Close-up on Humphrey Bogart.
Her hairstyle is impeccable. Pulled back with a comb. There is a faint glint of nostalgia in his eye. Lips pout. What's the matter Humphrey, are you sad tonight?
He is sitting at a table. In front of him, we see a bottle. It is soon empty. It's not mineral water. Humphrey drank. And not just a little. And he smoked. A package perhaps, judging from the thick cloud that envelops it.
The camera moves away and then we see how he is dressed : but it's a... yes it's a t-shirt that he's wearing. It is V-neck and hugs her younger chest a little too much. It's wrinkled too. We soon see his hairy arms. Very, very hairy. Really very hairy. Here are his pants. It looks like a light gray. Elasticated waist in chunky fleece. It's a... a jog, there's no other way to say it.
The camera moves back again and the setting is splendid. It’s a cabaret of velvet and gold. And on the polished floor, Humphrey has holey socks.
CUT!
Yes I know. It's unthinkable. The simple name Humphrey Bogart is an invocation of elegance. We say Humphrey and the mind sees a suit or a tuxedo, the white double-breasted jacket with a shawl collar, the bow tie that hangs just enough to make you believe that nothing is calculated.
(Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images)
And when his character is tortured, at least on screen, it's torture in its Sunday best. If it is nostalgic, it is a frisky nostalgia. And if he pouts, it's a wonderful pout.
Humphrey, in addition to his profession as a man, added that of an icon. And for the impressionable young person that I was, the costume he wore and especially the way he wore it was a trigger. I was on the edge of the precipice we call #menswear, I contemplated what was happening there without daring to join the party, I felt a little dizzy and Bogart in Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), it was the equivalent of a guy arriving at full speed jumping with both feet between my two shoulder blades.
Free fall. Free yes, but with the suit firmly in mind, firmly screwed into my impressionable noggin as one of the surest ways to achieve elegance.
And although I've come a long way since that fall, I tend to still think that. I wonder: what would be left of Edward Hopper's Night Owls without the brooding guys in suits next to the lady in red?
What would Julian Kaye have left without his Armani clothes in American Gigolo?
Copyright: Courtesy Everett Collection MMDAMGI EC001
Only the gloomy one would remain. The unbearable.
The costume keeps appearances. It does even more, it sublimates human destinies, it makes them bearable. And it is often the essence of art to make life a little more bearable.
I'm not saying that costume is art, I'm saying that it comes close in its effects when it's well made, when it's worn well, when it's well represented.
Because that’s the whole point: wearing it well.
And the reason why elegant contemporaries do not cite other contemporaries as a stylistic reference is that actors, musicians, artists today wear suits like a disguise. They dress up elegantly.
Look at me, I put on a suit.
Where for Bogart and others, wearing a suit was as natural as seeing, smelling, tasting or hearing.
Dressing up is a sport, it takes practice. Wearing a suit cannot be improvised.
We must find the causes which give the desirable effects. And you still need to know what is desirable! And how could our contemporary actors know this when the costume is no longer worn on a daily basis.
- Three million costumes sold in 2011 in France.
- 1.4 million between August 2018 and July 2019.
The reason for this fall is simple: the suit is no longer considered the regulatory uniform for representation and banking and finance professions.
For example, Goldman Sachs, the strictest investment bank when it comes to dress codes , announced in 2019 to its 36,000 employees that they could now dress less formally .
The tie party is over. Casual Friday is all week now. A new usage is defined, a new world clothing order, it is the majority who have decided. And too bad for those who felt good in their costumes.
Are we going to mourn him?
No way.
You thought that after my introduction which smacked of “it was better before”, I would have answered “yes” to this question.
I have three comments to make on this subject:
- It is absurd to ask your employees to come in a suit and tie to meet customers who barely make the effort to put on a shirt.
- Are we really going to mourn the end of the office suit if it means less filthy ties and saggy-shouldered jackets?
- The global pandemic of 2020 has definitively finished off the office suit.
Good riddance.
From now on, the costume is no longer the dress of power. It has even become the opposite. He clothes the one who has none, the one to whom the rules are imposed. The one who dictates them dresses in hoodies, jeans, New Balance and sometimes he wears flip-flops.
Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and the new figures of power do not wear suits.
(Photo by Kim Kulish/Corbis via Getty Images)
They find it frivolous to wonder which tie goes best with their shirt. It's one decision too many on a day that already includes too many. They want to focus on business because that is where real salvation lies for them.
