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Curl Up & Dye with James Darley
246 Plays1 year ago
We are joined by political powerhouse and 3500 Club Member, James Darley, @blazers_and_buttondowns. We separate the literal from the figurative, talk Glengarry Glen Ross, how to stand out in a private school uniform, trying to project an image, how to make your life suck less, hiking, snowshoes, and many other tangents.
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Transcript
Matt Smith's COVID Concerns
00:00:01
Speaker
Good afternoon. I'm Connor Fowler. And I'm Matt Smith. And I maybe have COVID again. It depends who you ask. I have taken two tests so far, one of which was positive and the other one was negative. You might say that it is an occupational hazard, but that
00:00:24
Speaker
takes away any agency from anyone who is involved in the equation,
COVID's Long-term Effects: Are We Ignoring Them?
00:00:30
Speaker
right? Like there are people who are forcing me effectively to go to work sick. There are people who are forcing these children to go to school sick. And so a consequence of that is my having COVID again. What disease that we don't understand at all. We don't know like what the long-term ramifications are.
00:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, so we'll see. I guess it's good that I quit smoking cigarettes. Yeah, I'm yeah, really, really fun to have in a world where long COVID or whatever the fuck like some, you know, something that we don't understand is just dismissed and not studied enough. Really, really great country. I got long COVID passed me the ball COVID.
00:01:17
Speaker
Right? Yes, yes. I don't know. All right, yes. Something, something, something. I'm really sorry that we subjected our listeners to that, but anyway. That's going in a reel for sure. That is going in a reel. That is going in a reel. Yeah, we, you know, trudge it along. We have a...
00:01:38
Speaker
a nice lineup of episodes coming shortly.
Challenges of Remote Podcasting
00:01:42
Speaker
And for those that have listened for a while, you probably heard us talk about how goddamn impossible it can be to make an all remote podcast. It doesn't matter where the person is. It doesn't matter, you know, internet connection issues, whatever. Everything is is a slight manner of terrible for the most part. And we put a
00:02:07
Speaker
put a lot of time and effort into doing this. Yeah, we really do. And we might have a solution, I guess, with this and with this service that we were using before, we may be using again now. I mean, we just used it to record. And it worked. I mean, nothing got messed up. So hopefully we're
00:02:29
Speaker
trudging along in a forward manner as opposed to two steps forward, one step back, which we're very well acquainted with as well. Yes.
Gratitude for Listener Support
00:02:40
Speaker
We've gotten a lot of new listeners, a lot of new followers. Thank you for that. What did you say the impressions on Spotify have been from the past month, Connor?
00:02:53
Speaker
21,000. Fuck yeah. Yeah. So, you know, we love doing this. We're not, we're not bitching to just a bitch. We're bitching because we actually love doing this and are trying to make it as good as possible. Well, we just want people to understand that, like,
00:03:13
Speaker
the bad audio quality right at the beginning, some would say maybe continuing, was a little out of our hands until it remains out of our hands.
Freedom of Expression in Podcasting
00:03:24
Speaker
I think that podcasting is one of a few places where freedom is encouraged, I guess, online. And every little fee
00:03:42
Speaker
is an impediment to that. And every gated off service is an impediment to that. To us getting our word out there, right? Which it's not like we really have an agenda that we're pushing, but we kind of do. And people do not always agree with it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:06
Speaker
We won't be silenced. You know, it reminds me and this, you know, this like social media landscape that we have in the year of our Lord Satan 2023.
Evolution of Social Media Platforms
00:04:22
Speaker
Twitter has gone to dog shit. Instagram went to dog shit a long time ago. Yeah, Tumblr was amazing. And then it went to dog shit. And I think it's kind of having a resurgence. But
00:04:35
Speaker
You know, they're there. Instagram was good. Oh, Instagram was great. Yeah. Yeah. But like, you know, I've said it before. I'll say it again. Just bring us back the fucking chronological feed. Like you can do any service. Yeah, you can do ads. I really don't give a shit because I'm I'm terminally on my phone. So like I understand scrolling.
00:04:58
Speaker
Dude, I grew up in the late 90s, early 2000s internet that was just nonstop, bad shitery. But yeah, the podcasting thing, we don't mind paying money for a good service. It's just that paying money to services that constantly suck or constantly fail is infuriating.
Should We Pay for a Better Social Media Experience?
00:05:21
Speaker
I've said, you know, I've told many people this, but like, as an, as a person that relies on Instagram for my business, I would pay $10 a month for, you know, not like a, I don't know, I'm not a tech person. I don't know how it would work, but like I would pay $10 a month to have access to an account that like served me well all the time. Like, you know, and I know that like,
00:05:51
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Like they would make, make tons of tons of tons of money. So yeah, I mean, and it was great when that was, when that was a thing. And now it's just like, like, I'll see something from a good friend that I talked to
Transparency with Podcast Audience
00:06:05
Speaker
every single day or like every other day in the vintage scene. And I'll see their post three days after it was made. Like, this is crazy.
00:06:17
Speaker
Yeah, sorry, we like to go on rants around these parts. Well, it's not like a fun, it's not like a fundraiser. No, this is us just saying, yeah, here's the deal. This is just us using our plan to be transparent. Yeah, we try to be transparent. And also, you know, as Connor said, like, like, this
00:06:39
Speaker
Like ultimate freedom and liberation for all people to be able to say and live their lives how they want to is the goal. And, you know, having this platform, however small or large it is or becomes is just, you know, it's some way for us to say what's on our mind in ways that we might not be able to in normal everyday life.
Musical Discoveries Abroad
00:07:11
Speaker
Yeah, seriously. Yeah. I heard this, and Connor, I don't know if you've listened to it yet, but I was loading up in a market yesterday and the organizers had been playing a playlist all day that was great shit. Like right up my alley, some Charles Bradley, like some, you know, 60s, like Sullivan R&B. I can't remember exactly what it was.
00:07:34
Speaker
you know just like good happy market music uh so there was a two-hour playlist and then spotify just took over after that and i got a hand to a man they they they nailed this one but toward the end of the day there was a band from zambia that was playing and the song it reminded me of like sweet jane from the velvet underground or as i as i
00:08:01
Speaker
was reminded of yesterday the cowboy junkies cover of sweet jane that got radio played in the 90s but it was just like like it immediately drew me to it and they're called
00:08:14
Speaker
I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. It is an acronym for ask me about nice artistes in Zambia, which also might be the best acronym of all time. So tight. So tight. The song was Sunday morning. The album is called Africa and holy shit. Like I love it when a record knocks me on my ass.
00:08:37
Speaker
And this definitely did. It's it's equal parts like Velvet Underground. It's got a lot of psych rock and a lot of like 70s British, like heavy rock influence on it. But definitely fucking check it out. Definitely check it out.
Preview of James Darley Episode
00:08:56
Speaker
So we've got our show with James Darley coming up. Yeah, they always always duress to the T to the nine. Yes. How are you?
