For almost three years, every Sunday lunchtime you had an appointment with the editorial team's Nuggets. Up until the hundredth ones published by David at the beginning of February.
From now on, we will publish a new, indefinable format called "Carte Blanche" because we don't know what we're going to give you to read. It could be a particular point of view, a favorite piece, a rant against a trend, a surprising inspiration, a crazy idea...
The idea is to allow each editor in the editorial department to write on a subject that is close to their heart, with relatively few constraints. Even to the point of moving away from clothing. Anything is possible.
A form of carte blanche that aims to surprise you, to be a bit of a Sunday surprise. Feel free to share your comments and remarks. Enjoy reading. Christophe.
Paris, back to school 2017. Two months later, my polka dot tie will be put away in the closet. It's a classic Monoprix tie, although a bit ugly, let's be honest. I only wear it for work, and even then only in the evening, for late-night events.
At this time that seems strangely distant, without masks or Covid, I am as if cut in two. I have a work wardrobe close to the uniform and an ultra minimalist personal wardrobe: two pairs of shoes, two or three pairs of pants, a handful of tops, and one or two jackets .
Nothing that keeps me particularly warm by the way, as if the cold only starts to make itself felt with age. The two locker rooms have little in common, and to tell you the truth, it is even possible that it leads me to be not one but two people at the same time.
In a way, what will happen in the coming months is an important step in my journey towards style, but at this point I don't really know anything about it yet.
Besides this ugly tie, I also have a few other nicer models, more or less vintage, nothing extraordinary except that they are ties detached from any professional contingency. It's my little pleasure, you see? I think I get that from a few music groups that I loved back then.
In my circle, no one really dressed formally. I don't have any memories of wearing a tie when I was younger, except for what I could see on television - it was the dress of adults or serious people for the child that I was.
This is probably why I don't particularly associate the tie with the suit. Rather with a worn velvet blazer, vintage leather jackets or even with a midnight blue denim jacket. , in the spirit of what I have described in others here .
In the meantime, to return to the fall of 2017, the tie disappeared quite abruptly from my daily life, like almost everything else that year. It was the zero point of my new life.
Days, weeks and months pass. I no longer walk, I no longer really have the opportunity to get dressed, but I do begin a great series of beneficial actions. : I watch a thousand films, I re-read Proust's "Recherche" and I also start sorting out my wardrobe . I resell or recycle. All my ties go through it, starting with the polka-dot work tie, which I obviously give a special and almost mystical treatment to.
In my locker room, there is not much left once the sorting test has passed, in any case no more distinction between the uniform and the fun outfits. But the two people who dressed in it have not yet completely reconciled. Patience.
One day, without really knowing why, I started to dream in front of the collections of Drake's or Shibumi Firenze . I saw it as a kind of call to become a collector: it probably has to do with the material, the textures or the colors, in any case it makes me want brushes and tubes of paint.
A few months later, here I am in possession of several ties from both brands - but not only. These are sales or second-hand purchases, motivated solely by the beauty of the garment. There are patterns, stripes, classic colors and a little unexpected: blue, burgundy, gray, and also green . The one I prefer is a slightly old club tie from Drake's.
At this point, I'm even thinking about getting into suits. In any case, I'm convinced that I'm really going to put these ties in my future outfits through soft tailoring , why not, or more simply through my little tips gleaned here and there on the covers of my favorite records.
You've probably already experienced this phenomenon: it's the story of a piece that we love to look at but which remains for x reasons at the back of the closet. We all have at least one. For my part, I have several.
And so it goes: once again, days, weeks and months pass. The ties are there, neatly arranged, as if waiting for a sign from heaven. In the meantime, I made my debut at BonneGueule in November 2019, conversations in the editorial department are flying happily and we broach the subject from time to time, for example through the V-neck sweater . Not yet the expected lightning bolt, but the idea is gradually starting to make its way back. So, what finally happened?
From 2017 to 2021, I could say that I took the time to piece together my puzzle, to unify my wardrobe while diversifying it. I reinvented myself partly thanks to Proust , to movies and to everything I've learned to love about clothing again.
Perhaps that's where my desire to gradually get out of my comfort zone comes from, to seek out color elsewhere than in painting . To try, in short, probably more than I've ever done before. That's how, eventually, by dint of apprehending new pieces or new styles, we end up finding ourselves.
After all, doesn't research also lead to questioning one's memory? Well yes: I remember the ugly polka-dot tie very well, and all the others too. They are part of my history with clothing. And that is precisely why I recently started wearing them again, without a suit or a trumpet, but with more beautiful materials: to combine novelty with my past style.
What is fundamentally magical about all this is that the reconciliation announced in the title of this column does not stop at the tie . Through clothing, one can also reconcile with oneself.
So of course, to return to wearing a tie, you need a little more than perspective, films, books or psychology: you have to find your balance, put together outfits that make you feel good and acquire a few new pieces that will, who knows, call for the return of the tie. It won't necessarily be the two or three piece suit .
For me, for example: an olive velvet blazer from Officine Générale , a Schott Perfecto, a military-inspired khaki jacket from Engineered Garments and two or three Oxford or flannel shirts found at Drake's or Editions Mr.
As in the past, the tie has returned to my home through a door other than the formal universe. Now that the circle is complete, rest assured: if ever this question of the tie bothers you, you too will find the key.
