Interview: James Cameron
“We now know a brogue from a derby, a peak from a notch. And we should. We also know when we should use this knowledge. Being comfortable because you got it right is better than being comfortable because you got it wrong.” - James Cameron
For so long the idea of a Melbourne man and style was mutually exclusive. It was an awkward arrangement of grooming and presentation only if it meant a beneficial outcome.
Men wore suits with the same aplomb a footballer visits the tribunal or a criminal leaves the court, good from afar, far from good.
Then something happened, there was a shift. Yeah there was some awful stuff in the middle about metro-sexuality and oxymoronic men’s beauty, but a lot of that was just the embryonic stages of something bigger that struggled to find meaning and a suitable definition. Let’s just say they were the years we had to go through to get here.
We worked out that deep V-necks were for dicks with shaved chests, but more importantly, that caring too much is just as bad as caring too little.
Nonchalance is different to not caring and this was the shift, a simple understanding that meant the effeminate damage of the previous years forced upon us (whether subscribed to or not) could be repaired. Things weren’t black and white anymore. Take care of your skin, but maybe draw the line at mascara. Sure your eyes ‘pop’, but what did we say about caring too much?
We grew, we moved on and we got past really pointy shoes in pale mock alligator.
With each setback we gained strength and confidence, footballers still make avoidable mistakes; black tie is for black tie and the only room for creativity is your choice of tailor, not the choice of colour. If you’re wondering, yes, brown is wrong despite the name of the medal.
Leave fashion to the victims and style to the men.
James Cameron is a Melbourne tailor, author and freelance fashion designer. James has developed and advised on clothing design for some of Melbourne's best known menswear labels, fashion stores as well as his own eponymous label. James writes for The Age Melbourne, Broadsheet and several other fashion publications.
