I'd lay odds only southern lads are sussed.  Up here you didn't stand a cat in hell's chance of being anything like it.  Our thing then was to stand out from the crowd.  Now there is no 'our thing'.  I thought I was 'different', all those moons ago, sporting Timberland and Duffer.  Bollocks, obviously.  Just don't compete these days; can't; just - still - trying to get to know what I really like, which is soft cashmere v-necks and a fresh haircut.  John Simons has always been kind to me - they all have - but I'm no more sussed than our cat.

Having 'Nous' is, I think, the Northern version of the Southern 'Sussed'.

What goes on in the Midlands may also have a name - In fact I bet it does.

This continues to be a favourite thread of mine.  I don't lay awake at night wondering and worrying - there's no bugger round here to look me in the eye and say yea or nay. 
I'm finding blue/grey/black/white combinations are working quite nicely: knitwear, shirt, jeans, shoes.  I do like Allen Edmonds 'Lexington' with Bean denim and navy blue Falke - one of the most comfortable shoes I've owned.  I defy anyone not to feel 'sussed' in a bit of pricy Anglo-made for export cashmere.

another bit that always works for me is a navy jacket (G9, bomber, whatever) with a white based buttondown underneath (more than likely a white shirt with check pattern) so that just the top bits of the collar stick out above the navy jacket....and that's enough to take on the day in full stride

So, who is sussed? Hyancinth Bucket or Onslow?

chetmiles wrote:

Yup.  Burgundy/green is good.  Not sure about grey in the shoe line, though.  Pensioners wear grey shoes in England.

Grey shoes used to crop up a lot in the 80's as a big deal. I tore a Cole Haan advert out of GQ showing some lovely handsewns sadly made from Grey leather. It pissed people off a lot.

- Grey shoes!
- Cole Haan do 'em.
- Rubbish.
- Look.
- Fuck.

AQG wrote:

Chris Kavanaugh wrote:

So, who is sussed? Hyancinth Bucket or Onslow?

Gotta be Onslow.  Poster child for the Working Class is Beautiful movement.

Not the nature of Suss at all. Back to the start of this thread with you! 

I still want to send you back to the start of this thread to be sadistic! 

I'll do a thread on 'Nous' next...  Where's Formby?

I did have a pair of grey shoes back in 1978 or 79.  I also had a red suede pair with a stud fastening.  Both came from a very funky shop where the assistants sat around reading Jean-Paul Sartre while teds steamed in to nick the leather jackets.  All very Chris Sullivan influenced, I suppose.

I've been determined to bring this back to the forefront of the forum; partly to remind myself of why I broke my 'Groucho' rule and posted here in the first place.  Russell Street always had a way with words, didn't he?

I was lying in bed last night, thinking more about this concept of "Suss".


The reason i wanted to post, again, was because this whole concept is so essential to what i believe i attempt to to do (consciously and sub-consciously), sartorially.

To my mind, `suss` is about seeing the whole `wider picture`; it`s about having an acute sense of one`s own very personal style, and it`s connection- or otherwise- to everything around it.Once again, to my mind, there is a very powerful spiritual and soulful dimension to notions of "Suss".

It is about maturity, and about caring very deeply about one`s personal expression of style; and it is about , and borne out of, personal experience- of EVERY kind, to date...

Well, i think you can have very stylish dressers, who you wouldn`t necessarily deem `sussed`.


`Suss`, to me, is related to Style, but is more of a niche and internalised thing, which can be recognised by other travellers  on the same spiritual journey.. It is not necessarily better, or more preferable, to pure & simple stylishness; it is just something slightly different: it`s more subtle.It`s something internalised and spiritual.

To me, suss is about internalising things, and is more concerned with a creative state of personal `being`, than many more obvious displays of creative `projection`.

It is not only about, very ostensibly, seeming to `fit -in` amongst one`s peers (and about attempting to inspire the observer to think that they , too, might wear such clothing ), but about cleverly and subversively tweaking things, and indeed making things not only very comfortable ( and somehow, and on some mysterious, humanistic level, recognisable ,  for the observer) but highly PERSONAL to that wearer concerned.

It`s about internally QUESTIONING things.It`s about a supreme and innate conviction in ones own personal choices (after much deliberation).

It`s about spontaneity, and about the spiritual need to recognise ones commonality with ones fellow man, but also about simultaneously recognising ones own equally important need to express an INDIVIDUAL nature (however subtle or otherwise).

And Obscure clothing choices - as Russell Street so astutely pointed out- can , and will very often, be  integral to conceptions and notions of `Suss`.

Indeed, i think there is something of the spiritual about `suss`. There is a wisdom, and almost an internal recognition that ,on some level, we are all Brothers of Man ; although slightly DIFFERENT, and special. It is a very HUMAN concept.

As i`ve got older, and i`ve accrued more life experience, i`ve become more personally confident in my OWN style, and i`ve moved away from necessarily overt displays of stylishness. I really don`t need the obvious approbation of others.There`s nothing WRONG with overt displays, and i think it would be a dull old world without such displays, but i`m increasingly interested in, and drawn more to, and  by, the internal workings of any `stylists` mind. - ie what are the motivations, the inspirations.What`s really going on in that head of yours? How comfortable are you, really, no, really,  in your own skin? How consistent & authentic is your `Look`, with you the person?

I`m interested in what`s going on inside that persons (stylists) mind? What`s ticking away inside??


Out and out `poseurs` leave me cold. I`m sorry but i see straight through them. No interest.WHATSOEVER....


As i`ve got older i`m honestly more interested in a spiritual connection between an individual and their creative choice of garb. I`m interested in honesty, and authenticity.The connection between a persons soul and their personal expression of dress choice.

I believe, if you are genuinely happy, and contented in your own skin (and you don`t have to have found `God`, but you MUST be in touch with your own personal spiritual realm, and philosophy on life) you will invariably just be dressing `down`; and indeed, your `look`s` will be correspondingly pared down: just as if you were carrying around the spiritual, moral and material austerity of some monk or mysterious Indian `holy man`.

I believe there can be a correlation between the more content you are in in your own skin, the more spiritually confident you are, and the less (clothing) barriers you will be putting up.You will be dressing more soulfully and -consequently- more `pared down`.There will be an absence of superfluousness. What`s being sartorially `said` is , in effect, an essence ...There is an honesty, here.

To me, the sussed dresser thinks very hard about every one of his purchases, and how they`ll fit with his other choices, but once he`s made those choices he`ll put all notions of what to wear at the back of his mind, and he`ll let his SOUL come through- so that each respective clothing choice facing him in his wardrobe will be telling HIM what needs to be worn at that particular moment in time.The clothes will tell YOU what`s got to be worn. He`s listening to his soul and his mysterious, personal antenna- these will give him all his personal answers.

I think the trick is to free your mind, and `let go` enough from caring, so as to to let the clothes speak to YOU.

Yes, Rip, Rig & Panic, i think it`s that whole QUESTIONING thing that is so absorbing.


I really do believe those early, Original Mod/ernist/s had that. They were a `tribe`, but they were also a tribe of individualists, to a greater degree. Perhaps?

I don`t know/ i wasn`t there!

Last edited by jesmond (2010-07-15 05:13:40)