TCHADS TRANSCRIPT
ME Do you have any memorable pieces of clothing or accessories as in an outfit or a particular look?
T: Um so…
ME: It could be anything, from a party or a particular stage in your life
T: I have a box that I use for carrying equipment around and on the box its got sort of stickers and spray paint on the top and the spray paint on the top that i did is a Celtic knot, and we would normally spray Celtic knots on top of our suitcases to be able to differentiate them from other suitcases whilst myself, my sister and my parents were going on holiday and so its always nice to see a Celtic knot because to me, that looks like a nice time… a nice summer holiday, going away together.
ME: So you always used to do that with your family? You always use to do that to your suitcases?
T Yeah, we just spray it on top, just so you know, there would always be someone else’s suitcase that looked exactly the same as yours, so um yeah we’d spray it
ME Ive never heard of anyone else doing that! I just tie ribbons!
T (Laughs) why tie ribbons when you can paint it!
ME Exactly, that is quite sweet actually!
T And I think um… ugh so my dad would always be away, going on tour and things and um he brought back from Africa one time a shark jaw, with all its teeth um and I was just very young and um I just, I just really like it.
ME Shark jaw?
T Yeah…
ME He always brings things back from travelling doesn’t he?
T Yeah all the time, it’s always really nice
ME He got me and Freya those Japanese fans didn’t he! (laughs)….
T Yeah (laughs)
ME More about memorable pieces of clothing… I found it really a struggle when I thought about, and I said this Freya, when I look at my wardrobe, when I try to think of a memorable thing that I have worn, the actual memories of the clothing, I find that a lot of the time you remember the day, you remember what you were doing, and who you were with maybe but you rarely remember what you were wearing… But as you said and it completely summed up what I was thinking you make choices that for some reason or another are relative to you, so for instance you might really like animal print because you think that its fun and you just love animal print. I have a friend who always buys things that have tropical animals on them because she is obsessed with living a tropical lifestyle…
T That what you do when you are a tropical lifestyle person (laughs)
M Yeah I know! it sounds ridiculous but she literally… and it sounds really banal but she buys everything that has flamingos on it and it is literally part of what she likes, like it is part of her, the whole way that she lives her life, thats her goal to go and live in the Tropics
T It would be interesting though you know to really ask why… There might be some totally different reasons as to why she like those flamingos and you know maybe it goes further than just wanting a tropical lifestyle… You should ask.
T Right so theres this shirt, particular piece of clothing that I have, it has a Mallard print on it, its a ladies shirt the pocket is on the other side and it reminds me of enjoying working at longleat with a really great group of people and this shirt was gifted to me by one of these people and its the real potent gold colour that actually comes through from the mallards that really makes me think about the gold in the house and just how beautiful it is and just how rich the history is and just how much I learnt whilst I was there. (HAPPY NOSTALGIA)
M Thats amazing…
T And then particularly…Blazers! those are really important to me, particularly the cashmere one that I have because it was really a moment when I started seeing Freya and started hanging out with you and… Bath college and really kind of growing up out of this very sort of childish version of my myself, and I guess blazers were sort of me trying to look older, to try and make myself feel older and so I still have them, although I don’t wear them as much I am still very attached to them, because they still represent a time when I was really changing
(CONSTRUCTING OWN STYLE, ALSO MAY RELATE BACK TO HIS DAD IN SOME WAY)
M I actually noticed, that was one of the key things that I thought of when I was thinking ah I am going to interview Tchad, because I realised these things all go hand in hand, when you look at Tchad, he has this look that theres these particular items that are part of his style, like braces, blazers, smart shirts and I wondered why…
T Braces kinda related back to Longleat as well, like I would wear them at work as part of a costume too, so I was getting used to wearing those as well
M With guys especially it is hard usually to pin point visual aspect that say anything about someone, with out looking very deeply into it, but yours was really quite vivid, like I could see it, especially in Bath college I remember thinking… Theres no other guys wearing…
T Ew whats he wearing! (laughs)
ME No! I was thinking theres no other guys wearing blazers!
