Limpeh's take on Singapore's The Gentleman's Pride

Since my last post was rather depressing  let's do something a bit fun today. There has been a story that has been going around on social media today about these six guys in Singapore who have posted started a 'movement' (for want of a better word) on Instagram called 'The Gentleman's Pride.'. To their credit, they have generated plenty of interest on social media (hey no publicity is bad publicity) and it was this article on Yahoo Singapore which caught my attention and made me take a closer look at their Instagram page (and yes, I actually looked at every single picture there). I thought I'd share my thoughts about them because I have done many posts in the past on the theme of fashion, but I have not done one recently. But first, let me begin with a famous music video that comes to mind.

If these guys claim to be dressing like gentlemen, then we shall have to disagree with the definition of what it means to dress like one. The word 'rojak' comes to mind when I look at their fashion sense - but then again, I have to offer the disclaimer that I have spent half my life in the UK hence my definition of what it means to dress like a gentleman is very British whilst the social context for these guys is clearly not bound by British social conventions. Now in the UK, people do dress up and thankfully our weather allows us to do so comfortably around the year. It is mid-morning in late June and the temperature outside is 19 degrees: that's our summer temperatures for you. I can still dress up in a suit and tie today without worrying about sweating. That is simply not possible in Singapore's tropical weather. 

Now in the UK, people will judge your social class by the way you dress and this has been a part of our social class system for centuries. Thus when you turn up for a job interview or a business meeting, you will almost certainly be judged by the way you dress and the other party will be trying to see what information s/he can gleam about you from your fashion sense. Likewise, even if you say spot a stranger walking down the road or at the train station, you would try to guess his profession based on his attire: whether he is a window cleaner or a lawyer would certainly impact on his choice of attire. Most of all, us Brits are very bound by convention, rules and the judgement of others. That means when a businessman chooses his attire for a meeting, his first consideration is always, "what attire will give the others a good impression of me and what will achieve the best possible outcome? What do they expect me to dress in?"

Your attire will denote your social class to the world.

Thus fashion is often used as a means by British men to prove that they are a man with a mission - if you see a man walking down the street very smartly dressed, you will get the impression that this man has a very important day ahead of him, with very important people to see and jobs to do. Conversely, if you see a man dressed like a slob, the message you will get is that he really doesn't have anyone to impress today, he is not seeing anyone important today and that he simply isn't a man with a mission - well, not today at least. Thus for example, if you are going on a date, convention would state that you should make some effort to dress nicely - you don't want to give your date the impression that you've spent the day lounging around at home watching funny videos of cats on Youtube.

Here's the thing about this uncanny relationship that some British men (mostly of the middle and upper classes) have with fashion: you can take the Brit out of Britain but you can't take Britain out of the Brit. Back in 2011, I remember having a meeting and a dinner with this British expatriate Nick in Kuala Lumpur - because Nick primarily deals with the British expatriate community, he still dressed for work as if he was in London despite the fact that it was about 32 degrees in Kuala Lumpur. Now he was perfectly fine in the air-conditioned comfort of his Mont Kiara office but the moment we took a short walk from his office to the restaurant across the road, boy did he start sweating. Nonetheless, this discomfort was a price he was willing to pay for his job as he needed to give his clients the right impression through his fashion. I'm sure if he was dealing with local Malaysian clients, he wouldn't bother to make as much effort to dress up like that in the KL heat. Such is the nature of British culture and Nick knows his clients' expectations.

Last week, my old VJC classmate Jim visited me and I had the pleasure of taking him sightseeing in London. Whilst we were on Pall Mall en route to Buckingham Palace, we passed a group of gents dressed in white tie and tails. And then as we got into St James's Park, we passed a group of gents in morning dress (probably for the Royal Enclosure at Asoct). Jim then asked me what the difference was between the two modes of very formal dress and I had to explain to Jim that they were for different kinds of formal occasion and each occasion would have a very strict dress code. Jim was just amazed at not just how many different outfits there were for different occasions, but at just how very strict these rules for attire actually are: clearly, this is something that is not done in Singapore where he is from.

This is a British tradition designed to create social occasions to deliberately exclude poorer people who do not have the means to invest in elaborate, expensive formal outfits - so if you turn up at such an event and see another gent who is dressed in much the same way according to the dress code, you know you are also dealing with someone from the same privileged social class because you are both dressed right. The British use fashion clues to ascertain the social class of a person. So fashion is often used as a means to prove your social class first and foremost and you use fashion to fit into a certain social group; any attempts to express any individuality or character must be done only within that context. Hence it is far more about showing a desire to conform rather than expressing one's individualism. 

White tie and tails: do you own a set of tails?