00:09:07
Speaker
want to describe, but I mean, he always looks fucking great. And in the way that, in a way that everyone tries to, right? Like it looks like it's, it looks like he's not trying very hard. Yeah. We're, we're not going to use the D word because we're firmly against that on the show, but, uh, debonair debonair is fine. Yes. I was thinking of the other, the other very terrible. I mean, debonair is cool. Like that's an old school word. Yeah. Debonair is a good one.
00:09:37
Speaker
D with an A, a couple of P's and an ER at the end, not so much. No. Yeah. It was a fun, fun combo. Um, we talked about his early life, like growing up in one of the funniest named places of all time, because it probably took them 20 minutes to come up with it and go into New York city as a child. We talked about, uh, he and his partner hiking in the Catskills, which
00:10:07
Speaker
Props, man, props. That's all I got to say, because Connor and I are both lazy. We talked about, we talked about snowshoes for a first time. There's some interesting snowshoe trivia in this episode. An actual snowshoe owner, which I didn't know existed outside of maybe Alaska or the Tundra of Canada. He didn't divulge that he owned more than one pair, but it's an open question. I guess we'll have to have one again. Yes. Yeah.
How Can Listeners Support the Podcast?
00:10:35
Speaker
And then we talked about the
00:10:37
Speaker
worst possible named fashion trend of all time. I don't like supermatives, but I kinda gotta give it that. But we talked about Gorpcore.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah. And we also divulged the acronym, which Connor somehow knew and or found. James and I never heard it. And it's because I know everything. It is as utterly as ridiculous of an acronym as you could possibly imagine. But you're going to have to keep listening to hear that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Listen to find out scratch to find scratch to reveal the answer to reveal.
00:11:19
Speaker
Anyway, yeah, that show is coming up. We appreciate everyone listening, following, rating, et cetera.
00:11:29
Speaker
If you like what we do and want to send us a buck or two, we're not going to turn it down. Conner's Venmo is our coffers for our wonderfully amazing sophisticated setup that we use. Conner's Venmo. And we keep going on fucking vacation with this money. So please keep it up. Anyway, Conner's Venmo is at Conner, sorry, Conner Dash Fowler. His PayPal is connerfowler at gmail.com.
00:11:59
Speaker
And yeah, thank you for listening. Yeah, thanks much.
Introducing James Darley
00:12:06
Speaker
Broadcasting live from beneath miles of Montana earth and tons upon tons of structural steel and cement. We have duped yet another accomplished professional into appearing on our silly show. We have here in studio, James Darley, political operative somewhere.
00:12:52
Speaker
in the United States. Welcome.
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's a that's a crashing sound of applause. Yeah, Connor keeps trying to get me on board. And that's with having like a soundboard where we can add in effects. And I'm every time I'm just like, dude, please no, please no. What would be like the rooster crowing like like a like a 90s shock jock. I think it'd be very good, actually.
00:13:23
Speaker
I will make it happen the next time. Mark my words. Of course. James, how you doing? Like you need to. Yeah, no, doing doing very well. Glad to be on. And I just want to give both of you a big shout out because I know that how time consuming this is with the podcast. I appreciate it. You're the one who has to put up with our shit. No, but the two of you, the two of you like props to you for
00:13:50
Speaker
taking a vision and just going with it because it's truly a great podcast. Thank you. Thank you for always being a supporter. What else is there to say? You have always talked us up. I don't know if you're delusional, but it seems to be working out for us so far. I mean, like I said, we have tricked yet another person into appearing on our program. As you can see, we're not going to have to be here.
00:14:21
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. We're not here to take compliments. No, never. I've never taken a compliment in my life. People tell me I look nice all the time and I scoff at them. You tell them I look like shit. Yeah. I say, what are you talking about? You blind? So I guess we'll begin.
The Story Behind James's Hometown
00:14:41
Speaker
Where are you from? So I grew up in West New York, which most people think is a New York state and it's not.
00:14:51
Speaker
It's in New Jersey. So West, West New York, New Jersey. Wow. The founders of the town were, you know, quite creative. They saw that they were West of New York City. And so they said, you know what, I think it would be really good to name our town West New York. So that's how it gets its name.
00:15:12
Speaker
I have vastly. That's American ingenuity. Dude, one of the things that like, I don't know if I've ever actually talked about it on the show, but like, one of the things that that makes me laugh so hard are ridiculous names for shit. Like, it could be a business. It could be a road. It could be a city like West New York, where it's just like, you know, guys, like what? How long did this take you to actually figure out the name of? But
00:15:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm happy to know that people put in, you know, a half hour's worth of effort and they're like, yeah, fuck this. This is our city. I like New Directions. New Directions, I have seen at least three times. I have photographs of this. I don't know. Sometimes it's a barber shop. New Directions. It is a well-known euphemism.
00:16:03
Speaker
a well-known euphemism. And so people are on board with it, I guess, when they make their barbershop, New Directions barbershop. I don't know. West New York, not exactly the same, but in that vein. Yeah, yeah. One of my favorites is a hair salon called Curl Up and Die, D-Y-E. And I see that nearly every week somewhere in the rural south.
00:16:30
Speaker
Wow, Curl Up and Die is a really good one. Yeah. I'm writing that down. Literally, I'm writing that down. Speaking of literally, today, I was trying to communicate to a student because he says literally all the time. Literally, I'm learning the letter B. Whatever. Yes, Noah, you are literally learning the letter B. We're trying to discuss the difference between literal and figurative.
00:16:59
Speaker
This was an interesting discussion to have of the six year old, I guess. I was like, no, no, no, literally your shirt is blue. Literally my shirt is yellow and white stripes, but we didn't get very far with that. So you're from West New Jersey. Um, if you want to divulge because of your, uh, your status whereabouts, and you don't have to be specific, are you now?
James's Living Situation
00:17:29
Speaker
So right now I'm actually splitting my time. My partner and I split our time between Northern New Jersey and Harlem and New York City. Oh, sure. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We're subleasing there right now, but we're looking to permanently move into the city. Nice. So basically almost every single week is apartment hunting. Yeah. Yeah. Which is one of the most scary things.
00:17:54
Speaker
demoralizing, like I'm trying to help my friend find an apartment in Baltimore. And it's like, I, this is my best friend on earth for 20 years. And I like badly want him to move back to Baltimore. Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. And I can only imagine what it's like in New York. Well, in New York, I mean, it's so fast to market. I feel like something's there and then you take a look at it. And the next day there's already an offer on it. Oh, yeah. It's been an interesting experience.
