The Real American Life Or Perfect Storm x Jake Davis

Just the right timing. Just the right location. Just the right product. A perfect storm has three different weather-related phenomena combined to create its absoluteness. An equation that can easily be applied to 2008’s own fashionable perfect storm... Classics. This sartorial downpour is actually seven years in the making and is just starting to reach its critical mass in the coming months of 2009. Wake up and smell the thornproof dressing… 

Phenomena number one comes in the Fall of 2001. New York’s alarm clock goes off and no one can find the snooze button. For your stylish narrator the location was a Greenwich Village apartment in the last semester of his senior year at NYU film school. For most it was a television set everywhere in the world except New York’s financial district. In a matter of moments the meaning of American was redefined for all. Shot. Blead. Gasping for breath. Dead? We were left with the why and the lasting impressions that have lead us to today. 

Back to basics in the from of the parts… The people… Like a world-class athlete losing his form, we all reevaluated our lives, meanings, priorities, and yearned for simpler times. Style’s collective subconscious of innovators came up with an answer… Forever, built-to-last, classics… It was in the air and could not be denied and would soon become a tangible series of events that would take several years to unfold. 

Flash forward to 2004… Brendon Babenzien’s nautical inspirations of Noah, by way of the shores of Long Island, are replaced with holiday parties in the deep woods of the Adirondacks. Earnest Sewn introduces C.C. Filson bags, Case & Sons knives, in-house moleskin hacking jackets with fly-fishing details, waxed Barbour coats and Carpe Diem hand-made cobbled boots to the likes of the Thom Browne boys on Little West 12th Street, *the Supreme kids off Lafayette, and the Wall Street types with deep pockets just trying to keep up. The parties were just that… A mix of all the right elements at just the right time. The downtown kid wearing the latest camouflage Red Wings from Harajuka with raw cuffed selvedge, looking at just the right buffalo plaid cruiser on the cedar hanger, getting jocked by just the right Eastern European model, and finally just the right businessmen sucking it all in. 

* The likes of James Jebbia (owner of Supreme & Union) and his staff have been influencing and innovating for years, before ground zero was merely a ton of debris. Union was the first to carry countless classic lines like 68 & Brothers, McNairy Brothers, Evisu, Duffer of St. George, Penfield, Post O'Alls and others. There was a time when the only boutique you could find Clarks was by import through Union. There was no such thing as Originals and Supreme was doing collaborations with Padmore & Barnes (the original Irish manufacturer of Clarks), before David Z. was merely a bridge and tunnel tourist destination. The people associated with the Chapter 4 conglomerate have offered a lot to this city by way of style and unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the media and fashion world has almost always missed the real innovators here. 

In the following year the calm of the perfect storm's synergistic elements approached the shore of my island. Bleecker Street sees the addition of RRL (previously outposted on an inconspicuous nook of Mulberry Street, ironically across the way from Supreme, with no foot traffic, but the true brilliance of the Ralph Lauren brand at full volume for its true heads, the grown-up lo-life). Rugby takes its collegiate inspired designs from the tradition of Newbury Street to the NYU dorms of University Place (where twenty years prior Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin practically invented modern hip-hop). Taavo Somer starts mixing in some irony of his own with the brilliant backwoods staples of his youth in the form of Freeman’s. And when everybody in-the-know was hiking the woods of upstate New York another RRL store pops up on the corner of Prince in Nolita. 

And then there were the true New York hipsters. But a strange thing happened in that summer of ’05. John Leland releases Hip: The History. And a true, genuine, New York subculture dies, just like that, with the publication of one best-seller… like the last words of Mark Twain, like the last joke of Lenny Bruce, like the last blow of Miles Davis.

Hip overdoses.

But an even stranger thing happens… It spawns a new generation of youthful tourists eager to dwell the cheaper parts of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. A flock of recently graduated, wet behind the ears, liberal arts educated idealists searching for their own meaning, career, and path in my beloved city... 

As it seemed all my friends were leaving for the west coast and beyond, a generation of Kansas, Maine, and Oregon raised on irony, lies, and coddling (or syndicated television, the Bush administration, and eighth place trophies) wanted to buy into the culture with their own version of what-it-means-to-be-hip-makeovers. But they also brought an element of their own traditional Americana upbringing in the form of homesick Woolrich buffalo plaids, Bean Boots, and Levi's. 

