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Pretending to be a Cowboy with Philip Gregard
71 Plays2 years ago
On our latest episode, the Swedish Sensation, @philipgregard, talks European tailoring styles, dressing for the occasion, and the worst clothing experience of his life. Link in bio.
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Transcript
Introduction of Philip Gregard
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, I'm Connor Fowler. And I'm Matt Smith. Happy New Year and welcome to Apocalypse Duds. Today is an auspicious one indeed. We welcome Honorary Texan, one of the best dressed people I follow on the internet, and Apocalypse Duds first international guest, intercontinental guest, Philip Gregard. Hey, how are you guys doing? A lot of pressure.
00:00:26
Speaker
Yeah. The proof is in the pudding. You already have the fucking fits on your Instagram. Yeah. That is true. That is true. You know what I mean? People can investigate, and they know that I'm telling the truth. Yeah. Well, how's everything going today, Phil? I'm doing very well. Going very, very well. Just cracked up a cold one, so I'm ready. Ooh. All right. I've got my Miller high life in waiting also.
00:00:55
Speaker
So I'm there with you. Connor is not, but. I'm drinking tea. You got your tea. I'm drinking soda water. I've got two different cannabis delivery devices. So I'm good to go. We're all hydrating in our own way. This is not the PG-13 rated day show, right? No, no, definitely not. Definitely not. It's explicit. Right. Oh yeah, good, good. Yeah, you know, there might be a parental warning somewhere in the future. I'm not quite sure.
00:01:25
Speaker
I would hope so. But you know, yeah, we're, we're full grown adults over here. Yeah, good.
Life in Sweden: Location and Lifestyle
00:01:36
Speaker
Good. So Philip, where, where are you from? And where do you live now? So I'm from a town south of Cleveland called Helsingborg. And I'm currently living just right outside in a little, little village called Reedabic.
00:01:54
Speaker
just by the ocean. It's very like, well, very down to earth. A lot of people commute from here to larger cities such as Lund and Malmö. Okay. Because most of the work in central Sweden is located to these two bigger cities. So we have our own train station and freeway just, you know, right outside the door pretty much so
00:02:21
Speaker
A lot of people who work in these bigger cities live here. So it's a very tight-knit community, school and, you know, local restaurants and stuff. So it's very calm, very nice place to live, actually.
00:02:41
Speaker
That's awesome. I really have zero clue, like the geographical size of Sweden. So like, like I'm up in Georgia and Georgia is like, you know, six. And not that Georgia. Yeah. Yeah. Georgia, the US state Georgia. And so like, like I'm currently an hour and a half to two hours, depending like,
00:03:06
Speaker
75 to 100 miles sorry 75 to 90 or so miles from like Atlanta a major city and so like I couldn't imagine commuting this far but Georgia's also massive as our most or a lot of U.S. states but like how like just as a general question like how big is Sweden as a country if you're
00:03:32
Speaker
you and other people are living in these smaller places, but commuting to the bigger cities. Typically, if you live in a smaller village in Sweden, you typically have somewhere between 30 to 60 minutes commute way fewer. Okay, so not bad at all. No, not at all. Because it is small, right? I mean, Europe, Western Europe is small compared to America, at least
00:04:02
Speaker
portion, right? So I guess it's a little bit like a suburb or like an ex-verb. Exactly. Sort of like living on Staten Island. Yeah, pretty much. Okay, okay. How big is Staten Island? I mean, how big is the population of Staten Island? I mean, I would say
00:04:25
Speaker
like decently sized just because there's so many people that live in New York City or the boroughs themselves. It's a 500,000 people, approximately 500,000 people, which is like about the same population as Baltimore has now, which is 600,000 people. And Baltimore used to be a big, big city, like one of the biggest cities in America. And now it's like very
Personal Style: Age and Perception
00:04:53
Speaker
depopulated
00:04:59
Speaker
Yeah, so, so, so issue, you know, talk about scale, you know, Sweden have about 10 million citizens total. Okay, largest city is Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, which has about 1 million ish, approximately, and then you have like the two other major cities in Sweden, which is Gothenburg, which is on the, on the
00:05:25
Speaker
central west side of Sweden, and then you have Malmö, which is in the south of Sweden. Malmö has about somewhere between like 300 to 500,000 people living in Malmö. Where I'm from, Hasleyborg, which is one of the 10 most biggest cities in Sweden, we have about, what, 100,000 to 100,000 living here. Okay. So it's, you know,
00:05:55
Speaker
It's not that big in comparison to where you guys are from, but percentage-wise, it's a large Swedish city. Totally, totally. Well, and of course it's all relative and it's not all about size, right? Like it's very, yeah, what I think about some of the time is just like the newness of America, like the relative newness of America compared to almost everywhere else in the world.
00:06:25
Speaker
And it's not new, right? Like people were living here, but I think it's understood. So I was going to ask you how old you are, which would give us a little bit of context to your dressing and to your relationship with the scene, like with the clothing scene. Yeah, sure. I'm 36 years young. Yeah. So we're all about the same age. And I usually joke with Mike.
