Just dandy

This week seems to be about well-dressed men. I have a weakness for them.

I finally got around to reading a big thick tasty biography of Beau Brummell. Considered Head Dandy of his Georgian generation and many subsequent generations. It’s turning out to be a fine read. Unashamed obsession and manipulation of clothing to social and political ends.

And one of my blog feeds – Happy Mundane – just brought me to a Prada film ‘First Spring’ put together for their Spring 2010 Menswear collection. It is a very beautiful 9 black and white, evocative minutes. Slightly strange. It is also, unsurprisingly, like one long photograph from a fashion campaign. I have always liked arty film shorts, though. This one just has some very well dressed models and great Shanghai scenery to make it more of a treat to the eye.

It was commissioned from Chinese artist Yang Fudong. You can smell the money they must have spent on this. But then Prada have the money to spend and fancy themselves as art collectors and curators, as well as designers.

Overtly commercial undertakings like this obviously find it hard to be considered ‘proper art’ by the cognoscenti. But I’m so well ensconced in all things fashion history that I don’t question much. Worry less. And just enjoy the sight of a well turned-up trouser and a sharp sloping shoulder line.

Tag it

I am someone more excited by the wrapping than the contents. Paper things: bags, labels, small catalogues, fold-out promo cards. And, glory of glories, hang tags.

Hang tags often have a hole punched thorough them (eyeletting), a string attached to them and a little bit of information printed on them. Or perhaps a logo. It’s a good and satisfying combination, makes a lovely object. The ephemeral nature of the things makes them even lovelier. Does this pleasure in small things make me a cheap date? I fear so.

In Heal’s in Manchester at New Year I was cooing over the Orla Kiely products. She has designed a set of furniture, bed wear, towels and other bits for them. It’s not revolutionary stuff; drawing heavily on 1950s and 1960s Scandinavian designs and the paler Ercol designs so collectable now. And why not? But despite that it is covetable. Useable. Understated. Tasteful.

This hang tag was attached by a nice small brass safety pin to a face flannel. There isn’t enough thought about this level of retail detail in my opinion. It really makes the offer so much nicer. Of course, I thought the hang tag much nicer than the actual flannel.

Kiely designs handbags too. They are a sort of right of passage for many of my friends. Ideal for the woman who has grown out of Accessorize and Top Shop but can’t yet afford a Gucci, Chanel or Hermes. They are well made, distinctive, big enough for keeping all that stuff in. Just different enough.