When did you first begin to enjoy fashion?

That’s a very interesting question, I mean, before I began the blog I was interested in style and I didn’t spend a lot of time or money on fashion. So, I suppose it was after I started writing the blog. Actually, the theme of the blog was totally accidental, the primary purpose of it was to write and the secondary purpose was trying to find something to write about. Somebody once said to be it’s important to write about something that personally concerns you, so I thought, well, as an older man you get to a certain age where you’re not sure how to dress, so I thought I’d write about that and it was within a few months of starting up that I realised it was all actually quite interesting. There’s that fear that fashion is all a bit empty-headed and pointless, so I sort of picked up this revival in British manufacturing in menswear. I also wanted to find something that had a real concrete purpose with a revival of employment and skills, so it’s nice being able to write about those aspects of it. I don’t have a huge interest in designers or the latest catwalk collections, so to go back to your question, I suppose you could say I began my interest in fashion when I began Grey Fox. I mean, I might go to a fashion show and think about how that might influence what I’m wearing but it’s not something I follow slavishly. I also don’t tend to keep up with who’s designing what, so in a way, fashion is just part of the overall style equation.

 

When you first began Grey Fox, what were you consuming or reading that inspired you at the time?

Well, once I decided on the subject I had to do a bit of research. One of the people I came across was The Sartorialist who’s an American photographer. He’s been running a blog now for ten or twelve years, it follows street style and I like finding ideas for what the older man can wear as an alternative to slippers and moth-eaten cardigans. There was a wonderful photo of this older guy in his seventies at Bittiogo and that was when I realised that was the beginning of my search. I was interested in the older man who was thinking about what to wear so it developed from there, really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was there a particular moment that made you realise you didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore?

I never really enjoyed the law very much and I feel I’ve always been a very creative person at soul. I’m sure many lawyers will disagree with this, but I feel law isn’t at all creative. You’re very much working within very narrow strengths within law and court and there wasn’t really that much to go outside of that. But the wonderful thing about a blog is that I can write, take photographs and think creatively, so I love it. So, the decision to leave law was very pre-dated by at least ten years. Because afterwards I went on to teaching at a primary school! To teach at a secondary school you really need a degree in the subject you’re going to teach, so I was either going to go on a course to be a teacher or work in a primary school. So, I did that for a few months and really enjoyed it. The great thing about being a primary school teacher is that you’re not only in charge of class, you’re literally teaching them absolutely everything, and I really enjoyed that!

 

When you’re going away for a night or two, what are five essentials you always pack in your bag?

A pair of brogues, and overlooking the obvious things like a toothbrush and underwear, I usually pack an item of knitwear - wool or cotton depending on what time of year it is. Increasingly, in the last year or two, I’ve actually decided to take a hat as well, like a cap or a fedora. Harry, my dog, generally has to go with me. And usually a couple of watches, I know that might sound strange but I used to collect them, I’ve got a few so I usually like to take two. A watch to wear when I’m out for dinner at night and one to wear around in the day. I’ve actually been thinking for a while that I should write something about that on the blog because it is something that people tend to do. I tend to have a watch for everything! You can really change the character of a watch by changing its straps, too. You might have an old diving watch that you wear on the front of a battered, old metal bracelet but if you were to put it on smart leather strap it would look great. So, when you have those alternates it’s like having two watches.

 

What kind of bag do you take for a long weekend?

I absolutely love British-made canvas bags, the leather ones either made by Chapman or Billingham are particularly interesting as they didn’t start off that long ago. They began making camera bags and they now do other items like the weekend bags. I really love those because they’re the sort of things that look better as they get older, they’re very robust and a lot of skill has gone into making them.

 

You’ve created a great platform for the older man through Grey Fox, so why a blog?

Well at that stage it was only six years ago and that was probably the main thing. I was just thinking the other day actually, if Instagram was around as much as it is now I’m sure Grey Fox would just be on there. But what’s important is that my primary purpose of Grey Fox was to write, and none of the other platforms really allow that in the same away. I mean, Tumblr and Instagram and so on are all very image-driven so that’s the main reason why I started the blog. But, if I was starting now and I wasn’t interested in writing I wouldn’t bother with the blog. But it’s because I enjoy the writing that I do have a blog, even though I probably now spend a lot more time on Instagram.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are some downsides to blogging if there are any?