00:06:55
Speaker
my little friends that I'm starting to get closer to my middle age. People always told me I act a bit older than I perhaps am. So I mean, I'm just glad I'm becoming a bit older.
00:07:13
Speaker
you're getting into your, you're getting into your real self. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I'm really looking forward to the lecture and to turn this 60 or 70 years old when I finally get to get to have my physical life being the same as my mental age. Right. Yeah. I have, uh, I turned 39 in November and like,
00:07:39
Speaker
I am what I thought was old when I was 16. And that's kind of hilarious in a way. But I'm also like, oh, like, this shit doesn't actually mean anything. I'm just, yeah, like you, I was always told that I acted older than I was. And it's like, oh, okay, cool. I'm catching up at this point. But isn't it funny, I've always experienced this. It seems that our parents and our grandparents, when they were at the same age as us,
00:08:09
Speaker
They seem a lot older. Oh, totally. Oh my god. Totally. Yeah. They owned houses and stuff, and they had kids. And I mean, you have kids, so whatever. But even still, at just a different, times were different back then. Yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah. They looked older, too. They started to bold at age 25, and they looked a lot older than we do.
00:08:38
Speaker
Also, yeah. Lucky us though, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So to get into the clothing, I'm sorry, to get into the clothing portion of the show, what we were first going to have you do is run down your outfit for us. You can go from the top to the bottom or reverse or however, whatever order you feel like. And as much detail as you feel like surrendering.
00:09:09
Speaker
For sure. Let's go bottom to top. I'm wearing a pair of hushcuppies. Navy over-the-cuff socks. I have a reproduction of a pair of World War II denim jeans from Bronson. And so they're high-waisted and
00:09:38
Speaker
in a straight cut. I have a Ranger belt on. Hell yeah. From a local, I believe it's from my local tailor actually. Also I have my Bryce Linz Western Denon shirt on and yeah, it's pretty pretty casual. That's what I mostly typical wear when I'm just at home at my leisure.
00:10:07
Speaker
Yeah. That sounds like a very comfortable just lounging around talking to two idiots on the internet outfit. Yeah. Talking to two strangers late at night. Yeah.
Fashion Journey and Cultural Influence
00:10:23
Speaker
So Philip, how did you, uh, how did you get into clothing just in general and, and what kind of evolution have you had? What one of the first,
00:10:35
Speaker
clothing memories I had, or I really say that I have is I remember, I went to when I went to high school, we were supposed to go a couple of days to Stockholm to to visit a couple of companies and have a few lectures and stuff. And I remember that I went to a
00:11:02
Speaker
local shop and bought myself a gray, I think it was dark gray suit. And I bought it and I had them tailor it. And I was the only one wearing his suit during those couple of days that we were in Stockholm. And I've always been very interested in tailoring specifically, but I've always felt,
00:11:33
Speaker
I don't know how much you know about Sweden in general, but Sweden is a very casual country. Interesting. I wouldn't have thought that. Yeah, same here. I would have thought like a little more, a little more elegant, I guess. Somewhat casual. Anyway, go on. We have this later in the questions. I have, sure, sure. And so I was very ridiculed because of this, and this put a, you know,
00:12:03
Speaker
pretty large stamp on my heart in the sense that I didn't really dare to dress like this for a couple of years. But I've always, always been interested in dressing up. And I've always been interested in dressing up if the occasion demanded to. Normally, you don't typically do that in Sweden. It's very seldom that you typically dress up. You more normally try to
00:12:33
Speaker
stretching dress down or dress like everybody else. And that's, I believe that's when my fascination of clothing in general and menswear started was around there in high school age. Okay. So like 16, 17 ish? Yeah, exactly. Try to get my hands on, you know, fashion magazines.
00:13:00
Speaker
talked about male fashion. I tried to order stuff from the internet, like books, general books, and dandy books. But of course. Yeah, exactly. I tried to read as much as I possibly could because it wasn't easily accessible to me, coming from a pretty small town, in the sense of, you know,
00:13:28
Speaker
as Europe as a whole. I mean, Helsingborg was, you know, 200,000 people. I mean, that's not a lot. So we didn't typically have a lot of real fashion where I lived. It was typical, you know, H&M and, you know, the usual suspects, so to speak. Right, right. And yeah, I had to venture outside of my own comfort to find this information and find this inspiration.
00:13:57
Speaker
You really had to seek it out. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You had to because it wasn't easy and accessible. That was... Go on. Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. I was pretty much finished because the things I was interested in, you couldn't find that at 18. It was all...