However, I make no apologies for making the British cultural references when judging these guys: after all, the word gentleman is not only an English word, but a concept taken from English culture.  It is not a Singaporean or an Asian concept, these Singaporean guys are borrowing a European ideal. Indeed, being a gentleman does mean conforming to certain dress codes expected of gentlemen - hence those garishly mismatched waistcoats in their video are as ungentlemanly as you can get if you want to be a gentleman. If you have chosen to define yourselves with the term 'gentleman' to describe yourselves, then I am going to judge you by my British standards because you are using a concept from British culture. After all, they could have used the Chinese term 君子 jūnzǐ (or even 绅士 Shēnshì)- which is the Chinese equivalent of the term 'gentleman'. So perhaps it was a mistake for them to try to use the term 'gentleman' without fully understanding the full implications of the term.

Thus when I look at these six and their rather odd sense of fashion, my first instinct is, "well that's definitely not business attire, you would never show up at a meeting looking this odd - not in Singapore, not in London, not anywhere. Even your fellow Singaporeans are going to think you're weird at best, they're certainly not going to be impressed." So that's clearly not the look they are trying to achieve - they are in Singapore and clearly are not bound by British notions of social class when it comes to fashion. Where do they take their inspiration from? Judging from their photos, the answer seems to be particularly from American youth culture - it seems to be what a young American teenager thinks dressing up should be like. An American with money and no style, if I may add. Whilst there's certainly an element of fun to their ensembles, there simply isn't attempt to try to pay any regard to what their central theme: that of being a gentleman. So from looking at these photos, I don't get the 'man with a mission' look from these guys - they're just messing around, dressing up for fun to take cute selfies and that's not what being a gentleman is about.

Being a 'gentleman' is a concept taken from British culture.

One thing that definitely irks me is the way nothing seems coordinated: there are so many photos where they seem to don a scarf for no good reason. Listen, I live in London and I have several scarves which I use during the colder winter months. The moment the warmer weather arrives in April, the scarf goes into storage until the cold weather returns in November. Take this picture for instance: the scarf doesn't even match the model's outfit, nor does the scarf in this picture. It serves no purpose whatsoever and the impression I got is that these guys were digging through all their winter clothing for the photo shoot and thinking, "oh we must make it look like we're in a cold Angmoh country, so let's put on random piece of winter clothing so we look lagi atas." Or perhaps they were trying to show of that they can afford to travel abroad regularly and have a wide array of winter wear in their closets for those trips to colder countries.

In fact, there were so many photos of them in random piece of winter clothing, like this one and then there is this one.  What is it with their random pieces of winter clothing? It doesn't even match and certainly, even true gentlemen who live in colder countries would never dress like this lot. I would definitely call the fashion police over their rather bizarre use of winter clothing in their photos. The only message it sends is, "I can afford to dress up like I'm in a cold country, stay indoors all day, whack the air-con up to maximum and I don't have to ever leave the air-con environment." That however, is not style. It is just a terribly clueless attempt at trying to create a look and failing. Ironically, one can only imagine just how much they must have sweated when posing for some of those photos in tropical Singapore. Yucks.

Reality check: Singapore is very hot.

Do they pass the British 'man with a mission' test? I don't think so I'm afraid - when I look at these pictures, I just get the impression that they are trying quite desperately to project some kind of image of class, but no they have failed in my opinion. Perhaps they will impress some Singaporeans who are even more clueless when it comes to fashion, but what I find sorely lacking in their Instagram page is that sense of realness - it feels fake, it simply isn't genuine. I get the impression that they are just dressing up like that for fun, to take some photos for Instagram and that if I run into them in Toa Payoh or Bukit Batok, they would be dressed like any other Singaporean guy whose choice of attire would be dictated by the hot tropical weather. This is why the website Tube Crush turned out to be such a huge hit - because it featured genuine British "men with a mission" in their everyday lives. As these are men who are being photographed secretly by their admirers rather than posing for photos, it doesn't come across as pretentious or frivolous.

As then there is their video, OMFG, I laughed so fucking hard as I watched it. I couldn't take it seriously, it felt like a comedy because of their very strong Singaporean accents. Nick Chong actually said, "it is a form of self-expression lah." Ya lah Mr Chong, abutden? And it is most telling towards the end (after 2:24), it was the blooper when Nicholas Cho forgot the name of a movie he watched and they then started laughing and lapsed into epic Singlish. Now compare that to the beginning of the video when they were trying to speak in standard English (not very successfully if I may add), especially when they were listing all these different men's fashion terms. I found it all so cringe inducing because they were clearly trying to be something they are not. I do wonder if the editor deliberately included the blooper outtake at the end to show the viewers what these guys are like in real life when they are not desperately trying to project an image of what they aspire to be. Why are they trying to speak like that for the interview when clearly, when they are in a more relaxed setting, they would speak in a far more colloquial Singlish manner (as they did at during the blooper outtake)? They are going on and on about how being a gentleman is a lot more than just dressing up - well, surely a gentleman must give an air of sophistication when they speak: that's not what I got from these guys. It's not what you say, it's how you say it, Yes I am setting the bar very high but I do have standards.

