Publisher of Philadelphia Magazine Disgusted by Philadelphia
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I highly encourage you to read the opening page in this months Philadelphia Magazine. It is written by D. Herbert Lipson, whose family has published Philly Mag since 1946. It's called "Off the Cuff", and here are a few choice excerpts:
Philadelphians are ugly...what the world sees is the layer of crud over everything, including us. We're not clean ...or safe...I've been railing for a long time about how shabby we are, how Philadelphians present themselves poorly.
It gets better.
Not so long ago, a national high end retailer wanted to put a store on Walnut Street. A couple of executives drove down from New York one day, parked their limo on Walnut, and gazed out through tinted windows...at the slovenly crowd passing by. Then they drove back to New York, after coming to an easy decision: Philadelphia is not the place for high end retail.
Oh, no! We lost a chance to encourage a couple of blue blood aristocrats from New York to put a chain store on Walnut Street because we weren't all dressed like we care what blue blood aristocrats from New York think of us? What is wrong with us? Why can't we start living our lives to impress the obscenely wealthy?
We sometimes invite staffers down from Boston magazine...an they're startled by what they see...we prance around in public like we're walking the dog in our backyard.
We don't just disgust New Yorkers, we also disgust those vanguards of taste and class, the Bostonians? How embarrassing! This isn't the first time Lipson has blasted Philly while praising Boston. In an article written about him for his alma mater, we get this little gem: Boston magazine, he says, is classier than Philadelphia both in appearance and writing. That reflects Lipson's opinions of the two cities.
There's plenty more jewels in the write up: how disgusting Rittenhouse Park is, how he recently had lunch at the Palm, and how our lack of fashion is going to be difficult for the new Mayor to deal with. Now all of this would be pretty funny if Bobby Badtimes wrote it, but I don't think D. Herbert is kidding. I think he really finds Philly to be a cesspool, and an embarrassment when compared to the crown jewel of haut couture, Boston. So shape up, Philadelphians! If you want your mag to get the classy treatment like Boston, you need to start wearing expensive suits and eating at the Palm and rooting for the Patriots.
RELATED: The Best of Statler and Waldorf.
Note to all my friends : the D. in D. Herbert Lipson does not stand for Darth. Dingleberry, maybe! Dickhead, perhaps! Darth! No way!
Since he's so fond of Boston he should move there. The People's Republic Of Massachusetts is dropping population faster than The People's Republic Of New Jersey. They can really use his tax dollars for their Socialist Patronage.
A couple of executives drove down from New York one day, parked their limo on Walnut, and gazed out through tinted windows...at the slovenly crowd passing by. Then they drove back to New York, after coming to an easy decision: Philadelphia is not the place for high end retail.
- didn't they mean they gazed out through tinted windows and were alarmed to see black people?
And shouldn't they have told the LaCoste, Barney's and Armani people?
Sure this is a ridiculous thing to publish but I can't help but think he has something of a valid point--not about comparing Philadelphia to other cities but just about how bad we all look. And it's not just here--it's everywhere. And it's not a class thing--even rich people spend a lot of money to look trashy.
As a culture we all shopshopshopshop and yet, everyone continues to looks like crap. I'm not talking about bringing back three-piece suits but I do think there is something to be said for putting a bit of effort into your outfit and appearance when you go out in public. This means no sweats at a sit-down restaurant. This means no flip flops at the office. This means finding a big enough shirt to cover your stomach if you don't have a wash-board stomach. This means just, um, looking nice? I'm sorry if I'm partial for people who take the effort to look nice. Is that so crazy?
God, I really am becoming my mother.
That's a fair point. And one you make without telling Philadelphians that they don't measure up to New Yorkers and Bostonians, or that they are heathens. Perhaps if he could have written his piece without all the "my recent lunch at the Palm" and "Boston is sooo much classier than Philly" crap he could have made the same point himself.
Open secret: Lipson's front-of-the-Philly-mag think piece has been ghostwritten by other people for YEARS.
FU*K Boston. They lost their collective hat buckle over a LITE BRITE and had to shut down.
While I agree that there is a decided lack of style gracefully ambling sporting opera glasses about at 4th and South on a Friday night in July and a degree to which the supposed elite just mail it in - I worked at Morimoto and a kid dressed in torn jeans and grey sweatshirt wouldn't take off his baseball cap for 'religious reasons' one night, (being Jewish he claimed) but had no problem slumped in his chair ordering crab legs and scallops - but to bitch Philly not being New York or Boston is idiotic. Okay, Morimoto is technically a fancy buffet with dildo lamps and cute hostesses. BUT - Do you complain that an elephant is decidedly uncanary-like and storm out of the zoo? Do you go and see a Rousseau exhibition and complain the paintings are creepy? Do you go to Disneywhichever and complain about all the kids there? Do you go to new York and wonder why their 'big park' is tiny compared to ours? DO you go to Boston and wonder why sober people over the age of 16 are at Head of the Charles? Do you go into a soul food restaurant in LA and ask why there "ain't no Italians on the wall?"?. Okay, the last one I actually did to the embarrassment of my friends. But Philly is Philly. Take it or go back to Vorhees or Atco or Jenkintown or wherever. Or better yet - Baaaahstan.
