Luis P.

Consultant. Liberal.

[Joe Reeve - 🇬🇧/acc @isnit0]

This is true pro-activism. @paulpowlesland is a real British hero.

Actually improving nature despite legal threats and insane Government bodies.

Really puts the environmental virtue-signallers to shame.

Great piece from @Channel4News

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

There's a simple supply-and-demand answer to this question.

On the supply side, tailoring shops have mostly dried up, especially if you live outside of major cities such as London, Tokyo, and New York City. This doesn't mean that you can't get a good suit outside of these urban centers. But doing so requires a lot more effort and knowledge.

The photo of Cary Grant below was taken to promote the 1940 romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story. When this image was taken, the average man in North America could reasonably expect to be able to to buy a quality suit from a clothier or tailor within driving distance of his home.

Such clothiers and tailors would handle all the details. You would arrive, tell them what you need a suit for (work, wedding, summer, winter), and they would furnish the goods. If you didn't know the social rules or expectations around wearing such clothes, they would tell you. If they didn't know, trade publications such as Apparel Arts of consumer-facing titles such as Esquire would tell them. And then they would pass the information to you.

Today, you have to do all the work yourself. Supposing you know where to buy a good suit (meaning in terms of construction quality), you will have to figure out whether it fits and flatters. Does the shoulder line look right? Why are there divots at the sleevehead? Are the quarters supposed to be this open? For many men, especially those outside of major cities, these are questions they'll have to answer themselves.

Let's now suppose you've done all the proper research and determined that you do, in fact, have a good suit. Now you will need to get it adjusted, as all ready-to-wear tailoring requires some tweaks (such as lowering the collar or adjusting the sleeves). Do you have a local alterations tailor to handle this for you? If you're in a major city, perhaps; if not, then perhaps not.

Let us again suppose you've procured the right suit, got it adjusted, and it looks fantastic. Do you know how to wear it well? Once again, you will have to educate yourself, as most salespeople are not particularly useful in this regard. Many are more concerned about looking young, hip, and fashionable. If you want to wear a suit more classically, like Grant below, you will have to turn to the annoying menswear nerds online, one of whom is snarky progressive non-white immigrant on Twitter.

OK, let's say you've got it all figured out — you have the suit, it's been adjusted, and you've learned all the stupid rules the menswear guy on Twitter talks about.

We now reach the demand side. Most men don't want to dress like this because it makes them stand out. When everyone else is in t-shirts and jeans, or polo shirts and chinos, a gray Glen check suit with a properly knotted tie (four-in-hand, dimple) will make you look very unusual. Grant even has a collar pin in this pic! There are ways you can dress this down — swapping the suit for a sport coat, the shirt and tie for a denim Western shirt, the gray checked trousers for jeans, etc. But you will stand out.

Centuries of Western bias against fashion — an area of culture often deemed too superficial and commercial for "serious" people — means that many people don't want to dress in a way that signals they have an interest in clothes. This goes doubly for men. Since fashion was historically considered not something "serious" people engaged in, and women were pushed out of "serious" professions, such as finance, law, and academia, fashion is often coded as a feminine interest today.

Thus, if you're a man who dresses this way while everyone else dresses much more casually, you face two problems. First, some people may deem you to be superficial and potentially of low intelligence. Second, some may also question whether you're gay or fully masculine (sexuality and gender, of course, being two distinct things, but often conflated in a way that suggests gay men are feminine). People who reify traditional gender norms only make it less likely that this sort of garb will be worn again.

To me, that's the simple story for why most men don't dress like this: it requires much more effort than it did in the past, both in terms of procuring the clothes and knowing how to wear them. Once done successfully, you also have to be a certain kind of character to not care about standing out. It's a supply and demand problem.

[Humble Flow @HumbleFlow]

It’s a shame that almost no one today (myself included) would pass this 1902 Oxford scholarship exam.

People are getting dumber

[Wolfgang Munchau @EuroBriefing]

The German media are reporting that €10bn of the recovery fund money earmarked for Spain ended up in the country’s pension system. This is how the good idea of a eurobond gets killed. Mistrust is not only present. It is justified. This example also goes to show that a eurobond can only work as a sovereign debt instrument of a unified state. If you really care about a eurobond to fortify a capital markets union and the euro as a global currency, you should talk about political union first. Don’t make this a technical discussion.
https://t.co/xhrTyJS1Hq

[Samuel Hughes @SCP_Hughes]

When the roof of Notre Dame burnt down, the French authorities faced a dilemma: replace it with a frivolous modern design, or reconstruct it with timber from the original forest. They eventually chose the latter.

Nineteenth-century architects saw this as a false dichotomy. When the roof of Chartres Cathedral burnt down, they replaced it with a wrought iron structure that is visually indistinguishable (unless you actually go into the loft), but invulnerable to fire and rot.

It is interesting that this rather obvious option – restore the building's beauty while also getting the value of a brilliant modern technology – is now overlooked.

