Proto-Hipster Peter McGough Makes it to the Times Home Section
It didn’t all start with Freeman’s: decades before speakeasies reappeared, hand-cobbled shoes became commonplace, and mustache wax was available at King’s on Bedford, art stars McDermott & McGough embraced, both sartorially and domestically, a devotion to a much earlier time. And it’s lovely to see at least one of them in the New York Times Home section: Peter McGough has embraced a new place and time (Europe, the 1930s), but thankfully it’s still far from the present day.
Back in the olden days, in pre-gentrification Brooklyn, the pair were the oldenest of them all: they were often to be seen strolling the streets of the Williamsburg, in perfect turn-of-the-last-century outfits. (Spats. I remember the spats like it was yesterday.) Seeing them (day in and day out) picking their way through the urban-warzone of the Southside in the ’90s was, well, like experiencing a beautiful piece of art, and the memory still gladdens my heart.
