Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Kevin Smith of textiles

"Yet another D.C. resident, 'Phoebe,' told me about a guy who picked her up at The Fox & Hounds who was really into her gray corduroy pants. I don’t know any of the details of this, including who the guy was and what he said to her, because I wrote them down on a scrap of old newspaper, then immediately lost it. Apparently, he made some remark to the effect that he loved corduroy because it reminded him of his youth in the 70’s, a time when he was first starting to notice girls and get in touch with his sexuality. It’s unclear whether this person is just an outlier, or if he’s representative of a whole generation of corduroy-loving males. In case anyone’s interested, the guy was about 35 when Phoebe encountered him 5 years ago, so this (possibly fictive) cohort would now be around 40. However, I think you could adapt the same idea to any age group — just figure out what styles were ubiquitious when your target was 12, then wear some version of that. (Although even this principle may not be correct; there seems to be something about corduroy that makes it so people who like it are just fanatical about it. It’s like the Kevin Smith of textiles.)"
(Aug. 28, 2008, The Clothes That Got Me Laid)

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