Maybe this shouldn't be defined as being a gentleman, but an important part of projecting an image of charm and confidence is being comfortable in your own skin. In the beginning of the interview, they came across as very nervous - despite being experienced with social media, they looked somewhat uncomfortable in front of the camera. They sounded like a nervous student during an English oral exam or an anxious applicant during a job interview. Now in the UK, one is judged as much by the way we talk - the moment you speak, before you even finish your first sentence, the other party would have probably already extracted enough information to determine your social class and how educated you are. (I did warn you that the UK has a very class-conscious society.) By that token, all six of them failed to leave me with a favourable impression with the standard of their English I'm afraid - but hey, even Amos Yee's faux American accent irked the hell out of me, so I realize I am a hard man to please. 

And at the end of the day, being a gentleman could be many things, but it should not make you a subject of mockery and ridicule. But sadly, that was precisely the affect they had on their intended audience: ordinary Singaporeans. Oh dear. Aiyoh. A photo of these guys on the ST's Facebook page drew over 300 comments, the vast majority of them were very negative and disparaging. Only a minority of the comments were positive, whilst others were happy to let the guys do whatever they wanted and if you didn't like what they do, you're free to ignore them. Nonetheless, if they wanted to become some kind of style icon for Singaporean men through their social media campaign, then no, that definitely has not happened. Quite the opposite in fact, judging by the response on ST's Facebook page and this has not gone unnoticed by the report on Yahoo. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a good thing for Singaporean men to become more fashion conscious given how badly they dress, but from a marketing & PR perspective (that's my professional background), these guys simply did not pitch their brand image effectively to their intended audience. It is a PR fail on so many levels. But to be fair, I don't think all the criticisms they have received on social media are totally fair. Most of the criticisms were valid, others were misguided at best. So, allow me to quote the article from Yahoo: 

Don't get me wrong - I love men's fashion.

1) Not everyone can afford to spend money and effort on the glamorous lifestyle they espouse, 2) being a gentleman is about good conduct and actions, not looks and 3) Singapore’s climate is just too goddamn hot for dressing up.

Well, the first point is not valid at all: in a country like Singapore, there are very rich people and very poor people (and everything in between). Just because there are some poor people in Singapore who cannot spend money on the glamorous lifestyle they espouse doesn't mean that those who have the means to do so should refrain from doing so! What next - that we shouldn't even have an airport in Singapore because not everyone can afford overseas travel or that we shouldn't have designer boutiques on Orchard Road because not all Singaporeans can afford these expensive goods?  Life isn't fair, these guys clearly have some money to spend on clothes and that's their choice - deal with it. If they have the financial means to espouse a glamorous lifestyle, that's their prerogative. And as for the second point, that's where I think these guys have made a tactical marketing error. They are using Instagram - which is great for promoting fashion, but if you want to talk about any other qualities pertaining to one's conduct and behaviour, then Instagram is not the right means: you need something like blogger or Youtube to delve into those topics which cannot be expressed through photographs. Thus they should have made it all about fashion and nothing else - keep it simple.

Right project, wrong theme? Right idea, wrong marketing?

And lastly, yes I agree, Singapore's climate is just too hot for dressing up and that has been the excuse of many Singaporean men for dressing so badly. However, perhaps there is a gap in the market for these men to fulfill if they know their home market well: how about teaching Singaporean men who to dress with style whilst acknowledging that it is extremely hot in Singapore every single day of the year? Surely there must be a huge market for smart menswear made of very light-weight ultra-thin fabrics that would enable a gentleman to both look smart and stay cool when it is 34 degrees at midday in a place like Singapore - how about creating a range of fashion accessories for men that would go with this elegant-tropical look? But no, instead these guys want to dress as if it is 14 degrees, they went for the unoriginal cliche borrowed from Western culture instead of trying to create something unique, local and original - now that is not only a missed opportunity, but good reason for netizens to mock these guys.

If you want inspiration for style, I recommend you watch some Korean dramas where you can take inspiration from Korean stars who do have a team of fashion consultants to make sure that they are always immaculately dressed for the camera. South Korea is undoubtedly the most stylish country in all of Asia - they do have very cold winters and their cooler climate allows their K-pop and K-drama stars to dress so elegantly. Check MBLAQ out in the music video below for 'Smoky Girl' - they have style and ooze charm effortlessly. Oh yes, this is one classy K-pop music video.

My final verdict? I think they may be onto something but as it is, their marketing approach is very muddled and their message is simply not achieving the desired effect with their key audience: ordinary Singaporeans. Clearly there are some social influencers in Singapore who have done extremely well on social media and are able to make a lucrative living from endorsing fashion products but they are overwhelmingly women. There is certainly a gap in the market for a male version of Xiaxue to help clueless Singaporean men figure fashion trends out - but these guys have got some way to go before they attract the kind of following that Xiaxue has. Forget trying to talk about manners or conduct: just focus on fashion and it could lead to lucrative endorsement deals if they play their cards right. There's nothing shallow at all about fashion - in fact it is a huge industry that employs millions and affects everyone who wears clothes; but trying to make the tenuous link between one's dress sense and being a "gentleman" was perhaps just a step too far.

So that's it from me on this issue - what do you make of thee six guys? Do you think they are gentlemen? What do you make of their fashion style? Do you think that they are lagi atas or just pretentious? Many thanks for reading.