8 ★ FTWeekend 21 March/22 March 2020There is a space of
work and the space
of home, and thetwo must be kept
separate. Clothesmark the transition
Keep calm and
get dressed M
an, I look like hell. That
was my first thought on
seeing my image, caught
by the fisheye camera on
my laptop, during the
first of what promises to be a
numberless succession of team
meetings held by video conference.
The novelty of seeing colleagues
framed by their domestic habitats will
fade quickly, I’m sure. But my dull
horror at having to watch myself talk
seems likely to last.
I have reached the age where
even encounters with ordinary mirrors
have a mildly occult quality. (Who is
that creepy old guy, and why is he
wearing my clothes?) But this was
different: looking back at me,
unshaven in T-shirt and denim jacket,
was one of the haggard survivors from
The Walking Dead.
And this, friends, was on day one of
working from home. After four weeks?
Or eight? Will I appear shirtless, dark
glasses concealing bloodshot eyes, a
cigarette dangling from my lips?
Something must be done. Some sort
of dress code must apply. It does not
matter that someone on FaceTime
might notice my frayed collar, but
madness must be kept at bay.(Before going on, a few pre-emptive
words for the comments section. Yes,
at a time like this, worrying about
clothes is idiotic. Everything is trivial
when it stands beside the health of the
people we love. But it is equally
obvious that we cannot spend all our
time thinking pious thoughts and
washing our hands. We will read, and
cook, and drink, and crack jokes, and
all of this will help us through. Clothing
fits in this category. Go be indignant at
someone else.)
There are several useful guideposts
to consult as we reshape our habits in
the era of social distancing. I thought of
Robert Redford, in the excellentAll Is
Lost. He plays a solo sailor in the Indian
Ocean, boat damaged and radio
broken. With a lethal storm bearing
down and the boat taking on water, he
prepares as best he can, and then —
shaves. The action does not come
across as the least bit odd. The point is
not that appearances matter. It is that,
in a crisis, order matters, including
(and possibly most of all) forms of
order that are purely symbolic.
Nor does this apply in only mortal
circumstances. Robert Caro, the great
biographer of Lyndon Johnson, works
alone every day in a New York office.He prepares for his
solitude by putting on
a jacket and tie.
“People laugh at me,”
he once told an
interviewer, but “I do
everything I can to
make myself
remember this is a
job.”
Some writers take
the opposite
approach.
A literary
acquaintance once
explained to me how
she loved the slovenly
writer’s life, wrote in
her pyjamas and avoided the social
ramble. At the same time, she said,
“My clothes like to go outside.”
Everybody wants to dress up for
something.
And for us non-artists, there is a
space of work and the space of home,
and the two must be kept separate.
Clothes mark the transition. The most
important example of this, and a
source of wisdom for every crisis,
is Mr Rogers. What happens at the
beginning of each episode ofMister
Rogers’ Neighborhood? Mr Rogers entershis house, singing, in jacket and tie.
The jacket is then hung neatly in the
closet, replaced by a zippered cardigan
(where can I get one of those, by the
way?). His leather shoes come off,
replaced by blue Keds. And with that,
we are home, and safe.
The question is how to do a reverse
Mr Rogers — preparing to depart home
rather than to arrive — and without
even leaving the house. When work
and home are in identical locations, the
ritual is more important and more
challenging to complete.
What to do, then? Shaving every
morning is the obvious first step. After
that, it becomes trickier. I cannot
follow Mr Caro’s example all the way to
jacket and tie. He has an office. I will be
leaving the bedroom to cross into the
guest room and its makeshift desk.
Ritual, taken too far, slips into comedy.
I will, however, have designated work
clothes. I will put them on when I clock
in and take them off on clocking out.
(If there is no clocking in and clocking
out? Then the game is already lost.)
And the work clothes, if not formal,
will be tidy, something I would be
happy to be seen in while walking a city
street. And they will be clean every
day. And I shall not go mad.Robert Armstrong
Style
T
he 21-year-old HH Maha-
raja Sawai Padmanabh
Singh, known unofficially
as the king of Jaipur,
waltzed into the public eye
in November 2017, when he escorted
Reese Witherspoon’s daughter, Ava
Phillippe, to the exclusive Bal des Débu-
tantesinParis.Picturesofatuxedo-clad
Singh dancing with Phillippe, who was
wearing a gold-flecked haute couture
ball gown by Giambattista Valli, to the
music from the filmLa La Land ere cir-w
culated widely online. Dolce & Gabbana
took note, casting him in its Spring/
Summer catwalk show the following
June, which Singh says was his first real
introductiontofashion.
Singh has been courting headlines
ever since, thanks both to his prowess
at polo — he is the youngest Indian
player to compete in a World Cup
match — but also because of his per-
sonal style. His harmonious mix ofwestern-style tailoring — crisp shirts,
Thom Browne-style cropped trousers,
well-cut suits — and traditional Indian
garments such as the bandhgala (a
high-collared short jacket) have made
him into a style ambassador for mod-
ern India. “[He] knows how to combine
western and Indian references marvel-
lously and has the inherent sense to
wear the right thing at the right
moment,” says Jean-Guilhem Lam-
berti, chief creative officer of French
hotel group Accor, who worked with
Singh on a forthcoming hotel cam-
paign. Giorgio Armani’s niece Roberta,
who befriended him not long after his
Dolce & Gabbana debut, describes
Singh as “an exemplary role model for
modern India, not solely in style but
moreinhisgraceandmanners”.
