Lost Worlds’ founder Stuart interviewed

ton312 said:

The LW site should go full force. Rather than the galloping blue pony gif here’s what I’d like to see:
Super tight jegging, man bun sporting, hipster with a weak thin beard puts on LW jacket. Cut to Stu “You’re the disease and I’m the cure” Flicks cigarette butt at man bun who explodes into a huge fiery ball. Pan out from the smoldering ash and the jacket is all that remains, walks itself to an A-team type armored van and salutes Stu as it drives off into the sunset, queue Kenny Loggins soundtrack. As the scene fades Arnold, Sly, JCVD, Carl Weathers and Chuck Norris appear as ghosts in the clouds, thumbs up, this image is then swiped with the final scene of an SR-71 Blackbird streaking across the border of space and the pilot is Rue McClanahan.

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I would buy a ticket to that movie!!!!

jonesy86 said:

"I'm Artie Choke, and we're just a joke".

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Lol
Now we know what each of us were doing in 1971, Jonesy, and is wasn’t leather jackets. Lost World’s progenitor must have skipped that class.
B

ton312 said:

The LW site should go full force. Rather than the galloping blue pony gif here’s what I’d like to see:
Super tight jegging, man bun sporting, hipster with a weak thin beard puts on LW jacket. Cut to Stu “You’re the disease and I’m the cure” Flicks cigarette butt at man bun who explodes into a huge fiery ball. Pan out from the smoldering ash and the jacket is all that remains, walks itself to an A-team type armored van and salutes Stu as it drives off into the sunset, queue Kenny Loggins soundtrack. As the scene fades Arnold, Sly, JCVD, Carl Weathers and Chuck Norris appear as ghosts in the clouds, thumbs up, this image is then swiped with the final scene of an SR-71 Blackbird streaking across the border of space and the pilot is Rue McClanahan.

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Hilarious!!
Tony you gotta do “Tales of the Ton” more often. Brings it all back a couple notches.
Love the....weak thin beard ref.
Thanks for the chuckle.
B

I don't know how I missed this. My favorite part is the subtitle of the mag that published it: "On classic style, elegance, and the beautiful life." Stu?

Monitor said:

I apologize in advance for the negativity tho I don't really but...

"...and many of the styles we made first have found their way, shall we say, elsewhere? Myself, I wouldn’t “borrow” someone else’s ideas if a gun was put to my head but that’s why we’re LOST WORLDS."

...lol what.

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Mn. For any company based on reproducing historcial styles, it seems a little bit of a stretch to complain if someone else produced a lookalike product (providing they do it by legitimate means, of coruse - that had not always been thecase in this niche).

ton312 said:

Tea core is actually pee core?!! LOL. If nothing else the guy is consistent. I guess with Stu you either laugh with him or at him. I’m sure he doesn’t care either way.
Very interesting to compare his views to other makers like Ken and Dave H. Stu’s brand of over the top confidence smacks of insecurity to me. I’ve always felt that if you can’t compliment your competition, it means you fear them.

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TBH, while I expect a level of elf-promotion from any brand, once it gets too hyperbolic I fidn it a turn-off. For me, there's no objective "best" in this level, rather there are a small number of companies who all produce nice product which differs in specific ways. Aero, Lost Worlds and Thedi - for instance - are all very different from one another. At that point, "best" or "better" is subjective. One thing I'll grant Stuart isthat I've never seen him attacking specific individuals or other brands by name, which is a whole other level of madness.

Mich486 said:

Few people speak like that these days. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing but it makes for an interesting ‘edgy’ read.

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TBH, I'm not seeing the "edgy". Whether or not we like what Stu has to say, the whole thing is about as "edgy" as he is a "rebel" for wearing jeans almost every day - like 99% of men across the western world.

Superfluous said:

His comically extreme disparagement of anyone and anything that deviates from his narrow paradigm is obnoxious and repellent. The fact that he may be different in private does not diminish or mitigate his repugnant public persona. Given his overt contempt for, and denigration of, every single member of this community, I am surprised that TFL members continue to eagerly patronize him.

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It all seems to depend upon whether one is incline to chalk it up to marketing and ignore it, or be put off. I've never been inclined to disparage LWs' product, though not much of it appeals to me in the same way as certain other brands. All other things being equal, though, I personally wouldn't be inclined to deal with someone who was how he represents himself - and perhaps less so if I was convinced it was a fabricated act of a persona to appeal to a particular market. "Nothing to see here, move along".

ton312 said:

I would like to be a fly on the wall and listen to BK and LW go toe to toe on whose jacket is better and who has the worse customer base. They seem to operate on similar ethos.

