aBit of… OUR PARENTS
I always find it progressively more difficult to concentrate on my work as the weather gets nicer. The frondescence of springtime gives me visions of closing my laptop and going outside to do something outdoorsy, never mind the fact that people who actually do outdoorsy activities don’t call them “outdoorsy”. I’ve rarely followed through on these impulses, though.
In fact, I have an aversion to taking time off that mostly comes from my dad; he was, like many first-generation immigrants, a straight-ahead, no-nonsense worker who woke up at the crack of dawn and went to bed late at night, working long hours and any jobs he could get in order to make sure my family was fed. Nowadays, he runs his own business, but his habits of keeping busy and being productive have stayed with him - and with me (to a much lesser extent).
I’ve been thinking a lot about my parents these days. We spend most of our time and effort simply experiencing life as the days, nights, and short-form videos whiz by and leave us perpetually dazed, but it turns out there’s quite a bit to unpack when it comes to doing this thing we call living, and it’s important to slow down on occasion and make time to do so. One of these things that I often overlook is just how much, and what exactly, I received from my parents growing up.
I don’t actually recall seeing that much of my parents as a child. They weren’t on bad terms, nor were they separated - they just weren’t home much, mainly because their jobs required the long hours I mentioned earlier, along with long commutes to and from various workplaces throughout the greater Tri-State area. And perhaps for that reason, I paid very close attention to what they wore. It’s not until very recently that I had any idea how much my parents’ taste in apparel affected my own.
My mom was a fan of cardigans, and I had a phase in my early college years where I almost exclusively wore… cardigans. In fact, my first “full-time” job out of high school just so happened to give out cardigans as part of the uniform, and I can neither confirm nor deny that this was the sole reason I stayed there for almost five years. I subsequently swore off cardigans until recently, when my wife got me a nice one from J.Crew for 80% off, and I started carefully incorporating it back into my wardrobe. It’s got this really lovely collar that’s almost like a shawl, but not quite… ahem. Excuse me. I like cardigans.
Likewise, from my father, I inherited an affection for carpenter pants. My dad was never a carpenter, but found these particular pants useful for a variety of tasks where having multiple pockets for tools and accessories comes in handy. To this day, I find that a hammer loop is the single coolest visual aspect of any piece of clothing. He also wore a lot of Dickies double-knee pants, and I distinctly remember wearing them to school in seventh grade, feeling so grown-up and cool wearing a fresh pair of the same beige Dickies my dad wore. In retrospect, his style choices weren’t as intentional as those of my mother’s - he simply picked what was on sale and fit properly - but what he wore certainly impacted me then and continues to do so now.
There are, of course, things that I got from them that ultimately weren’t for me, like their penchant for Repp striped and paisley ties (yikes!). Or my aforementioned inability to take time off of work unless I’m actually debilitated. But the lessons they taught me through their own experiences and observations have created a pretty wonderful base to work with and shape through my search for my own identity.
CHAPTER .24 is a release that pays tribute to these common garments that were still beloved by parents like ours. They are hardy, simple pieces that will work well with any outfit and serve you well for years to come, with our own little touch to make it special and personal.
We hope that this release brings up fond memories of the people who planted in you the seeds of your identity and faced the whole world on your behalf.
Make sure you’re subscribed to our IDENTITY CHASERS mailing list for early access to our CHAPTER .24 release, set to go live on Friday, April 19th at 1PM EST for the public and 11AM EST exclusively for our subscribers.
image of our CHAPTER .24 color story
