FRIDAY CHALLENGE, MARCH 1st 2019: THE POLO

[am55]

I was quite surprised that @Clouseau came in 2nd. His outfit was one of the most casual of the bunch by far. Is that why he came in second? Because most of us dressed the polo up too formally? Asking for a friend.

My guess is the unspoken but very direct cultural references. "European" though (am I supposed to say, these days, Anglo-European?), so might not make as much sense to Americans who are not as familiar with the second half of the 20th century across the pond. It is proof that a more intellectual entry can still win a lot of votes (although I've never been successful with this strategy).

 

[An Acute Style]

My guess is the unspoken but very direct cultural references. "European" though (am I supposed to say, these days, Anglo-European?), so might not make as much sense to Americans who are not as familiar with the second half of the 20th century across the pond. It is proof that a more intellectual entry can still win a lot of votes (although I've never been successful with this strategy).

Not sure I follow. Are you referring to the Mod/Suedehead look?

 

[am55]

Not sure I follow. Are you referring to the Mod/Suedehead look?

It is one of the references, some of the others are more Parisian (e.g. Drugstore). I think the best way to put it is that he used the language to send a message and those who got it upvoted. I am convinced of it only because his most successful previous such entry (in Mr. Blockert's music cover challenge) was even more clearly so.

As for further enlightening I can only quote Chateaubriand (with apologies to Clouseau for the ray of monarchist thought on your Corsican-flavoured Republicanism): "When an author's merit lies especially in his diction, no foreigner will ever understand that merit. The more intimate, individual, rational a talent is, the more do its mysteries escape the mind which is not, so to speak, that talent's fellow-countryman. We admire the Greeks and Romans on trust; our admiration comes to us by tradition, and the Greeks and Romans are not there to laugh at our barbarian judgments. Which of us has an idea of the harmony of the prose of Demosthenes and Cicero, of the cadence of the verses of Alcæus and Horace, as they were caught by a Greek or Latin ear? Men maintain that real beauties are of all times, all countries: yes, beauties of feeling and of thought; not beauties of style. Style is not cosmopolitan like thought: it has a native land, a sky, a sun of its own."

It helps that the Inspector has lived through the trends he references, instead of merely having studied them. I would not risk referencing that language myself, but enjoyed the entry enough to give it an upvote.

 

[Mr Knightley]

Interesting points @am55

As an 'Anglo-European' and, indeed, as someone who has lived through the youth trends you mention, I was also one that 'got it' when I saw @Clouseau posing in a louche manner by the Seine in his casual loose-fitting FP collab polo.

The polo shirt has, of course, been a great favourite of many British youth subcultures since the Original Modernists adopted it in the early to mid-60s (and parallel movements in France that you reference).

The skinheads in late 1960's England, (not the vicious, 'orrible lot that would emerge 10 years later) and who were the spiritual successors to the smarter Mods, also adopted the polo, especially the Fred Perry. Sometimes it would be worn buttoned-up under a jacket but more often just as The Inspector presented it in the Challenge, with sta-prest trousers, Lee or Levis jeans and loafers or longwing brogues.

It was typical of these movements to appropriate pieces from different cultures to put together what they believed to be an harmonious whole.

Later, it was a core component of the 1980’s Casuals look, which is perhaps a more obscure movement - very little having been written about it. Casuals turned (mostly Continental) sportswear into something of an art form.

The polo came back again with 'Britpop' in the 1990s as they re-appropriated many influences from the 1960’s Mods - parkas, Hush Puppies, etc.

It was always viewed here as a casual shirt and tended to mean a short-sleeved spring / summer cotton pique shirt with two or three buttons. Sometimes, as I say, the top button would be fastened - especially in later movements - and sometimes the top button only would be undone. It is a different animal to some of the shirts that appeared in this Challenge, worn with many buttons undone and trying to look like a normal shirt that would be worn under a suit or sports jacket, almost apologising for being a polo at all.

So my two penn'orth on why a casual look trumped many more formal looks - great though they were - in this FC.

 

[calypso]

new challenge will be up soon...

 

[Jdub16nn]

View attachment 1131377 View attachment 1131378 View attachment 1131379

Who makes that polo?

 

[Jdub16nn]

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Could you tell me who makes that polo?

 

[afterthesuit]

Could you tell me who makes that polo?

@spiermackay

 

[Jdub16nn]

@spiermackay

Thanks!!

 

[tcbinnc]

I'm very conservative when it comes to these things...

View attachment 1129860

That is working.

 

[An Acute Style]

@calypso and @chocsosa you have one week to get this show on the road before I make a new challenge. It’s been over a month.

 

[sugarbutch]

There ya go. Show that strong pimp hand!

 

[tcbinnc]

Congrats, gentlemen. Also says something about the four-button model of polo.

 

[Thrift Vader]

@calypso and @chocsosa you have one week to get this show on the road before I make a new challenge. It’s been over a month.

please make it interesting. and a challenge.


also, 3 votes!! Woot! mi mi mi mieeeewwwwwwwww!!!!!

 

[chocsosa]

I'll talk with @calypso and we'll get a challenge out early in the week. Any suggestions?