T (laughs)
ME Like there was no one else but it looked smart and it made you look serious, do you know what I mean? In a fashionable way, but in a way that you were to be taken more seriously than obviously someone who presents themselves in a completely different way do you know what I mean?
T Yeah…
ME Because the way that most of the guys would be dressing, it could look as if they were wearing basically anything that they would see in the shop and it wouldn’t actually have to relate to them, I don’t believe this to be true as I believe that there is a reason for how everyone dresses and how they like to portray themselves, I just believe that some people give it more consideration than others and I find it really interesting that you were so considered and obvious about how you liked to be perceived…
T There is also something that I wear at the moment, that I’ve got on now… It’s a belt… it is light brown with a mottled grey metal buckle with the BOSS ORANGE logo on it…. and it was a present from Freya, from when she was on placement at HUGO BOSS, and it just makes me think of Italy… and good times and the lovely Freya (SENTIMENTAL AND NOSTALGIC)
T Yeah… You can ask anyone and there will be a story, even if it is just a piece of high street clothing there will be a story to that piece of clothing, you know because they might have worn it at a certain event or gig… that maybe reminds them
M It does it does, that is what I thought but then I realised that for a lot of people… that it is actually really difficult to get them to remember anything about certain things… even though there will utterly be exactly the sort of things that we have been talking about, they will get confused and they won’t remember… any of those details when you ask them, it’s really strange.
T Its because they are lying, they don’t want to talk about it because they find it uncomfortable. Because you are tapping into something that…
M Doesn’t feel comfortable with them?
T Yeah, they don’t feel comfortable answering those kind of questions, because they are very personal, like the clothing you wear is as personal as the music that you listen to
M Yeah… It is, and I guess you wouldn’t always want to talk about the music that you listen to
T Yeah or you wouldn’t expect someone to tell you that what you listen to is wrong because you have bad taste, its not about your taste its about what you like about that song…
M Exactly… Very very good point actually. Ok so moving onto the next one, are there any items that you feel more attached to than others, as in sentimental items?
T The shark jaw…
M He goes away a lot doesn’t he?
T Yeah, he does…
M Does he always bring you back presents or?
T Not all the time, he did more when I was a kid… I think that he just felt bad about being away a lot, and it was kind of crap having him away a lot
M So it was nice to have a present from him?
T Yeah just the idea that I was being thought of whilst he was away. (This is something that Tchad felt very sad about) (WISTFUL NOSTALGIA RELATING TO HIS DAD)
M My dad used to do a similar thing, when he had been away on long trips he would bring me chocolate back or perfume occasionally. But your story is more poignant, because from what I have heard previously I know that your dad used to go away for a lot longer than mine, often on tour for 3-6 months?…
T Yes, very often for long periods of time… You know the shark jaw, that is something that I took with me to University, I have got it in my studio at the moment.
M Do you have there as like a comfort item?
T Yeah…There is also a watch, that I have that is a 1949, swiss made, hand made, gold plated around the rims and then sort of like a paper face with gold plated hands and the watch was something that ben bought whilst we were away together, at a watch repairers, I remember when the old guy in the shop sold it to him, I remember the guys unhappy face, he didn’t like selling things to borrowers, they did it any way. It was this amazing old clock house that was i the middle of this old city, ancient place…a few years later Ben stopped wearing the watch, so I just picked it up and started wearing it around. It was a little wind up thing. (SENTIMENTALITY RELATING TO HIS DAD AGAIN)
M I do that with some of my dads clothes actually, I wear some of his stuff, Its weird because on the surface its just I thought it was funny to knick his jacket, or just found it funny that I was wearing his stuff but then actually its quite comforting.
T Yeah
M its quite nice to be wearing your parents stuff, its hard to explain it is sentimental
T Yeah, and that watch is very sentimental to me, I look after it so much and I worry about it, I always know where it is. Ive kinda been brought up to not hold onto things, and just you know if i need to clear my room out i’ll just give away so much stuff to charity shops, and try not to give a second thought to something because I’m not necessarily too concerned with being sentimental about things, but I guess I cant really help it with for example the shark jaw, the watch. Freya knows me as being quite ruthless when it comes to clearing rooms out, you know she has to take it really slowly as everything is so sentimental to her where as I am just like, right lets just get rid of it, get out of my life, I dont want it… (NOSTALGIC AND SENTIMENTAL)
M But there are some items that do have some meaning and you cant get rid of
T I dont even consider getting rid of, its not even an option for me.