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BK seemed to mostly stick to striking out at specific, named critics, rather than Stu's more generalised approach...

dannyk said:

I don’t know I haven’t been on his site in a while I know there used to be a few comments there as well. But in regards to the members. This is directly aimed at us. No not like literally me or you specifically. But anyone on a forum or fb group like this. Straight from this interview. Amongst many other disparaging and or interesting remarks. But I’ve said my piece and don’t feel the need to go down this road any further. Just wanted to respond to your one comment.

“No pandering to fashionistas and those who find necessary ego completion in Internet blogs, forums, chat groups, etc. where the fundamentalist dispersion of ignorance and bias laden with ulterior commercial motive quickly converts those so inclined”

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Does he still pepper it with the phrase "jacket queens"? Seems a bit silly to me. I assume, though, he must fin enough folks who disagree or don't care if he is capable of staying in business.

AeroFan_07 said:

Thanks for posting this interview, I tend to suspect this is outside the box for him.

My reaction is a bit different:

• He is 69 years old
• He has a son with no intrest in the leather business
• I am "divorced " with no further detail (sign of serious pain)

Eventually, Lost Worlds (company) will have to be sold, given, or closed as an entity. Stuart seems to have faced some serious disspointments & challenges in life. An old saying I have heard is that "Diasspointments can make you bitter - or better." He is soon facing what to do with his life's work. This is scary no matter who you are or what your image may reflect. So my perspective of him is just that - a perspective. But in any case, he is, soon, going to need help in ways he may not be comfortable with. Not an easy reality to have to deal with.

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It'll be interesting to see what happens the rand when he decides to hang it up. I wonder if anyone working with him will buy over the patterns / stock / location an stat something new with it?

Monitor said:

LW's downright hate toward us - yes, us here on TLF or StyleForum or SuFu or VJL or anywhere where people talk about jackets, post photos of our jackets - has always bothered me. There's no sugarcoating it - He hates you and he hates me and that's something that is crystal clear just from browsing his website. Web store. I knew that when I ordered my LW and I went along with it. But it bothered me and it bothers me still. I don't get it, why would he hate the only people capable of truly appreciating his outstanding jackets?

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Honestly, I have never been sure whether he's totally for real, or if it's some werid notion that this will sell better to a specific market - like the gun store in the US some years ago that made a whole show out of saying they would refuse to sell to people who vote for President X.... They were in an area where virtually nobody, and certainly not anyone who might habitually purchase guns on a regular basis, who would be likely for vote for President X was located - it was clearly a stunt to flag up their "credentials" to the local / target market. Like a butcher refusing to sell meat to vegetarians... Put me off (along with the prices for a UK purchase!), but I'm sure there are others who will buy into this sort of anti-PC virtue signalling.

Bfd70 said:

Read the thread first and then the interview. I expected it to be much more caustic. It just sounded like a cut-n-paste from his webiste.

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Surprisingly toned down from what I saw on his website a few years ago when I last bothered to look at it.

jonbuilder said:

If I read correctly, he did not complete his PhD in English, he failed to make the grade and quit.

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It's implie he didn't finish it, yes, though that can happen for all sorts of reasons (sadly, more than a few students pull out for lack of funding).

JMax said:

Common among older business owners. They thrived before, they don’t need whiz bang websites now.

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IT could well be true enough if it's such a small operation as implied here, too.

itsallgood said:

I may have been unclear. I was drawing an analogy to the personality type drawn to a PhD in English. If he worked on it for four years, he may be ABD.
.

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It's certainly not for everybody. You do have to be pretty cuthroat to work your way up the pole in that business, and the saddest thing is that what this all too often does is disocurage investment in actually teaching.

Superfluous said:

Truth is that Stu's perspective on outerwear forums may, to varying degrees, be shared by many/most jacket manufacturers.

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Assuming it's true... thuogh I will give him that he isn't as petty as some to go after named individuals who say something critical once (it's amazing how pettily some peopel can hold a grduge like that) - an also for all his "WE are the greatest" bluster, I'll give him that Stu has never disapraged a competitor by name, which is bad form. He may not do it in a way I care for, but at least he sticks to marketing his own product rather than trying to run down or rip off product from his direct competitors or use soundalikes for their TMs or what have you.

