fashion nova experienced dress
welcome back to the gentleman's gazette! intoday's interview, i speak with david evans, a lawyer turned men's fashion blogger formen over 40. welcome, david! david evans: thank you very much! it's greatto be with you. sven raphael schneider: it's great to haveyou. thanks for being here. i think you are on of the very few men out there who actuallyfocus on not the 20-year-olds, or the 30-year-olds, but older men. how did that happen? tell usmore about that. de: well, i have absolutely no backgroundin fashion or menswear or anything like that. in fact, five years ago, if we've been talking,you probably would have thought that i was rather badly dressed. so, about five yearsago, i decided i want to do some writing and
i thought i'd start a blog to practice mywriting so the next question was "what should i write about?" srs: oh, really. so you just said "i wantto write a book!" but you have no idea what to write about? de: absolutely, yes! and the blog was reallyjust to practice my writing skills and perhaps, put together a few ideas and hone them. ithought of all sorts of things, i thought of a cycling blog and a host of other thingsbut i think i thought that it'd be interesting to talk about something i know very littleabout. something that i can maybe talk about with a little bit of humor because, afterthe age of 40, men find it quite hard knowing
what to dress, where to buy their clothes,so i just thought if it made the blog a bit of a sort of journey or discovery, then maybethat would engage the readers. so, that very briefly is how it started. srs: alright! you know i went through yourblog and i looked at your inaugural posts and you mentioned the influence of your motherand the sartorialist. tell us more about that. de: indeed, yes! just trying to find inspirationfor how i should dress to look a little bit better than i did. i went on to google asi suppose most men would do and i very quickly found the sartorialist. there's one photographhe took a few years ago of all the men at pitti uomo in florence and that was reallymy first inspiration. although i say i really
have no interest in menswear or clothes, orso on, i think there must have been a spark somewhere because my mother was a very, sortof artistic and stylish woman and i suspect that some of that influence maybe rubbed offon me when i was much, much, younger. srs: i see, that's good. but your backgroundis law, is that right? what did you do before? de: yeah, i took a law degree at universityand so, then became a lawyer. i was in the branch of law that we called solicitors, overhere. i did that for, what, approaching 30 years, probably. and then about, 10-12 yearsago, i decided i wanted to do something else and so i re-trained as a teacher. i taughtin a primary school which for us, over here, is for children up to the age of 11, for afew years. i still do a little bit of teaching
but otherwise, i'm now semi-retired really,so, i like to think of myself as a blogger who's also an ex-teacher and an ex-lawyer. srs: wonderful, that's good! so, how old areyou now? de: i'm 61 and a quarter. srs: okay, so yeah, you definitely did gothrough the stages of 40 plus, 50 plus, and now, 60 plus so you have the experience. de: indeed, yes.the demographic of the readersof my blog on google analytic because the largest chunk of my blog are sort of agedabout 40-55 or something and then it became 60 and so i'm wondering whether i'll everget to the stage where i'm much, much, older
than the vast bulk of my readers which couldbe quite interesting and maybe at that stage, i'd have to hand over to somebody younger,i don't know. srs: oh, well. at least, you've been there.you've been in your 40s so you know what it felt like. if i write about men's fashionin, you know, for 40 plus and i'm in my 30s, i think it's less credible. de: i'm not so sure really. i think, nowadays,menswear has such a sort of classic basis. you can be almost any age to write about it.to my surprise, i've got quite a high percentage of readers in their 20s. i think from thefew that i spoken to, what they appreciate is the suits, the brogues, the ties, the pocketsquares. there is a sizeable number of young
men in their 20s and 30s who do dress thatway and it's the same with you over in the states. so either way, i'll advise you, almostwhatever age you are to write about those things. srs: that's true! and sometimes you know,maybe if you have a babyface and you intend to actually want to look older, so dress canbe part of that. there is this tendency in fashion ads to go young but sometimes, especiallyfor men, it's advantageous to look a little more seasoned. you mentioned pitti uomo, wedid in fact, do a piece on the more seasoned gentlemen and how they dress versus the 20-year-oldsbecause it is different. it's more, i would say, flashy and flamboyant than the average60 year old would dress but i think everybody
at pitti uomo is dressed differently thanthe regular person. it just makes sense and it kind of fits in. de: yes! i suppose what's interesting is thatmost of the men at pitti uomo are probably involved in some way in menswear and fashionindustry so they probably tend to dress that way. i think, probably what i'm trying tolook for is something,is a style that men on the street can dress in without necessarilyfeeling too self-conscious. you can take elements from what the men wear at pitti uomo but perhaps,not go quite as extreme. srs: on a more personal level, what were thechallenges you experienced with your wardrobe once you turned 40?
