Last week I posted about Matt Damon, as he was photographed after a visit to Ben Affleck’s, and he wasn’t wearing his wedding band. Like I said in that original post, my gossip radar isn’t usually dialed into ring-watch or bump-watch, for that matter, because they’re often not a reliable indication of anything. But a regular reader emailed me about it a few weeks ago, back in December, and since she’s planted that into my consciousness, I can’t not pay attention. As I also said in that original post, there are so many reasons why Matt’s band is missing. Maybe it actually did go missing. Some of you have suggested that it’s pandemic-related, which is a very good point, because we are all washing our hands so much, rings are a pain in the ass. I used to wear my wedding band and my engagement ring together, always, and for television appearances, sometimes I’d switch to my ten year anniversary ring but since the start of lockdown back in March, I’ve only worn my wedding band because it’s low profile and I don’t have to worry about it getting damaged. Perhaps Matt’s was damaged, that’s a possibility. There are many innocuous possibilities.
Matt dropped by Ben’s again this past weekend. Since it’s a habit, I had to check again. It’s still not there.
Speaking of Matt’s accessories, he’s wearing the same “Pike Place” cap from last week, which Esquire highlighted as being on trend. West Coasters recognise this immediately a Seattle destination. If you’ve ever been to Seattle, for sure you’ve been to Pike Place. Matt’s cap, according to Esquire, belongs to the “workwear” category, a growing – basically fashion pieces that come from unexpected, non-label places. And it’s been especially helpful to certain businesses during the pandemic:
“Struggling drinking holes and restaurants, like London's Taiwanese hotpot Bao, and Harry's New York Bar, have made up for the Covid-induced shortfall with limited edition T-shirts – and gained a foothold in a saturated menswear market. Vintage Lakers jerseys are valuable players on Depop. Even the NHS scored a hypey sell-out thanks to a charitable crossover with Blacksmith. And the biggest grail from the collection, you ask? A baseball cap.
Damon's plug of Pike Place sits firmly within the workwear camp. Trucker caps, once sullied by early-Noughties brand Von Dutch (and bootleggers with disastrously-named 'Von Bitch' patches), are on the ascendance again. Though in 2020, they're more practical, less Paris Hilton. This stuff isn't changed for menswearheads. You'll find worker jackets and the like on actual carpenters and the graphic designers who emulate them. Nothing is changed, workwear remains functional, Pike Place Fish Market becomes an unintentional hype shop.”
Unintentional is a good word here because I’m not entirely sure that Matt was thinking about style here when he put on his cap; probably he wore it again so that if he got papped, and he did, he wasn’t really giving up a totally different look. Celebrities have been doing this since Madonna. That said, this is exactly how trends like workwear work. They’ve never intended, initially, to be fashionable, just functional. And then somehow it gets coopted by fashion when, really, a dude just put on a cap.