Sloan1874 said:

Yes, I find Stu's sneering at people because they dare show enthusiasm for this niche and enjoy chatting with like-minded people particularly unpleasant.

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I found it erred on the pretentious, though TBH I was surprised by his academic past which seemed to sit at odds to his approach to marketing.

Not seen the website in a few years but hopefully he's cut back on the weird obsession with things being manly or unmanly. I recall over a decade ago now a former member on here asked if he had a lighter hide for a second jacket he was ordering, only to be met with the "perhaps you're not manly enough for ou jackets" response. But hey ho. I seem to remember some of the worst diatribes were around the pages with his A2s, which were never as accurate as several competitors, so I'm assuming the boys at VLJ took him to task on that a one time and that's the root of much of the apparent bitterness.

Different strokes for different folks, eh?

His A-2s looked like jackets that were standard back in the 90s or 2000s. Gotta keep moving and improving if you want to keep up with the game. There's something curiously dated about the whole outfit, though. As if he's said 'These are the best I, or anyone else, can do', and thrown in the towel, which strikes me as odd and not a little arrogant.

Edward said:

Mn. For any company based on reproducing historcial styles, it seems a little bit of a stretch to complain if someone else produced a lookalike product (providing they do it by legitimate means, of coruse - that had not always been thecase in this niche).



TBH, while I expect a level of elf-promotion from any brand, once it gets too hyperbolic I fidn it a turn-off. For me, there's no objective "best" in this level, rather there are a small number of companies who all produce nice product which differs in specific ways. Aero, Lost Worlds and Thedi - for instance - are all very different from one another. At that point, "best" or "better" is subjective. One thing I'll grant Stuart isthat I've never seen him attacking specific individuals or other brands by name, which is a whole other level of madness.



TBH, I'm not seeing the "edgy". Whether or not we like what Stu has to say, the whole thing is about as "edgy" as he is a "rebel" for wearing jeans almost every day - like 99% of men across the western world.



It all seems to depend upon whether one is incline to chalk it up to marketing and ignore it, or be put off. I've never been inclined to disparage LWs' product, though not much of it appeals to me in the same way as certain other brands. All other things being equal, though, I personally wouldn't be inclined to deal with someone who was how he represents himself - and perhaps less so if I was convinced it was a fabricated act of a persona to appeal to a particular market. "Nothing to see here, move along".



BK seemed to mostly stick to striking out at specific, named critics, rather than Stu's more generalised approach...



Does he still pepper it with the phrae "jacket queens"? Seems a bit silly to me. I assume, though, he must fin enough folks who disagree or don't care if he is capable of staying in business.



It'll be interesting to see what happens the rand when he decides to hang it up. I wonder if anyone working with him will buy over the patterns / stock / location an stat something new with it?



Honestly, I have never been sure whether he's totally for real, or if it's some werid notion that this will sell better to a specific market - like the gun store in the US some years ago that made a whole show out of saying they would refuse to sell to people who vote for President X.... They were in an area where virtually nobody, and certainly not anyone who might habitually purchase guns on a regular basis, was located - it was clearly a stunt to flag up their "credentials" to the local / target market. Like a butcher refusing to sell meat to vegetarians... Put me off (along with the prices for a UK purchase!), but I'm sure there are others who will buy into this sort of anti-PC virtue signalling.




Surprisingly toned down from what I saw on his website a few years ago when I last bothered to look at it.



It's implie he didn't finish it, yes, though that can happen for all sorts of reasons (sadly, more than a few students pull out for lack of funding).



IT could well be true enough if it's such a small operation as implied here, too.



It's certainly not for everybody. You do have to be pretty cuthroat to work your way up the pole in that business, and the saddest thing is that what this all too often does is disocurage investment in actually teaching.



Assuming it's true... thuogh I will give him that he isn't as petty as some to go after named individuals who say something critical once (it's amazing how pettily some peopel can hold a grduge like that) - an also for all his "WE are the greatest" bluster, I'll give him that Stu has never disapraged a competitor by name, which is bad form. He may not do it in a way I care for, but at least he sticks to marketing his own product rather than trying to run down or rip off product from his direct competitors or use soundalikes for their TMs or what have you.



I found it erred on the pretentious, though TBH I was surprised by his academic past which seemed to sit at odds to his approach to marketing.