de: i think when i was 40, 21 years ago, icertainly didn't have the interest in clothes as i do now but, thinking back to that periodof time, even without that interest that i have now, the passion for clothes, becauseyou're in that transition from being young to being older, there is a worry about whetheryou can wear that t-shirt or those shorts. now i'm older, should i really be wearingthese things? there are concerns that seem to sort of come to dominate your existencein many ways. i think, it's all sort of encouraged by the menswear industry which you've touchedon earlier, tends to just advertise to much younger men, most models are probably in theirearly 20s in menswear adverts. i think that it probably promotes a slight feeling of concernin the older men. if it's only younger men
who are wearing these things, what shouldi be wearing? srs: exactly! there's this kind of void whereyou just don't know what's going on. de: precisely, yeah! srs: you probably have a chance to speak toyour readers or exchange emails, what are the concerns or challenges they have? whatdo you hear over and over again? de: interestingly, it's quite often price.a lot of men, particularly over here, i don't know whether it's the same with you in thestates, is it right to buy cheap clothing? so, if i write about something which is fairlypricey, i will certainly get a few people commenting that they can buy similar stufffrom x on the high street for sort of a tenth
of the price. so, although i try and coveron the blog, clothing of all prices, i do find it's one of the most regular commentsi get from my readers. the price of something, i do occasionally try to make a point, thatsomething cost more for a reason is because it's good quality, it's going to last longer,it's going to fit better, the quality of materials is going to be better. srs: that's true. when you say made in uk,you mean mostly made in england, is that right? de: no, i mean made in any countries of theunited kingdom, that's what i'm talking about, really. i have on my blog a list of british-mademenswear and i'm really looking at companies that supply or make menswear within thosefour countries.
srs: so, how do you think this is specialcompared to, let's say, made in italy, france, germany, made in us, made in japan. what makesit special for you? de: i don't think i'm claiming it's specialin the sense it's better. i'm writing about it because it's my country and i suppose,i'm interested in it because this is a british thing. it would be equally easy to write aboutthe menswear that was made in japan, or france, or states, where there are very similar movements,i understand. even in china, i gather there's a rise in the sort of pride in made in chinaclothing and some of it is very quality. so, if i lived in the states, i'd probably bedoing something very similar but for american-made menswear, sort of little artisan workshopsthat are producing denim and so on, would
be a great interest to me. srs: you're right! there's a big movementhere too, like just having this kind of boots, and jeans, and shirts, and so forth. de: i think there is a sort of pride to wearingstuff that is made in your country and you can sort of think, well, i am helping theeconomy, i am helping employments, and in a way, maybe that's more rewarding than helpingthe economies of countries that are thousands of miles away. srs: so, we take a step back from the british,uk made and more about age appropriate clothing. how would you define that?
