reason why he started out a decade ago but ulitimately it's run its course for him. He's become this Ethan Newton copycat wearing jeans, beanies, loafers and military jackets as this certainly opens more ways for the design side he is so fond of. Just look how he's been sucking up to Ralph Lauren in quite a few of his more recent posts, seems like he was given some encouragement to pursue this way. Keeping in touch with trendier side of sartorialism and clothing will be a way to keep his blog and himself more relevant.
 
Outide of Pitti or wherever else he has to play the sartiorialist he probably doesn't havy much use for all this tailored stuff. When you take a look at where his blog has gone over the past few years you can tell he's a casual guy at heart. Tailored clothing may be the reason why he started out a decade ago but ulitimately it's run its course for him. He's become this Ethan Newton copycat wearing jeans, beanies, loafers and military jackets as this certainly opens more ways for the design side he is so fond of. Just look how he's been sucking up to Ralph Lauren in quite a few of his more recent posts, seems like he was given some encouragement to pursue this way. Keeping in touch with trendier side of sartorialism and clothing will be a way to keep his blog and himself more relevant.

Mr. Crompton always looks the same whatever he is wearing. It must be a temptation to just photoshop his head onto a picture of whatever style he wants to talk about. It would be a lot easier during lockdown too.
 
"Over the next few weeks on Permanent Style, I’ll be setting out the pieces that form the foundation of my smart/casual summer wardrobe."

His Quote for the Ages.

Crompers is the forum punchbag, just as Kirbers is the forum mascot. If Cromps has gone full-on casual, Kirbers wears a suit and tie while he fiddles about with tins of boot black. It takes all sorts, wot. We love 'em both to pieces.

See Crompton's edgy tattoo in the latest epistle.
 
How's your cousin then? Still perfect?

Interestingly, in no order of preference or importance: one's a recovering junky, one's a doctor, one sells trinkets on one of those sale channels, one's married to a drug dealer, another one is a drug dealer, one's in HR in Manchester, one's a professional Tarot/Medium and one is serving time at Her Majesty's Pleasure as an Apache attack helicopter pilot in the RAF.

Pretty much the standard Brit cross section of those doing well and those relegated to the SPAM side of the wedding party before ceremony and the big wedding died a death.

Vintage denim was a thing long before Mr. C came into style. Decades before. So no one should care what he thinks on the subject.

According to my old chums, the secret to smuggling drugs back into the UK from the USA for personal use, was to buy a pair of jeans from a certain second hand shop in San Francisco and get a receipt and load the ticket pocket up with cocaine. If you got stopped, declare all innocence and tell them you just bought the jeans second hand and wasn't aware of the illicit contents.

Back in the 1980s, distressed jeans were cool - they'd be deliberately worn by being tumbled in massive industrial machines with gravel or rocks, or be rubbed against sanding machines.

I don't think it was ever a cool look. I can remember my sister telling me that cool was very much out. It was however, the George Michael/Wham look and it never went away. It literally hasn't gone away since the mid-1980s, I don't think I've ever gone a year where I haven't seen ladies of various proportions sporting this dreadful look.
 
USD$2000+ outfit

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Another $2000+ outfit
BDE9D9D2-A88E-46A0-9B6E-E145079CD157.jpeg
 
I had a green paisley shirt just like the one in the picture. It was back at the turn of the 90s.

I've had one paisley shirt. Never really got into them. One of the kids godparents, the artist and big Beatles fan, he's 70 now and always wears them. He looks like an ageing rock star, but one that's never taken drugs.
 
just as Kirbers is the forum mascot.

I find Kirby to be almost insufferably irritating, but he's somehow become remarkably popular over the past year or so and, in doing so, has also somehow come to be regarded as an authority on all sorts of things to do with clothes and shoes.

It seems like only a couple of years ago that he was shilling overpriced wooden hangers and deer bones, but now he's considered one of the true cognoscenti.
 