00:14:18
Speaker
short gaffets and very tight fitting. And that was a lot heavier when I was younger. So typically that didn't fit me too well. So I always wanted to have a bit more volume in my clothing because I felt more secure when I had a little bit more volume. Oh, totally. It's also interesting because in my experience like H&M
00:14:46
Speaker
that I guess the first H&M that I ever saw in the States was like 07 or something. I think they'd been in like New York for a while, but they didn't really like hit the States as a massive thing until like, I was well past where you were at 16, 17, you know? I was gonna say, I think it's interesting. I'm pretty sure this is the only show that like come up
00:15:16
Speaker
at all and I think that it is really relevant and I think that like if you are a person who wears tailored clothing like you are going to stand out and a lot of people assume and maybe correctly assume that you want to stand out and so you're sort of doing it as an attention-seeking behavior
00:15:37
Speaker
and I think that it's not really well I mean other than like making fun of people wearing fedoras you know the like madam sort of thing like neckbeard kind of redditor it's not really so uh black and white as that like people have definitely given me shit probably I dress of course I don't dress extremely well but like you know I think people are like
00:16:03
Speaker
they're weirdly intimidated they like want you to feel shitty about yourself so odd definitely uncharted territory totally agree totally agree and and and just for the sake of the argument oftentimes when i'm out and about and aware of the ray i mean a lot of people come come up to me and say what's your to me like like it's it's
00:16:30
Speaker
There's always something, and you also have to know the new ones in Sweden is that we have, it's a social law called the law of jaunt. And the law of jaunt means that you shouldn't, you know, you shouldn't stand out. You should be just like everybody else. How is that spelled? J-A-M-T-E. Okay, interesting.
00:16:59
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah, go on. Yeah.
00:17:02
Speaker
For sure. And so in Sweden, typically, you shouldn't stand out. And that also comes to clothing. You shouldn't look like you're standing out. You shouldn't speak like you shouldn't speak about how much you earn. You shouldn't speak about how big your house is. You shouldn't speak about what type of cars you own. And in Sweden, typically, we don't have big houses. We don't have these Hollywood mansions like you have in the US.
00:17:32
Speaker
Typically, very, very modest here. And that's because, you know, you shouldn't stand out. And I believe the Japanese people also has a saying that a nail that stands out should be hammered down, I think. Yeah. Right. To every nail, every problem to a hammer is a nail.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah, something like something like that. So I was going to ask how you plan your outfits. It's something that it's not like it consumes me. But I mean, I do have like a process, even if it doesn't look like it. I mean, I love
00:18:29
Speaker
Planning what to wear. I oftentimes I might, you know, I might plan something like months ahead, but what, what I'm a big fan of is pressing for the occasion. So if I'm, you know, if I'm coming to work, I won't choose the full denim outfit. I won't choose, you know, I typically wear 100 a few guys at the office that, you know, wears tailoring. I like to wear tailoring.
00:18:53
Speaker
And oftentimes, when I can wear tailoring, it's when I go to the office. And typically, the office days, I tend to, you know, wear tailoring. And now the last few years, especially now after the pandemic, I've been, you know, been able to actually dress, you know, dress the tailing down, like having Western shirts instead of like a button-down and ties, for example.
00:19:21
Speaker
Um, so, I mean, most of the times he's dressing for the occasion, you know, I'll wear, you know, so soon when I'm out playing with the kids, I'll probably wear, you know, like were able to, uh, she knows what, you know, something that is, you know, easily, uh, can be easily mended and, and, and clean, you know. Um, so I'm very much for, for, uh, dressing for the occasion. Uh, but.
00:19:50
Speaker
You know, the thing about tailoring is that, well, a navy suit is essentially a navy suit. But the thing with us that kind of, you know, have more knowledge about tailoring, we can find nuances in how to portray a navy suit. Like we, you know, we talk about the broadness of the lapels and we talk about, you know,
00:20:21
Speaker
how is the gorge formed and how how long is the jacket and stuff like that you know if you tell a regular normie to look at two navy suits and they probably can figure out a couple of details that might you know that might be different between these two outfits but essentially i like to dress for myself and i like to dress for the occasion
00:20:47
Speaker
Yeah, we've kind of noticed, and one reason we wanted to have you on the show was because you do have, like, what seems like a very diverse interest in clothing. Like, I don't, you know, you saw a tailoring with a Western shirt, or like the picture we posted on Instagram yesterday, like that one was really dope just because it's like, it's tailored, but it's not stuffy.
00:21:17
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. The stuff I like to have longevity with my clothes. Not essentially like I kind of hate the notion that people say, well, we should you should buy, you know, one suit and wear for the rest of your life. No, that's not me. I like stuff. I like stuff that that that becomes better with wear. Totally, totally. A heavy denim shirt. Like it's it's talking
00:21:50
Speaker
I mean, it's the worst experience in your life. I mean, you have to work hard for it. But also a couple of months, it gets soft and kind of mends to your body. And you get these rivets and you get these, you know, it just ages beautifully.
00:22:08
Speaker
I like to wear stuff until it, you know, it barely holds on. And my wife tells me like, you just have to throw that out. I kind of like that, you know? And you know it's good. Yeah, that's your most comfortable shit because you've worn it into the ground. I hate baby stuff. I think when people put an effort into manufacturing, you know, high quality clothes, you should wear it.
00:22:39
Speaker
You guys should wear it as you live. I mean, you should just go all the way.
Clothing Philosophy and Maintenance
00:22:46
Speaker
I mean, I don't care if I get ketchup stains on my tailored jackets, you know, it's wave-like. Yeah, yeah, it's exactly, that's exactly it, man. Like, I have always had the mentality, like, since I started caring about nice clothes, that clothes are meant to be worn.
