The Friday Thing #768

Friday rolls around again….hello.

The Friday Thing #768 begins with a confession. I’ve never really read “the classics” in the way you may expect someone in my line of work to have devoured them. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read a few but there are more on my bookshelf in the ‘waiting to be read’ category than in the ‘read’ category. I think I’ve read more biographies than classics and one of the first I remember was John McEnroe’s “You Cannot Be Serious” – an entertaining read for sure. Another standout for me is Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. I know there are plenty of biographies I ought to have read by now too….but there is time.?

I’m drawn to biographies because I enjoy reading stories about people – their lives, their journeys, their adventures, their highs, their lows and perhaps most importantly, what they have learned along the way. What gems of wisdom can I glean from these travelers of life that I can gather, store away and remix into my own life at some point??

Two such travelers crossed my screen this week courtesy of the October edition of Wallpaper* magazine. The guest editor for the edition is Giorgio Armani – a designer whose clothes I aspired to as a teenager but could never afford. I remember my first real post university paycheck being earmarked and instantly invested into a dark blue suit from Emporio Armani in Manchester, England. It felt special to put that thing on every day and I wore it out within a year, I think. Even before that point, I would make regular pilgrimages from my university town of Loughborough to neighbouring Nottingham simply to visit Paul Smith’s original store and look at things I dreamt of one day owning. At the time, I could only afford the branded toothbrush from the shop and so I bought one – and actually acquired another this summer (I have had other toothbrushes in between I can assure you). It’s fair to say that I am a fan of both designers.?

So, when I saw that Mr. Armani had chosen to invite Sir?Paul?for a conversation about role models, design, the virtue of consistency, the tide of technology, and much more, I was in. It’s not often that I read 4000+ words from start to finish on a digital screen but these two icons of my era captivated me, and I hope you enjoy In conversation: when Giorgio Armani met Paul Smith too. ?

A footnote: Not long after I had finished reading, I hopped in the car and turned on my Spotify Car Thing to play some music. The first song that came up was Paninaro – which I mistakenly remembered as the theme tune for the BBC’s Clothes Show, a must watch weekly tour through fashion that occasionally featured these two icons. Upon further research, I learned that ‘In the Night’ from the Pet Shop Boys was the theme tune…..but then I read about the meaning of Paninaro and sensed that the cosmos had aligned for a moment and perhaps the BBC meant to choose Paninaro as the theme after all!

?cheers & Happy Friday,

?- Steve