00:18:22
Speaker
I can imagine. Yeah. It's kind of the same way in Atlanta. Like I've, I've had a lot of friends, not myself, because I'm a derelict, but, uh, you know, looking to buy houses and, and that's been their experience. It's like, Oh, this is, you know, this is in within our budget. It was posted 45 minutes ago and an hour and a half later, there's an offer on it. Like, really? Like that's, it happens that fucking fast. That's crazy. It's absolutely mad. Nice. Well, uh, so what are you,
Fashion Insights from James Darley
00:18:52
Speaker
wearing today. If you don't mind. I mean, how do we want to do this? Top to bottom or bottom to top? Up to you. Up to you. This show is about choice. This show is about freedom and liberty. So it's up to you. All right. So let's go. Let's go top to bottom. Excellent. So it's a little bit chilly here in New York. It was unseasonably warm, but it's luckily feeling more like fall.
00:19:23
Speaker
So I'm wearing a rubato V-neck sweater, one of their lambs. Well, big fan of them. They're a Swedish company. They were actually recently in New York City for the permanence to help pop up that Simon Crompton usually does. They're two really cool guys, Carl and Oliver. So that's what I got underneath it. I actually have a brookskate chambray shirt, which I bought. Yeah, I bought it from one of the trad people.
00:19:53
Speaker
on instagram one of the trad people yeah they're out there so uh glenn glarry garage i i don't know if you guys have followed him but yeah this is actually where i got the shirt from is so i i have to ask this question is that related to glen gary glenn ross it must be
00:20:13
Speaker
I think so. I'm not sure though. Well, so is that a is that a Tradd movie? Like Pacino is like definitely Italian in that movie. Like his dress is Italian. Extremely Italian in that movie. But I think like Kevin Spacey is very the disgraced Kevin Spacey is very like a kind of Ivy trim. Very put together. Anyway, excellent, excellent movie and play.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it could be. I feel like now I got to hit them up on Instagram and ask. Do you know what I was about to just do? Do exactly that. Yes. So moving on down from there. Of course, I feel like you got to go with one of the most important thing, which is my REI men's merino briefs. It's staple. I mean, I use it when I go hiking.
00:21:11
Speaker
when basically anything I do, I'm wearing them. I absolutely love them. I think they are phenomenal. I have heard so much about the wool briefs, and I like have never done it because I feel like I know I will like it. And then I will have to spend $30 on each pair of underwear. Yeah, that that's the issue. Luckily, like I always wait for them to get on sale and I'm an REI member.
00:21:37
Speaker
I see. I only buy them when they're in discount, but when I when they're on discount, I buy them in bulk. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because you have exposed yourself now for our later section about Gorp and the outdoors, which we do not experience much as we are often locked in a bunker. Yeah. So going on to the trousers, I'm wearing made to measure con trousers from Stofa.
00:22:04
Speaker
which is a New York Chase company. Love those dudes. Love those dudes. Yeah, they're amazing. I love what they do, especially in terms of sustainability. I guess, I mean, it's just great when it comes to creativity, making his own fabrics. I think they're just a phenomenal company and I wish them all the best. Hell yeah. Yeah. I think them and 18 East, like Antonio,
00:22:29
Speaker
are probably at this point just like the two raddest menswear brands that I can personally think of because of that attention to detail and that like trying to do shit that nobody else is doing. Whether it's you know fabrics or or you know in Antonio's case like different kinds of cuts and shit like I don't know they both of them blow me away.
00:22:51
Speaker
It's just stuff that not other people are doing. I am cheap and poor, and so I never buy anything retail, but I did buy one piece of 18 East because I was like, I gotta fuck it. I got these orange cargos, which are made from this Indian textile that is really beautiful and kind of deep.
00:23:17
Speaker
I think they got some sort of season desist for the color of them, I guess. It was like too close to a Dickie's pant.
00:23:28
Speaker
So I don't know. That is crazy. Yeah, I had to have them. And then I'm sad because they're drawstring, but they're still great. And they're still awesome. I ripped them on my bike the first day that I had them. Huge, a huge tear. So I feel like I got to see these on the Insta one of these days. Oh, yeah. They're on there. They're on there. They're the only orange parents that I have. I got to take a look now. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think both of those brands are cool. Yeah. And then that's.
00:23:59
Speaker
I was going to say since I'm recording this for my house, I got my house sandals going on. Gotcha. Which are some Birkenstock quisés. Nice. Nice. Yeah. I wear the Boston's in the house. Yeah, same here. Same here. Well, I did until I absolutely destroyed my pair. What shoes did you wear during the day? That was the important question.
00:24:28
Speaker
Oh, so, uh, RM Williams gardeners, cause it's raining outside. Jesus Christ, dude. You really just have fucking taste. Great fucking taste. RM Williams are some of the best footwear that I've ever personally seen in my entire fucking life. And like I've thrifted a couple of pairs, sadly, never my size, but you know, that's, that's like a dream, dream boot for me, especially the gardener. Are they black?
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah, they're black. I mean, I love my gardeners. Every single time it's raining out there, I'll put them on. Yeah, I got them in Vancouver about two years ago. And I've never looked back. Absolutely loved them. And I wear them to death. Yeah. And they're, if I'm not mistaken, they're the only whole cut Chelsea boot in existence. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's one of the things that absolutely drew it to me. Yeah. I mean, I think just having a whole good Chelsea
00:25:23
Speaker
Even in the gardener, I mean, I think it gives it a little bit of an elevated look. It gives it a nice sleek profile. For sure. But even because the gardener is a bit more bulbous in terms of the last, because it's meant to be less trusty and more just out there for everyday use. Yeah. It's one of the things that always attracted me to it. Hell yeah.
00:25:44
Speaker
Well, since we have established that you have just fucking incredible taste, do you remember the first like piece of clothing or footwear or style, you know, something related to dressing that inspired you?
Influence of Prep School on James's Style
00:26:00
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, I was thinking a lot about, you know, what initially drew me to menswear. And I think if I take it all the way back, I didn't, I didn't grow up in a family where
00:26:15
Speaker
We were constantly dressing up. I mean, my father and my mother, they came here from South America. I'm first generation. My dad was originally from Columbia, came here when he was 20. My mom came here when she was a bit younger, when she was 10 in Ecuador. So growing up, my father, he was a jeweler. He was also a car transporter. And my mom always worked in the finance industry. So it's not that.
00:26:44
Speaker
You know, some people grow up and they have a large extensive family and they learn from their father or their uncles or someone who's a figure and basically they look at that style and they appreciate it from a menswear perspective. But that wasn't the case for me. And even going up to elementary school, I wouldn't say that we were poor, but we were definitely working class and I went to a public
00:27:10
Speaker
elementary school in West New York, which is a predominantly Latinx community, many new immigrants. It's actually an interesting community because in the 60s, a lot of Cubans came in there, so they used to call it Havana on the Hudson. And then in the 80s and 90s, it shifted over and you saw a lot more Central American immigration into West New York. So it was a very diverse
00:27:40
Speaker
in rich Lion X community, but many people were in similar circumstances. So when the first time I needed to start thinking about more tailoring or menswear or more what people probably associate with me now was when I went to high school. And I'm very grateful for my parents because they worked very hard so that they could take me out of the public school system, which was tough in West New York and put me into
00:28:11
Speaker
a preparatory school in Jersey City, named St. Peter's Prep. It was an all boys high school. But, you know, I think people typically associate preparatory schools as being areas of affluence. That wasn't the case here. This is the New York metro area. Jersey City is now the most populated city in New Jersey, but back then it was in the top three.