00:23:08
Speaker
And if it can't hold up to just like everyday life, like if I have to take special care of something, I'm not into it. Cause that's not life. Maybe it's just special then. I baby my shit to it, not to an obnoxious degree, but I do baby my shit. Cause I don't want to have to buy another one.
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah, another thing I dig about your vibe, Phillip, is that your jackets have wrinkles where they should, at where your arm bends or whatever. On the thighs, yeah. It's a mark of sitting, right?
00:23:48
Speaker
Right, yeah. Yeah, it just means you wear your shit. I think that that's like, we're not in the great depression anymore. We don't have to have one thing that nice, maybe a tuxedo, maybe, but everything else, like even like I wear my Taylor clothing on the rare occasion these days that I wear Taylor clothing.
00:24:17
Speaker
I wear it like a work jacket. Like I stuff stuff in my pockets. Like I've always got, you know, I've got shit going on. I wear a wallet. Like I'm not, I'm not trying to be pressed and pristine all the time because that's like an illusion. Yeah. I remember when I got my first me to measure suit and I went and got it picked it up and
00:24:43
Speaker
The detailer told me that, oh, just let the thread that holds the pockets together. He told me, just leave it be because you're not supposed to use the pockets. What? Otherwise the pockets will sag and it will look atrocious. And now I'm like.
00:25:02
Speaker
I like, I love those details. I love when people have these, you know, baggy pockets because they use it. I mean, it's, it's, it's beautiful. It's very personal. And I mean, it just, I love it. I love to see, well, one shit. Same here. Same here. I think it was, or is Luciano Barpera?
00:25:26
Speaker
that's gone on record saying that when you get a nice suit made for yourself, you should go home and wear it to bed. And I've never gone that far, but I've not gone totally off the mark with that before. Sometimes you want things to be comfortable. And if you're trying to like,
00:25:51
Speaker
be super staunch and, you know, not use the pockets. Like, what are they there for? If the pockets shouldn't be used, don't put them on it. I thought that the idea of a decorative pocket was always very funny. Yeah, yeah. I guess that there's one, of course, it's not decorative, right? There isn't there. Okay, so there are decorative pockets, but the pockets that we're talking about are actually pockets, but they are sewn shut. Yeah, they're just based to chill. So that's so funny.
00:26:20
Speaker
Yeah. And you know, personally, I just hate to have like stuff in my, you know, charlotte pockets or pants pockets. So usually, you know, because it bucks up the wine. Yeah. And you can't sit down. And I mean, I mean, jeans nowadays is not constructed to have huge as phones that we have now. Right. Right. So I mean, it's just uncomfortable.
00:26:42
Speaker
And, um, and it's perfect to have like a teal jacket. You just put your shit in there. Totally. It's perfect. Yeah. I worked with a dude once that said a navy blazer was like a dude's purse. And I was like, that's like, I don't want to ginger shit, but that kind of makes sense. Like I can, I can throw everything in the pockets of my jacket and not worry about it. And, and yeah. Yeah.
00:27:08
Speaker
So, you know, that's why I like, you know, I like Queen, I like, you know, I like, I like Klaus with a bit of umph to it. Hardier. Yeah, it's actually, it would be better with age. Unlike these, you know, cashmere blends and these high-fledged counts and stuff like that. I want, you know, rugged stuff to get better with age.
00:27:32
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to like sit down in my car and like destroy this, destroy the thing, you know? I mean, I do like linen, but I probably would take off the linen jacket before sitting down. I don't want it to be that wrinkled. Oh yeah. I don't care about that. I just fucking wear it, you know? Good call. No, no, no. So you have a million hats.
00:28:00
Speaker
Where do you keep them all? How do you store them? Do you care for them in some way? I am the worst when it comes to that. I guess this is a bad question to follow the other question.
00:28:16
Speaker
Yeah, Philip, you and I are on team Wear It To Death. Connor is on team Baby It right now. So that's the dichotomy we've got going in. I mean, I have these, you know, these circle or bags, or, you know, where you're supposed to have your hat upside down. And typically I try to have them. I probably have my hats in them.
00:28:41
Speaker
those characters for about 50 to 60 percent of the time but mostly they're just you know on my desk or hanging somewhere the kids is playing with it I mean my absolute favorite hat is my Stetson open road that's the one I use absolutely the most and it's really askew and it's like it's dirty and you know and you know dirty fingers for my for my kids you know and I mean it's
00:29:10
Speaker
But I love it. I mean, it's, it's well worn in now. And then, you know, some, some, you know, when it comes to to, because this was probably my most expensive hat person's ever. And in the beginning, I kind of David it, even though I don't like it, because I mean, I have huge respect for stuff that cuts money, because I mean, it takes a while for me to, to, to, to
00:29:40
Speaker
actually earn that money and, you know, to actually be able to spend it. Because, you know, I have a family, so I can't, you know, do whatever I want with my money. I have a family to take care of. And, you know, in the beginning, I was very, you know, very cautious with it. And I remember my son wanted to play with it, and I was feeling a little bit anxious. But then I asked what
00:30:09
Speaker
Why the hell not? Why shouldn't he run around and pretend that he's a cowboy? I do it every day. I pretend I'm a cowboy. So here you go. Have fun. I mean, he ripped out the lining, but I mean, it was an easy fix. I mean, I'm decently capable of handling it right in the needle. So I took care of it. It was all good. And it becomes very personal too.
