Peacock Display

To celebrate what is the 25th anniversary of the Paul Smith brand in New York, they have a colorful display of jackets from the past two and a half decades (loaned by the owners, who seem to be fanatical about the label).  Although it is a small collection, there being of course only a few windows in which to showcase it (after all it is not a museum retrospective here, but rather a clever way of advertisement), the many peacock pieces attest to the lasting power of a certain kind of trendiness and buoyancy in mens' fashion among certain types of men.  As for myself, while I do enjoy looking at the Paul Smith shops, especially the ones in London, I find that once I try on any of their clothes, it is as if I am assuming another identity- essentially, not being myself.

With that said, I have been appearing in public quite anonymously as of late- gone is the usual black suit look, replaced by of all things a brown bomber jacket (given to me as a gift by a well intentioned person who has no idea of my taste).  Nonetheless, I have worn it dutifully almost every day and night (except one evening when I wore a double breasted suit), but having done this for two weeks, I thought that I could stand it no longer and then had to buy three new identical black suits.  All that's required now is a little tailor magic and then it's a return to form.