00:28:35
Speaker
And it was a large mixture. I mean, it reflected the diversity that the New York metro area has, but we had a very, very strict dress code. We had to wear a jacket, a dress shirt, a tie, dress slacks, dress shoes. And it was my first time really being exposed to any of this. And I remember my mom at the time,
00:29:04
Speaker
All her boss, because she worked in finance, had gone to Harvard. And they came from a very affluent Jewish family. And my mom asked, you know, what should I get? My son, now that he's going to this preparatory school. And I remember even having a conversation with her boss. And one of the things that first struck me was Alan Edmunds, Park Avenue, Oxford. I had never seen leather shoes before in my life.
00:29:34
Speaker
And they were shining, beaming. And I looked to myself and I said, one day that's what I want to get. And that was the first thing that really struck out to me. That's a great answer. Wow. That's a really great answer. I have two questions. One question would be, were there requirements on the jacket? Like, could you have worn a tweed jacket?
00:30:01
Speaker
So there were requirements on the jacket. You could wear a tweed jacket. You could basically wear any type of jacket that didn't have a logo. I see. Gotcha. And actually, prior to this, I was looking because before, when we went to prep, we would get a handbook at the beginning of the year. And it was a written handbook. Now it's in a PDF file. So if you don't mind,
00:30:27
Speaker
I actually want to pull up two excerpts that I please we love. What is it called? It's a first. It's a primary source. Yeah, fuck. Yeah. Yeah. This is straight from the twenty twenty three twenty twenty four handbook. OK. Dress shirts are to be worn with properly knotted in position ties denim.
00:30:53
Speaker
flannel and corduroy shorts are not dress shirts, nor are Hawaiian shirts or those with large decals and lettering numbering. Wow. This is amazing. Dress slacks are only to be worn. No denim look-alikes, no pants with external pockets, decals or lettering, no balloon pants, cargo pants,
00:31:22
Speaker
or fatigues and pants should not be overly turned up at the cuff as to make them short. Wow. They've really, they've raised on everyone. Yeah. It's a 20 2012 hashtag menswear dude that loves his Cuccinelli cargo pants would have been sadly sad. Like bummed out, you know, just completely not allowed at all completely demoralized by this dress code. I know.
00:31:50
Speaker
So, I mean, that just kind of shows the degree that they would go for the dress code. And it was strictly enforced. Right. Yeah, of course. Well, so do you know what a Baltimore accent sounds like out of curiosity? I don't know. Because I can't do it, but it is odd. And so I say this because if you are to serve on jury duty, you have to call in
00:32:14
Speaker
and listen to this recorded thing. And it's this woman, and she has the most Baltimore voice, and she says, no leggins, meggins, or jeggins are allowed in the courtroom. That's great. And that's what I think of. So when did you get your first pair of Allen Edmonds? That's the question, right? So I actually didn't end up getting my first pair of Allen Edmonds until after grad school, when I started my first full-time job. Wow.
00:32:44
Speaker
What were you doing? So I studied history. No, I don't mind. I studied history. I did a ton of internships with historical societies and museums. I thought that was going to be my career path. Came out. It was the great recession. And most of those markets are very stagnant.
00:33:06
Speaker
Yeah. So I couldn't find a job. I applied for literally close to a year and couldn't find an entry level job in that industry. So my mom finally said, you know what, maybe you should look at the finance industry. And I ended up working in the finance industry for about four years. I didn't really care for it, but I worked in it. And it was during that time that I got my first Allen Edmonds.
00:33:31
Speaker
Wow. Nice. I feel like that is the like, the like tailored clothing menswear, whatever the fuck you want to call it. That is the intro shoe. Like it's that and an Alden cook like colorate long wing and those are the two shoes that everyone wants like out of the game.
00:33:49
Speaker
Or like a floor-shine Imperial, a cleat, something. Yeah, well, I'm talking more. Well, back in the day, they were equal level with all of them. I'm talking about the gunboats. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's all the same shit. So I was going to ask you, and I think I know the answer now, could you customize your uniform in some way?
Starting Trends in School Uniforms
00:34:15
Speaker
Did you do anything to stand out?
00:34:18
Speaker
So, I mean, you could customize it in the sense that you could, so there was a rule there that said you could either wear a tie or a turtleneck. And I, even to this day, I don't like wearing ties. I like the way ties look, but I find them to be incredibly uncomfortable.
00:34:43
Speaker
So back when, obviously when you're in high school and you're having lunch and you want to go and play soccer or basketball or something with your friends, you probably don't want to wear a tie. Most people between 13 and 17 don't want to wear a tie every single day. So when it used to get very cold out, and at this time I didn't know that this was a New England thing, I thought I was cool and I'll put on my turtleneck and then a dress shirt on top of it.
00:35:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good look though. Yeah, so that's the way I would customize it. And I would just go around and then I started to see more and more people do it. And it kind of became a thing. You were a trend center. You were doing your like wannabe, like, you know, 60s coffee shop folk thing your own way.
00:35:37
Speaker
It would be like a beatnik. Yeah, beatnik shit. Exactly. That's like a beatnik look, yeah. Beatnik, okay. Which is cool. Hell yeah, it is cool. That kind of leads perfectly into the next question, which is, I don't know how that happened, but basically you could look like Steve Bannon, which is where the shirt and the layers come in or whatever.
00:36:04
Speaker
or any of the other thousands of shitty looking representatives and people in government, but you choose not to. Like what, you know, when you're going to work and getting ready in the morning, like what inspires you to get dressed?
Dressing Well in Politics: Why It Matters
00:36:17
Speaker
I think it really comes down to three things. It's as much as I think there's a lot of influence in when you're in your adolescence and people tell you something and at going to prep every single day,
00:36:34
Speaker
They would state to you, you know, you need to look a certain way because individuals perceive people based on how they look. And that was something that was ingrained in me probably between the ages of 13 to 17 on a regular basis. And even to this day, because I work in politics and government and it's
00:37:00
Speaker
specifically in legislation. And a lot more you need to do in these meetings is influence people. And I think when you're trying to portray yourself as somebody who's going to be honest, who is going to be a straight shooter and talk a certain way, and you're dressed in a conservative manner, people kind of associate the two things together.
00:37:26
Speaker
Uh, whether that's better or for worse, I think there's an association in the U S of it. So that's one of the reasons. And the second one is that I, I worked in a field where I've, I've worked for several different politicians and as a staff member, you're an extension of that person. That's, that's the individual who's been elected by the voters to represent them. And many times you take on.
