I prefer the rather old and battered, things with character, to the brand new.
Old ugly is better than old nothin'
Bass Weejuns are the Cordovan black or brown penny loafers originally called Norwegian Loafers, hence their name. Worn without socks in the spring and summer, they must be kept to a high-gloss polish and should become burnished with wax over time until they have a fine patina.
Time gives growth, it gives continuity and it gives change. And in the case of some sculptures, time gives a patina to them.
Of all the works of man I like best Those which have been used. The copper pots with their dents and flattened edges The knives and forks whose wooden handles Have been worn away by many hands: such forms Seemed to me the noblest.
Life is one long decay, no? There's a lot of beauty in it. Like the patina in an old city.
The South is like my favorite pair of blue jeans. It's shrunk some, faded a bit, got a few holes in it. it just might split at the seams. It doesn't look much like it used to, but it's more comfortable, and there's probably a lot of wear left in it.
The trick is, when you try a good pair of jeans on, you may not think they're that great, but you wear them two months, and they become your favorite jeans. They're tricky. You gotta let them live.
I used a kind of gray-green early on in my practice for painting steel, to make it look more like it had a kind of patina to it, like copper and bronze and so on. The color I used was a Benjamin Moore color called 2012. My then-young daughter started calling me 2012 - it was my nickname.
There are people who, like houses, are beautiful in dilapidation.
I am convinced that a good building must be capable of absorbing the traces of human life and taking on a specific richness... I think of the patina of age on materials, of innumerable small scratches on surfaces, of varnish that has grown dull and brittle, and of edges polished by use.
A pair of Berluti shoes has this flair, these nuances in colour and patina, so I thought: 'What if we took this je ne sais quoi and turn it into a menswear brand?'
The only reason anything was off-white at the Chateau was because it had once been just plain white.
I like things that are beaten up, that have lived a little. I like things that are real. I like things that are made out of wood or string. I never feel very responsive to plastic machinery.
Yet for better or worse we love things that bear the marks of grime, soot, and weather, and we love the colors and the sheen that call to mind the past that made them.
Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver color. That is normal.
I like my guitars to be kinda worn. I don't like it when they're all shiny.
