Dear friends, dear readers,
I am not the first one to notice, nor the first to say what is becoming obvious : the pace of interest in classic menswear is on the rise.
When referring to menswear, I am not talking about others wanting to embrace the strict bespoke culture of handmade clothing (although this could also be happening). What I feel is that there is an uptick of interest in classic style in a way that is more encompassing than in prior decades.
When I cross the streets of Paris and look at people’s clothing and read advertising posters, I see a newfound interest in classic clothes — as if it had become acceptable again to see suits and ties blooming. And nowadays, pesky sartorial antagonists are getting used to seeing suited-people, even if these same naysayers still don’t identify with the “sartorial way of life”.
I believe that we are living in an era where younger people want to discover the codes of sartorial philosophy, an era where the founding principles of elegance are becoming more and more popular. I keep meeting new people who don’t wear a suit but who do know what “sartorial” means !
We could lose ourselves in conjecture and try to explain the phenomenon of a sartorial boon on the horizon, but I think it may be too early for any of us to nail down a proper explanation as to why classic style is being embraced. The cyclic movement of fashion is without a doubt one of the deep reasons for this “revival” — and of course, blogs, Instagram accounts, books.
I’m not sure how long this classic style mutation in our society will last. However, I can say in my case, that I don’t dress for posterity, but rather choose to wear nice clothes for the people who live and work around me. Our mission is here and now. We are the ones who represent the sartorial movement, which is beginning to anchor itself in the mindset of the population (many of whom had never considered him or herself as a sartorial-minded candidate). We should represent this escalation of sartorial interest with pride — and then balance that pride with respect and restraint. Yes, we can perpetuate the cause of dressing well; but in my opinion, we should do so without resorting to caricatures or excesses.
And to all those people who may ask us with a touch of sarcasm “And for what?”, “Why should I make efforts to become an elegant person?”, “What would I get back?”, I will always answer the same thing : “What could you lose?”, “Why not take the risk?”.
May the near future make room for more beauty and more elegance, and may we prove to be more demanding of ourselves and more respectful to others as the sartorial movement of the mid-2020s unfolds.
See you soon,
Léon Luchart
Translation by Sonya Glyn and Agathe Vieillard-Baron
