Text & Photography

Gert Jonkers

Editor-in-Chief, Fantastic Man. Born in 1966 in Holland, Gert launched Fantastic Man magazine in 2005 with Creative Director and Editor Jop Van Bennekom.
The two later founded The Gentlewoman in 2010 and The Happy Reader in 2014.

As the youngest of six I grew up dressed in my older brothers’ hand-me-downs. I loved it, and it must explain my fascination for flea markets, car boot sales and thrift stores. I’ve been shopping second hand forever.

But in recent years I’ve been less lucky in scoring good used clothes. The magic is gone. Maybe it’s because I more and more enjoy my clothes to look ‘new’.

I’ve started wearing trousers in my actual right size and I tuck in my T-shirts and even jumpers. I keep my clothes free from stains and when they wear or tear I repair them or chuck them out. I like the sharpness of a pristine look.

A while ago a friend of mine, who knows of my quest to find cargo pants that don’t look like they’ve just made a three-month-long trip through the desert, pointed me towards a pair of UNIQLO’s cropped cargos he’d spotted online. I ordered them promptly. They’re light, both in colour and weight, made of 100% polyester. They look and feel as if I’m wearing nothing, which is a fun sensation. They don’t crinkle, fade, stain or age. They’re perfect.

I usually wear them with a crew neck T-shirt from UNIQLO’s "COLOUR T-Shirts" that I have in half a dozen colours and that all look like they’re brand new. Who wants T-shirts that look like you’ve slept in them? But I’ve not completely parted with my old hobby.

On recent trips to my local Oxfam thrift store I snapped up two UNIQLO supima cotton short sleeve henleys and a pair of khaki shorts by JW Anderson for UNIQLO. They’re technically pre-worn but they look perfectly new, of course.