All a staple of what it means to be American. 

The final element of this perfect storm comes in the form of technology. The best and worst invention of my time… The internet… The blog. At its most beautiful it’s Scott Schuman’s The Sartorialist, which launches late that summer. At its worst, well not much point in even pointing that out. In the coming years each one of these phenomena grow. The realer-than-life instability and virtual collapse of politics and economics begs for the comfort of Mama’s mac-n-cheese, cozy Penfield flannel shirts, and freshly cut wood for the fireplace. More stores and better product from the likes of Ralph Lauren, J.Crew, Supreme, Steven Alan, Jack Spade, Nom De Guerre, Rogues Gallery, Engineered Garments, Woolrich Woolen Mills and others. And finally '08 brings the year of the blog in the form of some of the newest, most inventive, most refreshing entertainment, news, information, stories and visuals from the likes of A Continuous Lean, Men Style, H(Y)R Collective, Selectism, Hypebeast, Kanye West Blog, Valet, Highsnobiety, Inquiring Mind, JJJJound, Secret Forts and me... Yeah, I said it. 

It’s no coincidence that… The break out artists of 2008 prefer buffalo plaids, watchman caps, waxed cotton, and moccasins. The break out designers are all engineering their own version of Americana. And the break out style is classic. Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, Michael Bastian, Daiki Suzuki, Alex Carleton, Stefan Miljanic and others are all part of something much bigger than themselves. Much bigger than the moment. They are not only caught in the eye of the perfect storm. They are the perfect storm... My only hope is that they, we, us… are able to ride it out… 

- Jake Davis

Comments

[Big Kid]

Great thinking man. I have some dope Noah custom pieces in the closet.

[Marcus Troy]

Great read! I appreciate you taking the time to write such an editorial piece.

thanks

Peace
MT

[Jake Davis]

Thanks to everyone that has personally contacted me about this editorial, linked to it, and offered their own insight. I truly appreciate it. And for those that haven't yet, I encourage you to do so because just how we like our clothing, films, music, literature, art, and style this shit is CLASSIC!

Sorry that's my internet voice, I don't usually yell... But for real thanks for the support! I'll keep connecting the dots if you keep coming back... And I'll try to use my indoor voice...

[Ian]

Thanks for trip down memory lane. I enjoyed that. I might disagree about some of the details but I like how you laid out where we've been as New Yorkers the past decade and where we could be going.

[Tom Paine]

Jake:

Thanks for the inspiring post.
All the best and a Happy New Year.

TP

[Katlin]

Beautifully written! It'll be interesting to see where this Americana trend will take us... what events will take place in the next decade that make us rethink the way we live, think and dress. Thanks for making me more aware of my surroundings!

[Chris Mueller]

Jake,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Chris Mueller, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post from today, "The Real American Life or Perfect Storm x Jake Davis."

It struck me on a few levels, all of which I would like to describe, if you wouldn't mind engaging. As a segue to these ideas, I'd like to first tell you that I am fascinated by the metaphor of VISION. Vision, as in, “Seeing the light,” and “I was blind but now I see.” Of blindness vs. sight, of being asleep vs. being awake, of distortion vs. clarity. Vision is an ancient metaphor for enlightenment, transformation, and human spiritual insight. It is the undercurrent to our experience on earth, and I read it as the undercurrent to your post.

Now let's build on it.

Perceptual Shift. I wholeheartedly agree that a perceptual shift in what it means to be American occurred with the events you described. Barack's presidency is also serving as a catalyst for the re-evaluation of our own identities, across all ideological boundaries. What is politics but a war of world views? A great irony is becoming clear, that it is completely inadequate to view American politics through a left vs right, blue vs red paradigm. There are values and ideas that we all share, no matter how much we disagree on how to manifest them. This shift has ruptured the ideological, tectonic plates that we've stood upon so firmly. We realize that we are more alike than different, more interconnected than separate.