They should have taken a tour of the suburbs of Philadelphia (not including the Main Line). People in Center City would look like runway models in comparison. It would be nice if this was Philadelphia's biggest problem.
I, for one, am shocked and outraged by the fact that people who are shot down in drive by shootings are not dressed in proper business casual. Unpressed chinos are popped collars just make me sick.
Mr. Lipson isn't the first to say it, nor will he be the last. My concern is that the charge is becoming more and more frequent. I fear that this may be the warning sound of an oncoming yuppie invasion. Maybe the "ugly" and "unfashionable" blasts that have rattled our city of late are actually strategically dropped to illicit fear from our cities apparently unmotivated taste-makers. Infiltrators from condo developers, Starbucks, bottled water producers and fashion dog sweater manufacturers have rankled our city to test the waters for their oncoming invasion. It's upper-middle-class, styrofoam-flavored, mass-media terrorism against the Eagles windbreaker, and sweat-suit clad Philadelphians. Will we be knocked over with a feather?
Philadelphia is as cool as New York was when it still had a soul, and that is BECAUSE of our grime. This is a city that leans at its leash. FxxK New York!
The comparisons are ridiculous I agree, I mean in NYC they care if their blacks match, who has time for that crap? And just wearing a pricey blue suit that fits you well ain't enough. Unlike the reader who wants people to "look nice", I'm aiming my sights higher: fashion sense. Not only being well-groomed but having fun with clothes, trying out combinations that are surprising, understanding that wearing a suit from the thrift store can be more fasion-savvy than some over-expensive designer deal that, in the end, is just a boring, regular suit. With this goal in mind, I must now register my complaint that there is a distinct lack of this sense of personal style here in the land of the outcasts (from the early Quakers to modern-day Mexicans this city has always teemed with rebels and refugees). And I would like to posit that this dearth is especially noticeable in the male population - sorry guys, but really, there IS life beyond the big white tees and plaid short-sleeved oversized button-ups like my grandpa wore. You know, everyone makes fun of the hipsters but they're the main group I see with gents who aren't afraid to take chances with their attire, though the inevitable pull to carbon-copy and just go with the little green Mao hat and plaid flannel can hold sway there too.
Here's a story that should illustrate an important tip for Philly's single males: I recently worked for a company that relocated from LA and I was so starved for men with good shoes and cool glasses that for the first couple months I worked there, I harbored major crushes on almost all of the men in the office - if any one of them had asked me out I would have jumped at the chance, office politics be damned. Once my jets cooled and I no longer wanted to date my co-workers for rational reasons such as, say, compatibility, like values or job security, I realized my frenzy of infatuations was probably because I was surrounded by straight men in good clothes and my system was overwhelmed, throwing my libido into overdrive.
Moral of the story: chicks care what you wear. Turn it to your advantage, living in Philly I mean; if you want to stand out in the crowd, just go an extra couple millimeters, it won't take much. No cries of "but I value comfort over fashion, if she can't see past that who needs her?" Trust me, you can be comfortable and still look interesting. I'm not telling you what to wear, just pointing out that it does make a difference. And back to the natural advantage you'll have over your fellow Philadelphians - it would be so much harder to wow the babes in NY or LA but here, just wear shoes that aren't for running and don't have a little slot for pennies and you're half-way there.
You should come to the 'Vous. No sneakers and no small change.
People in Philly definitely look like crap and everyone who thinks they look nice just end-up mimicing each other as they all shop on Walnut St. Style and fashion are two very different things and it's sad that the latter is mistakenly embraced by Philadelphians who think they have sartorial matters under wraps.
I didn't waste my time reading that article but I can tell you that Bostonians look even shittier then we do. Having lived in Boston I can confirm the suspicions that the haute crowd looks like manequins at Jos A. Bank.
The barbaric streak that runs through the veins of Philly causes us to ignore even the most simple of style tenets: your look is a reflection of yourself and also should convey a healthy respect for others (e. g. tucking in one's shirt, no hats indoors please). To demonstrate that point, just look at how few people knew about Mr. Peanut's spats. Bunch of animals 'round here.
Those spats cost three times as much in New York.
Yeah! But was it running shoes or penny loafers under those Spats?
Rittenhouse SQUARE, JGT, Rittenhouse SQUARE.
I don't know where Rittenhouse "Park" is even located, as it does not exist.
H. Klinton vs. Obama. How you consider, who will win elections in USA?