To me, 'Sussed' brings to mind an incredibly lame song from the late 70s.
Got yer parka?
I think that was somewhat taking the piss, though... even if they were somehow involved in the mod revival scene, too...
Bump: because I like to re-read bits of this one. Key to the nature of 'Talk Ivy'.
'Sussed?'
Imagine a rather down-at-heel secondary school just off the New Kent Road - not far from the Elephant & Castle in South London. It was called Paragon School. It is now a housing development. But way back then in the 1960s when the school was active, the majority of 'students' were burgeoning villains. Studying for GCE and CSE examinations did not feature in their view of the world, south of the River. Certificates of Secondary Education were for others and were denounced (and pronounced) as "Suss-tificates" on the basis that they appeared to be awarded only to those clever bastards who could "suss things out".
'Sussed': a complete indifference to the external world, yet without being callous. An attachment to the jazz life, to aspects of visual culture, to the natural world in its complexity. A cerebral insularity. An appreciation of colour, texture, provenance, silhouette, lines, heft.
External as in the masses, natural as in... nature... Just doodling...
Oh, heft. The 'heavier side of Ivy', mostly as expressed through cordo wingtips.
In order to be truly 'sussed', never give a fuck about anything other than what matters.
Eliminate all inessentials.
The older you get the less all this sort of stuff seems to matter....
Last edited by Chris_H (2010-08-21 15:09:57)
Interesting that the clothes can become 'more important' even as they're growing 'less important'. It's never going to be a matter of not caring - quite the reverse, as one tries to track down that very specific polo shirt or raincoat. Just because there's a gradual blending in it does not mean the clothing has suffered relegation to the Fourth Division, as it were; and simplicity does not equate to dull.
I'd say it's definitely a plus having lost the urge to be competitive somehow. It should be enough to be in the safe knowledge one knows a thing or two about clothing in general and what suits one in particular so as to be able to just rely on one's personality shining through a basically neutral image rather splendidly
Last edited by Alex Roest (2010-08-25 14:04:43)
It certainly got the online Americans in a spin...
It did, perhaps because The Look in the UK has a narrower focus. It also, however, tends to suffer from the youth-cult hangover.
I didn't express that terribly well. I only meant we don't do 'Trad' etc.
I've just been smiling over this. Chris_H knew what he was talking about. John Gall was either busy making his living or being 'sussed'. I'm less 'sussed' than ever, stumbling over the cobbles in this hilly little town in my Astorflex and wondering when my back is going to stop hurting. 'Coffin-Dodger Ivy'.
It may be different for you but I found wearing gunboats most days to be very beneficial for my back. Slipons and crepe soles for occasional use only. It really sorted my back out. Prior to that I was wearing loafers most days and it was causing problems.
I suppose gunboats do keep your back straighter. But, oh, brother, old bongo player, how my feet ached walking around Nottingham the other week.
This sockless thing, though - I just can't imagine I'd get home without my feet and ankles bleeding. Sticking plaster Ivy. I don't know how Gibson does it.
Better feet ache than back ache.
Sockless is probably top of my ivy I dislike list. It's a bit like sellotape on Weejuns: fine if you're a student, on campus, in the early 1960s.
Last edited by Yuca (2021-10-08 12:37:24)