podcast friday

[sabotabby]

 Today's episode is Canadaland's "The Menswear Guy Ranks Trudeau, Poilievre, and Singh," which is one of those episodes that, beat by beat, goes exactly the way you'd expect and is nevertheless extremely funny.

I am familiar with DieWorkWear because ioplokon sent me some of his stuff and he's hilarious, so of course I was very excited to hear his take on the leaders of our three main political parties. I have a weird thing where I find it fun to hear people in an audio medium discuss something visual like fashion. 

It continues to bother me that authoritarians these days refuse to be snappy dressers because they could afford to dress well and they are choosing not to and we deserve a better-dressed class of fascists.

The conclusion is also exactly what you think it's going to be, and kudos to everyone involved for being a good sport about it.

P.S. I disagree with him about socks. I think fun socks are fun. 

Comments

[oracne]

Fun socks ARE fun.

[sabotabby]

Right???

[ioplokon]

My gut would be Singh is the best and most creative dresser (has a personal style), Trudeau is fine but a bit boring (relied more on his looks than his style when he was younger), and Polievre looks like he borrowed his dad's clothes.

[ioplokon]

Also knowing menswear guy, he probably remarked that PET was a good dresser and would've been a top-tier poster.

[sabotabby]

HAh. Well he did not mention PET because he claimed to know nothing about Canadian politics, but he totally mentioned that Poilievre looks like he borrowed his dad's clothes except in one picture where someone else clearly dressed him.

Singh came mostly out on top but made some weird choices. Trudeau had his moments but was too creative for menswear guy.

[ioplokon]

I actually did listen to it and like 8 minutes in, he mentions that Pierre was a good dresser lmao

[sabotabby]

Just wait.

[ioplokon]

Oh sorry, I mean he mentioned Pierre Trudeau was a good dresser (wrt Justin: 'his dad always dressed well')

[sabotabby]

Ah, I thought you were referring to that one slide where he thought Pierre looked okay.

[ioplokon]

No. But his ignorantly of Canadian politics truly shows in how he let Pierre Trudeau's posting potential go unremarked on. The man would have had Joyce Carol Oates level tweets.

[sabotabby]

He would have been an incredible poster.

[greylock]

You just know, in the wider internet, some random would drive by there making Trudeau all about that One Time.

Polievre looks like he borrowed his dad's clothes.

My mental image of Pierre is the cartoon version of Peter Lorre.
Do with that as you will.

(He occupies 1% of my brain at best and I can't readily picture or hear him. Singh I can. Just)

[sabotabby]

Polievre occupies too much space in my brain b/c he's been appointed dictator. A badly dressed dictator at that.

[greylock]

National politics gets drowned out by International.
I know far, far, far, far too much about the US.
Less about the NZ or UK.
Canada I mostly know about through people like you and Sio.

We have Spud Dutton and Linda Reynolds, and crazy Susssssan Ley. I doubt you'd ever hear about them there. Even Dutts.

[gingeriana]

fun socks are absolute fun! and as long as those are sold, i would never return to boring socks, even/especially when i become a retired grumpy lady (with fun socks, yes)

and i kinda resist the idea that Trudeau somehow monopolised the whole concept of fun socks. he def. didn't plan to, but now everyone immediately thinks of him :)

[sabotabby]

Agreed. Though, to be fair, he was mainly talking about fun socks with otherwise formal menswear. I'm not sure why I'm defending his one take that I disagree with but that's some necessary context.

That said, I saw some really fun socks that had axolotls on them and other fun socks that had ramen on them, and I didn't buy them because they were $19.99????? for $10 more I could have the ugly but comfortable hiking socks with a lifetime warranty, which I will wear much of the time from now on because they are like walking on clouds.

[greylock]

You paid $30 for HIKING socks? And considered the warranty? On SOCKS?

[sabotabby]

I thought it was crazy until I hiked in them. A world of difference.

[greylock]

It continues to bother me that authoritarians these days refuse to be snappy dressers because they could afford to dress well and they are choosing not to and we deserve a better-dressed class of fascists.

Or... no fascists at all.

But they're always been terrible (dressers, whatever). CHA 3s.
I mean, Hitler was a CHA 15 but a COM 8.
#UnearthedArcanaIsReal


P.S. I disagree with him about socks. I think fun socks are fun.

You are a MONSTER!
I have 'fun' socks. But are they?

[sabotabby]

The ideal number of fascists is zero.

But imo it's actually a little easier to communicate to the normies that Fascism Is Happening when they're wearing actual jackboots.

[greylock]

Remember when we didn't have to worry about fascists in mainstream politics?

This is why I am overly invested in US politics.

[sabotabby]

I do not remember, no, because a segment of our conservatives have always been fascist-friendly and fash-adjacent.

[greylock]

They were fringe though. And laughed at.

Now... not so much.

[sabotabby]

Not really.

[greylock]

America's hat as a dark side.

[highlyeccentric]

I am amused by Menswear Guy, and find his advice actually quite useful for figuring out why "dress for the gender you want", in my current job, looks wildly different to my transmasc academic or IT pals.

I am also concerned by how much the twitter left love him; sure, he dunks on the right wing, but he seems pretty conservative in many respects. First I ever heard of him was everyone dunking on him for his WILDLY out of touch idea of "affordable" woollens, for one thing. Sooner or later, there will be a Disappointment.

I also wish, if he's going to teach us all how to dress like British gents of the pre-war period, he'd talk more about "tropical" dress, other than noting the existence of tropical woollens. Barristers are a lost cause, but I'm pretty sute that the businessmen of 1920s Bombay and Singapore weren't dressing the way that their London or New York or even Sydney counterparts did.

[sabotabby]

He strikes me as kind of an old money conservative, or someone who wants the appearance of an old money conservative. Which, yes, always ultimately disappoints but is charming in the meantime.

[sabotabby]

I stand corrected. He's on at least the right side where it matters.

[highlyeccentric]

Oh yeah, he's not Old Money Conservative, he's the Liberal-left Gay Son Of [Old Money Conservatives and/or Wealthy Skilled Migrants]. Pretty solid so far! But he's gonna trip and fall into a puddle of classism or, possibly, some subtype of racism (in the way that relatively well-off descendents of skilled migrants often do, even if they are Not White).

[madamoiselle_sambuca]

Fun socks are everything Sabot. ^^

[sabotabby]

LOL

[madamoiselle_sambuca]

Like Samhain/Halloween 🎃 socks!!!