INS(oev)IDE #3
Insights and analysis of the clothing and composition of two portraits from my recent upload. Featuring some nostalgic reflections on football jerseys and Nike boots.
Thanks for joining me again for another post in this series. If this is your first time here, consider checking out some of my earlier posts, or my website with all my images. If this isn’t your first time here, welcome back and thanks for returning!
As I mentioned prior, this writing is focused on answering the question of “why did you chose that person/outfit” and when answering I often cite “people wearing things I’d like to wear”, but in this case, “people wearing things I used to wear” (and likely still would).
This week’s analysis stimulates the nostalgic style synapses in my brain. I tend to think nostalgia is over-hyped, maybe it’s my overly rational brain always trying to leave emotional reflections behind, but also attempting to resist the fashion cycle trying to capitalize on riving trends of the past over and over again. I’m definitely at the age now where I’ve seen trends come and go, and return again. But, all that said, in the continued exploration of “why” I am taking these portraits, covering the “who and what” I am choosing to cover in my documentation of this neighborhood, I realized the nostalgic feeling and early influences are in a lot of what my eye gravitates to. Both portraits were sparked by pieces that I have a shared history with and love to see their return in the general lexicon of style these days.
Fit(s) #1
With the Eastside Flea moving over to Union on weekends, I decided to walk by the new location to see if I could get a couple of photos after my usual route up and down Commercial drive. This couple was getting out of their car and of course the throwback Inter jersey caught my eye the second she stepped out of the car. I patiently waited for them to cross the street towards me and the nostalgia wave kicked in immediately and upon closer look, both rocking fire fits.
Some background…I think it was likely my 12th birthday (circa 2001-2002ish?), my interest at the time was readily peaked about everything soccer and my clothing choices were focused on what soccer style had to offer (welcome back, again, Sambas…). It was also the same year that Nike came out with the Freestyle soccer commercials and my brother and I would obsessively watch all of the Nike football commercials on the dedicated website at the time.
An Inter kit was definitely not my first clothing grail, but I distinctly remembering wanting an Inter jersey, and honestly upon reflection, I couldn’t totally tell you why.
Italian heritage? Maybe? Big fan of the team? Kinda? Safe to say the influence of the Nike Football advertising cycle and the rise of the sport in our community were clearly embedded on an adolescent suburban kid trying to find his own personal style expression. Likely, I was just attracted to the iconic nerazzuri color combo and was unsatisfied with getting the “fake” versions back after aunts and uncles would return from trips to Europe. I was laser focused on getting the new release of the “stadium version with the dry-release built in t-shirt”…because you have the performance and the style…right? Long story short, my mom ended up caving in and bringing me to “On The Ball” in St. Catharines to get one for my birthday. It ended up being about 3x too big for my undergrown pre-pubescent body and I think I only wore it once or twice since it never fit quite right. Unfortunately, for me, I have no idea what ended up happening to that gem… Football kits have always had a key place in my wardrobe despite what’s considered “in” at the time and it definitely started with Inter, although my club loyalties have definitely changed since.
All that being said it’s been really fun (although a bit…aging…) to see the soccer fashion cycles return. It’s even better to see people pull off the soccer kit in their own way and I back its return 100%.
On to the photo…normally, I don’t like to overly convince people to take a photo, if I get any sort of hesitation (which this pair showed a bit), I usually just hand a sticker over and say “no problem, maybe next time”, but today, I felt I needed this photo and I’m glad the gentleman was into it and agreed. I knew the colours mixed with the background would be perfect. The blue skies, with blue jeans, and the blue Inter jersey, on a dead street with the mountains in the back, it had to be done. Post-photo editing also showed the orange construction flags help to bring out the fall leaves in the back and of course contrast the blue fall sky, it worked out great and I hope they liked it!
This pairing did a great job wearing the fit and probably, unintentionally, colour coordinating as well. The shoe choices on both are stellar and, like I mentioned in my analysis last week, the pant stacking works both rolled and un-rolled with the shoe combinations. On the left the football kit is worn well with the sleeves rolled and shirt slightly tucked into the belt and I really like the contrast of an athletic top with a more structured and “dressier” shoe, she definitely rocks it way better than I ever did. On the right, the busy-ness of the button down matched with a plain white tee with the dark denim complements the colorful new balances and, although I’m definitely not a fan of the disposable Starbucks cups being in the photo, it definitely adds a layer of “west coast authenticity” to pair with the outdoorsy cut and colour of the shoes. Both fits have a relaxed but thought out aspect, neither probably thought they’d be getting their photo taken, but safe to say I was a fan.
Fit #2
About a week later on commercial, another nostalgic piece hit my eye as this fit crossed the street.
Again, background…I went to a middle-school where LUGZ were the desired boot for the fall/winter. Of course, being from a suburban city, obtaining the coveted footwear of the time was not always easy, or necessarily affordable. Places would sell out quickly especially when you’re an average sized individual such as myself, those mid range shoe sizes (8.5-10.5) often are the first to go. Still wanting to keep up with the trend, I remember seeing the Nike offering in a store and liking the look way more at the time, they were definitely a more athletic cut and weren’t so boxy. To this day, I still have no idea how I ended up getting a pair of ACG at that time considering our choices for shoe stores in the suburbs were never that “ahead of the curve”. I loved those boots and remember ending up enjoying the fact that they weren’t the same as all the LUGZ around the friend group. They still exist in my childhood home to this day which speaks to the quality and longevity of those boots, pretty sure Pete still throws them on to shovel the driveway every now and then.
Back to the fit…This definitely has the “Cascadia in the fall” flavor and the colours mixed with the background accents is what I’d like to draw your attention to.
Join me in the exercise of analyzing the photo from the ground up. Starting at the boots, the beige/yellow Nike’s colour match the newly fallen maple leaves resting on the freshly soaked green grass, which of course conveniently matches the green cargo pants which land nicely on the boot with the slightest draw string taper. The framing from the hips to the shoulders is held together by the grey building in the back which both frames and adds location context to the photo. The cozy Patagonia square chest pocket also balances and matches the black rectangles of the doorway. As your eye continues to move up, the wires help to guide the eye edge to edge, but centering the subject of the photo and add some contrast to the moody clouds. The toque is the final piece, with the Arc'teryx logo complimenting the colour of the boots and leaves in the back as well as the blue accents on the hat matching the peaking blue mountains in the back. Another great fit and of course
Closings
Thanks again for joining me on another analysis of my photos. Sometimes feels strange to analyze my own photos, especially when I’m so stoked on the composition, but like I’ve mentioned, somethings things just work like in the photo above, and I get excited to share the details that excite me, with those who are willing to read.
I’ll have another new series of writing coming soon, so please make sure you stay subscribed and stay tuned!
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I'm loving the insights into young(er) you!