Wtfoffers I would like to express my gratitude for the ultimate leisure experience. We wanted an aesthetic that was luxurious, casual, cozy, and inviting. I want to wear “Sleep Core” more and more.
People don’t respect sleep. They consider it a “waste of time” and repeat stupid phrases like “you can sleep when you’re dead.” People are addicted to caffeine and have to work through the night, with the unfounded belief that this will somehow move Sisyphean’s workload forward. But all our experience and all science shows that sleep is essential to a decent or productive life. We cannot learn if we do not sleep.
As an American lawyer, I have been immersed in a work-first culture. I’ve heard horror stories from friends. A friend of mine set his alarm clock for an hour every night so he wouldn’t accidentally fall asleep during an emergency call from a client. She was well aware that the human brain was not designed to take this kind of abuse, but her company didn’t seem concerned.
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you probably know that I love tailoring. Although I’m happy to wear it often, I live a fairly casual life, and improving my style necessarily includes improving my casual aesthetic. But while my vision for tailoring is somewhat clear (albeit eclectic), my vision for casual aesthetics has always been a bit elusive and a bit difficult to put into practice.
Common “casual” attire includes denim, T-shirts, and work coats. Although these aesthetics are common, they are not neutral and have implications. hard. Sturdy. It’s durable. I’m not completely against those implications, but they just don’t seem real to me or my life. Goopcore and sportswear-based aesthetics also don’t sit well with me. So what?
I value my leisure time. I value the time I spend with friends and family more than the time I spend hiking or running. Enjoy a good meal and a movie while enjoying a pick-up basketball game or carpentry project. I’ve never served in the military and don’t really want to lean into that aesthetic. I’m not a football hooligan or a cowboy. I’m an urbanite, but I’m not an elitist. Several other aesthetics also resonated with me, including cozy, languid, and intellectual aesthetics, but there was one that drew me in with its own unique magic.
I would like to express my gratitude for the ultimate leisure time. It is at the same time the ultimate intellectual activity and at the same time extremely important for our productivity, without which we cannot live. We wanted an aesthetic that was luxurious, casual, cozy, and inviting. I want to wear “Sleep Core” more and more.
It’s not just loungewear that I want to wear. I don’t just want to wear pajamas. You want to include everything related to sleep: robes, blankets, sheets, pillows. I want to explore sleep on both a literal and figurative level. We want people to feel a deep sense of comfort by wearing pajamas or softer, more comfortable tailoring. This problem needs to be approached both directly and abstractly.
This album reviews themes of sleep evident in a fashion context, as seen in Umit Benin’s selection of carpets, but also belted outerwear in camp colors, linen, and velvet, belted cardigans, and cotton flannel. Tartan checks, shawl collars, pants with visible drawstrings, textures reminiscent of blankets (waffle knits, wool flannel, quilted, Cowichan knits, etc.).
Flannel is cozy and gives you a good night’s sleep. Tweed is rustic. Corduroy is sleepy. Denim is for lumberjacks. Robe coat is sleep. A chore coat is for work. A matching suit will feel much more comfortable when you realize that pajamas are nothing more than a casual suit of silk or cotton flannel.
I’ll also admit that there are elements I’m less interested in incorporating into my wardrobe, like quilts, pillows, and literal pajama shirts (some of us even wear them as casual shirts).
There are practical problems in pursuing this aesthetic. Clothes that match that vibe are often very rare and expensive. There are thousands of brands that make good quality and affordable jeans. The best brands that treat sleep as an aesthetic are often expensive designer brands, with items designed to work within a specific collection rather than necessarily being versatile. It’s hard to save money on this type of clothing, but I’ve been really enjoying it lately. All these issues slowed down my progress. no one will stop me. I hope that by sharing this album you can inspire yourself and further your exploration.
Learn how to celebrate the sacredness of this undervalued third of your life.
Enjoy the playlist we prepared for this album with the help of Chris Lynch.
There’s only one way to start this album. It starts with one of my all-time favorite photo shoots. The shoot, styled and directed by Robert Ravensteiner and photographed by Benoît Peverelli, shows Taddy Klosowski de Laura lying on an intricate stack of carpets, surrounded by various types of pillows and blankets. It is.
This shoot was later recreated for Umit Benin’s Spring/Summer 2019 campaign, God Is Black (Pt. 1), but as is typical of his designs, it did not directly include sleep-related elements. I did. It’s unclear exactly what role Ravensteiner played in this shoot, but he has since worked with Umit Benin and is good friends with other members like Haider Ackermann. This collection may have been a reference, or it may have been styled by Ravensteiner himself.
There will be more Umit Benin on this album in the future. For now, let’s mix things up.
See also:
If you have to stay home, that can be fun too.
—Tom Ford
