3 Minute Thread: Joe Skilton
"I love wearable geography and memory"
When people ask me who my favourite fictional character is, I say Joe Skilton. Joe is a person that seems to have stepped straight out of a film, arriving behind the counter at Donlon Books with a wink and a smile, ready to snap a photo of you or recommend your new favourite book. Like all the best people, Joe is unaccustomed to taking pictures of himself, but also nice enough that he couldn’t say no. Sorry, Joe, for putting you through this. You look great!
Who are you?
Joe Skilton, I live in London. I work with Books, Bars and Bags of cameras?
What are you wearing?
It's cold! Ok top to bottom? This feels like a safe space to expose an overthinking mind :-}
Balaclava by Von Sono, it's so incredibly soft and made from recycled wool.
Overcoat by CP Company, a great and simple older piece, not too loud with the branding and wonderful details - the storm flap!
Pins: vintage Having Abandoned My Search for Truth and Am Now Looking for a Good Fantasy and a Celtic knot pin which I love for having no beginning or end.
Scarf by Lochcarron of Scotland, I love Scotland and always want to wear at least something that nods to the North. This is the tartan that was designed for the memorial of dear Lady Diana, the people's princess.
Gloves - fingerless orange with no branding that I can find, but worn as a gesture of love towards Mark Hollis and his style here.
Bag by Final Home, it's incredible and opens out like a full body wrap around bag.
Blazer by Marks and Spencers' discontinued St Michael line, something that I have loved dearly. It's a wool cashmere blend that I have personally felted too I guess - by accident over years of hot washes and the like. The colour is 'Charcoal' and it's made in the UK. I grew up in York and M&S is from the North too, founded in Leeds Market by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. I love wearable geography and memory.
Pink pocket hanky from a market stall in Mexico City, gorgeous colours for 50 pesos and a memory of summer travelling gone by.
Shirt - vintage by The Cure - made for the release of Lullaby. I've been listening to them quite a bit on these grey January and February days. The song and shirt are as old as me ! I've tried to photograph the spider back print for you - as you can see the sleeves have been hacked off.
Shirt - beautifully designed by John Alexander Skelton - one of my favorites - and inspired by a Welsh blanket. I love John and I love Welsh Blankets.
Trousers - Comme Des Garçons Homme Plus - they're so light as to be translucent in the contrasting stripe.
Shoes - Paraboot - a vintage style of their Avignon, a personal favourite for sure.
Undercrackers! Beloved socks by Cecile Tulkens and underwear by Knize to feel fancy in.
Why did you choose this outfit?
Signals, clues, semaphores? I don't so much mean as in signaling to other people as much as making a daisy chain of the signals that I like? Be it geographies or feelings from cues? Certain materials, designers, visions? Dressing appropriate to the weather is always there - wools, layers, being ready? Listening to The Cure had a lot to do with some of this look I suppose, but lots of the rest of what I'm wearing here is never far away at the moment… So the outfit is a combination of what feels right at the time, and then also simply what feels?
Individually, these things are all secondhand, or gifts, or exchanges, or clearance / resale? Secondhand is not only important, but also quite natural to me.
Where did you wear it/ where are you planning to wear it?
I wore it to sit on a park bench one Sunday and catch up with a friend.
What’s the best style lesson you’ve learned over the years?
Watching Twin Peaks? I learned a lot about clothes from that show. Isn't it too dreamy?
One person you think has great style?
Best life hack?
Deleting Instagram off your phone.
Your favourite person to follow?
One recommendation to read/ watch/ listen/ see or do?
Right now I'm reading Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe and I can't put it down. When I'm working at the bookshop and someone asks me what's my favourite? I often say Heaven's Breath.
I love to listen to BBC Radio 4 at exactly 12:45 AM in bed on a Sunday night as it rolls into Monday morning.
You can follow Joe on Instagram, (although he might have deleted the app off his phone). Buy one of his beautiful photobooks here.
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