Sprezzatura in a Suit

I used to work at a high-end custom suit tailor. The inspiration for there style was heavily influenced by European traditional style, specifically stemming from British and Italian tailoring. When I first started I noticed that the staff broke traditional style rules I had already learned. The small blade on their ties were too long, the buttons on their button down cuffs weren't always done up, or their sleeve buttons on their suits were undone.

Assuming my coworkers knew better than I did, I questioned my manager on his smaller tie blade being longer than his big tie blade. His response was gibberish to me: "sprezzatura". Exspressa-what?

After explaining the word's Italian origins, my manager proceeded to explain one of the most fascinating concepts of dressing well that went far beyond the concept of appearance. His smaller tie blade was longer than the bigger one to signal nonchalance. The company that I worked for had a philosophy that the purpose of dressing well was not to appear superior. To them, a man dresses well to prove himself as a well-rounded individual who doesn't require an obsessive amount of effort to have a respectable appearance. Subtle signs of missed details or broken rules express a sense of effortlessness and prove that a man who dresses with sprezzatura knows more about life than how to dress well.

After the discussion with my manager, I studied different European style bloggers to better understand the meaning of the word. I realized sprezzatura is not just a way to dress but a way of life. Beginning with the Renaissance and the rediscovery of the divine individual, people found a new love for learning complicated concepts and discussing them eloquently and effortlessly. People who sought to live with sprezzatura were what we would call a "jack of all trades." Someone who embodies sprezzatura is continually learning and sharing their skills humbly and casually with those they come in contact with.

How can you live with sprezzatura? Start with the way you dress. Research the rules. For both males and females, there are rules associated with the composition of an outfit that are worth knowing. Once you know the rules, break them. Do it casually and with subtleness. After that, find another subject that intrigues you and casually study it. It only takes a touch of sprezzatura before you realize what you are capable of.
   

Chaos vs Order: The Motivation Behind the Voyages

The Renaissance Man. He had effortless style in his dressed, he was well versed in subjects ranging from math to rhetoric, and most importantly he was a sovereign individual. His ancestors lived in a world where sovereignty remained in the hands of the state and it's constituents were born into their destinies as predicated by fate (or the state). After being introduced to sovereignty, the Renaissance Man saw beyond the tyrannical order that bound his ancestor's destinies and followed his natural instinct to explore the chaos of the outside world. He continually waded through the unknown waiting for an idea to grab hold of him. The drive to comprehend and create resulted in the voyages of people like Sir Walter Raleigh and Michel de Montaigne.

Every individual needs order and consistency in their lives to remain sane. But, when order become tyrannical people are tend to either wreak havoc where they are just to have something to put back together, or set off on an adventure to understand and put together all the unknown puzzle pieces outside of their domain. Leaving the tyranny of the Tower of London in search for gold is not just Sir Walter's story, but an archetype of human behavior. While the description of his adventures is not honest, his narrative of their quest into chaos lives on.

Michel de Montaigne lived out this archetypal ideal as well, however seemed to gain more from his journey than just a bedtime story. Montaigne encountered the unknown when he met the "Cannibals." He could have recoiled in the face of so much chaos and labeled them as barbaric like many other voyagers of his day, but instead he had the courage to take one step further into the dark. By taking the time to observe and contemplate the seemingly chaotic traditions of the natives, Montaigne was able to organize all the new information he observed and concluded that the Tupinamba Indians were very similar to the people he new in his homeland.

This level of understanding would not have been possible without the enlightenment that resulted out of the Renaissance. As an individual continually exposes themselves to chaos and makes a sincere attempt to put in comprehensible order, they will move closer to reaching their full potential of Being.