The uniform of thinking
Tata Steele is upon us. The chess tournament is currently in its final stretch and like last year, I find myself dedicating a considerable amount of attention to the players’ wardrobe. It’s always a highlight for me in over the board events, but somehow in Tata, with the venue’s sombre colours and dramatic lighting, it’s even more tempting to take a close look.
As usual when it comes to chess players’ wardrobe, Daniil Dubov is undeniably the star of the pack (I recently wrote a short blurb on this for the Dirt newsletter). The chess play pose naturally accentuates the shoulders and Dubov’s jackets beautifully comply with this.
The exaggerated shoulder pads (is this Balenciaga again?), the elegant tweed: these are uniform for a thinking man.
The funny thing is, uniform are usually translatable to predefined actions, per the profession’s requirements. Even when we think of ‘academic uniform’, or ‘gallerist uniform’, there are certain practices we imagine the wearer going through. In chess, slight movements indicate thinking, just thinking - and this minuscule action is highly watchable. Especially when it comes with a good jacket.