Outfit 1: Inexperienced wire swimsuit

• Go well with: Schaap tailors, inexperienced 700g Holland & Sherry wire
• Jumper: De Bonne Facture
• Shirt: J Press
• Tie: Drake’s
• Sneakers: Alden cordovan, modified final
• Socks: Frans Boone
• Watch: Sixties IWC

Hello Bent. How would you describe what you do?

I’d say I discover it laborious to focus on only one factor! However no, I reside in Belgium and the lion’s share of my life was spent in music. I used to be in a band [Das Pop] and made some solo information; I spent 20 years in bands, touring the world, all that stuff. 

However I seen that doing music, solely music, didn’t actually work for me, though it was what was anticipated. And I’d studied portray initially – I at all times had one foot within the artwork world, one within the music world. I additionally needed one thing extra for my head, extra considerate. So I ended up doing radio, presenting a tradition present right here in Belgium. That’s what I do largely at this time.

I’d say the constant factor there’s enthusiasms for many issues, fairly than something like a straight path. 

And the way lengthy have you ever been into garments?

From very early childhood truly. I used to be transfixed early on by garments and what they might imply. My grandfather was somebody who at all times wore tweed jackets and fits, and wherever I used to learn a kids’s e-book, I’d ask my mom to make me garments like the principle character. So there was a interval the place I went to highschool in farmer’s apparel, full with picket footwear stuffed with straw.

You’re kidding! How lengthy did that final?

Effectively, longer than the headmaster preferred. He wasn’t too charmed. Nevertheless it was actually my method of placing myself on the market you already know, and I assume it nonetheless is. 

In kids’s books the garments are sometimes intentionally excessive, to create a personality. So that you have been at all times going to return throughout as one thing excessive. 

You’re proper, however it all appeared fully regular on the time. 

I’ve at all times discovered it fascinating how the villains in tales are portrayed as dandies. They’re a bit too sensible, a bit too flashy. Loud colors, tie pins, spectator footwear.

That’s proper, and in Disney movies too. At all times very snappy and fairly camp. 

The inexperienced wire swimsuit you’re carrying right here is fairly daring. Is that this typical for you?

Sure I’d say so, although it was actually a big gamble on the time. It appeared contemporary to me, one thing David Hockney may have worn I assume, which spoke to me. 

Then as quickly as I put it on, it was essentially the most pure, most snug piece of tailoring I’d had – it’s like a tracksuit, but the color additionally means it has this sort of aura round it. It’s the piece I put on essentially the most, oddly. You’d suppose it could be a form of now-and-then factor, however no. 

Are there occasions when a big gamble like that hasn’t paid off?

Sure completely. Generally you simply don’t know – you suppose one thing shall be very versatile, that you just’ll put on the hell out of it, and it doesn’t show to be the case. It’s laborious to know for certain. 

If I haven’t worn one thing for a yr, I are inclined to suppose I ought to move it on, discover another person who will put on it. That’s occurred to me with navy fits. I’ve tried a couple of, since you at all times hear that’s the factor it is best to actually have, that everybody ought to have. Nevertheless it’s by no means actually caught. 

It doesn’t really feel, at the least from the occasions we’ve met, that you just’re a navy swimsuit form of man.

No, I’ve loved carrying them and so they maintain a whole lot of that means – I like what they stand for. However maybe you’re proper, maybe it isn’t me. 

Outfit 2: Dries

• Jacket: Classic tweed, from Crowley Classic
• Sweater: Dries van Noten
• Chinos: Forties classic, from Le Vif
• T-shirt: Norse Tasks
• Beret: AWMS
• Socks: AWMS
• Sneakers: Quoddy for Beige

How a lot does that concept of that means have an effect on the way you gown?

Quite a bit I believe, in that I’m actually within the energy a garment can maintain, the way it can affect how you progress by the day and thru your life. 

How does it have an effect on your day?

I really feel like all of the items I maintain round are infused with this sort of that means. Each time I put one thing on I cloak myself in that that means, if that is sensible. 

So are you saying explicit garments have private that means for you, or {that a} sort of garment has that means in the way in which it’s seen in society?

Each I assume. As a result of garments have a historical past, they’ve a context and a cultural significance; however then they at all times some private significance as effectively. 

Are you able to give us an instance?

Positive, so I saved up – when it comes to money and time – for my first tweed jacket once I was about 30. It was a really tough Harris Tweed, very basic, and really costly for me on the time. 

I had promised myself that I’d purchase this jacket once I had completed writing a specific brief story, so once I did it was like a second of emancipation, like I used to be permitting myself to be that man. The sort that wore a tweed jacket and all the general public associations – East Coast college, educational, oxford, all that stuff. 

So it was like a second you have been permitting your self to be extra grown-up, extra grownup?

Precisely, precisely. 

You’re carrying a sweater from Dries Van Noten right here. How do you see the worth of designer manufacturers in comparison with extra basic menswear?