There are lots of downsides to blogging. I suppose most bloggers, me being one of them, is knowing what to do with your time and the value of it. When I first started, I put lots and lots of time into it as I am now, but it got to the point where I was putting just as much time into it as a job. There were more and more brands coming to me and wanting this, that and the other. But what I realised the problem is that because I was doing everything for free, they were all after a free lunch! So, there’s then that big discussion on whether you should allow the blog to become commercial. And if the blog is too commercial then it kind of turns into a left person, and followers begin to despair the price of the number of things you’ve been paid to write about. I think people follow Grey Fox because they want to see what I like to some extent, I know that might sound a bit big-headed, but that is just the reality. So, the real problem I have is about finding that balance between keeping it personal, keeping it me and not continually being taken advantage of by brands. I think I’m just about there with a balance now, where I only do paid projects and that helps pay for the blog. I certainly don’t make a living out of it, it’s pocket money, really. It also enables me to spend the time I want to spend on supporting young British brands and creative décor without them necessarily feeling as though they need to pay me for it. But then I suppose there’s the whole secondary problem of just trying to keep in control of social media. There’s been a lot of discussion recently about how addictive it really is and there’s no doubt about it, so I really am very careful not to be on my phone all the time because then I just feel it begins to take over your life. It’s just keeping the balance on everything really, and I love blogging, but it does have its challenges where difficult decisions have to be made.

 

What is the most complimentary comment you’ve ever received?

I’ve had a lot of comments after enquiries where I’ve successfully boosted people’s product sales. That makes me feel like I am influencing people, and people like what they read and then they go out and buy them, so I do really enjoy that. And on a personal level it’s always quite nice when people say, “you’re very stylish” and so on. So there’s also that massaging of the ego which is nice! But I think anyone does if you’re in that sort of situation. If you’re running something creative like this, you always have doubts on how effective it might be and how well you’re doing, but without that, there wouldn’t be that inspiration. So, the

compliments are nice but I don’t take them to heart and they certainly don’t make me big-headed. In a slightly perverse way sometimes they give me doubt even more on how well I’m doing-so it’s all rather a strange situation.  

 

Through various platforms I’ve read about your love for English-made brogues – can you tell me why Brogues are your go-to shoe?

Because they’re comfortable and I like the fact they’re made with skill. I’ve been to lots of shoe factories and seen some of them being made, I really like the brogue style with the holes punched in the front because it’s a very traditional style with a lot of British heritage. It’s also one that’s quite fashionable at the moment as well. So, it’s nice to see something that’s quite old-fashioned that’s also very stylish as well. Just a shoe that is strong and robust and you can adapt your own personality into. You can either just wear your shoes until they fall apart or you can very carefully polish them every day with a nice high shine - and I like how when you polish them they change colour. They change to a depth of colour, like an old belt or a watch strap or something – it becomes personal.

 

Do you enjoy wearing any other type of shoe, for example, trainers?

I do occasionally wear trainers, mainly if I’m going to the gym or doing some form of exercise. I mainly wear trainers at home, I’ll wear them with shorts or with jeans but I don’t wear them a huge amount. Simply because I don’t like them as much. So, typically it’s brogues or Oxford Derbys are the type of shoe I wear. I like desert boots as well but I tend not to find them as comfortable as brogues.

 

In an interview with Gentleman’s Gazette, you said, “five years ago, if we’d been talking, you probably would have thought that I was rather badly dressed”. What would you describe as badly dressed?

The most important thing to remember to dress well is to wear clothes that fit. And the second thing is to wear clothes that are good quality. I think in this country we’ve got this really bad habit of having really cheap clothes, we love shopping so much. We like to go out every Saturday to the shops and buy clothes and the only way we can afford to keep doing that is to buy horrible, cheap clothes. I think that what we should really be doing is going shopping once every month or two and spending possibly the same amount on fewer clothes of a much better quality. Because clothes of a better quality don’t go out of shape and they don’t get holes in them so quickly. They’re all small things, but they can make you look shabby and that’s what I see as badly dressed. And then there’s just making sure that patterns and colours go together. It’s actually a very complex thing to be well-dressed, because it is quite possible to be an incredibly well-dressed man who’s wearing a Savile Row suit with holes in it that’s been patched, but it can still look very stylish, so it’s not an easy thing to identify. But you sort of just know it when you see it. Just someone who looks after himself, looks after his clothes, is fit and pays attention to colour and pattern. in a nutshell, that’s what I say it is. Also, avoiding horrors like sportswear is probably a good idea because those clothes are just made for comfort and aren’t considered for looks.

 

What sort of car do you drive?

