BASIC CABLE STYLE: DEMOLITION MANby Steve GottschlingThis month, Cinemax has been screening Demoliti
BASIC CABLE STYLE: DEMOLITION MANby Steve GottschlingThis month, Cinemax has been screening Demolition Man, which is about as remarkable as saying, “this morning on Facebook someone wrote something unreasonable.” Cable channels are always screening Demolition Man. It’s the television equivalent of a numbers station, Sylvester Stallone’s face forever broadcasted into the aether as generations of viewers tune in with varying levels of puzzlement.But 2016 is particularly apt for giving the 1993 film a closer look, if only because the menswear that roams today’s sidewalks is vastly more diverse than the film’s vision of sartorial sameness. Baggy pants have lumbered back into stores, and yet men who cling to their clingy dungarees need not fear any sort of shunning, as slim silhouettes haven’t budged a bit. Relaxing dress codes mean Dockers can cram right next to polished sweatpants on office elevators without either wearer feeling out of place.No wonder Simon Doonan spent the end of May giving Slate readers an overview of New York’s “menswear tribes.” The average public space in any fashionable city resembles a sort of Hadron Collider of contrasting looks.The civilians of Demolition Man’s San Angeles, on the other hand, prefer precisely one shape: their ample, flowing robes. It’s an outfit that costume designer Bob Ringwood intended to protect them from the sun after the ozone layer has collapsed (remember when we talked about the ozone layer?). But while San Angeles stays remarkably melanoma-free, all that healthy skin comes at a price – no one can move very quickly. They drift in deliberate strides, usually in groups, their layers of fabric flapping around as they enact a futuristic version of every city dweller’s tourist-season nightmare.But put aside your slow-walker Haterade for one moment, and you’ll notice how peaceful this sort of fabric-induced dawdling can be. For their fifth issue, titled On Slowness, Vestoj magazine interviewed a clergyman who explained the ways his cloak restricts his movement, encouraging a slow contemplative pace:“The design of the cowl is a large cloak, with long sleeves and a hooded neck hole. It’s a contemplative garment and meant to be impractical – you can’t run in it for instance. It slows you down and you can’t do much in the way of work as a result of the long sleeves. Because you can’t move quickly, it calls forth a sort of gravitas by imposing a sense of gravity on the wearer.”A city full of people with acres of fabric weighing down their bodies. It’s hard to tell whether walking in stunted strides give them a sense of gravitas, whether it encourages them to think, perhaps, of what their forebearers must have done to create a world where far less impeded UV rays hurtle toward the Earth. Either way, an action movie would never let a moment of thought last longer than necessary, and Demolition Man unleashes two forces that send the berobed civilians scurrying in slow motion– Wesley Snipes’ shoot-em-up reign of terror and, soon after, the marauding scavengers headed by Denis Leary.What do these men have in common? Clothing that fits much more closely to their bodies. Snipes’ overalls are hardly form fitting by 2016 standards but still permit enough mobility to make him the most agile man in whatever room he lands in. Leary hides beneath an enormous trench coat but, unlike most of the citizens who line their robes with additional layers of voluminous fabric, opts for slim-fitting underlayers that let him move as quickly as his coatless followers.Thus, we in 2016 face a crucial choice every time we shop for clothes. We can buy something with dramatic volume, maybe with a dropped crotch, knowing our decision might leave us with slightly shorter strides. Or we can hug our bodies with a fitted garment, lessening our comfort but allowing us, perhaps, to steal the wallet from the nearest slow-walker we come across. Can’t decide which path to take? Try watching Demolition Man a few more times. It will be on TV for sure.Quality content, like quality clothing, ages well. This article first appeared on the No Man blog in 2016. -- source link