00:37:55
Speaker
a similar wardrobe to what they wear. And in New Jersey, especially northern New Jersey, where you have a very large Italian American influence, there tends to be a very conservative thought to to dress, especially in the political sphere. If you're in a meeting, you're expected to be in a conservative suit in a tie. And that's been the case with my previous boss, who was a county commissioner, Italian American and Bergen County.
00:38:25
Speaker
And my other boss at the state legislature, he's not Italian-American, he's Jewish, but he also comes from a conservative dressing background and he expects a certain type of, I guess, a wardrobe to be worn when it comes to meetings. So that's always at the top of mind when I'm getting dressed in the morning.
00:38:52
Speaker
If you had told me that you were in the military, I would have believed you. Yeah. Without question. Yeah. I would have been like, yeah, this makes perfect sense. Is that the haircut? That's interesting. No, dude, it's the like adherence. I guess it's the like.
00:39:13
Speaker
routine. It's the like, I dress like I am able to dress the same way every single day. It's the discipline, right? I guess. Okay. It's not like a boring thing. It's like a tradition thing. You know, like you were just saying, you know, it's about tradition. It's about projecting a certain image, which you are a master at. Clearly,
00:39:37
Speaker
I think that's really the case when most of us are getting dresses that we're trying to project an image. It's interesting. It's something that I've always loved about menswear and not just tailoring and not just menswear. I mean, fashion in general, when it comes to all different facets of individuals getting dressed, I just find it interesting as to, you know, what are they trying to portray to the world? What has influenced their style?
00:40:05
Speaker
Right. Right. Right. Because if I were sweatpants to the school, I'd be fucking lunch meat. I'd be gobbled up. I would be destroyed, you know? So I have to wear the tie. I have to wear a jacket. Because you think that a five year old doesn't get it. The five year old gets it. You know, they're very perceptive. I'm actually interested, Connor. Do most teachers dress similar to you?
00:40:34
Speaker
No, my God. No, I would say like so there are very few male educators at all. It's like me and one other guy in the school who is actually on this show, Mr. Fleming. Mr. Fleming wears tailoring a lot because he's younger, you know, and so he wants it to be like
00:41:03
Speaker
the teacher image and not the guy just wearing a jacket, you know? Because kids can tell if you're faking it. Yeah. As I am. So like they they really, I mean, do behave for me. They don't like mess around with me at all because they can see that I take my job seriously. And I think some other people in the school
00:41:34
Speaker
They really have a hard time. So it's really about projection, I guess. So you think that if you dress differently, that your interactions with the kids would be slightly different than what they are now? They would be able to perceive that? When I started out, I wore joggers and combat boots. I wore black joggers, black hoodie, olive fishtail parka, mirrored sunglasses every day.
00:42:04
Speaker
I looked like the Unabomber, you know, I was like, serious. I was like very serious, but it was the wrong image. You know, there was no reference for this. Like I looked like I was a VC or something. I was not there to be doing the job of a teacher. And so I think it was very hard for me to control. I mean, it was an impossible assignment. It was 37 students.
00:42:33
Speaker
Which teachers do to ratio. Yeah. Try to wrangle 37 literate adults who like you, you know, it's, it's not, it is not an easy task. So yeah, I think I had to start dressing the part and now it is the results are, I think speak for themselves. That's awesome. That's amazing to hear. Yeah. Thank you. To chew my own horn a little bit.
Online Menswear Communities During COVID
00:43:00
Speaker
So when did you kind of get into the online menswear culture, James? I didn't really get onto the online menswear culture probably until around COVID. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Who thought you were an old hand? No. So I think when I was just going through the journey, I was wondering if there was anybody else out there. And one of the things I had never really done was
00:43:29
Speaker
look on the internet. And I remember first stumbling upon die work where and reading some of the articles and saying, you know, this is really interesting. Yeah. Derek's amazing. Then of course, put this on and eventually gravitating to style form. And then I thought when I joined style form, it was great to be able to interact with people who had similar interests and just be able to talk about
00:43:58
Speaker
different products, learn new different things. But prior to COVID, I really didn't even know that this existed on the internet. I just never had really searched for it. Yeah, that's really cool. It's very surprising. Yeah, also surprising. But we've heard that from other people as well that they might have been around it a little bit here and there, but then COVID and
00:44:26
Speaker
everything just really ramped up their need for like finding a community, which, I mean, I think we all can agree that that has been a part of our lives for the past few years. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a, it's interesting to see out of COVID, how many small businesses have been formed? How many people have found their hobbies? Just because they were searching for something to do, uh, during that time. For sure. For sure. I think it's one of, and unfortunately it's,
00:44:56
Speaker
horrible as whole COVID has been. It's been one of the benefits of it. Well, in the piss poor governmental response, of course, people have really shown their resilience and shown their ingenuity and creativity. Like, yeah, I mean, this show has come out of that.
00:45:17
Speaker
Pretty much. Basically. Pretty much. Not even basically, you know, this has been, because sometimes I tell people about, so of course I tell people about the show, but like I tell people about my life. Like, oh, I take at least 10 pictures of myself every day. It's my fit pic. What is a fit pic? What do you mean a fit pic? Right. It's an outfit picture, a picture of my outfit, which I do daily because people are curious what I am wearing. Some people allegedly are curious what I'm wearing, but it's like you couldn't make it up.
00:45:48
Speaker
It's just a weird, it's just as a weird community that we are all happy to be a part of. Yeah. It's a bunch of nerds finding other nerds to nerd out about things with, like put up boils down to in my opinion. Absolutely. Yeah. Do you, do you, so you're posting on style form regularly at the, like right now, like in 2023 currently, correct?
00:46:13
Speaker
Yes. I don't post fit pics on Style Forum, but I usually comment, especially on the ongoing bespoke projects. I usually talk about Neapolitan tailoring there and some of the Neapolitan tailors that are now coming to New York City.
00:46:33
Speaker
Hell yeah. I will say you dodged a massive bullet by getting onto Style Forum in like 2020 because those message boards used to be, especially the water you're wearing today threads used to be like just roasting people all the fucking time. Vicious. Fucking vicious. And I'm curious as to how it is now. Like I'm hoping a lot of people have chilled out about shit.
00:47:02
Speaker
I mean, by and large, I think there there still is a little bit of that. But I think by and large, people are actually there because they want to have conversations with others in the space for sure, have educated conversations. Yeah, that was always my intent with it. Like it was something that I thought was cool. And like you said, you you wanted to like know that other people also thought the same thing was cool.
00:47:27
Speaker
And just like, yeah, like talk about things and learn. Dude, I can't tell you how much shit that I've learned over the years on message boards. From, you know. When you want someone to pat you on the back, you want someone to like give you some recognition that you do this insane thing every day where you set up a tripod and take a picture of yourself, you know, keep going.
00:47:52
Speaker
for whatever reason. Right. I did not get as many compliments as I would have liked over the years. I mean, I'm not saying that I was a bad poster or whatever, but I'm very particular about shit and people sometimes just can't seem to grasp that I wear the things that I do the way that I do because it makes me feel good.
