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Nome: Ignatious Joseph Data: 04-09-2005 Cod. di rif: 2119 E-mail: ignatious@gmx.de Oggetto: Thank you Commenti: Dear Grand Master, thank you once again for the great article you wrote. I am sending you an interesting story I wrote. "WHEN A MOVEMENT IS MORE THAN JUST PRECISION" The renaissance of the extravagant mechanical watch and its recovery from the siege of quartz is not simply a victory for crafts over mechanical production. Rather it is a sign of the contradiction between changing times and the timing of change. The transformation of the automobile industry is also not only positive. There can be no doubt that the handmade engine and coachwork-- despite all their charms-- are relics of motoring as sport and pleasure and anachronistic for those who want high performance and reliability in their cars. The enormous leaps in construction quality and durability on the upside have their downside in the contagion of America's "platform" system where today's Ford, Jaguar and Aston Martin distinguish themselves more with labels and price than unique character. Of course it is possible to get sentimental in the face of seemingly irreversible product corruption. But the scene is not merely bleak. There has always been a tension between the development of style and the "progress" of function. This tension is the mainspring of modern culture and the catalyst of individual development. In other words the true individual stylist is not a hopelessly sentimental man or women fetishising the Edwardian era, or even his or her own recent past. The individual's process of becoming, of creating style relies on exploiting the internal conflict between personally-defined goals and ideals and the living movement that is function. The individual is a kind of perpetual movement. Remaining in motion is an essential quality of elegance today. Elegance and style are no monopolies of the bespoke crafts although there can be no doubt that the sincerity of craftsmanship is itself a vital contribution. But the person looking for clothing suited to his or her movements may find that expression in the high-quality manufactured product. Although he or she is not likely to build his own car or watch, the objects used and the shirt he or she wears become an expression of the wearer. The wearer must find the shirt which responds to his or her movements, that endures the speed or torque with which that individual lives. A certain nostalgia is often confused with style because we associate the taste of the past with those few who could afford it. But the style of the past was at the forefront and not in the past. To discover and develop elegance and style today, one must live with the movement of today and feel the movement for the future. That means the objects of use, the shirts one wears have to respond to that movement and become its outward expression. The manufactured high-quality shirt is like the movement for which the Swiss became famous. It takes the measure of the past but its function lies in the movement of the future." Best Wishes Ignatious Joseph ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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