FEATURES
Mirfield Nevada trainers, £320,
church-footwear.comCotton silk polo shirt, £55,
arket.comMAN FRIDAY
WHAT TO WEAR IF YOU’RE
A WOKE BACK-TO-WORKER
There’s a new tribe
of 9-5 men whodon’t want to look
like they work in
an office: but howdo you get it right?
Stephen Doig
investigatesE
steemed
colleagues,
not to mention
our shrewd
readers
who’ve
written in, have critiqued
the finer points of
Dominic Cummings’s
curious approach to
dressing: dishevelled
shirts, gap year trousers,
student bar trainers. It is,
of course, about as
haphazard as
neurosurgery: it’s a
carefully constructed
identity to paint him
as a freethinking
freedom fighter who’s
nothing like the suited
Westminster
“yes men”.
Nothing says
“renegade”
like a
crumpled
linen shirt,
right?
Except Boris
Johnson’s
special adviser
looks more like
a bewildered
dad at a festival
than a kingmaker.
Whether your role
is prepping for No
Deal or crunching
numbers in the City,
Cummings does point
to a new breed of man
who’ll be returning to
work after summer
sojourns and would
rather choke on his flatwhite than dress the way
his father did. Even the
most corporate types are
no longer captains of
industries in stately suits;
there’s a rising momentum
towards a wardrobe that
shows you as more diverse,
more dynamic, more able
and ready for hot desking
than hot lunches at your
gentlemen’s club.
Even our own woke
royal, Prince Harry, has
adopted a more casual
approach to a working
wardrobe, appearing
alongside Elton John at an
Aids conference in an
open-necked shirt and
Clarks desert boots.
This shift has gone
hand-in-hand with a rise in
brands whose collective
motto could be “everything
but the suit”: low-key,
everyday pieces that can
blend seamlessly into office
wear. Excellent shirts, sleek
chinos, relaxed blazers,
shoes that sit somewhere
along the smart-casual
fault line; labels such as
Officine Generale,
Arket, Oliver Spencer,
Albam and Spoke
London occupy a
space in catering
to a man who
wants to look
well put-
together but
not to ape the
attire of the
City boy.
They create
real-life
clothes in
peerless
fabrics from
sustainable supply
chains. So, what
items should woke
workers hone in on?
First up, the shirt
should be trimmed of
that signifier of
formality, the collar.
Look for collarless
versions – a nehru or
grandad collar in a
good-quality cotton or
seersucker, not thetructed
nt him
ng
er who’s
he suitedr
eal
ker.
ur role
r No
hing
e City,
es point
d of man
rning to
mmer
would
on his flatshoes that si
along the s
fault line; l
Officine Ge
Arket, Oliv
AlbA am
Lond
spac
to a
wa
we
to
n
a
Cp
fa
sustain
chains.
items sh
workers
First u
should be
that signifi
formality,
Look for co
verv sions –
grandad co
good-qual
seersuckeKeeping it casual: Prince
Harry in jacket and chinosLight down compact gilet,
£39.90, uniqlo.comClassic chinos, £89,
spoke-london.comGrandad shirt, £110,
oliverspencer.co.uk¾ sleeve grandad shirt, £55,
cosstores.combeach-ready linen that
Cummings is so fond of. In
place of a traditional suit,
break it up: a suit jacket
with chinos, like Prince
Harry, or smart trousers
with a shirt, perhaps with a
lightweight cardigan or
even a sleek gilet.
Yes, a gilet: it’s no longer
the stuff of county fairs- the tech bros of Palo Alto
are fond of a minimalist,
lightweight gilet that acts as
a cover-up but suggests
dynamism rather than
desk-bound stagnation.
Add a pair of elevated
trainers – variants in
smart leather or suede, a
world apart from scuffed,
gym-ready offerings – and
a tuck-under-the-arm-
and-go portfolio instead of
an officious briefcase. Less
“Dad’s lost his way at
Glastonbury”, more “on
your way to great things”.A
t first light in a secret
location on the Isle of
Wight, the nightjars are
still churring as a pair of
shadowy figures creep
through a meadow
towards three steel-framed cages.
After tipping a trayful of chopped-up
conger eel through a feeding chute
they yank down a rope that opens a
hatch to the outside world. The
white-tailed eagles slowly rouse
themselves, eating breakfast while
scanning their surroundings and
stretching wings that when fully
extended can span nearly 8ft.
And then, suddenly, the first bird
is off: soaring above England for the
first time in 240 years, each wingbeat
marking history in the making.
The last pair of white-tailed eagles
(also known as sea eagles) in England
was recorded here on the island in- The bird was once resident all
around our shorelines – and revered
by our ancient ancestors who
deemed them conduits to the gods –
but by the end of the 18th century
they had been hunted to extinction.
This week, though, the eagles have
landed once more. Over Wednesday
and Thursday, six satellite-tagged
birds were released in a clandestine
operation years in the making,
and The Daily Telegraph was the only
newspaper there to witness it.
In the next five years, 60 eagles
will be reintroduced on to the island.
