This article is excerpted from the May 2024 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine, why not subscribe? We’re currently offering 5 issues for just £10.
NAs much as I’d like to say this about me (haha, it’s always about me), I realized that this year’s column is a little more profound. The question arises: Is Betts malfunctioning, or is fashion the problem? The answer, of course, is that these problems are not one or the other.
Four weeks after I last vented about how the industry’s economics no longer work, luxury e-tailer Matchesfashion has hit a wall.
In December, Farfetch, once an e-commerce powerhouse, escaped bankruptcy, but in February its founder found himself in the crossfire amid a lawsuit from shareholders.
quart new york times: “The future of Yoox Net-a-Porter is also in jeopardy following the failure of a deal between parent group Richemont and Farfetch last year. The latest financial report calls Net-a-Porter a ‘discontinued operation’ Richemont said it was looking for a buyer and had no intention of investing any more cash. This is from an area that was supposed to save retail.
Shoppers can’t afford fashion, and the planet can’t afford fashion. Furthermore, I feel that fashion is borderline psychologically damaging to many of our lives. Yes, yes, it’s me again. But so are countless others who are committed to “not buying,” “compassionate consumerism,” “cleaning out the closet,” and so on.
Still, the alternative is a dead end, or what I like to describe as “becoming an aging teddy boy.” Please let me explain.
As I move toward my mid-50s as a sexy woman, I find myself thinking more and more about the fat 50-something Ted who grew up in Birmingham in the late 70s and 80s.
This was an unusual phenomenon in Moseley, a middle-class home of Trotskyite academics, playwrights and BBC producers. But if you drive through, say, Longbridge, you’ll find people covered in oil, with sideburns, crawling in brothels, and stomachs straining the drains.
Moseley hosted some barefoot, spotted-clad hippies. They didn’t seem as overtly stranded as the Teds who spent the night, and they didn’t seem as lost in time as the neckerchief bargemen in the nearby Black Country Museum. Ta.
Gen mocks the overt athleisure of. On the other hand, we consider our clothing to be “classic.”
But that’s not the case, is it? Once widespread, it was just a fashion and was simply registered as “clothing”, so you couldn’t actually see it. What we love and surrender to. A stopped clock on my own journey. Meanwhile, the young people looked horrified and thought, “Ted!”
The solution is to at least continue to push our limits, if not in capital “F” fashion. Last month I suggested some modern shades. Well, I’m back with my “piece” – a white t-shirt. Like many trends this season, it’s a “staple” alongside white shirts, trench coats, and penny loafers.
Naturally, this means I’ve never owned one. My wardrobe is full of ruffles, capes, and giant feather headdresses. Still, it might make sense to do so, since they are, in the words of Giorgio Armani, “the alpha and omega of the fashion alphabet.”
If you want to offset the monastic simplicity of this outfit with bouts of consumer hysteria, Vogue’s spring best guide runs to 102 pages. Alex Shulman, the magazine’s former editor, currently wears 37, which he considers “perfect” in terms of neckline, proportion, and fabric, sourced from Cos, James Peirce, velvet, and Gap, but ” The only thing I think is perfect is that he finished third.”
Personally, I prefer not to think about white T-shirts at all. The purpose of this fresh start/clean slate is to cure fashion OCD, not encourage it. So I’m excited to have ME+EM’s new Tee Lab think for me/us (because sometimes it’s about you).
T-shirts and vests come in a variety of fits and cuts, including lightweight slim rib styles that balance out wide pants and skirts, and cropped box shapes that can be tucked in or left untucked without adding bulk. See edit. Exposing the waistband. You can also visit one of his eight stores of the brand and ask his assistant to make a decision for you. On the other hand, you get lost.
I particularly admire the pure white, clean-shouldered cotton crop T-shirt (£55, meandm.com, main photo), which has a crew neckline, short sleeves and a slim fit with a horizontal hem. When I modeled that, the straight men in my life said, “You know what? “It’s not you, but it’s a great cut.” That was exactly the point. Clean, effortless, current, and resolutely un-Ted.
