WHY IS ELEGANCE RELEVANT TODAY?
I was taking my seat on a plane a few days ago, when a fellow passenger – a middle-aged man formally decked out in a suit and tie – told me out of the blue, “You’re very elegant,” flashing a smile. I thanked him and the conversation ended. I felt flattered, of course, not least because my attire was far from formal: a black pleated jacket with matching drawstring pants, white T-shirt, black socks, black derbies. Quite monastic if you ask me: I’m all for cler ical restraint.
Was the mild severity what the unknown onlooker perceived as elegance? Was it the loose volume or my stern demeanour? Or was it the fact that, despite being simple, my outfit belied some study? It takes time to put something together as if it required no effort, you know. The compliment left me quizzing, like it came from another era and the abrupt conversation happened at another time in history, around 50 years ago.
Elegance is a concept and a word seemingly at odds with these least elegant of times. No, I am not referring to the ongoing softening of old-school prescriptions, with sportswear taking the lead in almost everybody’s wardrobe. There is an elegant way to wear a hoodie, after all. Elegance is out of sync with the now because elegance is a soft, subtle and gentle quality, while we currently exist in an endless self-streaming shouting match – both literally and metaphorically – with our possibly louder, infinitely aggressive peers.
If elegance is restraint, there is no way to match it to the no-holds-barred contemporary world. Elegance abhors the blatant. However, it is exactly such anachronism that makes it relevant, now more than ever before.We need acts of defiance, in every possible way. Elegance is a shield, maybe a barrier, certainly an antidote to the proliferation of vulgarity, aggressive- ness and bigotry. Personally, I associate it with a well-read mind, politesse and a zing of detachment. It is an aesthetic quality whose core values are all but aesthetic. Elegance is a way of behaving, of looking at the world to act accordingly. Paraphrasing Gandhi to sum it all up: “Elegance is apparent when what you think, what you feel and what you do work in unison.” It takes effort to master such effortlessness. In derbies or trainers, tracksuit or suit, it’s up to you.