When people ask me who is the nicest person you've ever interviewed I usually say Paul Smith.
You know, the designer. Lovely man. And I used to like his clothes too. Not that I could ever really afford them. But then it emerged that Tony Blair was wearing Paul Smith shirts (and cheesecake pin-up cufflinks) on a trip to Australia at the start of the century back when he was still Prime Minister and some people still liked him. Not me though. As soon as I read that my dream to buy that Paul Smith jacket began to fade.
I am full of such ridiculous reasons for purchasing, or not purchasing clothes. Every time I walk past a Hugo Boss store I find myself drooling over the sharp cut lines of the suits in the window. But then some vague blurry memory that old Hugo was a bit of a Nazi surfaces and I wipe myself off and walk on. [1] On the other hand Miuccia Prada's past as a bit of a red is a reason to wish I had the money to buy myself a Prada suit. [2]
Of course I accept these are not really sensible reasons to buy or not to buy. Germany is a fine example of a social democracy these days, so I should just get over myself. And the fact that David Cameron says he likes The Smiths hasn't led me to stop liking them so why should the nicest man in fashion not receive my custom?
That said, it's not as if I'm down Harvey Nics that often. I've got one good suit. Linea. Pretty cheap as suits go. But decent. Blue. I like blue, although since I'm colour blind my idea of blue may be a bit purply at the edges.
Personally there are days when I reckon everyone should wear blue. Such days my offcolour Maoist fashion tendency emerges. If we all wore the same thing we wouldn't have to worry about what we wore, would we? When I was younger I used to think we should all wear those uniforms Michael York and Richard Jordan don in my favourite seventies sci-fi film Logan's Run [3]. Dark blue (some of you might say black but it looks dark blue to me)with a light blue stripe. It's the right colour and it looks fine when you're running around shooting people with your ray gun.
This had nothing to do with the fact that York gets to run away with Jenny Agutter. Well not much. Okay, okay, it had quite a lot to do with the fact that York got to run away with Jenny Agutter. Part of me subliminally must have thought that she might like a man in uniform, particularly that uniform. And it's all about dressing to impress, isn't it?
J says she likes me in my blue Linea suit. Just imagine what she'd think if I appeared in my Logan's Run get-up. Wonder if Paul Smith would knock one up for me?
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