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Will Halbert’s Lockdown Guide to Getting Dressed and Feeling Normal

I can’t bake, I don’t do Netflix marathons, and I have a dog that feels he’s more deserving of the sofa than the human who bought it; lockdown was always going to take some adjustment. That said, I do have one single, solitary nugget of wisdom to help navigate the current chaos of our confinement, and that nugget is this: get dressed.

The right clothes are positively mood altering. They can elevate and energise in ways you wouldn’t think possible. Clothes can instil a little comfort and normality in uncomfortable, abnormal times. Plus, this is lockdown 3.0; we all know better than to gamble on a pantless Zoom call by now, right?

As a guy who’s made a living by writing about how well clothes sit and fit, it’s been nice to take a moment (or, you know, a year) to appreciate how they feel. Lockdown has seen me leaning towards relaxed, casual comfort without letting things get too loose and leisurely.

Current go-tos include a few heavyweight, double-brushed flannels from The Flat Head and a nifty, boiled wool shawl from 3sixteen. The former feels like being cocooned in the warmth and safety of a mother’s hug, while the latter lets me walk around the house quoting spaghetti westerns with more authority than usual. Both are perfectly suited for drinking Small Beer Session Pale at The Windowsill.

That’s not a bar; I literally mean the windowsill. And before you ask: no, the cliché of the beard-toting, flannel-wearing craft beer drinker is not lost on me, thank you.

I save the gym gear for when I’m working out or winding down, as the change lets me get into the right mindset. Lockdown (and indeed my thirties) have forced me to swap the old boxing gloves for a newfound, near-crippling back pain and a truly comical metabolism. And now that my morning commute has been reduced to the act of falling out of bed and landing in my office (read: kitchen), I’ve got to make up the cardio somehow. I find a little yoga and some calisthenics do the job quite nicely, as does wrestling with my overenthusiastic dachshund when he inevitably misinterprets my crow pose as an invitation to fight. The Small Beer serves as a welcome reward for whoever wins.


Bottom line? Get dressed. Because things might be bad, but they don’t have to be drink-alone-in-your-underwear bad.


Want more of Will and his lockdown survival guidance?

Follow on Instagram: @willhalbert

Visit his website: willhalbert.com 


Tags: fashion