New Life for Old Things: The Rough Repair

As you may have guessed, I like to keep stuff. I don't like to throw things away, and I will always consider a repair before a replacement. Sometimes this means paying for crafstmanship, as with a tailor or cobbler. Other times, it means giving up the ship and admitting defeat. Between these two concepts is the rough hewn, home made repair. This method is not for everything, but if used sparingly, I think it can have it's own kind of charm. To wit:

Remember those slippers so many of you hated so much when I got them? Tom's by way of Ralph Rugby and covered with skull and bones? Incorigible things, but I like them. They have served me well as house slippers. But, they're cloth, and they rip. In my case, at the edge of my baby toe on both sides. After wearing them like this for a month or more, I finally decided to patch the holes. You can take the man out of the punk band but you can't take the punk...well , you get the picture. A lot of what goes on in the land of punk rock may be kid stuff, but there is a certain aesthetic to it that I don't mind seeing every once in a while. Like an old friend who drinks too much, it's great in small doses.

The patches are cut from an old Andover Shop tie, a sacrilege to be sure, but that old bit of silk had long ago worn out it's usefulness as neckwear, and at least this way it gets a second spin. The yellow thread was of course chosen on purpose. Say and think what you will, but I find the idea of gourmet designer slippers with a moralistic twist bought second hand and repaired with old silk from a once luxurious necktie in a distinctly hard-edged fashion to be kind of, you know, badass. This whole blending of "punk" aesthetic with "preppy" aesthetic may be very Ralph Rugby, very shopping mall, I grant you, The difference lies in doing it by hand, yourself, to your own things...That, and not doing it all the time. I'll probably continue to patch them in a similar way for another year. For a while, they'll only get better, and I'll have a use for some of those ripped and stained ties I can't seem to part with. They'll continue to be my house slippers, where I can enjoy them without inflicting the sight of them on any innocents. Then, one day, they'll die, and you can all breath a collective sigh of relief and pray that I spring for some of those poncy velvet things that seem to be all the rage these days.

p.s. If I haven't lost you completely, as I may well have with this post, feel free to peruse the newest Spring/Summer offerings available in the shop.