The Gentle Art of Shabby Dressing

There’s nothing dandier than threadbare threads

worn by a discerning shabby dresser.

A collar’s fret or subtle fray is not lesser

because it’s worn away but models instead

the bespoke tailoring of time itself.

Done poorly—the gentleman farmer’s

piecemeal pastoral, that NoHo charmer’s

duct-taped boots—it’s like an unread bookshelf

of secondhand prose: a too-studied pose.

Done well, it draws you in to draw you near,

reveals the intricate pattern in the years’

inexorable ravel. Between decompose

and deconstruct, what seemed a foppish quirk

grows wise. Design undone. We wear time’s work.