Effectively I like Dries van Noten – unbelievable stylist, fantastically good man. Antwerp-based so I do know lots of people that work for him, and I do know him a little bit. I like his universe. 

I put on extra basic menswear as a result of it’s much less susceptible to alter, however I like style as a window in the direction of the doable you already know? A present is sort of a stroll by the top of a designer. They’ll present you this view of extremity, however then there’ll at all times be extra acquainted issues you should buy into as effectively. 

That’s fascinating, as a result of generally readers discover style a little bit alienating, too excessive to actually join with. 

Sure I get that. For me I like the richness of clothes and a present is an exploration of that, a mining of a specific inspiration and sometimes a time, filtered by the view of this one individual. It has a freshness at all times, and supplies context for all of the extra conventional clothes. 

What different designers do you want?

One other Belgian man, Raf Simons in fact. Additionally strongly rooted in basic menswear however keen to go very far out. Then Italians, Prada and its interpretation of their traditions too. 

Outfit 3: 

• Overcoat: De Bonne Facture
• Jacket: Drake’s
• Sweater: Frans Boone
• Trouser: Adret
• Belt: Uniqlo
• Sneakers: Alden modified final, Colour 8 cordovan
• Cap: Classic, McDonald’s Olympics sponsorship

How a lot has your perspective to clothes been influenced by the truth that you’ve been a performer for a lot of your life?

Quite a bit in all probability. The way in which I’ve at all times seen pop music, the visible is simply as essential because the aural. I’ve at all times liked enjoying with it, being adventurous for this, and possibly even doing issues that will shock my contemporaries.

What sort of factor?

Effectively, I’d play a present in a brilliant purple ski outfit, that was truly in all probability a girls’s ski outfit. However the way in which it made me really feel, effectively it made me really feel like a stupendous house man. So all of it labored out. 

Wonderful. I used to be going to ask truly how what you wore on stage differed to what you wore in regular life, however it sounds it was mainly taken up a notch?

Effectively, sure taken up a notch, you need a little bit extra shake, a little bit extra drama. However a little bit extra sophistication too. So I wish to put on fairly rugged issues through the day, tweed and corduroy, however through the evening there may be some satin, some shine, some velvet. 

Has that modified because you’ve stopped performing, or has it just about stayed the identical?

It’s actually fascinating as a result of I’m about to carry out once more, in Might, after a protracted hiatus. So I’m now pondering what I’m going to do on stage, I’m in the midst of fascinated about it truly. 

Will or not it’s a little bit extra grown-up, now you’re older?

I assume the purple ski outfits are a factor of the previous. I may need one thing made, some tailoring, maybe a pastel. I’ve this tailor, Schaap, that’s fairly keen to strive various things and that helps so much. 

Do you suppose you may develop a form of uniform, I’m pondering of somebody like Nick Cave together with his black fits and big-collared shirts. Artists are inclined to develop into extra constant however in some methods additionally extra themselves, as they get older. 

Sure I can undoubtedly see that. I believe it’s one thing you simply should really feel, how the garments make you are feeling. 

Your Aldens listed below are all on the modified final, is that essentially the most snug for you?

Sure actually it’s the one form of leather-based shoe I can put on with out an [orthopaedic] insole. I’ve them from each Paris and New York, so naturally the Parisian ones are one dimension bigger! 

Ha! And which do you like, the Anatomica sizing or the Moulded Shoe? 

The Parisian I believe, they’re extra snug. 

You solely have the one watch right here, an outdated IWC. I believe you mentioned you’re not a lot of a watch man?

Sure although it’s largely a budgetary factor. I’m the watch man I can afford to be!

There’s a honest vary in costs of issues on this outfit as effectively, from Adret cords to a Uniqlo belt. How do you see that distinction?

I spend extra on jackets and footwear usually; shetland sweaters by no means final very lengthy so it’s ridiculous to spend an excessive amount of on them. 

These Adret cords have been very costly however I used to be instantly smitten with that outdated Nineteen Eighties corduroy once I noticed it; it was like nothing else. So sure that yr my kids needed to eat nothing however salted peanuts. 

Nevertheless it relies upon what you need out of clothes. The belt is from Uniqlo however it’s sturdy and its aged effectively. There’s solely a lot you are able to do with a brown leather-based belt; however then generally you must permit your self to be bedazzled by one thing, like that Adret corduroy and the way in which it was made. 

Some issues are only a query of operate – I picked up that belt years in the past and I’ve preferred the way it’s gained this patina so I’ve saved it. Whereas different issues are about magnificence and romance. It’s usually a mistake to worth all garments by the identical elements. 

Fantastic, thanks Bent. Any closing ideas? 

I purchase a good quantity of garments, actually in comparison with the traditional man; however I purchase sturdy issues and I usually go weeks fascinated about one thing earlier than I purchase it. I believe that’s a smart strategy, and when you do it thoughtfully and don’t purchase an excessive amount of, it’s doable to construct a wardrobe that could be very satisfying and appropriate to your self as an individual. 

Excellent.