Weird World

The unexpected payoff to this tale of a guy who tucked his woolly jumper in his trousers is simply magnificent

John Plunkett. Updated January 12th, 2024

There’s a rather wonderful chap called Derek Guy who is a menswear writer, critic and prolific Tweeter (read all about him in the Guardian here).

And we mention him not only because he’s a good follow but because of this fabulous story that he shared after someone asked him about tucked in wool sweaters.

Specifically, this person, inspired by this film.

And Derek Guy’s response was so much more than you might reasonably expect.

Just in case that’s tricky to read, here it is in full.

‘My only opinion of tucked-in wool sweaters is that they remind me of my first job, where I worked as an after-school chess instructor for kids ages 8 through 12. On the first day, I was being trained by someone who tucked in their wool sweater.

‘This person showed me how to lead kids through a chess lesson by incentivizing them with gummy worms and printed posters if they answered a chess question correctly. The posters had illustrations on them, such as an anthropomorphic bishop defeating a knight.

‘To hype up the kids, this guy held a poster in his hand and peeked at it, but also hid it from the kids’ view. And then he looked at me and said, “I don’t think the kids can handle this one, Derek.” And, of course, this egged the kids on, and they said, “WE CAN HANDLE IT, WE CAN HANDLE IT.”

‘Without warning, he then flipped the poster around, unfurled it, and yelled RAWWWRRRRRR!!! The poster was of an evil queen defeating some pawns.

‘Then, at that moment, one kid started crying uncontrollably. He could not, in fact, handle it. He was so unable to handle it that he crapped his pants, and it started to smell very bad. I had to take him to the nurse’s office so that his parents could come pick him up.

‘That’s all I think of when I see tucked-in wool sweaters.

‘Also, I think it looks weird.’

Now that’s a story that will never go out of fashion.

Follow Derek Guy – @dieworkwear – here!

Source @dieworkwear @CoreyMullee