Dal Chodhas' Fashion Manifesto Will Teach You How to Be Chic

It’s interesting, people always want to talk to me about quiet luxury, says Dal Chodha as I begin our conversation by asking him about aesthetics. The writer, editor and CSM The course leader has become known, among many other qualifications, for his monochromatic and voluminous uniform, which is always chic. So part of the reason I, and other writers and journalists, would want to talk to him about quiet luxury is my personal appearance, he admits. But despite appearances, once you engage with Chodha's work, you'll quickly realize that the term is a far cry from what he's actually talking about.

One such work, Chodha's most recent book You have to keep a cool head when it comes to clothes: an appreciation of Cheap Chic, was published this year and constitutes a gateway to academic philosophy. Described as a fan letter, an essay and presented on the page as a sprawling stream of consciousness, the book is a tribute to Cheap chic by Carol Troy and Caterine Milinaire, a thrift store buying guide published in New York in 1975. Chodha discovered the book during an interview with Christophe Lemaire in 2010, when a copy appeared in front of him on the desk of French designers. The edition contains tips such as buying less is buying better, downsizing your wardrobe will make your life easier and, essentially, you can remain anonymous, observe and follow the life you seek in a calm and individual style.

Reading these quotes, and especially the last one, you might think that the original Cheap chic The book professed the same kind of understated approach to fashion as understated luxury, but Chodha disagrees. My frustration with the term quiet luxury, or the idea of ​​tranquility, is just that it's not cool, it's not fashion, and I'm interested in fashion. According to Chodha, quiet luxury allows people to not really have a personality, and not have fun with clothes, while her approach is the opposite. I think the idea of ​​wearing clothes that anonymize the body, or that maybe don't reveal too many parts of your personality, that's what interests me, he says, but that's not me who shuts me up. In fact, I am the one who is aware of the signals given off by clothing. I build and play.

Chodhas An appreciation is certainly not a paean to quiet luxury, so what else is it? The thing about Cheap chic is that if you hear someone talking about it, it might sound like today's rules, explains the writer. That is to say, buy less, buy better. It's a shortcut to buy a nice blazer, buy a good pair of jeans, buy six great t-shirts and a boring pair of Adidas Stan Smiths and that's it and you're sorted. But in reality, this kind of capsule dressing is not the point Chodha wants to emphasize. Buy a fucking amazing embroidered coat anywhere, buy a stupid pair of leather shorts from your favorite designer that you love. Just make sure you respect, use and love these clothes as much as you should. It's more about care and intention, he says.

Much of that care and attention in the original Cheap chic This is of course buying second hand. There is a section in her book where Chodha recalls buying an army jacket in a charity shop in her youth and her parents' horrified reaction. In the story, Chodha advises buying second-hand if you're not grossed out by buying clothes that have lived lives before you, unlike my parents who were horrified by an olive green army surplus I found at Oxfam when I was 17, shouting that we've worked so hard and you're walking around in a dead person's clothes. With this exchange, Chodha reminds us that wearing second-hand clothes isn't as new as silver resale sites and curated vintage boutiques would have us believe, because people have a real aversion to the practice. Despite this, buying second-hand is something we should all do and a real antidote to overconsumption, which Chodha describes as putting more shit into the world.

Every Thing Bella Hadid Wore I Drooled Over in a Copy of the British Vogue when I was 15 Dal Chodha

Although An appreciation is interested in the second-hand consumption of ordinary people like you and me, but also questions the current explosion of archives we see on celebrities on the red carpet. Much of what this practice claims to care about, namely reusing and re-loving fashion that already exists, not producing new clothes unnecessarily, are the same kind of morality that exists. Cheap chic And An appreciation also professes. But the truth is that today's obsession with archives is more about signaling status and siphoning influence from bygone eras of fashion than about proactive sustainability.

This really makes me conflicted, says Chodha. A lot of the clothes that are retired are ones I looked up to growing up. Every thing that Bella Hadid which I carried which I salivated over in a copy of British Vogue when I was 15, 16 or 17 years old. And while Chodha appreciates the fact that celebrity stylists like Law Roach and Karla Welch are now celebrated as those with taste, not their flat avatar clients, this particular practice of wearing second-hand clothing has become so far removed from any kind of ethics that Cheap chic put forward all those years ago. [Celebrities] it's much more about saying, look at the access I can pull to the John Galliano archives from his graduate collection. It is what it is. This performance doesn't bother me, but there is something a little empty about it.

Although Chodha may criticize the dressing of the archives, An appreciation is in no way a call for everyday life, nor an argument against having fun with fashion. If you had no idea who I was, you might read this book and think, “Oh my God, he just wants everyone to walk around carrying Lemaire all the time.” Big, chunky, baggy, beige stuff. And that's not what I want, because the world would look fucking boring. While dressing up in his own uniform for Chodha, he acknowledges that it might not be exactly what everyone wants to do. Instead, he suggests that it would be healthy for everyone to have a little more philosophy about how to dress, rather than getting caught up in the anxiety of maybe I'll do this, maybe -maybe I will do that. This anxiety leads directly to overconsumption, but it can be combatted by truly knowing yourself before buying more clothes. That's the main message, says Chodha. It is not about everyone dressing like a Lemaire model.

You have to keep a cool head when it comes to clothes: an appreciation of Cheap Chic by Dal Choda is published by Tenderbooks and available here.