I’ve been organizing some photographs from the press trips I have been on this year, looking at pictures of my colleagues from around Canada and the world. And, at the risk of self-flattery, I’ll put it out there that wine writers, wine communicators, are a pretty well-dressed bunch. Or, at least, most put in an effort when they’re out and on the job.
This makes sense. Many wine communicators began as sommeliers and are used to facing the public. Those that weren’t are looking to face the public anyway. In the visual digital age of YouTube and social media, no one’s just a writer anymore.
The Italians use the term bella figura (beautiful figure) to describe what seems like their national obsession with keeping up appearances, making a good impression, and generally looking good. Most wine writers seem to have absorbed this along with all those glasses of Barolo and Chianti.
If asked to give my title, I’ll sometimes say I am a professional houseguest. I can’t remember who I stole the joke from, but it’s funny to me because it’s more than partly true. A large part of being a wine writer is being a guest and accepting hospitality from wineries, restaurants, or even whole wine regions.
So, between trying to make a good impression on the public and my hosts, I am also trying to dress for success. Looking through my pictures, I realized that my approach was more or less consistent with my cohort of heterosexual, Gen X (read: middle-aged), wine writing dudes. And it has a name in the fashion world that I just learned: Hi-Lo.
What I typically wear when I am out being a wine media guy is a T-shirt, jeans, sneakers, or some kind of rubber-soled shoes, and an expensive designer blazer. In the colder months, I might have a sweater over the T-shirt. The “Hi” is the blazer, and the rest is more or less “Lo.”
The message is that I am down to earth but also cognizant of some need to signal that tasting wine, or visiting a vineyard or a cellar, is more than an entirely casual affair. The jacket shows I have some sense of occasion. And it’s flexible: if part of the day is spent in dusty fields, but the next is a formal dining room, it’s a look that hopefully works in both settings.
Blending high and low fashion is a concept that also manifests in the world of wine. Though not in the same way, since one generally sips from only one glass of wine at a time. But the idea that the low end and high end of the wine spectrum can happily come together is evident in a number of ways.
