really? I am sure you are right, but I don't remember it. although I do remember a number of well I will say girls (they would say women) when I was in law school who knew BMWs back and forwards. One drove a very used one circa 1981. I was out of the loop. Just as I couldn't believe someone could buy an ugly Toyota Corrolla import circa 1980 and agree to pay 1500 dollars over the list price of what maybe 3 grand. Maybe BMWs were an innovation in the late 70s. I suspect they were. Nobody owned one at the new haven cc or maybe I just didn't recognize them. but that may well have been the divide of generational aspiration. Everyone young wanted something foreign. I did just recently make the happy purchase of a Buick Lucern. Not sporty, but very Cadillac.
BMW at some point went from a well-made German car to a well-made, expensive luxury car I think.
Back again! Sorry to resurrect old thread, but winter's fast approaching weather has got me thinking about classic, New England outerwear.
LL Bean Baxter or Maine warden parka's seem to fit the look, and be very functional, if a bit "dowdy" (or is that only the feminine version?)
Bean boots with classic parka over tweed and threadbare button-down, worn with flannel lined chinos or heavy wool trousers?
Don't know how historically accurate, but seems comfortable and no nonsense to me!
Sartorial version of comfort food?
'Heavy Ivy' the Japanese call it.
Rugged.
I think the heart of what some are calling the "New England tradition" is simply buying quality clothes (and other products) that fit you and that will last a long time. The desire to do so wasn't limited to New England, but many of the "tradly" brands so many tout (and are quite good, for the most part), and were based in or are associated with that region in most people's minds, were built on the simple notion that clothes (and other objects that your neighbors will see) should look good and be durable. Labels aren't the issue.
Context is everything.
At the time I just thought he was goofy & he Googled himself half to death to dig up links.
... But then just look at what followed...
Reading him now is much better than reading him then, purely because the standard of 'Trad' has got so much lower.
It can't compete with the Ivy League style stuff anyway. 'Trad' only works on mythology, as soon as you expose all its made-up 'rules' with historical facts all you're left with is something really pathetic for the online 'gentlemen' to natter on about.
But it suits the AAAT market to a T.
Tally Ho!
Last week at the office I was told I looked "preppy". Blue Brooks button-down, well worn flat front khakis, and 20 year old bean boots. Nothing particularly prep, but compared to the black dress shirt crowd, I suppose it stands out.
Yes, it was all very Southern from the start. Harris being a Southerner initially pretending to be a Yankee (badly). Trad really is very little to do with 'That little New England world'.
But it suits the AAAC demographic perfectly. Fantasists who like to indulge in a little class-sturbation.
Just curious, but do you guys read the "trad" forum regularly? If so, it seems your analysis might be better suited to the earlier years of the forum, but says little about its current form. It strikes me that all the early posters, save AlanC, Macarthur, and a few others, have left the forum. The new forum members, as this is the Interwebz, have little interest in Harris, "class-sturbation", or indeed, anything "philosophical" about the clothes we wear. We haven't had a decent, naval-gazing "is this trad" thread in about six months.