Care Label Literary Review
My Favourite bits from my last read
My housemates Conor and Katie bought me a Kindle this year for Christmas. Up to this point, I had been part of the anti-kindle army. However, it is safe to say, that the Kindle has been one of the all-time greatest additions to my life as a whole. What an enormous statement, but I believe this to be true. Shout out to Conor and Katie.
Over that wonderful Christmas period of not knowing what day or date it was, I unboxed, charged, and got the Kindle up and running. The massive question of course was, ‘Which book will I read first??’ As I was browsing the Kindle store, I stumbled across the book Men and Style: Essays, Interviews, and Considerations by David Coggins.
This book was a joy to read and a perfect sartorial scripture for my e-book christening. It examines the various idiosyncrasies of Men and how they dress. From tailoring, and fragrance to loafers and clothing blunders, this book is a bible for any considered man. While it mainly discusses the habits of Men’s dressing, the messages can be applied to the Female ways of dressing too. So to all the Female readers, keep reading.
There are many great insights and soliloquies in this book which resulted in a digital page-turner that I couldn’t put down. One of the best parts about Kindle is your saved highlights. You add your favourite bits as you go, and Amazon compiles all of them into an email for you. The purpose of this post is to share my favourite quotes from this book and elaborate on some points I find most interesting, valuable and humorous.
Enjoy!
Highlight 1: *Clothes are like Stamps*
“A wardrobe, like an apartment or a library, takes years to build. Doing it all at once doesn’t work, because few people have that much self-knowledge. Over time it evolves, just as you do.” - D. Coggins
This is a good place to start. What I like about this quote is it acts as a metaphor; as we change as individuals, the contents of our closets change too. Those pair of jeans you bought 5 years ago or the shoes you obsessed over, act as a symbol of the person you were at that time. Most of you reading this will look through a conscientious lens when it comes to your closet. You care about each piece and will know exactly the significance of each hung jacket or folded sweater in your wardrobe.
I know it sounds a bit haughty, but it’s about building our archive of items that are an extension of us as the wearer. Similarly, those clothes that you now wince at represent your judgement or lack thereof in that period of your life. Each item reflects who we were and how we viewed ourselves at the time. The clothes on our backs represent a previous moment, good, bad or indifferent.
Imagine if a stamp collector bought all of the stamps in quick succession. It wouldn’t be very impressive, would it? Think of the wardrobe with the same sensibility. Adding a great jacket, shirt or pair of shoes at a time is the best part. And as the quote says, this is why it takes years to build. Think Tortoise, not Hare. The acquisition of the clothes is the easy part. The challenge is to build something you’re proud of and that gives you joy each time you open your closet.
Highlight 2: *Ensure the Dog is wagging the tail*
“We are attracted to things that show a sense of their history and are honest about that. The boxer’s broken nose, flawed heroes, the singer’s ageing voice. Yes, Fred Astaire threw his suits (or had his valet do it) against the wall to take the newness out of them. The master knew that a suit shouldn’t look fresh, it should looked lived in and reflect its wearer, not its maker.” - D. Coggins
Reflect its wearer, not its maker. Another simple but groundbreaking sentence that we should all pay heed to. Of course, we don’t want to wander around in old rags resembling a slob, but our clothes are meant to be worn. It’s about ownership. We all know those people who we walk by on the street whose clothes look so good on them. Their jeans are the perfect amount of frayed or their sweater has that naturally faded look over time. In almost every case, the garment looks better this way than it did when it left the shop floor. This takes 100s if not 1000s of hours spent wearing the garment in question. The piece of clothing with a pristine sheen which gets the occasional outing has less character than the lived-in coat or kicks you always reach for.
Own your clothes, and most importantly wear them, don’t let them wear you!
Highlight 3: *Quality is the Best Diet*
“Buy the best quality that you can afford. And going along with that idea, you should keep your clothes forever. It’s the best diet you can get.” - G.Bruce Boyer
This is something worthy of the Clothing 10 Commandments. So simple and so important. If we assume we’re in the interest of keeping our things for as long as possible, buying quality is the key. Nothing groundbreaking here.