00:48:13
Speaker
And so it's like, oh, your pants are too short. Motherfucker, I'm five foot nine. Like, I like short pants, I don't want my pants to touch my fucking shoes. Or, yeah, things like that. But yeah, overall, it was a fun thing. But the viciousness of it all was also objectively funny in certain ways, because I'm imagining this 55-year-old lawyer sitting in his office, you know,
00:48:40
Speaker
like berating some kid that just like, Hey, I got my first blue blazer. How does it fit? Oh, this, this is wrong. This is wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Over here. Go out into your yard and set that shit on fire. Like what? How on earth? Like, yo, tell him, tell him how he could change it because that's why he's posting this.
00:49:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think that people are not interested in constructive criticism, time was. I'd say that was one of my biggest pet peeves with the Ivy style Facebook group. Oh, yeah. I can only imagine a fucking Facebook group, what it would be like. Yeah, I think there was like a very rigid thought of like, this is Ivy and there's nothing else if it deviates from that.
00:49:36
Speaker
just absolutely crushing and roasting people. Well, it's like a very tip of Ivy style is a white supremacist ideology. I think it is inarguable. Like there are the Ivy purists. What do you think else they are pure about? I wonder. That's why I was a big fan of Berkeley Breeze before his Instagram went down, because he would basically look at the whole gamut
00:50:06
Speaker
of yearbooks of preparatory schools and show that Ivy style is just not this waspy thing. Totally. But it was integrated into cultures all throughout the US. Not a monolith. Yeah, definitely not a monolith. One of the things that we've talked about in previous episodes is the
00:50:32
Speaker
What's the word I'm looking for? I guess the desire behind a person wearing an Ivy thing, there's so many different things that drive a person into that look.
00:50:47
Speaker
And yeah, like it, whether it's subversion or whether it's conformity is kind of like the root of the question because there's, there's so many different like experiences with ID and trad or whatever and tailoring in general. And that's why we give you so much money, Matt, for making points like that.
00:51:09
Speaker
No, I mean, I think that's really good. I mean, subversion or conformity, like that is kind of the yin-yang of Ivy style. Like, are you doing this in an ironic way? Or are you doing this for real? Like, do you want to go to, do you want to go to Brown? So, yeah, I wanted to ask about tailoring, I guess. You say Neapolitan bespoke tailoring that rings a bell.
00:51:39
Speaker
I think you're, and I don't want to, I don't want to like lavish you with compliments, but like the fit of your clothing is really, really impressive. Like it's uniform, you know, it's across the board. It's like, everything always fits. Everything always looks good. Everything is always flattering. So like, what is the root of that? I mean, was it a trial and error?
00:52:07
Speaker
So I think if I go back to when I first started having to wear tailoring on a daily basis, because I worked in finance. Right, right.
James's Tailored Clothing Journey
00:52:17
Speaker
And we're talking about. If you don't mind, you're like a bond trader? No. So I started off in asset based lending. And then I went to hedge of hedge funds for one of the large international banks. I see. So you're really doing the deed.
00:52:35
Speaker
Yeah. So I mean, it was, it was interesting. I've always enjoyed been having an inquisitive mind. So it was interesting for the time that I did it, but I knew that it was not something that I wanted to do for as a career. Yeah. I would imagine, I would imagine like sometimes if you're not, if you're not of a certain mindset, it could be soul sucking. Yeah. Absolutely. I think you, I think anything that you walk working extremely long hours.
00:53:03
Speaker
you need to be passionate about at some level. If not, it's just exactly that. It's hard to be passionate, truly passionate about money. It is a thing that has nothing. It has no soul. It's a constant quest for that. It's exhausting. I worked in finance too. I was a copywriter and it was my job to write copy that was like,
00:53:32
Speaker
The point was to scare people. Where will you be when the dollar dies? That kind of thing. So I am also happy to not be in that arena any longer. So I guess going back to then when I originally started off in the finance industry, I didn't really have any types of guides. I wouldn't read magazines.
00:54:00
Speaker
I wouldn't really look at the internet. I mean, as we talked about before, it's just started finding kind of this community during COVID. So for me, my only reference was what I had learned when I was in prep school, what I had learned from, you know, my mom's bosses. And it was what you would expect of American tailoring. It was Alden, Allen Edmonds, Brooks Brothers,
00:54:30
Speaker
Jay Press, a little bit of Ralph Lauren. And that, that was kind of the, my base in my first four, four Ray into tailoring. So I, I remember walking in, uh, when, when you joined the finance industry, especially at one of these banks, they would give you a card in discount. Yeah. They would give you a discount. And the discount card was for like several of the men wear places.
00:55:00
Speaker
And I saw that was 20% off the Brooks brothers. And I had never been in a Brooks brothers store in my life. So I went over to the one on fifth Avenue that has since closed. Sadly, we're walking through these doors and just being completely overwhelmed. It was four stories. They had an escalator in the building. You're immediately greeted when you're coming in.
00:55:28
Speaker
And it's like, sir, like, what, what are you looking for? How can I help you today? And I thought to myself, I don't even know what, what I'm looking for. Besides the fact that I know I need to buy clothing. Right. So that, that's how I kind of first started off is just going to Brooks, you know, buying some of the basics of dress shirts, Oxford cloth, button down, the OCBD, OCBDs, Navy blazer, you know, buying the two, the two.
00:55:58
Speaker
two-suit special. And then as I started to evolve, that had always served as my basis for tailoring, like well up into, I would say the past two or three years. And it was through style form and dye work wear that I started learning about different approaches to tailoring outside of the United States. Like what is Italian tailoring? What is British tailoring? What is French tailoring? And, you know, what are the specific nuances of each?
00:56:28
Speaker
Yeah. And I, and I thought to myself, I wear, I still to this day wears nearly three times a week. So I should probably invest money in terms of finding a specific style that I like. It's something I'm going to feel comfortable in that I'm going to be wearing for 13, 14 hours throughout the day. And that's how kind of I ended up gravitating towards Neapolitan tailoring, just because of how unstructured it is.
00:56:57
Speaker
Some people will debate, you know, whether or not it's appropriate as a business suit or whatnot. But for me, it's just something that I put on. Feels like a second sweater feels comfortable. And, um, for the bespoke process, especially if you're going to, to not bully to get it, it's relatively, and I'm going to put that in quotes cheap because if you're looking at a apartment,
00:57:23
Speaker
in the United States through a trunk show, you're easily looking like four to $6,000. And that's not the case for a lot of these Neapolitan houses. What does that run? If you don't mind me asking, I mean, just as an average, like. Well, it depends who's introducing. Yeah. How many of them like what, what, what is the size of the house? Um, but I would say on the low end, you're probably looking at 1200 to 1500 euros.
