20 June

Going back to the distinction between tailored and designer clothes. This is current F1 drivers. All of them, to a man, are badly dressed. All of them to a man are *expensively* dressed, in ‘designer’ clothes. None of the clothes fit them well, the footwear is usually an appalling fit for the suit, and there are various other basic tailoring train wrecks going on. Designer clothes are mostly about status. About branding. Tailored clothes are about functional and beautiful clothing. That distinction has been lost in every sphere now of human life. We have ‘designer’ homes rather than homes tailored to our actual needs. ‘Masterchef’ cookery has replaced good cooks with histrionic displays of wankery. We drive wankpanzers with the aerodynamics of a brick because everybody else does too, and we don’t want to lose our social status by not doing the same. Etc etc etc. This is kidult culture. Adolescents are obsessed with social status, because it’s also their identity and place in the world. It’s now adult life too, and always was, except now adults are ‘branding’ themselves in the same way as adolescents, whereas previously adult life’s status came from position in and contribution towards a master status hierarchy focused on the progress of civilisation. If you don’t believe that, tell me what what grand vision for society adults are now working towards? You won’t find one, instead we’re all encouraged to just ‘live out best lives’, a life of fun and enjoyment and self-improvement. Me me me. A permanent adolescent gap year from reality.