31

Reblog

dirtyrichmond:

This picture was taken in December of 2009 and of my first and only encounter with cadets from Benedictine until last week. I stopped them on their way to One Eyed Jacques, that store in Carytown that sells Dungeons and Dragons type role playing games and wolf t-shirts. Last Friday some Benedictine students reported that they have since been banned from One Eyed Jacques. They looked like a lively bunch but also a corps of students that were up to no good.

I’ve always been intrigued of the rigidness, discipline and pride that is associated with wearing uniforms. This is a romanticized idea but keeping ones shoes shined, neatly ironing a shirt before wearing, and properly displaying appendages create a certain level of care for clothes and personal appearance that has somewhat disappeared from men’s dressing by what has been started by “casual Fridays”.

The more I think about it, I believe uniforms serve as a foundation for menswear. I see uniforms as less of “an attempt to make people conform to a code” but more so as a way to induct new members into a greater legacy and heritage beyond themselves. Yes, influenced by the institutional sense of military dress but also of a person being conscious to their own personal style and sticking to it. This happens more in menswear because we are limited to fewer options (pants, shirt, overcoat) but invites the wearer to create their own “uniform” and how they are perceived by the outside world. The picture above was taken while I was in Bangkok, Thailand sometime in late January 2009.