Admiring The Country Club Aesthetic

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My grandma and grandpa belonged to a country club for thirty-ish years. During that time, I was lucky enough to play golf, swim in the pool, and take tennis lessons there for a few years during my youth before rising membership dues and retirement no longer allowed them to stay there.

Last week, a blog was published about the supposed decline of the classic American country club and what steps we should be taking to attract millennials to join said clubs.

There is no denying that country club membership is down, however I have to wholeheartedly disagree with the sentiment in this article that allowing millennials with jeans into these clubs is a good thing. I think the way that these places have been ran for decades is just fine, and a dress code for anyone entering the club needs to be upheld. As a youth, I looked at that country club compared to the municipal golf course where I usually had to play and scoffed at the differences. I loved that club with my whole heart.

The haughtiness of the members, the pristine conditions of the golf course, and the ability to order chicken fingers, fries, and a coke from the cafe and then have it brought out to you poolside was truly magical. You could walk into the clubhouse and get a sick Ashworth polo with the club insignia on it and all you had to do was mutter your club number — basically free money.

I admired a lot of things about that club, and — other than the golf lessons I got — the fashion sense of the members might be the number one thing I loved about that place. Dudes in khakis, old school Footjoys, and baggy collared polo shirts (as was the style back in the late ’90s/early aughts) and women in shit like this:

Image via YouTube

That’s Lacey Underall, and if you don’t know who that is then Bushwood probably isn’t for you. My goodness. Lacey is one of the country club GOATs, but that is beside the point here.

Every time I got access to that club it was like walking around on the set of The Royal Tenenbaums, complete with dudes who had just finished up a 2 or 3-set thriller on the tennis court with full Adidas or Fila tracksuits waiting for them after the match. I even saw people fresh off of a shower and steam inside the locker room rocking the sweater-around-the-neck look inside the dining room. In the ’80s and ’90s, the crewneck sweater was not worn as intended; no one actually put their head and arms through the respective holes in the sweater and wore it, you know? Tied around the waist or draped over the shoulders was where the sweater lived, and it thrived there for a long while. Think Carlton Banks or Stan Gable in Revenge of the Nerds.

Nowadays, it’s a rare sight to see someone using the sweatshirt as an accessory. And while many fashion themes from the past have come back in a big way, I haven’t seen the sweatshirt over the shoulders look all that much. We’ve brought back country club style with tracksuits and tennis-themed apparel, and I don’t think it’s farfetched to think that “sweater over neck” is farfetched.

And I know what you’re thinking — a sweater over the shoulders? Not everyone aspires to look like they just walked out of a scotch ad, John. I understand that. And I understand the inherent douchiness of the look. But I truly think there’s a place for the sweatshirt or golf sweater over the shoulders in the modern day.

We now have people wearing bellbottoms and paying $60 or $70 dollars for a Gildan T-shirt that you could make yourself for fifteen or twenty dollars. It’s not ridiculous to think that the look I’m speaking of could make a comeback.

It’s sort of incredible, really, to think about how a sweater draped over your shoulders can immediately trigger negative connotations, but I suppose when the only people who do this are wealthy, yacht-owning dickheads, there is going to be a little bit of an aversion to the look.

I have always maintained that if you like something then wear it, and while I’m not positive that I won’t get my ass beat for trying to bring a country club-inspired look to the streets, I’m also not afraid to take chances when getting dressed.

Allow me to do some mental gymnastics with you — we dress for the jobs we want, not the ones we have, correct? Correct. So why not dress for the lifestyle we want and not the one we have?.

Image via YouTube

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Hey, I saw this on Post Grad Problems. Check it out.

Johnny D

fashion icon

• jduda@grandex.co