Not seen the website in a few years but hopefully he's cut back on the weird obsession with things being manly or unmanly. I recall over a decade ago now a former member on here asked if he had a lighter hide for a second jacket he was ordering, only to be met with the "perhaps you're not manly enough for ou jackets" response. But hey ho. I seem to remember some of the worst diatribes were around the pages with his A2s, which were never as accurate as several competitors, so I'm assuming the boys at VLJ took him to task on that a one time and that's the root of much of the apparent bitterness.

Different strokes for different folks, eh?

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Yes, thanks for clarifying. I was thinking small business owners but just realized I didn’t specify in my comment. Gracias.

The failure at Ph.D probably means that someone saw through the BS that was allowed to get through at BA standards. Tout de bouche, pas de pantalons, to drop in a bit of French phrasing.

I still reckon the peacoat LW does is great, but the bloke sounds like a fool.

zebedee said:

The failure at Ph.D probably means that someone saw through the BS that was allowed to get through at BA standards. Tout de bouche, pas de pantalons, to drop in a bit of French phrasing.

I still reckon the peacoat LW does is great, but the bloke sounds like a fool.

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In 36 years of speaking french i have never heard that said...

Carlos840 said:

In 36 years of speaking french i have never heard that said...

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That's because it's a franglais approximation of 'All mouth, no trousers' for a giggle.

zebedee said:

That's because it's a franglais approximation of 'All mouth, no trousers' for a giggle.

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You mean tout chapeau pas de bétail?

zebedee said:

That's because it's a franglais approximation of 'All mouth, no trousers' for a giggle.

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Although nothing beats Jerome K. Jerome's English characters who, in order to seem sophisticated, directly port English phrases into French. One of them, when feigning surprise, likes to exclaim, 'Bien je jamais!'.

This is the extent of my French:

Superfluous said:

This is the extent of my French:

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All I need.

I want to see her in a LW peacoat and then I'd try damn hard in my pidgin French to get her to take it off, particularly if it was my size and she couldn't run very quickly.

I'd wager there aren't many other, male-dominated websites around where the jacket is of more interest to most than the wearer (whom they nonetheless find attractive)!

zebedee said:

That's because it's a franglais approximation of 'All mouth, no trousers' for a giggle.

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Reminds me of how in the Asterix books, when they translated them into all sorts of different languages they would typically change the literal joke to one which was a cultural equivalent rather than a literal translation that often wouldn't carry.

My French teacher used to have a great French cartoon on the wall, featuring a wife at the door saying "Non, Il est dans la Bibliotheque". Visible to the viewer - but not, obviously, the calle at the door, was the husband, contorted into the bookshelves. The joke works in French because 'book shelf' and 'library' are called by the same word. Clerly translation into English loses the joke...

Will Zach said:

You mean tout chapeau pas de bétail?

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C'est possible! (with the accent...).

zebedee said:

Although nothing beats Jerome K. Jerome's English characters who, in order to seem sophisticated, directly port English phrases into French. One of them, when feigning surprise, likes to exclaim, 'Bien je jamais!'.

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A joke later reworked for Del Boy Trotter...

Superfluous said:

This is the extent of my French:

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"Zut alors! We 'ave discovered ze lost painting of ze Fallen Madonna wiz ze Big Boobies!"

Will Zach said:

You mean tout chapeau pas de bétail?

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Désolé, je n'ai jamais entendu cette expression

Seems like it is associated with Texas?

Melville is boring af. I live for reading, love "classics" but couldn't finish that book. Same as Dune. That one I did read to the end but I honestly wish I hadn't.

Monitor said:

Melville is boring af. I live for reading, love "classics" but couldn't finish that book. Same as Dune. That one I did read to the end but I honestly wish I hadn't.

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Oh something else we have in common. We will have to dm about books sometime.

Monitor said:

Melville is boring af. I live for reading, love "classics" but couldn't finish that book. Same as Dune. That one I did read to the end but I honestly wish I hadn't.

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I rather liked Moby Dick. Theres' some of it of it's time (I imagine nowadays Queequeg would be written off as a "noble savage" trope, though I always rather liked him as a character more in tune with nature than fighting against it), but for me it's a deserved classic. Something about the fatally obsessive search for the great, white whale speaks to me of the search for the Holy Grail leather jacket.... Never tried to read Dune, though I have fallen asleep in front of the film once or twice.