Added to this is the lustre of his line-
age. Singh is a descendant of the Jaipur
royal family, and was “crowned” after
his maternal grandfather passed away
in 2011, when Singh was just 12. His
forefather, Maharaja Jai Singh II, estab-
lishedJaipurin1727,acityinnorth-west
Indiaknownforitsimperialpalacesandheritage architecture. Although
royal titles were abolished in
India in 1971, the family is still
revered by the people of the
desert state of Rajasthan, of
which Jaipur is the capital.
WhenSinghwalksintoaroom,
our 35-year-old photogra-
pher’s assistant, who grew up
in Jaipur, folds his hands and
bows. To an outsider, the
respect and allegiance are
surprising, as nowhere else in
India is royalty as important
asitishere.
We meet at Singh’s resi-
dence, Sukh Niwas, on the
first floor of the City Palace
in Jaipur, which serves as both his
family home and a museum. On the
ground floor and the floors above, a
steady stream of tourists are taking pic-
tures of the rooms the family once
resided in, now open for public viewing.
We are in one of the few cordoned-off
areas, equally magnificent, with walls
gilded in 24-carat gold. Photographs
show Singh’s maternal grandparents,the late Maharaja Brigadier Sawai Bha-
wani Singh and Rajmata Padmini Devi,
with the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of
CornwallandOprahWinfrey.
“[Livinginapalace]takesyoubackto
the 1940s or the 1930s, and makes you
think how life must have been back
then,”Singhsays.
While Singh is best known as the head
of a once royal family, he considers him-
self first and foremost a polo player. He
is a member of both the Federation of
International Polo and the Guards Polo
Club of Windsor and has played with
both Prince William and Prince Harry.
“The first time I felt that I had achieved
something on my own was through
polo,” he says. His eyes light up when he
talks about his favourite horse, who was
recentlyinjured.
Polo is one of the world’s most high-
end sports, with a niche following at
best, but Singh is convinced that it can
reach a wider audience. He donates his
polo earnings to his father’s organisa-
tion, the Royal Jaipur Polo Foundation,whichinviteschildrenfromlowersocio-
economic backgrounds to learn to play
thesport.
“By the time I’m 32, ideally I want to
see some of these kids become profes-
sional[poloplayers],”hesays.
Singh,whoisstudyingmuseologyand
art history at the Università e Nobil Col-
legio St Eligio in Rome, also sees himself
as an ambassador to his city, and is keen
to boost tourism. Jaipur is situated
within the Tourism Golden Triangle of
India that includes Delhi and Agra, and
before the coronavirus outbreak, it
expected to welcome 50m visitors in
2020.Theroyalfamilyownssomeofthe
properties, hotels and forts frequented
bytourists.
When Airbnb came knocking last
year, inquiring whether Singh might
rent out part of the City Palace for its
guests, he initially hesitated to open up
more of his family estate — but agreed
on the condition that proceeds from the
bookings would go to his mother’s char-
ity, the Princess Diya Kumari Founda-
tion, which supports rural women and
artisans.
Amanpreet Singh Bajaj, country head
of Airbnb, says that Singh was involved
every step of the way, “from the plan-
ning to the execution of the campaign to
thesettingupofthesuite”.
The room, the Gudliya Suite, only a
few feet from Singh’s own residence, has
an indoor pool, terrace and walk-in
wardrobe, and costs $8,000 per night. A
butler and guide are on hand
to arrange curated city
experiences, including
shopping tours and vis-
itstolocalmuseums.
RaghavendraRathore,
an Indian menswear
designer who dressed
Singhforhis2011corona-
tion ceremony, and a
member of the Jodhpur
royal family, says this
inclusive approach to roy-
alty makes Singh a “text-
book envoy of a modern
Indian”. Rathore observes
that working with his fam-
ily’s charitable endeavours
— an extensive list that
includes trusts and muse-
ums — is Singh’s calling and
responsibility.
“You have to think beyond yourself,”
Singh says of his duty towards the peo-
ple of Jaipur, something his parents
instilled in him at an early age. He is
doing his best to represent his grandfa-
ther, he says. “He was a huge aficionado
of shoes,” Singh says, “I need to find a
waytofitintothem.”Clockwise from main: HH Maharaja Sawai
Padmanabh Singh photographed for the FT by
Nishant Shukla in his Jaipur palace; appearing
at the SS19 Dolce & Gabbana runway show;
playing polo at the British Polo Day in Jaipur
last year (foreground); escorting Ava Phillippe,
daughter of actor Reese Witherspoon, at Le Bal
des Débutantes in Paris, 2017 —Getty, Sam Churchhillaipur’s kingJ
Interview|Shruti Thackermeets
Padmanabh Singh — Indian royalty,
world-class polo player and an
extremely dapper dresser
of fashion
‘The first time I felt
that I had achieved
something on my ownwas through polo’
He is ‘an exemplary role
model for modern India,
not solely in style but inhis grace and manners’
Fred Rogers on ‘Mister
Rogers’ Neighborhood’,
1966 —AlamyStyle
MARCH 21 2020 Section:Weekend Time: 3/202019/ - 17:37 User:jane.lamacraft Page Name:WKD8, Part,Page,Edition:WKD, 8, 1