de: i think, looking at it from my perspectiveas the older man, to me, and many may disagree with this, age appropriate clothing is somethingthat's fairly classic in terms of its cut and its style. not too extreme but havingsaid that what interests me is that, i know men of my age who do wear converse and verytight jeans, and harrington jackets, so whatever and they look great in it. so, one of thethings i haven't yet quite got my finger on is why they look so good in what, with otherwise,clothing which would be worn exclusively by younger men. some men manage it and othersdon't. srs: so, would you say, never get too oldfor denim and sneakers? de: no. i don't think they do. denim has beenaround longer than any of us and jeans have
been around longer than any man on the planet.seems quite wrong that it should just be seen as something that's exclusively for youngmen and the older man may want to choose the slightly more relaxed fit because you getto an age where your shape changes, you may not look great enough in a tight pair of jeansbut i don't see why men of any age shouldn't wear jeans and the same with sneakers andtrainers. srs: okay, so, when men get older, thingschange. your hair, it turns gray, your metabolism slows down. let's assume you've already developeda wardrobe in your 20s and 30s, will that have to change once you get into your 40sand 50s? de: i think that's a slow process. i don'tthink you wake up one morning and throw open
the doors of your wardrobe and think oh, ican't wear any of this. it happens slowly, suddenly, you're no longer a 32-inch waistand you might become a 34-inch waist and then a few years later, 36, it goes on like that.i think it sort of happens slowly so, you adapt your style slowly and as your clotheswear out, you change them. srs: are there any colors that work particularlywell with gray hair, in your experience? de: i quite like that gray, silver vibe withgray hair. so, maybe, a gray flannel suit but then you can pick out a bit of color,pocket square and the tie and so on. i like dark blue, i'm wearing a denim shirt and asort of chambray pocket square with a sort of silvery gray, denim jacket. i think thegreat thing about gray hair is that almost
anything will go with it so you probably wantto try bringing out a bit of color, maybe just pops of color around the tie, accessories,and so on. srs: do you find that there are certain patternsthat work better for you now that you have gray hair than before? de: that's quite a difficult question becausei think patterns as a concept is something that i never really thought about longer than5 years ago anyway and so i have no real experience of how i would have treated pattern when ihad in my original hair color. it can, i think probably, i can't really see that having grayhair would make a great deal of difference to be quite honest. i like pattern! i likechecks, glenn checks, and herringbones and
so on. so many of them do have a gray baseto them so they do go well with gray hair. as i was saying earlier, you could bring outthe color in a nice paisley tie, or a pocket square, or striped shirt or something. srs: that's a good point! how about socks?i've heard like older men tell me, you know i got these socks with some color and nowi get compliments all the time, is that something you've experienced as well? de: yeah, i do wear colored socks. i tendto wear plain, colored socks. i'm not a great lover of patterned socks, i think that's somethingyou've got to be very, very, careful with. i remember in my less educated days, in the80s, i used to wear with my pinstripe suit
as a lawyer, i used to wear a sort of disneypattern socks, which, you know, i think about now and i just cringe. so, i think that probablygave me a disliking for patterned socks. yes, i think it can be really interesting to playwith, with color, because we were talking earlier about the gray suit, the gray haireven may be a white shirt and then you could wear a bright blue paisley tie and a brightblue pair of socks with a pair of black shoes. suddenly, what is a very gray look is justlifted by two items of clothing, two accessories which bring a little pop of bright cobaltblue or whatever it is to the look. i think it can really work well. srs: there's always a kind of series of questionsthat we ask people and it's a simple one or
the other and so let's start. oxford or derby? de: for me, derby. simply because the shapeof the oxford isn't so suitable for my poor injured foot so derby. srs: flannel or worsted? de: either! for me, it's going to entirelydepend on the color, the shape, and so on. i have no particular preference on the typeof cloth in that sense. srs: necktie or bowtie? de: unfortunately, i put bowties in the samecategory as cravats. it's something for me to experiment with some time.
srs: absolutely. belts or suspenders? de: well, it's interesting. i just thoughtto experiment with what we call braces and you call it suspenders. i just had a suitmade with buttons or braces for suspenders. i really just tried them out for the firsttime last week so this is a very timely question. i have to say, i really enjoyed the experience.inevitably, i had the braces too tight to start with, i loosen them and loosen them,and loosen them, and ended up with something that was very, very comfortable. so, i think,i'd probably be using those a lot more but for the time being, i'd have to say belt. srs: alright! barrel cuff or french cuff?
