An interview with Lauro Guglielmini

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June 29, 2018 by Ville Raivio

VR: Your age and occupation?
LG: Hello, I am Lauro and I am 18 years old. At the moment, I study foreign languages and science at a secondary school in Belgium.
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VR: Your educational background?
LG: I studied Latin during the first four years of secondary education and afterwards, I chose foreign languages and science.
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VR: Have you any children or spouse (and how do they relate to your tailoring enthusiasm)?LG: I neither have a girlfriend, nor children but I hope someday to marry a lady who shares the same interests in fashion and history. Furthermore, I also hope to become a father.
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VR: …and your parent’s and siblings’ reactions to style back in the days when you began?
LG: At first, my parents were quite surprised when I told them that I wanted to dress up as in the 1940s. They thought that certain garments such as double-breasted suits should not be worn by a 13-year-old boy. In their opinion, I was too young to wear suits at that time. As the years went by, they became more interested in vintage fashion, the music and architecture from the 1940s.
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VR: What other hobbies or passions do you have besides apparel?
LG: Besides being interested in apparel, I am also fond of golf and, more specifically, Hickory golf which was played between about 1860 to 1935. Hickory golf is the ancestor of the modern game. The club’s shaft is made of wood (hickory wood), the grip is made of leather and the bottom part was usely made of iron, except for the larger clubs, in which the bottom part was also made of wood. I am interested in the late Hickory era, the 1920s and the early 1930s, of which I have a small collection of golf bags, clubs and golf balls. I do play with this antique equipment and the other people on the golf course find it extraordinary. The main difference between the old and the modern game is that the clubs are stiffer and the distance covered by the hickory balls is about 20 per cent shorter than the distance covered by a modern golf balls. I find it most exquisite to play with these marvellous items. It gives you a sense of satisfaction when you manage to make a par with it.
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VR: How did you first become interested in clothing, and when did you turn your eyes towards the tailored look?
LG: I became interested in vintage fashion at the age of 13, thanks to the video game L.A. Noire, set in the 1947 Los Angeles. I was immediately fascinated by the clothing and the music and I therefore wanted to dress as the gentlemen in the game. However, I must admit that my outfits at the beginning were not sublime. Throughout the years, I started doing more research on vintage menswear, consulting various sites and blogs and I was eventually more fascinated by the previous decade, the 1930s, than the 1940s. From the age of 17, I favoured the interwar period apparel over the 1940s fashion.
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VR: How have you gathered your knowledge of clothing — from books, in-house training, workshops or somewhere else?
LG: I gathered my knowledge of clothing from the Gentleman’s Gazette’s Ebook Gentlemen of the Golden Age, which is dedicated to the illustrations published in Apparel Arts and Esquireof the early 1930s. After having joined various vintage groups on Facebook, I obtained much information on how to recognise vintage items and how to date them. I browsed the Internet for images of 1930s apparel and tried to find items, both original and reproduction, to recreate the outfits in the photographs.
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VR: How would you describe your own dress?
LG: I would describe my dress as intercontinental. In the beginning, I preferred American menswear over European but when I discovered more about the sartorial past of Europe, I also began dressing up according to European fashion. I normally dress according to the American apparel as it appeared in Apparel Arts and Esquire on the one hand, but on the other hand I also dress according to the German, English and French fashion from the 1930s. In my opinion, the German magazine Das Herrenjournal is a great source of inspiration. The colour combinations proposed in this magazine are simply outstanding.
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VR: Who or what inspires you?
LG: Not only fashion magazines but also personalities inspire me. As far as I am concerned, William Powell is the most elegant actor of Hollywood’s Golden Age. I find his style truly exquisite and his acting skills were on point. Other gentlemen to whom I look up to are Cary Grant, Fred Astaire and Errol Flynn. All of them had a very interesting take on fashion.
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VR: What’s your definition of style?
LG: To me, style is the deliberate harmony between personality and clothing. One must feel comfortable in what one is wearing. If one does not feel confident in wearing a certain garment, one should not wear it. Others will notice it when one is uncomfortable in wearing it.
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VR: You have a passion for vintage garments — is there some era that fascinates you over others?
LG: I initally started wearing 1940s clothing, however; my interest in the 1930s have grown significantly over the last three years and it has practically extinguished my passion for the 1940s. To me, the 1930s were the summit of elegance for architecture, motoring, travelling and fashion. It was the golden age of the oceanliners, such as the glorious Normandie, and the golden age of automobiles, and, in my humble opinion, the era’s Art Deco was marvellous.
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VR: Finally, why should Keikari’s readers acquaint themselves with vintage clothing?
LG: In my opinion, vintage fashion brings more diversity to the street scene. I find that the colour and pattern combinations of the 1930s were superb and that they, therefore, should be brought back into modern fashion. I can only encourage one to discover the world of vintage fashion and to take inspiration from it in order improve one’s style. I believe that the art of combining colours and patterns of the past and the modern well-tailored cut lead to perfection.
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https://www.instagram.com/lauroguglielmini/

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