00:30:40
Speaker
I hate perfect stuff. So you can sew? Yeah, yeah. I was very good when I was younger. Typically, when you go to school in Sweden, you either have to choose between sewing or doing something with wood.
00:31:02
Speaker
And I've always been very interesting in sewing. So I do that for many, many years. So I'm pretty capable with needle and thread and even a sewing machine. So yeah. Oh, hell yeah. I do a lot of stuff by myself. Do you do your own alterations in things mostly or? Minor alterations. OK, of course. Yeah, I'm not expecting you to reconstruct a shoulder or anything. Yeah, no, no, no. No, that's awesome, man.
00:31:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We're pretty cool actually. And some, you know, minor alterations are pretty simple. I mean, it's, you know, you're just a YouTube, a YouTube digital way to, to know how to do it. Right. Yeah. Except for me that my, for whatever reason, sewing in my brain do not compute at all. So like even the needle and thread, I can, like, I can barely do the,
00:31:57
Speaker
anything with it, but I respect people so much that can because I cannot. Where did the, where did the honorary Texan thing come from? We noticed that on your, on your Instagram profile. Oh yeah, yeah. I'm in this, I don't know if you know, you probably know who Ethan Newton is.
00:32:22
Speaker
Yeah, he has his own discourse. So if you're a patron to him, you're able to spend time in his discord. So a lot of people there discussing clothes and tailoring and everything in between.
00:32:42
Speaker
And I remember that one Texan actually told me that, whoa, you look like a Texan. Do you think I can call myself an honorary Texan? You're an honorary Texan. I'm like, cool. That's so good, man. So good. I mean, that's an open road. It's all so. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, especially the way that you tend to treat it, which is how it should be treated.
00:33:12
Speaker
And yeah, man, there's probably a lot of dudes that don't even know what a Discord is in Texas that would see you and be like, that's my dude right there. But I mean, I think one of our first encounters, I think that, did you actually ask me, where in Texas do you live? I said, no, no, I live in Texas. I live in Sweden.
00:33:42
Speaker
You're not the first one either. I mean, a lot of people. So where in Texas do you live? So I don't bet them. I don't live in Texas. I just like to dress like a cowboy. I think that yesterday I became a full-fledged member of the cowboy community because I finally got myself a pair of cowboy boots, actually. So nice. That was very exciting. Hell yeah. Yeah.
00:34:06
Speaker
It is extremely hard to find cowboy boots in Europe. I can imagine. In shipping at this point. Exactly. It's not a heritage. And I didn't want to spend an absurd amount of money to purchase a pair of made in US cowboy boots and have them shipped here for an enormous sum of money.
00:34:34
Speaker
by my time and waited and won an auction for a pair of vintage cowboy boots. So I'm happy. My wife is not so happy. My kids thought they were extremely cool. So they've already showed their friends that I have cowboy boots at sea.
00:34:57
Speaker
Oh, that's awesome. And there's an honorary badge that they think they're wearing. My dad is an honorary Texan. Totally, totally. Yeah, maybe this means that your kids are actually going to be into this kind of stuff too. And you could be like, oh, yeah, this is my pride. Yeah, my oldest son, you know, when he saw them for the first time, it was like, oh, these will go perfect with your hats.
00:35:25
Speaker
So, Philip, this is kind of a question that we dive into with every guest, but what are, if any, kind of outside influences that you've had on kind of your love of clothing and your just general style and mindset?
Inspirations and Style Influences
00:35:46
Speaker
I think a lot of
00:35:49
Speaker
I mean, when I was younger, I was very heavily into, like, cinema movies. Okay. And it often, you know, for most people, it starts off with, well, yeah, what's good today and what's good moves today. But when you watch everything that it relieves within, like, five years, you start to, you know, look back and look at all the movies. I mean, a lot of influence comes from, like,
00:36:16
Speaker
40s, 50s, and 60s, you know, paragraphs and, you know, the initial suspects. But it's not so much like, I mean, they dressed extremely well, but when you when you when you boil it down and look at what they were at that time, you know,
00:36:36
Speaker
They had stuff made for them. I mean, fashion wasn't like a thing in the 40s or 50s, to some amount, but mostly, you know, people went to the tailor and what the tailor did was they made stuff that was supposed to make you look better.
00:36:53
Speaker
like it didn't matter if you know the fashion didn't decide if it was supposed to be like a slim leg and you know trouser or a white leg trouser you know the the garments was made for those people and how they looked and how they you know um how they lived i mean that's always been my my inspiration like not so much looking at what what would i like to wear and so much what
00:37:22
Speaker
the industry says you should do it. I like to wear stuff that enhances what I like to showcase. For sure. I like a little bit more padding with my jackets. I don't like an actual shoulder, for example, because in essence, I think that tailoring should showcase the
00:37:47
Speaker
male body. So, you know, broad shoulders and, you know, a little bit of nipped weights, waist, perhaps, and, and straight leg trousers, you know, to, to, to look more maddie, look more masculine, you know, right. So, so yeah, movies, cinemas, and also, you know, you know, some, some authors also, you know, more of that mindset and how they thought and
00:38:16
Speaker
But the quality wise, well, it's a visual part of it. Yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, that's a beautiful answer, just because it comes from a spot of initial interest. And then it kind of explodes into influencing how you dress on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, sure.