Imagination (Visualization). The profound significance of his presidency, along with the economic collapse, has really stimulated our imaginative capacity to visualize new possibilities. We were collectively astonished that Barack emerged victorious. Some thought they'd never see it. Now that we are bearing witness to the unimaginable, we're inspired to imagine what else could be possible. The collective worldview of humanity is shifting, along with our consciousness, and it is moving towards a more inclusive, spiritual mind, slowly separating from the ego-directed mind. We're becoming empowered as we realize that, if we focus and work hard at it, we really can bring the imagination to life.

Insight. Insight, in this case, is looking inward, or self-reflection. The recession has humbled all of us, and as you described, forced us to reflect upon and re-evaluate our lives, along with the institutions and cultures that pattern them. There is a growing discourse that corporate culture must evolve to place the value of humanity and environment at its core. Our financial instability and unpredictability drives a sense of practicality. We gravitate towards the classics, not only because it reflects this sense of humility, not just because we get more mileage out of timeless designs, but because we are seeking timelessness.

Timelessness. In other words, a continual sense of presence. It is the NOW that Echkart Tolle describes so well. It a perceptual shift away from psychological time, away from our attachment to the past, and away from our projected longing for salvation in our imagined future. There is a great awakening occurring, and we're realizing the value of NOW (the present moment), and what this sense of timelessness means.

Fashion. What is fashion but a point-of-view or vision come to material life? What is it but perception management? What is your choice of dress but an exercise in image building, and how you want to be perceived? The ego-directed mind needs to survive, and thus drives our desire to be seen. To be seen is to exist. To be invisible is to perish. So all the advertising, branding, and marketing is done to manage the perceptions of an ego-directed public, to continually chase trends, because being trendy makes you more visible.

Clarity. There is a picture emerging clearer with everyday that we reflect, and as the advertising, branding and marketing industries dissolve: that advertisers can't afford to bombard our eyes with messages like they used to, and with this stillness, we have just enough time to look inwards towards our own spirit. The lubrications that drive consumer culture are running on empty right now, and with that, we are realizing the opportunity to create more meaningful lives. Excessive commodities (and commodities of excess) are losing value. We can't afford most of them, and with that, we're realizing that our lives are just fine (if not better) without them. Conspicuous consumption is now considered inconsiderately distasteful. Wants can no longer be disguised as needs. And as more eyes awaken to these truths, we will realize that we've placed far too great an emphasis on commodities to define our identities and communities.

Technological advancement has given us more tools to be connected, yet we feel more isolated. We have greater access to information, but less knowledgeable people. Blog comments don't feel as good as a stranger's (in-person) compliment. A myspace message doesn't feel as good as a letter from your grandmother. And facebook updates still don't feel as good as getting a call from a great friend you haven't talked to in weeks. Saturn families don't feel quite as authentic as your real family. An Alexander Olch tie can never convey class the way your true character can. Cool has become too easy to appropriate, thanks to A Continuous Lean, Men Style, H(Y)R Collective, Selectism, Hypebeast, Kanye West Blog, Valet, Highsnobiety, Inquiring Mind, JJJJound, Secret Forts and...well...you... Yeah, I said it. (I'm just messin' wit you! I
love your blog and I value the information you post.)

We realize that style is a manifestation of your spirit, not simply a matter of dressing up the surface, and it is our spirits that need healing. As the spiritual-mind emerges, commodity consumption will give way to more meaningful human engagement. There will be a return to knowledge, values, character, and all the things that truly define our humanity. And with that, timelessness, will reign supreme. Yes, Mr. Davis.

We are standing in the EYE of the perfect storm. I see what you mean.

C+ (See Plus). By now you can also see what I mean by this metaphor of Vision. I'm so fascinated by this metaphor that I'm creating an entire business around the concept, called C+. C+ (see plus) means enhancing the way you see the world, to see the world with more clarity. It is bearing witness to the humanity that we all share, inspiring more empathetic individuals, and building stronger communities. If actions derive from thought, then a perceptual shift in the world view is the source of social improvement. Its already happening.

I would love to show you my product line, that is, if you're interested in seeing it.

Seeing Plus. That's a good look.

Thank you for your time, Jake.

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