I’ve been thinking about trying to pick up an old loose linen Armani suit (I think I might be dreaming) for a while now… Seeing the pictures of Australia in the 80s in another thread and you can see how good the clothes were at that point so here is a dumping ground for the good stuff from the 80s…
I mean look at this… I think middle age people could well rock this look now… Maybe not the rug on the shoulder bit saying that… Hate to say it but its well balearic…
I’m pro rug in this case - if for no other reason than it gives immediate sanctuary to weary bones! You should talk to Manfredas about the suit. I saw him sporting a very dapper jacket that wasn’t a million miles off this in Edinburgh at a Dresden. Goes without saying that he smashed the look.
A rumour spread that Troop were funded by the KKK. Bit like JPS fags having asbestos in them. I imagine it was total nonsense but it did do some damage to the brand when we were little.
I feel like it’s back in style. There’s a place in Highland Park that has plenty of them. Trying to remember the name but it wasn’t far from where Eothen runs his store from. Hopefully stone wash jeans aren’t next.
I used to wear it with a wooden daisy pendant that I got near carnaby street. New bond street? Can’t remember but it was a cool wee shop - maybe called Road. But that could have been a fanzine. Memory fading!
In the 80s my Italian Girlfriend used to get me those 800 page Uomo Vogues in March and September that were full of that Italian take on English Tailoring and floppy hair or loose linens and I’d do what i could to live up to it shopping in the sales at Quincy and Woodhouse. So when the Comme Des Garcons Homme first promos came out in AW86 they blew me away. Still do.
Always loved this look, and my dad had a dark, mint green suit and pastel mustard shirt that he kept after doing a charity runway event. I was always jealous of it - reminded me of the Warren Beatty Dick Tracy movie.
Totally agree with the ethic of this thread. It seems like the 80’s revival in fashion and music, in Australia at least was all just ironic and very white US suburban based. The 80’s, especially in Europe had some absolutely fantastic clothing design that would look great.
Grew up in a small Cornish town, and can remember pre Christmas around 1986 when there was one teenager who was back from a London uni for the break, and was wearing pretty much this outfit in a local pub. Looked like someone from a different planet.
Eugene Rabkin writes some cool stuff about how how low high fashion has gotten, and he uses a few examples from the 80’s and early 90’s to illustrate how there were truly advanced designers in those days. Yamamoto, Miyake, Chalayan etc
The ultra baggy, low gorge Armani suits look good in their pictures, but like a lot of this advanced stuff, it was hard to wear well. Not that that’s a problem, it meant people had to make the effort, and really try to look good, because one misstep on detail made you aim for Richard Gere in American Gigolo but land on cuban henchman #2 in a mid tier Miami Vice episode. Feels like efforts were rewarded back then.
Alternatively today it’s just a shit load of logos on crappily made ultra expensive “ironic but not really” clothes from some LVMH subsidiary making it much harder to tell who can pull stuff off. If anyone can, really.
So I’m all for proper tailoring making a comeback.
There’s a reason Bernard Arnault is one of the richest people in the world, mark-ups must be ridiculous, gone are the days of high prices meaning great quality.
Used to do a lot of work for Burberry, visiting their factory in Hackney was a revelation, you could see why things cost a lot. Properly made schmutter. Alas not the case anymore…
The curse of ‘Streetwear’. i guess its easier to knock out a tshirt with a logo and then do some runway pieces that are more interesting to get the 'gram and the attention but will never go on sale. But i can understand the appeal - easy to make, easy to sell, easy to wear.
