Five Signs of Sartorial Poisoning

The fun of picking up a new passion these days is that you are never really alone in your journey, especially when you engage on social media platforms.

When I started off on my classic menswear journey about half a year ago, I talked about the excitement of my early discoveries on Instagram stories. This led to instant connections with a small group of ‘strange men’ who have over time helped me deepen my knowledge of - and obsession with - all things sartorial.

It didn’t take long for this circle of ‘strange men turned friends’ to expand. And the real fun starts when conversations lead to temptations, consultations, debates and actual purchase decisions. My switch from regular length socks to over-the-calf socks, for example, happened as a result of a single Instagram story message.

Welcome to the brave new world of ‘sartorial poisoning’.

I’ve been massively poisoned, but I lived to tell the tale. No slight pain, no real gain… here are five side effects:

1. You plan your holidays, home trips and weekend getaways around tailoring appointments, trunk shows and sartorial people you want to meet. Rushing from the airport straight to a fitting? Not unusual! Making time for cocktails with people you’ve been chatting with for months and been wanting to meet in real life? Yes, please!

2. Your books orders slant towards your new-found passion and you start reading up and learning from the best names in the business. The same applies to your YouTube playlist and podcasts selection. As your knowledge starts to improve, you begin to truly enjoy conversations with tailors, sartorial shop owners and your ever expanding circle of sartorial friends.

3. Happy with your new sartorial collection, you learn more about garment care and invest time and money on care rituals and maintenance tools. Waiting for months to lay your hands on a USD200 garment brush doesn‘t seem outrageous, and you go the extra mile to find obscure leather creams and waxes. You set aside a little more time towards the cleaning, care and maintenance of your items.

4. You customise your workout routine to stabilise, rather than to bulk up or shed weight significantly. You are happy with your frame and work hard towards ‘locking in’ your current measurements. With the long garment production times of over a year for bespoke suits, you start to rethink your gym routine and protein intake if those expanding thigh muscles affect the drape of your trousers.

5. You ‘break up’ with your former tailors. Once you see the light and embark on a full sartorial reset, nothing in your former wardrobe seems to be good enough. At the earlier stage of your journey, you might be tempted to have your long time local tailor ‘copy’ your first few good pieces. Within weeks, you realise that’s not a wise decision. Sartorial craftsmanship cannot be copied by those who lack access to good fabrics and the necessary skills to create the same effect and results.

I hope you enjoyed this light-hearted listical of behaviours that might be noticed of someone undergoing a sartorial transformation.

The biggest observation I’ve made is that the people you encounter through sartorial explorations tend to be really nice guys who are so open to sharing their knowledge, and so good at listening to your questions and your opinions. Very helpful too when you are making certain decisions and want a second opinion. I am always ready for more fun conversations and poison attacks.

I’d also like to end this post with a disclaimer and word of caution. Going sartorial can be an expensive hobby, and the best advice I have received from the veterans is to take it a little slower. I did start off fast and furious with commissions and purchases from both the top end and medium range, but that was because I was working hard on building my staples.

I have slowed down considerably, and am now taking the time to enjoy and appreciate my collection - and let my bank balance recover - before deciding on my future commissions.

It’s also important not to spend beyond your means. Resist the bad temptations and make sure you are always in control of your decisions. It’s not cool to be in debt as a direct result of any hobby or passion.