de: entirely depends on the circumstances.i'll wear a french cuff, what we call the double cuff, for something fairly formal.so it's sort of horses for courses on that one, for me. srs: undershirt or no undershirt? de: generally, no unless it's very cold inwhich case, i will wear an undershirt, what we call a vest but you call the vest somethingelse. we sort of got this transatlantic terminology clash here, haven't we? (laughs) srs: exactly! so off the rack or bespoke? de: i'd love to say bespoke but like any otherman, i couldn't afford to be bespoke all the
time and so i'd have to say off the rack althoughmy preference would be to have bespoke. srs: tell us more about you current wardrobe.what does it consist of? what does it look like in terms of ratio, bespoke, made to measure,ready to wear? de: at the moment, there's very little bespoke.there's a fair amount of made to measure suit but the vast majority of it is off the peg.of course, being a blogger, i get quite a lot of stuff given to me. having said that,i think it's actually probably a smaller wardrobe than you'd expect from a blogger because itend to have this rule that some stuff that comes in at the bottom, it goes out at thetop and i take it off to a charity shop, i think what you would call a thrift shop. so,i try and keep a fairly small selection, partly
because my wardrobe is physically quite small. srs: so how many suits and sport coats doyou have right now? de: i've probably got about 4 or 5 suits,maybe 6. about the same number of sport coats, maybe 20 shirts, 2 or 3 waistcoats, vestsas you would call them. probably about 15 pairs of brogues, hundreds of pairs of socks,what else haven't i mentioned? probably about 40 ties, something like that, probably about60 pocket squares all stuffed in a drawer, maybe 5 or 6 pairs of chinos, a couple ofpairs of denim jeans, a pair of trainers, about 4 or 5 bags of every sort, leather,tweed, shoulder bags, handbags... not a huge wardrobe really. probably, if i was goingto have a wardrobe of choice it would be three
bespoke suits, one for summer, one for veryformal, and one for sort of in between. maybe ten handmade shirts from turnbull and asseror something, you know but it never quite works out like that, does it? srs: you mentioned a suit that was being madefor you, tell us more about that, the pattern, who makes it? de: my first, sort of proper bespoke suitwas a very nice tweed suit made for me by a tailor in east london, which, very unfortunate,i lost the trousers, i lost the pants on the bus somewhere after i've taken them to berepaired. so, my one bespoke suit is just a jacket at the moment. i've got three offour suits which were made for me, offered
to me as a blogger, made to measure. variousservices where one of them is a service where you all your measurements online and the suitseventually appears. another one was a combination of that. it's quite interesting, those suitsare, you know, they fit reasonably well but not as well, obviously as a bespoke suit.i am having a bespoke morning coat trousers made at the moment by a tailor called cadand the dandy, savile row and that's for my daughter's wedding. i'm also in the middleof a very interesting project with _______ who are in scotland and they weave cloth.they were very kind in inviting me to help, to work with them, to design cloth and thengoing to have that made by, made into a suit by _____ who are very well established tailorson the savile row. the cloth is sort of a
prince of wales check sort of variation sothat, for me, is very exciting because it's a new departure for me to have a truly savilerow bespoke suit. srs: that sounds very exciting! what are thingsyou're planning for the grey fox blog in the future? de: well, one thing i started to do last yearwas a photoshoot where i borrow or call in or i'm given clothing by a brand and i workwith a friend of mine who's a superb personal stylist and a photographer. i'm just photographedwearing their products and the reason i do that is linked to this concern i have thatthese brands are using just young models to sell their products so the older men doesnot really get a chance to see that they do
look good on older men, hopefully. so, that'ssomething i want to do a little bit more of and i'm also interestingly being asked todo various talks and hosted events, which is quite interesting, being put forward asthe guru, the expert, which i don't really think i am but that's a very interesting experiencefor me to sort of pass on the results of my journey so far to all the men in a similarposition to. so, there's plenty happening in a way, almost too much. i think being asuccessful blogger when you're on your own can be great fun but it also brings a lotof pressure. every day i get a dozen or two emails asking me to work with brands or towrite about products, i'm sure you get exactly the same thing. when you're on your own, itcan be very difficult to deal with that simply
because you haven't got enough hours in aday to deal with the administration, and the emails, and so on. all that is a challengewhich i'm trying to work on at the moment. thinking about whether a blog should be commercializedbecause i think when you're a personal blogger in my position, people do like to think thatwhat they're getting is your personal opinion rather than the opinion that's being paidfor. i don't want to stunt the blog development by being suddenly too commercial so, i'm notcomplaining, it's a very interesting period to be going through as a blogger, i reallyfind the whole thing very stimulating and enjoyable. srs: wonderful! thank you very much for theinterview, david. i thought it was very interesting.
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