Of course, this thought process lacks the nuance of the fashion consumer where fit, fabric, and fad are also at play. All of our purchases can’t exclusively be focused on quality. However, if buying well-made clothes is top of mind when we loosen our purse strings, we will be left with a powerful collection of clothes that you’ll return to year after year.
Highlight 4: Time to break up with your wallet
“Some of us favor a narrow wallet that fits in the chest pocket of our coat, which is perfect for the essentials, not a Costanza-like brick that will have you at the chiropractor.” - D. Coggins
Unfortunately, I fall into the ‘Constanza-like’ category. At the time of writing, there are dozens of receipts, cards, and my fake New York ID shoved inside my oversized wallet.
Chunky wallets are not an acceptable lifestyle choice anymore. With Apple Pay and digital receipts aplenty, there is no need for the pocket dumbbell any longer.
*Note to self; reduce the size of my monetary appliance.*
Media Recommendation: Speaking of wallets, Vogue contributor Liana Satenstein wrote a great piece on the resurgence of the long lady wallet. Find it here. Some excellent writing.
Highlight 6: Values today! SMH
“You show respect when you go to a funeral or a wedding or a bar mitzvah or a christening—you dress up. A lot of people I see in four-star restaurants, expensive restaurants, the women make an appearance but the men are very, very underdressed—sometimes not even with a jacket. I don’t know why.” - D. Coggins
Does anyone know that scene from The Sopranos where a disgruntled Tony confronts a non-wiseguy wearing a cap at a fine establishment? Find the clip below ⬇️
If you are a mild observer of dress and how people drape themselves, this is something you would notice. As the quote suggests, women are, for the most part, exempt from this behaviour. But for the fellas, trainers and a hoodie are often the uniform for many a male diner these days. Shame on you!
But joking aside, the ceremonial act of dressing your best for dinner or occasion has become the exception, rather than the rule. I’m not saying you wear a suit and tie that you hate and don’t identify with. By all means, wear what you like. But if your evening required booking weeks ahead, taking the next day off work, and a taxi to the venue, why would you fall at the last hurdle by not making the effort with your own presentation?
You order the wine to compliment the food, so wear the clothes that fit the occasion.
Highlight 7: *Look to you for inspo, no one else*
“Yes, in the end, we all have to make our own way down the long, rewarding path toward hard-earned individuality, with all its flaws.” - D. Coggins
A good one to end the piece and something to remind ourselves of on the regular. We are overstimulated on what’s cool and what’s not these days, our reels and TikTok’s are quick to tell us. But if we are to follow the latest silhouettes, brands and celebrities, we are ‘cool’ for now, until the next big thing that comes around. Life’s enough of a race already to be worrying about the next clothing trend, and this is something that is frankly too much effort.
Don’t get me wrong, this is hard. The easy choice is to buy what we see as cool and relevant. This is why the influencer or tastemaker has become an irreplaceable commodity for fashion brands. But rather than defaulting to the act of buying what we see, it’s about having that mental pause to ask ourselves, ‘Is this what I really want?’. If we apply this logic, our tastes will slowly but surely develop over time. What we’ll be rewarded with is perpetually feeling comfortable in our own skin, instead of inevitably being uncomfortable in someone else’s.
As Marco Pierre White said in his legendary Oxford Union speech, ‘Cook the food you want to eat’. To make a parallel here, wear the clothes YOU want to wear.
Hope you enjoyed my very own soliloquy on the above. This is something I’m likely going to continue and make the ‘Care Label Literary Review’ an ongoing series. If you enjoyed it, hit the like button. Or even better, comment below with some of your thoughts and recommendations on what I should read next.
Loved this read and especially Bruce Boyer’s quote on how you should keep your clothes forever, it something I have been subconsciously been trying to do for a while, and aim to be more intentional about it, I think it’s just a great mantra to have whenever purchasing clothing or viewing the clothes you want to wear, “can I have this forever?”