Haven’t deer bones been exposed as completely pointless?
It’s hilarious to think of shoe nerds the world over spending countless evenings feverishly rubbing away to absolutely no effect whatsoever.
Kinda like wine ponces wanking themselves silly over some ridiculously hyped and astronomically priced vintage, but when these so-called experts do a blind taste test it’s the bottles in the $10 to $20 range that they like the best.
 
Haven’t deer bones been exposed as completely pointless?

I've never boned my shoes 😛 but I have read that rubbing them with a bone can help to smooth out the leather and remove blemishes. However, it appears that happens simply because the deer bone is smooth, and is not due to any particularly quality on the part of the bone. I've read that people have achieved precisely the same effect by rubbing their shoes with the back of a teaspoon.
 
Anyone noticed the subtle product placement on these iGent blogs and Instagram accounts? Crompers writes a piece fawning over Jean-Manuel Moreau. Seven days later, he posts a pice on his "casual" polo shirt. In which he wears - wait for it - Jean-Manuel Moreau trousers. Clever, clever!

Allison, meanwhile, has taken to wearing his Alan Flusser shacket or whatever they're called.

We love them all. It's like watching fish in an aquarium. Sheer entertainment.
 
USD$2000+ outfit

View attachment 33784


Another $2000+ outfit
View attachment 33785

I recognize the porch - I’ve seen him post a bunch of pics in the leather jacket thread.

Seems like a nice enough kid who is spending all his time and money during isolation trying to dress for and impress a bunch of self-appointed StyFo experts.

In about a month’s time he is going to go out to a bar, realize he looks silly and none of the chicks appreciate his iSWD steez and then offload it all on Grailed to the next chump.
 
Anyone noticed the subtle product placement on these iGent blogs and Instagram accounts? Crompers writes a piece fawning over Jean-Manuel Moreau. Seven days later, he posts a pice on his "casual" polo shirt. In which he wears - wait for it - Jean-Manuel Moreau trousers. Clever, clever!

Allison, meanwhile, has taken to wearing his Alan Flusser shacket or whatever they're called.

We love them all. It's like watching fish in an aquarium. Sheer entertainment.

that is how style influencers work. the end point has always been swag and purchases by sheeple. click a pic and see the brand names pop up on the IG pic for many. Look how the consumptive Polack moved upmarket when his swag quotient went up in quality. Although in checking his website has not been added in over a year and I can't find his IG. Everything stops in January 27 2019

Maybe the consumption finally got him? Shame, given his pro pics

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1590065966206.png
 
that is how style influencers work. the end point has always been swag and purchases by sheeple. click a pic and see the brand names pop up on the IG pic for many. Look how the consumptive Polack moved upmarket when his swag quotient went up in quality. Although in checking his website has not been added in over a year and I can't find his IG. Everything stops in January 27 2019

Maybe the consumption finally got him? Shame, given his pro pics

View attachment 33788
View attachment 33789

Such a pale pallid he needs a diet of t-bone steak, whisky and raw whore to lively up his pecker.

Dreadful studio too, I guess that's his lock down home basement one.
 
I find Kirby to be almost insufferably irritating, but he's somehow become remarkably popular over the past year or so and, in doing so, has also somehow come to be regarded as an authority on all sorts of things to do with clothes and shoes.

It seems like only a couple of years ago that he was shilling overpriced wooden hangers and deer bones, but now he's considered one of the true cognoscenti.
Interesting. He is often wide eyed with enthusiasm in the presence of people he thinks are the clothing experts and he has put up some classic videos. The award video was great. Kirby is there in all his finery, smoking Cuban cigars and drinking fine malt whisky, but waiting expectantly for the takeaway pizza to be delivered. It’s difficult not to like someone like that. He’s not too snooty either. He likes the dressing up stuff but he’s still personable. You would just have to get him off the subject of clothes for a while.
 

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