00:38:43
Speaker
Were you active in like, quote, menswear in the 2010s? I think that's sort of where it started for a lot of people our age. Did you have a blog? Were you a Style Forum member? Very funny question. Actually, that's when my interest in clothing came back.
00:39:12
Speaker
and was allowed to, had to do with Tumblr. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, we posted, you know, we posted a lot of, mostly J Crew fits and fits of Nick Woosher and Tom Brown. And, you know, like, like, like, like your puppy, you know, that was my pretty face, you know. And, you know, that's how I, I found, you know, the Armory and then later on, you know, Easton, Houston, and yeah.
00:39:43
Speaker
Yeah, it seems like that was a particular time period for people of a certain age that like, you all of a sudden were like, oh, other people also like this shit. Like I'm not the only one that is into this stuff. I wasn't the only one that got made fun of for wearing a suit. Not like I've been made fun of for wearing a suit a lot of times. Right, right, exactly, exactly. Maybe I have been, I don't know. I don't know, it was such a nice like,
00:40:12
Speaker
Interesting time period to watch things like blow up, you know, in a weird way, not that it was like super mainstream, but you know if you were if you were into the shit you knew about it. Well, it became pretty mainstream like I remember being made fun of by my family.
00:40:30
Speaker
for rolling my chino legs, right? And then the New York Times wrote this piece about everybody cupping their chinos. It was like vindicated at last, you know? Can you roll up chinos with a pair of bow chis, right? What's that your gig to?
00:40:55
Speaker
uh i have actually never i'm from anapolis i'm from anapolis maryland which is like the boat place it's where the naval academy is and i have never owned a pair of boat shoes i maybe should i'm a loafer person um but it's not like i have like 15 pairs of loafers like i have a few i think i was wearing
00:41:16
Speaker
time like a lot of people were. I had like some cap toe oxfords that I was wearing, long wings of course, like I have some that I got on eBay that I like a lot. Yeah. Yeah, I also never owned boat shoes, thankfully. But that's mostly because I'm from the south and every asshole that I remember seeing, you know,
00:41:45
Speaker
Post High School was wearing boat shoes, so.
00:41:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's really like an identifier. There's like a spare store in downtown Annapolis. My cousin lives in Rome, and he came back one time to visit. And he was like, I've got to go to the fucking spare store. Colin, if you're listening, this is you. I've got to go to the fucking spare store. And I was blown away because he bought like three pairs of spares. I was like, this guy, like,
00:42:18
Speaker
is loaded. He bought three pairs of spares, you know, not for himself to give to people in Europe to give to his like UN friends. But even still, the Bochu, the Bochu in America has a distinct connotation. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What a what? Like, I know there have been some Swedish higher or higher end tailored
00:42:48
Speaker
whatever adjacent brands and things that have popped up over the years. To me, they've always seen the Italian casualness with a little bit of British sensibility, which maybe goes back to your lack of padding in shoulders. But what's the scene like in Sweden?
Swedish Tailoring and Elegance
00:43:10
Speaker
You can always say we have two types of
00:43:16
Speaker
scenes in Sweden. We have one scene that is very, you know, you know, to the ground when it comes to like the men's square that we're all into. Right. You know, and then there's, you know, those type of people, you know, they're into Drake's and Bryce Lane's and you know, we challenge him on your stuff. But if you look at Swedish as a whole, I mean, you mentioned both Italy and England are rich in
00:43:45
Speaker
One country and one tailoring house that people always tend to forget is the French house. Oh, okay. Yeah. And typically Swedes, you know, when it comes to like their sensibility tailoring, it's a lot more akin to how the French people do. Gotcha. Okay.
00:44:07
Speaker
Yeah, so Swedish people typically, you know, like, like they have a gradual suppression of the waist, the jacket, you know, and you have a very distinct, like, skirt flare too, because the suppression of the waist that creates this skirt flare. Right. And also, you know, the narrow tussle leg too. And yeah, that's easily forgotten. And I mean,
00:44:34
Speaker
in the last couple of months or two, the last year, I've been liking fringe-chilling a lot. And especially, I don't know if you heard or know about husbands in Paris. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, I know. It's a question of children. Not for me. I mean, it's perfect for people who are, I mean,
00:45:02
Speaker
not as heavy set as I am perhaps, but thinner and more authentic. It looks extremely well on those people. So yeah, the first house is more akin to what people in Sweden dress like. Gotcha. Yeah, that tends to make sense. And I definitely like that as stupid
00:45:33
Speaker
amount of knowledge as I've cared about in tailoring over the years, like I always kind of forget French makers. Yeah, like I think about our knees and that's about it. But I know they're like, you know, it's got a it's got a unique style to its itself, apart from Italian and British shit. Typically, because Sweden also is very like very nature based colors to like, you know, often grades and
00:46:02
Speaker
talk the earth tone. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. As I said, in the beginning of the talk is that, you know, the you shouldn't stand out. So, you know, there are few tones that goes well with how the nature looks very, very understated, you know, not a lot of color in the clothing, at least here. So, yeah,
00:46:30
Speaker
You don't see a lot of people walking around in hypebeast. That's cool. I'm a little envious, if I'm being honest. Not that there's not some of that stuff that I can get down with. But I'm not a cover person. I like earth tones. I like blues. I like stuff that, like you said, is understated. You're literally wearing a rainbow.