00:57:53
Speaker
Which is, I mean, not unreasonable, I wouldn't say. That's insanely reasonable. Holy shit. Yeah, for Bespoke, I would say that's very, very reasonable. Yeah. And typically you're going to be capped off unless you're talking about Ruben Nachi, which is probably the largest house in the Neapolitan tailoring.
00:58:13
Speaker
probably I would say around 3,500 to 4,000 euros, which is still a lot less than what you would see from British bespoke. Right. Yeah. I sold Hickey for human at one of my past jobs in a Hickey suit, in a good cloth, not an amazing cloth. It was like 2,500 bucks for a made-to-measure.
00:58:36
Speaker
So yeah, like go, I mean, you know, all things factored in like prying to Napoli, et cetera. Like maybe it's not as like much of a quote unquote deal, but I mean, that's still, that's still absurd to me for like that level of craft. Yeah. Should we, I think, define bespoke just in case there are people who don't know. It means the cloth is spoken for, right? Someone has claimed it. It's a custom order.
00:59:06
Speaker
Yeah. And it kind of differs from made to measure in the sense that you have your own pattern drafted for you rather than using a pre-existing pattern.
00:59:16
Speaker
Yes. And then making tweaks to it. Yes. If you want to go down the deepest of rabbit holes, look at Derek Guy's writing on made to measure versus bespoke versus custom, etc. It's a treasure trove. GQ article that just came out about the disappearing tailors
00:59:37
Speaker
of Napoli. Yeah, also fantastic with James actually. Yeah, amazing, amazing article, beautifully written and a really terrific photography as well. Yeah, honestly, one of the best one of the best GQ articles I've seen and probably 10 years. Yeah, in a long, long time. There was really a standout, like knockout piece, you will read the entire thing in two minutes, like just amazing work. Yeah, it was it was a phenomenal piece. And
01:00:06
Speaker
I was so grateful when you sent it to me. I didn't even know that I was there and then I read it. I was like, this is an excellent piece. Yeah. Well, and this is the whole of it, right? Like otherwise, without this community, I wouldn't have had anyone to send it to.
01:00:19
Speaker
Exactly. Right. I don't have no one to talk about it with. I would have no one to appreciate it with because doing stuff, there is this idea, especially in this country, that doing things alone is virtuous. When in fact, it's hollow. Rugged individuality. Rugged individuality. Fucking. It's so bad. If you can't say, look at this guy's shirt, look at how cool this guy's shirt is. What do you have even? Yeah. It's crazy.
01:00:49
Speaker
So you mentioned being an outdoorsman a couple of times already.
The 3,500 Club Adventures
01:00:56
Speaker
And from our extensive research, we learned that you're a member of a couple of clubs. Yeah. So I had always been an outdoorsy person because my father growing up, he loved being in the outdoors. And if I wasn't going to
01:01:17
Speaker
either see a museum or some sort of musical with my mom on the weekends in New York City, because West New York is so close to the city. I would be outdoors with my father, whether it be fishing, camping, hiking. And because of that, I always just love that kind of ying and yang. I love the city and the energy that it brings, but also just being outdoors, I find to be absolutely therapeutic. And when it came to COVID,
01:01:47
Speaker
my partner and I, we were trying to find something to do together, something that we could leave the house and be able to enjoy. And we started hiking in the Catskills, which is about two, two and a half hour drive for us. So about four to five hours round trip. And we went up there, we did one or two peaks. And then all of a sudden we learned that there was a club called the 3500 Club.
01:02:18
Speaker
And in order to become a member of the 3,500 Club, you need to hike every single peak in the Catskill is about 3,500 feet. You have to hike four of them in the winter. Oh, we said, OK, we're going to we're going to do this together because it's snowy, right? I mean, I assume that it's at least a little snowy. It depending on the winter, it could be a little snowy. I remember when we did one of the peaks, it had recently gotten three feet of snowfall.
01:02:48
Speaker
So we went out there in our snowshoes and somebody was a lot of fun. So you have snowshoes? Yes. That's like real. So you put them onto your boot? Yeah, so exactly. You put your boot and then the snowshoe is attached. There's different attachment points based on the snowshoe. But in New York State, it's very important. In some areas, it's illegal.
01:03:15
Speaker
to hike in the winter after you have eight inches of snow without snow shoes because they can be dangerous. They close something called post holing. So when you are, when it gets warm, all that compact snow underneath starts melting. So when all of a sudden, when you're hiking and if you don't have the snow shoe to displace weight, you could find yourself creating a hole that could be a foot deep.
01:03:44
Speaker
which is dangerous for you and extremely dangerous for other people hiking because when they're hiking, if they get caught up in that hole once it ices over again because of the temperature could lead to a broken leg, a broken ankle. That's why in some areas, it's actually illegal to hike without snowshoes in the winter. Wow. The more you know. Yeah, I never would have considered that in my life.
01:04:14
Speaker
And I love the outdoors. I don't love being in the outdoors.
01:04:20
Speaker
I think my skin is very fair. And so I burn and I also am extremely lazy. So I don't like to walk and hiking at the very least involves walking, if not a little more of a trot. You know what I mean? I have enjoyed it. I like to hike around stuff. It just is daunting. And I don't even know how you would do it in inclement weather. I just am kind of a baby, I guess.
01:04:51
Speaker
I think that that's how many peaks is that? The 3500 club. So it's actually varied. Two of the peaks used to be in private property and the owners no longer allow access. But it was 39 summits in total that we did to become 3500 club members. Jesus. Wow. That's crazy. So did you get a 20% off Brooks Brothers coupon when you got in?
01:05:22
Speaker
When, when I got to the last summit, they gave me that, they gave you an, they gave you an REI membership. REI membership, free membership for life. Hell yeah. That's amazing though. I think that's really cool. What kind of boots do you wear? So I have, I have two boots. I have one for the summer and then one for the winter. For the summer, it's the lots portavia, uh, nucleo.
01:05:46
Speaker
which is actually funny enough, Italian hiking company. Well, because they have a lot, right? Like the Italians make a lot of hiking boots. They do. They make quite a bit of hiking boots. So for those, I mean, I like them because this varies from person to person. Some people don't want ankle support when they're hiking. They feel that they could move freer and cover better distances. I do. So that's more of a high top boot. That seems like
01:06:15
Speaker
Again, I am not an outdoorsman, but like it would seem to me that not supporting your ankle is a bad idea. I think so, but some people prefer not to have ankle support when they're hiking. Do we have a name for them? Is there like a slur for someone who doesn't use ankle support? No, not that I know of at least. Like, I don't know. I don't know what it would be. We'll return. We'll return to that idea. Yeah, let's return to that.
01:06:44
Speaker
And then for the winter ones, I just have ones that I bought at a Columbia outlet probably like 10 years ago. And I love them. I don't even know what model they are, but I've used them for 10 seasons now. And they keep on giving. Oh, that's awesome. Wow. Yeah. Hey, that's quality right there, maybe. Yeah, hell yeah. Being involved with the outdoors and obviously, at this point, things are insanely technical.
