The Hardest Button To Button

I n Liverpool, jack white’s road crew are all dressed in three-piece suits and fedora hats, like Prohibition-era mobsters dismantling a speakeasy. This is yet another example of white’s love of uniform and colour schemes. with The white stripes, it was the much-imitated red, white and black outfits; in nashville, the Third man staff all wear black and yellow. jack white’s solo work leans towards a dark blue. while this is partly to stimulate a sense of camaraderie and partly to promote a work ethic, it’s also about white’s own mental filing system.

“when i was at school i had this vHs of a documentary about counterfeit money,” he says. “This designer in europe was saying that american money is the same size and colour but in europe, different denominations have different colours and sizes so you immediately know what you are holding. That’s how i see it. i know that if i’m doing a jack white solo record it’s got a blue colour, Third man is yellow, white stripes is red. i know what goes where. it’s a way of dividing the different projects in my brain.”