M The question was but I think that you’ve already done it, If you do can you recall any memory of it in particular? As in where you were wearing it, what happened that day, or who you were with? We’ve kinda done that I think but, so the braces for instance, you used to wear at Longleat a lot, with costume, thats quite interesting
T Yeah I think it was you know apart of that putting on a costume going to bath college every day as well, I was almost wearing a costume trying to be someone else that I wasn’t. in a way… I’ve stopped wearing them now, I basically felt like I was wearing a costume to college sometimes
M I did as well you know i completely empathise with that, with college and the same with uni but just a lot less now, but in college I was really fretful and nervous about being there, I definitely I never felt like i knew how to dress myself, I felt constantly on edge and tbh what I started to do was when I met certain friends as a reaction, ah that girl is really confident, and she dresses in a certain way, very minimalist but kind of like power dressing and it was the same with Freya. Freya dresses in a way that is very confident, very very very confident like she put that on and way yes i am wearing this!
T It was the heels!
M Yeah the heels!
T How did she do that every day!
M I know heels nearly every single day, she would trek everywhere in them. But yeah that was one example along with a few other girls there that I did notice and I thought some of these girls are so confident, and thats what I want. I want to be like that, so during that time I did kind of transform especially towards the end. It did have affect on the way that I behaved because I deliberately changed my behaviour, I went from trusting everyone being friends with everyone like I always do and it backfired because there were lots of not very nice people. So I became more focused on myself and cared a lot less of what anyone else was doing
T Yeah It is often difficult in the class environment
M Yeah so that was that, I definitely changed in that time. Ok so the next is, Do you think that you have a particular style, what would you call it?
T hmm
M Like do you identify with any particular style? Because I feel like you crafted yourself in clothing, like you have chosen your own look, you don’t look like you follow a particular trend…
T I think I might do a little bit… say the height of my trousers and the shoes that I wear. like I’ve got a pair of Adidas Stan Smiths, and that is definitely following a trend.
M Your style looks very traditional to me…
T Yeah its like traditional then not traditional because I will put trainers with it
M is that for ease?
T No I think the trainers give it a young look
T I kind of want to say now, not back when i was in college but definitely now… Sort of homeless hipster
M (laughs)
T Erm, hipster chic
M I think that you still dress quite smart though
T Yeah thats where the chic comes in
M (laughs) How would you define hipster though
T I don’t know, Im wearing mostly zara.
M I know it is super hard putting a specific name to your style, because you know, it is you. It is a culmination of lots of different bits of you.
T I think at the moment, Im finding it hard to look at myself objectively to say oh well he’s in that category, I’m finding it hard to categorise myself into any area because I’m seeing it from such a subjective stand point. Soon as I say what I am, thats not what I am, its what other people are seeing in what I am wearing and what their already preconceived ideas of what they think I am so they will in the heads put me into a category of oh he’s that style
T If I was to put myself into the shoes of someone else and look at me, I would say that I am sharp… but thats not actually how I see myself now, that is how I would like to be, but I just don’t feel like it describes me at the moment.
M Sharp is definitely I feel a lot more accurate than hipster in how you actually look. How I build a picture of you in my head is and my personal way of how I would project my narrative of you onto someone else is
T thats what Ive been trying to say (laughs)
M Yeah! I would … I would like to have a narrative of all of these elements that say something about you, theres these elements where you’ve done really well at uni you’ve been super focused and you are a great photographer, and the way that you dress, all of your artistic interests and the fact that you’ve put the energy into educating yourself like that all actually does… you actually look like that, you look like what you are so its really interesting and thats the sort of visual picture that I would love to mirror onto James and I think that. I think literally some kind of narrative of maybe a particular stage in your life, um would be amazing.