While only about 30 per cent are
expected to survive into adulthood it
is hoped in time they will repopulate
along the south coast of England. But
this has prompted concern among
farmers about the potential impact
on their flocks – with some asking for
permission to shoot “rogue” birds if
they prove a danger to livestock.
The Isle of Wight birds have been
taken from the west coast of Scotland,
where the last eagle was shot in 1918,
Joe Shute watches the predator’s historic
reintroduction after 240 years – and
finds out why it has ruffled some feathers
The eagle has
landed... on the
Isle of Wight
but where a similar reintroduction
project over the latter half of the 20th
century has established 130 pairs. Roy
Dennis, whose foundation has worked
in partnership with Forestry England
and Natural England on the Isle of
Wight project, has been involved in
most of the Scottish releases. On
Wednesday morning, the 79-year-old
grinned as he watched the first English
eagle take flight. “It is just lovely to
think of them being back in this
landscape,” he said. “These birds are a
real icon of wildness. And of what we
destroyed in the past.”
The return of such a majestic
predator to the south coast is beyond
most birdwatchers’ wildest dreams and
has been championed by former
environment secretary Michael Gove
and his successor Theresa Villiers. But
the eagles have not been universally
welcomed.
Nicknamed “flying barn doors” for
their vast size, white-tailed eagles
possess hugely powerful talons, and
have been known to snatch lambs. In
May, an amateur photographer on the
Isle of Mull captured a widelycirculated image of a white-tailed eagle
carrying a lamb in its claws, although it
was not clear whether the animal had
died prior to being picked up.
The National Sheep Association,
which had opposed the licence for the
release awarded by Natural England,
claims that bearing in mind the range
of sea eagles (in the first two years they
can typically fly more than 100 miles
before returning to where they
fledged) sheep farmers across the
country need to be further consulted
on the potential impact on their
businesses. On the Isle of Wight,
however, many are choosing to hold
their fire. After all, it is estimated that
the eagles on the Isle of Mull bring in
£5 million in tourism revenue a year.
Andrew Hodgson, who runs
Cheverton Farm, has attended some of
the numerous consultations held across
the island. The 56-year-old keeps
thousands of sheep across isolated
pockets of land and admits that while
he remains broadly supportive, he doesFreedom: Dr Tim
Mackrill and Ian
Perks, below, tag
the eagle ahead of
its release, aboveCHRISTOPHER PLEDGER FOR THE TELEGRAPH; DOUGLASMirfieldMirfield NevadaNevada train trainers,ers, £32£320,0,
church-footwear.comre
l
asa
ng¾have some concerns. “I’m
not against the sea eagles,”
he says. “But if they do
develop a taste for lamb, what
compensation are we going to get?”
Dr Tim Mackrill, of the Roy Dennis
Wildlife Foundation, has worked with
colleagues over recent months to
assuage such fears. Another rumour
circulating on the Isle of Wight is that
the eagles will snatch pet dogs. “I can
categorically say they will not eat
dogs,” he says. Indeed, he is confident
they will not even eat lambs. As part of
the feasibility study for the project, Dr
Mackrill visited the Netherlands
where there are 11 white-tailed eagle
pairs nesting in both built-up and
arable areas. According to Dr Mackrill,
despite the presence of the birds, not a
single instance of livestock predation
has been reported. They hope the
abundance of natural food in and
around the Isle of Wight – from fish
shoals to wintering waders – will mean
the eagles will steer well clear of anyfarms. “We’re quite confident they
will just fit in and be part of the
landscape,” he says.
Dr Mackrill stresses, however, that
should problems arise, they do have
measures in place. Individual eagles
can be removed and placed into
captivity if they are deemed to be
“problem birds”. Similarly they have
agreed to introduce diversionary
feeding or, in extreme cases, remove
nests if attacking livestock becomes
an issue on certain farms.
“It is about being sensitive to those
concerns but also saying we wouldn’t
be doing this if we thought there was
a risk that problems would start to
happen here,” he says.
The eagles first arrived on the Isle
of Wight on June 25 and over the past
two months have been closely
monitored by volunteers
working shifts in a caravan
fitted out with screens to
watch the birds in their
cages, and feeding them up
to a kilo of fish a day.
“It’s a wonderful feeling to
know you are putting these
beautiful species back into
the landscape again where
they do belong,” says
62-year-old volunteer Jim
Baldwin. “It’s mind-blowing
to be part of this project.”
The return of apex
predators – so-called animals
occupying the top spot in
any food chain – has clear
ecological benefits. According to Dr
Mackrill, it is hoped the eagles will
keep in check populations of feral
geese and, as generalist feeders, help
restore balance to the ecosystem.
But the science is also being hailed
as a symbol: of correcting the errors
of the past and restoring a totemic
animal of the wilderness into modern
life to prove we can coexist.
So far, the released birds have, as
hoped, remained close to the release
site. But should you find yourself on
the Isle of Wight there remains the
very real prospect that you might see
one of them soaring overhead.
“The first time I see one up in
the sky will be such an emotional
experience,” says Tracy Dove,
another of the volunteers involved in
the project. “It puts a lump in my
throat just thinking about it.”Huge: the white-
tailed eagle, top
right; above, one
was seen carrying
away a lamb in Mull22 ***^ Friday 23 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
RELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws