Don't Buy It...
How one purchase changed my outlook on buying clothes.
The Paris Syndrome is a common psychiatric condition that can happen to tourists visiting Paris for the first time. It results from the false idealization of an unknown entity, in this case the city of Paris. First time visitors land at Charles de Gaulle and expect to arrive in Europe’s Disneyland, a feast for the senses where all your worries disappear, a magical city where you can fall in love, and gaze at beauty like you have never seen. Visitors quickly realize that whilst Paris is a stunning city, it is nowhere near perfect, and their grand expectations are quickly halted by the reality that no matter how beautiful Paris is, it is not this oasis that they have imagined. The streets are not paved with gold and the food will not change your entire outlook on life, and you won’t fall in love with a Parisian admirer. Now I want to say I love Paris, it is raw and exciting, slow and beautiful while extremely hectic at the same time. Paris is a wonderful city if you know what to expect.
I tell you about this syndrome is because we experience this is daily in our regular life, or at least I do. Most recently my mad pursuit of a jacket made by Husbands Paris (a coincidence I know).
Husbands is a Parisian menswear brand founded by Nicolas Gabard, and their pieces are sublime. From their tweed sport jackets to their zip boots, it is both chic and bold, a perfect marriage to create a brand that stands out from the rest. In a world where micro trends have us jumping from one trend to the next in a matter of weeks, Husbands gives the wearer a strong sense of reassurance. Their aesthetic does not change season to season, no matter how much the industry wants to push their agenda, Husbands stands still. They will not jump on the next “it” look, they are confident in their ideas, and that is something I resonate with strongly. Their campaigns and marketing are truly game changing, and whilst still a relatively small company they have experienced massive growth in the last couple of years.
As you can tell I love the brand. Since I saw that infamous video Mr. Porter published about Husbands I was hooked. I have been wearing suits for a long time and here comes a brand that makes me feel sexy and confident in one. I knew I had to own something from this brand that I have admired for so long. And last year I did just that. I walked into the boutique with my wife threw on a jacket and I said, this is it. This will be the one that ends it all. The constant hunt, the endless nights shall conclude, and this… this will be my magnum opus, my final piece. The purchase of the alternatives, the lookalikes, the lesser of pieces will finally be over. No more looking at jackets and realizing that the lapel is an inch off, or the shoulders are not right the look, or the armhole does not feel the same. My long journey of reading forums and watching videos and educating myself about different cuts and fabrics will now come to an abrupt halt because the piece I so yearned for is now within my grasp. Now I own this item that I have so longed for, and while this jacket is perfect, the moment I took it back to the hotel and I threw it on I felt a sense of emptiness starting to fill my entire body. Not because the item itself wasn’t good, it was just that I built it up to a point that it no longer was a piece of clothing to own but an idea, a state of being. The hunt became a dream that I didn’t want to wake up from, a state of constant pursuit that now that the item was mine had concluded. I woke up from this long slumber and I was met with the reality that this is just a piece of wool, lining, canvassing and buttons.
The reason I have such a need to express these long ramblings is because this experience made me realize that it is the journey that made me happy not the destination. That even if I did not make the purchase the journey was amazing. The amount I learned about tailoring, history and culture was the exciting part and the clothing was just a biproduct, which at the end meant little compared to the rest of my adventure. It is the constant pursuit of knowledge that makes it worthwhile, the art of learning, that childlike spirit of awe and wonder. Because clothing rips, dyes fade, and as time marches on it is the memories that stay with us and shape who we once were and who we will become.
The pursuit of anything can be much like the Paris Syndrome, you plan, you wait, you arrive, and you quickly realize that the waiting and the planning brought the same amount of joy as the visit itself. That some stones are better left untouched… and the allure of a piece of clothing lies in the journey you embark on to be able to once attain them. That sometimes rushing into buying things leaves a sour taste in one’s mouth, the sense of dissatisfaction because at the end there is always the next “perfect” piece, but the journey of attainment is singular.