[Luis P. @lsmlpp]

@javiermor4 @rafaelmanher @todoestoro @ApollodorusArch Fue una alternativa propuesta por ApollodorusArch.

[BBC Radio Bristol @BBCRB]

An architecture firm has revealed an alternative vision for the Rec - what do you think? 🏟️

In May, Bath Rugby said they hoped to start development of their own plans in 2024 ➡️ https://t.co/yXqxW8ZJA5

[createstreets @createstreets]

The future CAN be better than the past again.

[Bobby Fijan @bobbyfijan]

Churches have been building housing, and particularly rowhomes, for connected community members for centuries

My brother-in-law was organist at Wells Cathedral in England. They lived in a small 2-story house built for church staff ... in 1348!

[createstreets @createstreets]

The good news is that councils can do something about the degradation of our high streets by applying a visual design code whenever planning permission is triggered. They can also provide seed funding for improvements and work with civic society to show how more attractive & welcoming high streets prosper more. We are working on one right now. Do please get in touch if you would like us to help …

[createstreets @createstreets]

There is nothing infrastructure and infrastructure. This is infrastructure.

[Tesho Akindele @Tesho13]

One of the best real estate projects in the US is about to be built in Edmund, Oklahoma

[Antigone Journal @AntigoneJournal]

Here, if you're interested, are the two exams on Greek and Roman history, military matters, and literature that were set by the Indian Civil Service in 1862.

[Arte en Madrid @ArteEnMadrid]

Preciosas, valiosas figuras del nacimiento barroco portugués (Antonio Ferreira, h. 1700) en barro cocido policromado conservadas en el Museo Arqueológico Nacional. En la Vitrina Cero.

[Wolfgang Munchau @EuroBriefing]

If the Europeans go ahead with the asset sequestration scheme this week, there can be no peace deal. The war will continue, Ukraine will lose more territory, and the Russian money will run out sooner than the Europeans think. And then what? The Europeans have no strategy for peace, and no strategy for victory either. If there is a peace deal, the Russian money will have to be unfrozen. It is quite likely that the deal would commit Russia to invest some of the money in Ukraine, but this would be different from the European plan of a loan to plug Ukraine's deficit.
https://t.co/xhrTyJS1Hq

[Michel-Edouard Leclerc @Leclerc_MEL]

C’est un post très personnel : j’ai adoré la vidéo de Noël publiée par mes collègues et néanmoins concurrents d'@intermarche !

Ce spot, qui cartonne dans le monde entier, a été produit par un petit studio d’animation montpelliérain, Illogic Studio. Outre qu’il n’a pas été produit par IA mais par de vrais dessinateurs (c'eût été bien d’en dire les noms), ce film est une joyeuse allégorie de Noël puisqu’il vise à réunir tous les animaux de la forêt autour d’un "banquet participatif" (je parle en Ségolenien 😉).

C’est aussi une fable sur les préjugés : le loup n’est pas méchant par nature. S’il change son alimentation, il devient fréquentable.😇

Ce petit film est surtout un magnifique plaidoyer pour manger mieux, préserver le vivant, faire la cuisine, se rassembler autour d’habitudes alimentaires favorisant la convivialité...

Alors bravo aux équipes de com d’Intermarché. Les voilà mieux placées qu’une ONG pour exercer une délicate pression sur mon ami Thierry Cotillard, leur président, qui, pour être au diapason de la fable, va devoir faire d’énormes efforts culinaires pour traverser son magasin sans mâter la "cave à maturation" de sa boucherie et filer droit au rayon légumes ! 😂😂

La ratatouille, le régime purée, et les bouillons : j’imagine le supplice pour ce compagnon de table de Christian Prudhomme et de quelques bons mangeurs.

Mais c’est avec une joie non dissimulée que je témoignerai auprès des clients d’Issy et de Boulogne de son nouvel engagement flexitarien. Mon cher Thierry, c’est compatissant mais fraternellement que je t’invite prochainement au restaurant végétarien de ton choix. Joyeux Noël !

[Antigone Journal @AntigoneJournal]

"The English describe scenery as if you'd never seen it before; the Romans as if they were just reminding you of it." (A.B. Ramsay, early 20th cent.)

[Antigone Journal @AntigoneJournal]

Philology – a love of words – is at the heart of the Antigone project. And today, we're delighted to announce a major annual prize for Classical Philology. The winner takes home the *full* Loeb library, and £5,000. Please share this news, and do go visit: https://t.co/0mRwS24nrQ

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

Come with me to Clamart …

[Jean-Claude Golvin @JCGolvin]

LES PALAIS DE PARIS SOUS CHARLES V (1364-1380)

Charles V a réalisé la deuxième grande enceinte de Paris. Elle suivait une boucle abandonnée de la Seine et représentait un agrandissement de la ville, au-delà de l’enceinte de Philippe Auguste, plus petite.

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