Stan Tymorek | The Smart Set

Dress for Distress

Stan Tymorek — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 13:23:28 +0000

Fashion is ephemeral, but there is one item of clothing that has been worn since Biblical times — a distinction that’s even more impressive considering it was intended to be uncomfortable. It’s the hair shirt, aka a cilice or sackcloth, made out of scratchy animal hair or coarse fabric. Primitive man probably wore clothing made of […]

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Under the (Magazine) Covers

Stan Tymorek — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 12:30:00 +0000

Since Tod Lippy had worked for other magazines before starting his own, you might think that’s how he learned what to do to make his new venture a success. But when asked about Esopus, the design and culture magazine he founded in 2003, he has said it’s the things he learned not to do that […]

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It’s Always Showtime In The Sky

Stan Tymorek — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 11:30:00 +0000

I had always thought that the only relationship between the weather and the cinema was that a rainy day was a good time to see a film. Then I read an excerpt from Virginia Woolf’s essay “On Being Ill,” in which she looks up at the sky while bedridden and sees: . . . this […]

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Another day at the (Cl)Office

Stan Tymorek — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 12:36:12 +0000

Have you heard of the new blend word “cloffice”? It’s a room that you create by turning a large closet into an office, usually in a house that doesn’t have such a room for solitary work. If your work is writing, I suggest that you keep some of the clothes hanging in there when you […]

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Choosing What to Wear

Stan Tymorek — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 11:30:00 +0000

I have my suspicions about nudist colonies. Nothing to do with hanky-panky, mind you. I’m just guessing that some residents have a secret reason for going au natural: namely, to avoid deciding what to wear. It’s the question we face anew every morning, a reminder that to live is to choose — perhaps the last […]

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Caught Dead in it

Stan Tymorek — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 13:30:54 +0000

Of all the doctrines and beliefs I had to learn about in Catholic grade school, there was no mention of the one religious question that haunts me as an adult: If there really is an afterlife, what do the dead wear? Are their outfits something you wouldn’t want to be caught dead in? Or are […]

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