The advertisement read: “While laudable efforts are made by elderly pop icons to feed the world’s hungry millions, children too poor to clothe themselves adequately are roaming our inner cities dressed in their PE kit. Please help us to smarten up our children! Children in Tweed will collect unwanted items of tweed suits, hats and coats, and distribute them to the nation’s youth. One hacking jacket could raise the self-esteem of an entire housing estate.”
Condescending? Meet the Chaps. An unnerving ensemble of “gentlemen” who decry the consumerism of the modern age and yearn for the return to a bygone era of brogues, cravats, horn-rimmed spectacles and Cavendish tobacco. The self-proclaimed anarcho-dandies began worshiping everything 1940s five years ago and now, it seems, they think we should too.
The Guardian: What kids need is more tweed »
Children in Tweed »
The Chap Magazine »
In view of the recent emergence of pringle jumpers as street fashion, the situation nis far from hopeless