00:47:00
Speaker
I can't get down with this. And then massive chunky white sneakers. That's the vibe. Exactly. If that's you. Oh yeah, totally, totally. I'm not saying that I don't support you if that's what you want to look like. Just sometimes it makes me facepalm in a way. And again, you know, we're just close. It gets us shit. Oh, exactly.
00:47:27
Speaker
As long as you put an effort into what you want to portray or something, it's still for it. Have fun. Because like half of the people on earth don't give a fuck, at least half of the people on earth don't give a fuck about what they're wearing.
00:47:43
Speaker
So I think that's a good sound bite for the show. If you put any effort at all into what you're wearing, Pat, you get a pat on the back. Yeah, it's like the clothing version of, I don't agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend you to the desk, you're right to say it. You do you, man. As long as you're cool, as long as you're putting in some effort.
00:48:07
Speaker
I will never understand people who don't put in any type of effort into how they want to portray themselves. The most important thing that you can do every morning is to put on something that says that this is me. And if you don't put in effort into how you want to portray yourself and how you want people to see who you are,
00:48:31
Speaker
I mean, why put effort into anything? Why not go to, you know, why not just eat, you know, toast and butter every day? What do you think about what it put into your body if you can't, if you can't, you know, if you can't care about how you want to conduct yourself and how you want to present yourself. So like caring in any facet or form in your life at all. I mean, that's just,
00:48:58
Speaker
It's very haunting for me. I can get down with it, that's for sure. My brother just got like a pretty prestigious internship. Shout out Ian. And he's like trying to find clothes, right? And I told him today, like, you have the opportunity to completely invent yourself if you want to.
00:49:24
Speaker
with this job and he like is not like that. He is not that kind of person. And that is, he was like, oh, I just want to like, you know, look like me. But that's not the point. And that's like the beauty of clothes is that you can wear them and look like whoever the fuck you want. You can be whoever you want to be. You can be interpreted however you want to be interpreted to an extent anyway. Like I acknowledge my privilege and other things about me, right? That allow me to kind of do whatever I want.
00:49:53
Speaker
especially clothing like it really it's it's creative expression and it's like uh way it's a way to communicate it's a non-verbal way to communicate and i think it's very important yeah and and if you want to be the person if you want to be like like a person who always wears like a white oxford shirt with a navy blazer then go be that guy right i mean if if if it's
00:50:21
Speaker
how you want to look and how you want to present yourself, go for it. But I mean, put some effort into it at least. Yeah. Right, right, exactly. No, go on. I was going to say this is reminding me of how popular Joseph A. Bank is in the States. My god, yeah. Do you know about that, Philip? What?
00:50:46
Speaker
Joseph Banks. Yeah, Joseph Banks. It's like a buy three get one, you know, get four free suiting literally or whatever. Literally buy three get one free, not a joke. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, no, never heard of it actually. So that you're very, very lucky. It's essentially the old man. It's like the old man H&M. That kind of quality. So
00:51:16
Speaker
Sounds awful. Oh, it's Yeah, no, one of my I got a khaki. When I was like, I had this congressional internship and so I wanted to be suited all the time. And
00:51:33
Speaker
it was like, go to Joseph A. Banks, you know, like that, that's the place to go. And I was like 17. So I got the khaki suit. I don't think that I ever wore it. They sold me on a 40 and I was like probably at 36. So, you know, that's the kind of place that it is. Well, we can wrap the clothing part if you like.
Social Democracy and Quality of Life
00:52:00
Speaker
I have a curiosity of my own really about what your experience, and you can be as general as you want about this, but like you live in Sweden, which is arguably the best social democracy on earth. You work in healthcare. And so what is it like to not be worried about
00:52:27
Speaker
your health, really, like if you get sick, you're not going to go bankrupt.
00:52:39
Speaker
when people rank the happiest people on earth. I mean, often Scandinavians are often, all the Scandinavian countries are often in the... And I mean, if you don't have to worry about if you can afford to have an operation or have to worry that you can't afford to have your medication with diabetes, I mean, that puts an insane amount of quality into your life.
00:53:06
Speaker
You don't have to go around worrying about that. And if you put up stuff because of monetary problems, well, guess what? It's going to be worse. You're going to get other complications. And in the end, for society as a whole, if you don't have easy access to health care, easy access to education, it will be a lot more expensive in the long run.
