Gattaca: An Achievement in Classic Style

Tony Shaloub as German

Timelessness and relevance are the two determining factors of what I believe to be classic.  Shakespeare’s universal hymns of the human condition keep his plays stacked in classroom shelves, and the Rolex Submariner will ever bequeath from wrist to wrist for generations – or as my father said when I asked if I can size his down to fit my wrist, “You’ll have to wait until I’m dead.”  When it comes my time to pass it on, I can’t wait to see it on my child’s wrist, the patina of a dial decades under the sun, belonging in a generation for which it was made to last.

The classic aesthetic is something I look forward to in all arts, most particularly film.  It’s fascinating to rewatch movies and see how they all age at different rates.  The neon tanks and acid wash of most films from my birth decade will always identify as eighties movies, yet others will age much more gracefully, if not at all.  I refer to the set wardrobe of movies because they place such a large influence in the aging of the film, which is why a 1997 film like Gattaca looks simultaneously like a 1957 film and 2017 film.

Crossing Cultures with lost+found

l+f
three-sixths of lost+found (left to right): Kevin Yapjoco, Jason Qua, Edmond Lim

*note: On October 11th, the lost+found officially renamed the store to Signet:

I always finish my homecoming trips to the Philippines with a renewed love for country.  On my first trip back at twelve years old, it was waking up in the room that lulled me to sleep until my sister and I turned two.  At eighteen, it was swimming through the teeming abundance of life within the coral reefs in Mindoro.  And last week, sharing a breakfast table with three co-owners of an ambitious menswear shop, it was meeting the men responsible for giving the culture of Philippine menswear exactly what it needs.