issue #2 - pants and fried chicken

Welcome to clipboard, a weekly newsletter by Reilly Hodson about food, clothing, culture and Auckland, New Zealand. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and if you have anything to add, send me an email.

stop wearing pants that don’t fit

Because I’m a vain person, I spend a lot of the time that I’m at university looking at the way people dress. Generally, it’s not good. Campus is filled with maroon t-shirts (not a good colourt), high school leavers jerseys, and most of all, pants that don’t fit! Never fear, though, the clipboard guide to better pants™ is here to help, with two easy steps for pants that make you look like a grown up. Cis men are the worst offenders of Bad Pants, but anyone can benefit from these tips.

Step 1

The very baseline starting point is to stop buying pants which I’ll call Bad Pants, and sell or donate the ones you have. Bad Pants include, but are not limited to:

• Pants with elastic cuffs which are not sweatpants. 

• Drop crotch pants

• Skin-tight pants

• Drop crotch skin-tight pants with elastic cuffs which are not sweatpants.

Once you’ve culled the Bad Pants, it’s time to find some better options. My entry-level suggestion is always a good pair of work pants, which have the benefits of being roomier and therefore more comfortable (and cool), relatively affordable, hardy and long lasting. I can personally vouch for Dickies and Stan Rays, because they fit well, they’re not expensive and they’re almost always in stock. You won’t really need any other non-jean pants until you’re literally suiting up, but if you’re looking to freak it a little more, get in touch and I can point you in the direction of some more advanced pants.

Step two

No matter how good the pants you buy off the rack are, they’ll never fit you exactly how you want. Luckily, there’s an easy fix: get them altered! If you make sure your pants fit in the waist (or just wear a belt) and buy styles which fit well in the leg, what you should be focusing on in alteration is the length. I like my pants to break just at the ankle, above the shoe but not with too much of a gap, but personal preference is key. Once you know how long you like your pants, fix them to be that length. If you want speed and efficiency, you can literally just take to them with some scissors, but if you don’t trust yourself, ask a friend who actually knows how to sew, or take them to get professionally done. 

And there, in two simple steps, you fix a big issue in the way you dress! If you want to go deeper, check out this post from my favourite email newsletter Blackbird Spyplane about how pants should fit, and you can always email or DM me if you want more tips, info or recommendations. Now, links.

clips

• Alice Snedden’s excellent comedy web series ‘Bad News’ is coming back for another season.

• My favourite #menswear blog talks clothes which are emotionally sustainable.

• Tom Scott’s Avantdale Bowling Club is playing the Hollywood Avondale on October 23.

• The Spinoff’s brilliant On The Rag web series has a great ep on cannabis and the upcoming referendum.

• Auckland’s best fancy homewares store Everyday Needs has a sale on, I particularly love this jumper and this bag which is my girlfriend’s favourite of a very large tote collection.

• This is a really good breakdown of the downfall of the fashion industry post-Covid (in the US) through the lens of a very successful pair of sweatpants.

• The Spinoff has a great interview with Marama Davidson, co-leader of the Green Party.

the clipboard fried chicken festival

Yesterday was the Auckland fried chicken festival and I completely missed that it was even happening, so I decided to make my own. You can get very good fried chicken in Auckland without braving big crowds and long lines, here’s a couple of my favourites:

For a burger (or sandwich): Electric Chicken in Morningside and Karangahape Road does the best straight forward fried chicken sandwich.

For some wings: Lowbrow’s fried chicken is famous, with good reason. They’ve mastered the art of chicken salt at that place.

For fancy Korean fried chicken: Ockhee and Gochu both opened in the last couple of months and they both do an excellent Korean fried chicken. I’d give Ockhee the slightest edge, and you can get fried chicken skin there too if you’re feeling naughty. 

For a Dominion Road feed: the chilli chicken at Spicy House is undefeated. One of Auckland’s truly iconic dishes.

recommends

I’ve started a spreadsheet of Auckland spots I recommend, and I’ll mention new additions in the newsletter every week.  I’m open to suggestions on how to organise this thing, I do not know how spreadsheets work (not a business student, sorry). This week:

• The Fried Chicken Hoagie at Good Dog Bad Dog in Commercial Bay is not listed above but it is very delicious, as is everything else I’ve tried there (not to mention great value for money!). Ollie Simon, who, full disclosure, I’ve worked with in the past, does not miss, folks.

• Clay on Karangahape Road is my favourite of the recent spate of natural wine bars. The list is big and scary, but they have great waiters who have never chosen me a bad drink (or hoodwinked me into something too expensive) after a vague “I kind of like this kind of thing” type of conversation. The food is yum, and it’s a great option for an early drink before kicking on somewhere else in the area, too.

notices

• Register to vote! vote.nz

• If you want me to feature something in clipboard, send me an email or DM.

I’m skipping music this week, but you can listen to the soundboard playlist on Apple Music here. See you next Sunday, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram and on email until then. If you enjoy clipboard, please forward it to your coolest friends, and if you received this email as a forward, be sure to subscribe, and know that you are someone’s coolest friend.