Old-Fashioned
On Mid-Century Elegance, the Discipline of Presentation, and What the Modern Professional has Forgotten
Recently, I have been diving deep into the world of ‘design’ — specifically, interior and architecture.
With some essential reason in my work, I needed to become fluent in it in order to accomplish the duty itself — and that has led me to ‘Taschen’, the publication that devotes itself to the world of ‘lesser-known’ art and makes it exposed to the public.
Even at first sight, it might seem like a typical coffee table book that serves more on the side of vanity than substantial message inside — but the one (or two) that I have read are far from it. Both contained iconic images of the Kaufmann House, featuring the name Neutra, and the other is none other than the Stahl House, with the name Koenig.
These two allowed me to understand and get used to the other language of ‘Mid-Century’ — the design world, from the ideology behind the architecture, to the very components of furniture, colour, and the dwelling experience one would have.
However, there was another thing that made me notice — the elegance of the professional class in the last century.
Ladies and gentlemen, take a look at these icons:
When you look at them — what do you see?
At Renaissance Flâneur, there have been plenty of times when I used the images of actors and actresses — icons who symbolised the ideal elegance of a bygone era — as the ‘appendix’ completing each editorial. But these figures I have named above, though their ‘faces’ and overall appearance are far from the gifted genetics that embody the ideal masculine and feminine, possess no less elegance than the eternal grace of Claudia Cardinale, or the composure of Gary Cooper.
The impression they leave is one of ‘competency’, ‘professionalism’, and the sense that ‘this man, or this woman, will get their job done in an excellent manner’.
The matter of interest is ‘Why?’
Why is the image of people who put intention into what they wear — to do the work — so significant, and so influential on the ‘perception’ we have of them?
And what are the qualities that modern day has — somewhat — forgotten to retain from those icons?
One thing I can reassure you of is this: it is more than just wearing tailoring, or high-quality clothes. (Though that affects it in some way.)
It is more about the fact that Identity, Appearance, and Elegance are inseparable. And contemporary life has somewhere discarded that along the way of civilizational progression.