I drive a Volkswagen Tiguan, it’s a four-wheel drive SV I suppose. I need a four-wheel drive because I’m up in the Lake District a lot so I drive on a fairly rough and steep road where there’s often snow.

 

And what was the last song you played in your car?

I don’t often listen to music in the car – I tend to just stick on Radio 4! But I have a horrible feeling it might have been something by Queen, actually. They were a long time ago! But I love all that, I actually love music by Abba and that sort of thing. I’m a bit of a dodo when it comes to my taste in music, I love the music of the sixties and seventies, and by the time we got to the eighties my music taste seemed to freeze and I haven’t really developed it since.

 

What is an album that defines your youth?

Definitely The Beatles ‘White Album’, or Lou Reed ‘Revolver’, David Bowie goes in there, too. They were definitely the three artists that moulded my youth.

 

In an interview with Proper Magazine, you describe your music taste freezing at thirty where you listed David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Can you say that any of those artists have ever influenced your style?

Yes, definitely Bowie’s later style after he was wearing tight spangly things like the genderless body suit – I don’t think that will ever appear on Grey Fox! But where he was wearing tailored suits and fedoras that was definitely a style I was influenced by. Also, the early Beatles styles as well, that’s what became the MOD style. The very slim cut trousers and three or four button jackets, that’s actually come back in a fun sort of way.

 

 

QUICK-FIRE QUESTIONS:

 

In an interview with Esquire, you describe that, “ten years ago, if you went into a pub wearing a pink shirt you’d probably get thrown through the door”. My question is, have you ever been thrown out of a pub?

I have actually! I was about eighteen and I was kissing a girl in the pub and landlord didn’t like it for some reason and threw me out! I think he thought I should be drinking beer rather than kissing a girl. You seem to have lured this terrible truth out of me!

                                                    

List five things in your bed-side table:

I have more of a chair. It’ll have a watch on it, it’ll have a box of tissues so I can blow my nose, there’s probably an old cup there that I haven’t taken downstairs to clean. There’s also a book, the book I’m reading at the moment is one on Antarctica. There will be a copy of The Rake and I’m afraid to say my phone is usually by the bed as well. There’s a lot of evidence it disturbs your sleep so I’m really trying not to look at it much anymore.

 

List five things in your glove compartment:

Well there’s the car’s owner’s manual, there’s a little container of chewing gum, there’s a packet of treats for Harry, a scraper for scraping ice off the windows – these aren’t very exciting really, are they! And my sunglasses.

 

Have you ever received a really ugly item of clothing for Christmas that you felt obliged to wear?

Yes. There’s a certain member of my family who I just cannot get interested in style and he occasionally gives me sweatshirts from those sorts of companies you find in catalogues you get through the door. So, they either tend to be used to chop wood in the garden or I just send them off to the charity shop. I do get some things, but nothing absolutely horrible. I think the great thing about being a blogger is that on the whole people don’t like to buy you anything as you’re known to be very choosy!

 

Have you ever had a fashion disaster?

I don’t actually think I have, if you look back on the things I wore in the seventies in hindsight there were fashion disasters. But at the time I thought it was quite cool! Such as my brown tweed suit with flared turn-up trousers, I always thought it was quite cool. But I look back on photographs of myself now when I wore that suit and now I do think it was a fashion disaster. But I’ve always been fairly careful with what I’ve chosen to wear, really. So perhaps rather boringly I can’t think of too many terrible disasters!

 

What is something in fashion that should have never happened, is there a pet-peeve you have?

I try to be very forgiving in the sense of everyone has their own styles so I try not to be too judgemental, although one thing that does really irritate me is this whole rise in sportswear. And how we’re trying to make sportswear tailored! I mean, you’ll have a pair of tracksuit trousers and they’re being sold as something that’s tailored and I just find that really irritating. Because the whole idea of sportswear is the idea that you put on something before or after sport that’s comfortable and that you can slop around in. So, the need for it to now be a tailored item comes across as a little bit pretentious. I do tend to get irritated, especially when I’m being shown it by some new PR’s. When they take me over to their sportswear bit my heart always sinks and I’m afraid I’m no stranger to making slightly rude comments about it either, but that’s just me!

 

Do you tend to get involved in male grooming?

No, not really! I go and get my hair cut every few weeks and I do have a few bottles of men’s fragrance and stuff but I’m not a greatly into men’s grooming to be honest.

 

Are you a Speedos or a baggy shorts kind of guy when you’re at the beach?

Oh god, no, I’m not Speedos! I’ll wear tailored swimming shorts. I probably haven’t worn speedos since I was a teen – avoid them at all costs!