Hi:
Why am I interested in fine clothing and your organization? Clothing is important on many levels, politically, socially, creatively and not just sexually. Your group takes clothing seriously.
I came across your site when trying to find out if a gift from a lady friend who is the vintage clothing business is a real "Sulka" dressing gown or a sloppy fake with a "Sulka" Paris label. A model friend who is a collector of vintage robes and negligees said it was a fake, and I thought it was time to find out before I restore it or not. As an expert, her gift may say something about her, too.
This adventure is a metaphor for my great interest in quality clothing, new and vintage. I am a writer, journalist, author and TV producer and I enjoy quality workmanship. I also get paid to observe people. Maybe you are, indeed, what you wear. Fine clothing or poorly made clothing can be very revealing. Would you trust your face to a plastic surgeon to dressed like a slob?
I met Tom Ford at a restaurant in Beverly Hills one evening and told him he was a great artist. He seemed stunned. I had a couple of three-hour lunches with Tom Wolfe where he discussed the history behind his wearing his Tea Planter suits. He added that if the anti-war demonstrators during the Vietnam era had dressed better they would have been more successful ending the conflict. He had a point. They would have been more acceptable to mainstream Americans and not outcasts.
At US Civil War exhibit at Ronald Reagan presidential museum a few years ago, I saw two items of clothing that illuminated the outcome of the battle. The Confederacy could never win. In front of my eyes were the uniforms of two buglers. The Federal was made of finely woven wool; the rebel's was made of homespun. In war, technology wins. The Union was superior; the Confederacy wasn't. The clothes told the tale.
At lunch with Rudi Gernreich, who designed the topless bathing suit, he explained that his revealing costume was not meant to be sexual but a political statement. Women would be freed, no longer bound by the constraints of society. His swimsuit, he believed, would foreshadow the rise of the feminist movement. President Kennedy's two-button suit, in a way, freed men from being bound into a three-button jacket. As we know, JFK was a swinger.
At the murder trial of Scott Peterson, who would send to death row for killing his wife and unborn son, the killer's lawyer dressed the handsome Peterson is sleek designer suits. To the jury, his uniform signaled his underground life as a swinger, a man who would cheat on his wife. A man who might murder her and their baby. Clothes reveal reveal details about someone quickly. So it is important to know how to dress well or in his case not so well before a jury of his peers.
I look forward to learning more about the great artisans who make and design fine clothes, and I think your site will be not merely become a great source of knowledge and expertise but also great pleasure to me.
