chop off the bottom of your trousers

Welcome to clipboard, a weekly newsletter about good stuff and Tāmaki Makaurau, by Reilly Hodson. This week: a brief chat about customising your clothes, and some content recommendations for rainy pandemic days.

mild alterations

This week I swooped in on the Crane Brothers clearance sale and bought my first ever garment from them: the above pair of white chinos. Because Crane Brothers is a fancy establishment, the pants came long and unhemmed off the rack, and part of the purchase experience was a couple of pins to set how long they would eventially be.

I had just read this brilliant piece from Atlanta tailor Sid Mashburn about trouser lengths, so I followed his advice and asked for no break, i.e. that my trousers would stop right at the top of a pair of dress shoes, with no overlap. Not quite cropped, but not long. Instantly, these trousers turned from baggy cricket whites into a classy garment that made me want to start ordering espressos in those tiny cups.

It was a reminder of the value that a small change to a piece of clothing can have. Getting trousers hemmed is probably the best example. People have different lengths of legs, after all, why should we all have pants the same length? Whether you’re doing it at home with a pair of scissors (very art school chic) or going to a tailor (something I want to do more often), adjusting a pair of pants, even by a few centimetres, makes a world of difference. It’s one of the reason that Japanese men always look so well put together - their trousers are hemmed perfectly.

Another easy adjustment I’ve taken to making to my clothes is taking a seam ripper to sewn-on labels. If you rip the label off the back of a pair of Dickies, they’re just a nice pair of trousers in a sturdy fabric, and you’ve taken away one external brand from the world, if that’s something you care about. I also cut off the labels on my Reebok Club Cs to make them a little more minimal than they already were - I would definitely recommend.

Clothes are great when you just buy and wear them, but there’s a deep satisfaction that comes from making them truly your own. That’s why they call it personal style, after all.

clips

• Yesterday was Waitangi Day, and I encourage all of you Tangata Tiriti, like me, to think about how you can uphold Te Tiriti principles. This article by Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes in The Spinoff is a good start.

• I loved this article from Rebecca Wadey in Ensemble about the joy of clothes, separate from the whims of fashion.

• I know that this newsletter used to have more hospo content, but honestly, I just read Jean Teng’s Metro Eats every Friday, and I don’t have anything better to say than Jean. If you aren’t already subscribing (to the newsletter AND the magazine!), you should be.

• My favourite one-man cafe, Kind Stranger, is making tote bags in collaboration with artist Aya Y Francis and Doug’s. If you need a new tote, this looks like the one, DM to order.

• I have it on good authority that this Checks Downtown vest, which I have lusted over publicly for some time, is finally dropping this week. In unrelated news, please subscribe with money to clipboard to fund my crippling clothing addiction.

saved for a rainy day

The weather this weekend has been less than excellent, and it’s forecast to stay that way. Add to that record numbers of daily Covid cases, and you’re forgiven if all you want to do for the foreseeable is stay home, like lockdown but by choice - what a concept! If that’s on the cards for you, here are a couple of content recommendations for how to while away your time.

• Wes Anderson’s delightful new film The French Dispatch is on Disney+ now. Perfect for a watch even if you’ve already seen it, plus the ability to pause, rewind and skip ahead means you can just watch the parts you enjoy. A truly excellent flick, especially if you’re an Anderson fan.

• I am not a huge live music- or club-goer, but I am starting to miss being in rooms or fields with a bunch of other people listening to the same music. I’m recapturing some of the energy by watching live performances on YouTube, like all of the Tiny Desk concerts, or this full length performance from my favourite band (fight me) The 1975.

• I have been absolutely hoovering up the new podcast from the team behind Serial, S-Town, etc.: The Trojan Horse Affair. What a wild story, told in an extremely compelling way.

• Apple TV+ began its life as something that you basically got for free and didn’t think about, then it was a great service just to get Ted Lasso, and now it turns out that there are actually some pretty good shows on there? We’ve been enjoying thriller Suspicion, and murder-mystery comedy The Afterparty.

• Speaking of TV, we’ve also devoured the first two episodes of the Gilded Age on Neon, which clipboard reader Sam Brooks aptly described as “Downton Abbey with more Dowager Countesses.” If that appeals to you, you’ll love this show too.

• I’ve been reading Patricia Lockwood’s memoir Priestdaddy, and more than one have snorted laughing out loud, something I have never done while reading a book before.

That’s all for clipboard this week, thanks for reading! Back to normal programming on Sundays from now on, until we next have a long weekend. See you then, and in the meantime you can follow clipboard on instagram, or flick me an email to get in touch.