Gorpcore Fashion Trend
01:07:14
Speaker
But in recent years, and I'm gonna hate myself for saying this fucking term, but we have seen the eyes of, quote unquote, gorp core. And I can't remember, I think gorp. I think gorp is an acronym for something, but I'm blanking on this. It sure is. What is it? Do you know James? I actually don't. Well, I'll enlighten you guys. It stands for good old raisins and peanuts.
01:07:41
Speaker
Like a trail mix. Like a trail mix, for example. Now I'm even more embarrassed. Now it makes it worse, doesn't it? Yeah, it makes it a lot worse. As if as if gorpcore as a word couldn't be bad enough, the fucking acronym it says. Gorpcore sounds like a death metal genre. Yeah, it sounds like a fucking... Dude, we're in a gorpcore band. I mean, it's pretty heavy, pretty loud.
01:08:06
Speaker
Yeah, to me, Gortcore sounds like a Saw movie title, or like a subtitle. It sounds pornographic also. I mean, it sounds like a euphemism for some reason. We're meandering. Anyway, so yeah, we've got this rise in the fashion world of this particular style of outdoorsy stuff.
01:08:29
Speaker
I guess the jury's still out on what most people are wearing is actually practical for the outdoors versus not. That's not the question. But I would love to hear your take on seeing this kind of shit in a more high fashion element versus you on a summit in the Cascades. I mean, I found it interesting. I've seen it a lot in New York City, especially in the last two years.
01:08:59
Speaker
I've all of a sudden seen people wearing sportiva's Solomon and Solomon has become huge people like that branding. Yeah, the morning the hipster and and Gorpy community. I personally don't have anything against it. I personally don't have anything against it. I mean, I think when it comes to it.
01:09:24
Speaker
fashion style is how you want to express yourself. Totally. And I think maybe it also had some positive influences that some of these lesser known companies that were just out there making outdoor gear have now been able to increase their revenue and create both a fashion stream. Because I think there's while, you know, Gorbkor could be debated whether or not it's seen at Zenith.
01:09:51
Speaker
I think with many of these things in fashion, you see that it comes in waves. So definitely, I think it's going to be something that continues. So I personally think that I think it's it's great for people to to have found this. Maybe it's a bit overkill for a lot of the things they're going to be doing on a daily basis. Right. Right. There's specific reasons for it. But I mean,
01:10:16
Speaker
props to them to find something that they enjoy wearing. I feel like there's definitely a balance to be struck in between an actual everyday fit that is practical and makes you feel good versus a Reddit fit that goes the hardest possible with all of these different elements. Is that really something you want to go get coffee in? A little unnecessary at times, I think.
01:10:46
Speaker
We pride ourselves on this show with being linguistic innovators. And by this, I mean some things are said on this show that I am positive or not said elsewhere on earth by anyone. For example, Gorpkor Zenith. I don't think anyone said that phrase. I bet you are unique in saying that phrase.
Trail Mix: A Snack of Choice?
01:11:11
Speaker
I like it. It struck me.
01:11:13
Speaker
That was a, that was a very, very fantastic way to put it. Right. So you know, and so you know, it's real. So I guess we will wrap up. I have a question for you burning a hole inside me. What kind of trail mix do you like? Do you even like trail mix? Should it have raisins in it? So I don't use trail mix.
01:11:37
Speaker
Are you like a protein shake? Like you have like a bandolier of protein shakes and you're just like guzzling them down? I wish. I actually love RX bars. Yeah, those are good. Yeah, that's usually what I use when I'm on the hiking trail. But yeah, I've never been a fan of troll mix. I don't know something about nuts and raisins and chocolate.
01:12:01
Speaker
So you're anti. I'm pro. I love you. I think you're good. I'm confident in saying that we are a pro trail mix show because I also love trail mix. Hell yeah. We are a Gorpy outfit. I am vegan. I'm definitely the minority when it comes to this. Yeah. I'm vegan, so I have to stay away from ones with M&M or M&M offshoot things in it.
01:12:25
Speaker
Affiliates and I'm affiliates. Yeah when I am like in the middle of nowhere and I stopped a gas station because I need like a snack Like trail mix is is one of the like three things that I regularly choose. I Like to eat things by the handful and so it's good I don't love that. It's nice to eat things. Yeah, I was gonna say one. I was gonna say one more thing, too. I
01:12:51
Speaker
You are like me, James, an incognito Latino. Yeah. I was so shocked when you told me that, by the way. Well, it's very shocking. No one has any clue. But yeah, my grandmother came from Honduras. Honduras. That is very, very cool. Yeah. I get all sorts of stuff. I mean, I think one time a person has actually guessed the correct country that I'm from.
01:13:21
Speaker
But besides that, I get Italian. I live close to a Turkish community. I go into a Turkish restaurant. People are speaking to me in Turkish. I get Turkish. I get Lebanese. I've gotten Southeast Asian. Yeah. I mean, just personally, I can see the Italian. That would have been my guess. Well, and you say Italian, too, which makes it very convincing.
01:13:50
Speaker
But yeah, that was super cool to learn about that. Your background is from Honduras. You just are a nice person. You know that? You're just an extremely nice person. And so it's been awesome to have you on the show. I mean, this has been a long time in the works. And so we're happy that we were finally able to get it. Because you're not sick anymore. I'm a little sick. It's a shitty thing. My voice is not shot from screaming like it was on the last one.
01:14:18
Speaker
Anyway, James, yeah, I just want to echo what Connor said. Thank you for coming on. This has been great. And, uh, we always like to get the guests a chance to shout out themselves or something that they would like to. So here's yours. No, I mean, it's been, it's been a lot of fun. The only thing I would say is I, I really value communicating with other people and the, and
01:14:45
Speaker
in this space, I think it's a really fun community, whether it's via style forum or Instagram. Just the way that Connor sent me over that amazing GQ article. Um, if you ever want to reach out, um, on Instagram, my, my handles, blazers and button downs. So you'll find me there. Always happy to connect with people. Always happy to, to discuss different things, uh, when it comes to this small little community.
01:15:12
Speaker
If you wear tailored clothing or nicer things on the regular, it's a great source of inspiration. Because it, like Connor said, just going to reiterate, it fucking fits perfectly. Yeah, James will talk to you about it, and not even in an annoying, overly long-winded way, just an unlearned way, and a way of knowledge. Yes, yes. Well, the two of you are far too kind, and keep up the podcast, because it's amazing.
01:15:41
Speaker
Thank you very much. You heard it here first. You heard it here first. We certainly appreciate that. And we appreciate everyone that listens. Please rate on whatever your platform of choice is. And follow us too. Follow us at apocalypse studs on Instagram. If you would like to send us an email, I'm going to keep making this fucking stupid joke. It's at, or sorry, it's apocalypse studs at gmail.com.
01:16:11
Speaker
And yeah, thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. Toodaloo.