Of course, it's also a way of freeing yourself from the old world , of saying: we're not going to play by your rules. And when Mark Zuckerberg appears in a suit at a hearing before the American Senate on Facebook's use of data, does that mean precisely the opposite? That this time he wants to play according to the rules of the judicial system?
Mark Zuckerberg, before a committee of US senators, April 10, 2018. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Although I do not share this view that thinking about the best way to present yourself to the world is a waste of time, I cannot help but think that abandoning this dress code from another time is progress .
I tell myself that it is difficult to make real progress between gender equality while maintaining these standards from the 1950s.
I tell myself that it may be more difficult to move forward on issues of gender and sexual identity if we do not relax the rules regarding personal expression through clothing.
Clothing is not frivolous, it often says a lot about the way we think. It can say a lot about our ideals too. The world as we would like to see it. And without it being political of course. I wear ecru socks with moccasins because it's forbidden by right-thinking people and I would like more people to free themselves from the clothing limits imposed on them.
So, what about those who liked to come to work in suits? Ah, the Goldman Sachs memo doesn't say that.
On the other hand, what we can imagine is that a guy in a suit in an open space full of people in chinos and Stan Smith will cause a lot of talk. And we're going to make him take off his costume. Slowly. By the simple weight of looks and remarks under the cover of humor. Come join us in mediocrity.
I don't mean to say that wearing chinos is mediocre compared to wearing a suit. It would be as absurd as saying that a snail is better than a slug. While everyone knows that an albatross is much better. Finally it shows, it’s obvious.
What I mean is that the norm will become one of minimal clothing effort. Because too many people give disproportionate importance to comfort. Even though a well-tailored suit, leaving enough room to move, can be as comfortable as jogging pants.
In short, we are leveling down. We hinder the creativity of those who expressed themselves through costume or who found a certain serenity in it.
However, it is a lesser evil. Because if the office suit is dead, the suit itself is not!
There's no mourning to do! Let us stop wanting to bury him! Besides, the proof: what would you wear if you had to attend his funeral?
Because yes, we spontaneously think of all those occasions that require wearing one: funerals, weddings, solemn events. They require it because at this moment the costume is a way of showing our desire to be part of the present event. Out of pure respect for the ceremony and the people who organize it. There, in these moments, we need clothing that can say: “I understand you and I am here with you”.
It is the strength of the costume, through its form, to be able to be inclusive when it is worn occasionally.
But that's not even what makes me happy.
This is not to tell me that we will still be able to challenge our inner Humphrey Bogart by wearing our one and only suit once every four leap years for a wedding or whatever! No !
What pleases me is that now, as we no longer have to wear it, we can reconnect with the pleasure of wearing it. Apart from these events! We can reconnect with the real suit.
Not the power suit , not that of politicians, not that of businessmen , not of those who wear the suit like a weapon.
Isn't life an occasion big enough that we want to celebrate it every day?
Why not with a suit?
Nothing is stopping you now.
The suit is dead, so it's time to invent your own way to wear it.
What exactly is a costume? It’s a top and bottom that were made from the same fabric. Nothing more. Before, we said “complete”. Which was much more meaningful than saying “costume”, which is another word for “disguise”.
Wear one on the weekend with a t-shirt, a hoodie and running shoes.
Wear one all in denim, with a sailor top, like an old French painter in his studio in Montmartre.
Wear a black and white houndstooth patterned one with a merino wool polo underneath, like Gabin.
Wear it with workwear like in There Will Be Blood .
Wear it cool, in twill or corduroy, like in the Universal Works lookbooks.
Wear a patchwork one a la Hansen Garments .
Wear a very chic one with a western shirt!
Or do you play Atelier Saman Amel . The suit without the tie. Without the shirt even possibly. Soft, soft, soft. Softens the shoulders. Soften the lines. Soft the material.
The hardest part about dressing in a costume these days is that you're alone. Desperately alone in the crowd. But just because we're alone doesn't mean we're wrong.
Be your own icon. Become your own Gabin, your Noiret. Your Humphrey!
Don't carry the suit like a precious thing on your shoulders. Put your hands in your pockets like Prince Charles. The same one who loves his suits so much that he has them mended and wears them that way.
(Photo by Niall Carson/Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage)
Reinvent the costume in your own way. Become your own Hedi Slimane.
And when I cross paths with you, I will recognize you and you will recognize me. And at a glance we will tell ourselves that we are from the same family. From the family of those who understood that it is not because the costume is dead that it should not be resurrected.
To find out everything that Benoît likes about costumes, it's here .