00:53:35
Speaker
totally because you know yeah it is quite it is quite satisfying to to to live like we do because I mean it's pretty normal uh to to don't have to worry about these these type of issues um yeah I'm holding a lot of talks with with American friends of mine it's quite it's quite you know baffling
00:54:03
Speaker
and how a country can put so much money into war efforts, but don't have an inkling in helping out their fellow people. Their own citizens. Yeah. I mean, this is what I was, I was talking with Matt about this. Like, should we discuss this? Should we ask this question? Whatever. I was thinking it's a little bit low to New York with like a born New Yorker.
00:54:32
Speaker
Um, cause they can just walk around and go to places seemingly like with an internal GPS, you know, which of course they have because they have lived there forever, but they don't quite realize. How special and awesome it is, you know, so I would, I'm just curious, like, uh,
00:54:52
Speaker
what it's like. I mean, what it is like to live in a place like that. And by golly, it was the answer that I predicted. So we really envy you. Yeah. I think it's hard to relate to. I mean, it's so easily accessible for us to seek health care and get medicine and have an education. And that's how it is in most countries in Europe, actually.
00:55:21
Speaker
Right. It is very easy to get healthcare and it is very easy to get an education. And not to have to worry about that is I mean, it's, it's incredible. You would be hard.
00:55:35
Speaker
You would be hard pressed, I think. So where I grew up, Anne Arundel County is like one of the wealthiest counties in the country because of its proximity to DC. So everyone there is like super rich and the public schools are actually decent. But even so, you would be hard pressed, I think, to find a school, a public school that would teach you how to sew in America. That wasn't like a trade school. And I don't think that there are trade schools that exist for sewing.
00:56:05
Speaker
anymore, because it's all been moved abroad. Yeah, we also have, you probably have home ed, too, like you get told how to make dinner and stuff like that, right? Yeah, it's kind of a comprehensive thing, more so than like a specialized thing.
00:56:26
Speaker
It was very weak. I mean, like the sex education that we received and like, for example, you might not know this, like they don't ever talk to you in public school about taxes. They don't ever discuss it. It's not part of the curriculum. It never comes up. So you enter the workforce. If you're lucky, you enter the workforce and you have no idea what you are paying or why you were paying it.
00:56:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's also, you know, I mean, we have those issues too. And here in Sweden too, like people come out and start work and they do not fully grasp how it is to be, you know, by yourself and independent in the society. But I mean, we do get, you know, taught how taxes work and what it used to and stuff like that. But yeah.
00:57:25
Speaker
I mean, I think I think that's the world as a whole, because I believe that people try to keep some stuff, you know, away from you. So you just have to learn it our way. I mean, I, you know, I didn't get taught how how insurance is worked when I went to school. So that was, that was also a huge awakening when I had to live. What you need, you need insurance for what?
00:57:54
Speaker
I mean, I have my own place, so yeah. So yeah, I think that's part of the whole problem for the whole West as a whole, I think. Surely. Well, on that note, we can wrap this up. I know it is getting kind of late for you. So Matt, if you want to take us out. Yeah, Phillip, dude, thank you for coming on. And this is a bit of a hell of a fun discussion.
00:58:23
Speaker
And I'm glad that we're on the right side of this baby in your clothes thing and Connor's on the wrong one. But we generally like to give our guests a chance to shout out whatever they want to shout out. So go for it. Yeah, again, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity and a huge honor that you come on to me here.
00:58:49
Speaker
and so no no the pleasure hours look at the fucking outfits yeah thank you and uh yeah i'd like to shout out the uh the style and direction patreon and and in essence the discord too uh so uh that's what i want to shout out so uh again thank you very much for this opportunity it has been a
00:59:16
Speaker
a blast. And I hope that I delivered and I hope. Oh, dude. Yeah. Who license understand and that it wasn't too difficult to understand what I was trying to say. So. Nah, man. Thank you. We really like honestly just want to talk to people that like what. And that's kind of the basis for everyone. You know, everyone that we. And. Yeah, this was this was hella fun and a
00:59:45
Speaker
very enjoyable discussion. And where can we find your amazing outfits, Philip? Oh, you can find it on Instagram at Philip Grigard. And that's Philip with one L. Exactly. See, I got you. I can be the hype man. Yeah, Connor's the best hype man.
01:00:07
Speaker
Yeah, dude. Well, I just, I just am excited about stuff. You know, I thought this was fucking awesome. Like I remember, I remember seeing your posts and being like, Jesus, like that guy knows what the fuck he's doing, you know? So with that, we thank you so much. This has been a real pleasure. And have a good night. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.
01:00:36
Speaker
I'm Matt Smith at Rebels Rogues. And I'm Connor Fowler at Connor Fowler. If someone wants to email us, it's apocalypsedudsatgmail.com. We're still waiting for that cherry to be popped. Somebody send the email. Someone do it. Someone do it. So my girlfriend doesn't do it. Send us an emoji. We don't care. We just want one email. One. And then I'll stop adding this to the end of every show.
01:01:04
Speaker
Anyway. But until then. Until then, thanks for listening. And yeah, see you soon.