Latest news with #Folk
Telegraph
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
How folksy grandad became the coolest guy in fashion
Homespun knitwear once ran the risk of making you look like Compo from Last of The Summer Wine, however in 2025 you're more likely to see a jumper featuring a novelty mallard in trendy east London than at a country fair. Kombucha-swigging hipsters are embracing folksy grandad style, clad in artfully 'unfinished' designer knitwear featuring hanging threads of yarn and backless clogs that make the wearer look as if they probably own a ukulele. Harry Styles has become a poster boy for this boho-adjacent look, however the trend isn't just reserved for popstars with the confidence to wear a beaded necklace. SS Daley, the cult British brand launched by fashion wunderkind Steven Stokey-Daley and famed for its bird-watching shirts and farmyard knitwear, is launching at John Lewis on 19 May. It's a strategic move by the retailer to boost its fashion credentials – Harry Styles is such a fan of the house that he became a 'minority stake' investor. The goldfish jumper featured in the John Lewis collection looks as if it could have been knitted from a pattern and wool found in the store's beloved haberdashery department, which epitomises the founder's nostalgic sensibilities and the modern perspective he brings to eccentric, heritage dressing. SS Daley Archie Lambswool Fish Zip-Through Knit in Blue Fish, £525, John Lewis The makers themselves are at the heart of this homespun trend and no one epitomises this better than British brand Folk, which this spring celebrates its 25th anniversary with an archive collection that celebrates nostalgic design. To reiterate the focus on the artisan, it is also collaborating with five creatives to create special artworks inspired by the humble pencil. Another British brand that deserves an honourable mention is Story MFG – Zak Maoui, style director of Gentleman's Journal, says it is 'the label that comes to mind most for this look', as he believes 'it's the UK's answer to Bode, and is perhaps even better when it comes to its attention to craftsmanship'. 'It's not hard to see these craft-focused brands as an antidote to the digital age: something that's not fast fashion, covered in logos, and has at least some evidence of the human hand,' explains Johnny Davis, style director at Esquire. 'These clothes have an individuality, a meaning and they invite conversation.' It's also part of a wave of anti-algorithm styling – Maoui explains this is a direct protest against Shein and Boohoo's conveyor belt of polyester. The spiralling cost of luxury fashion is also sparking a renewed appreciation for the art of making clothes. 'I think we're seeing more and more people wake up to the fact that just because something is the most expensive brand doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best-made product,' says Liam Hess, American Vogue 's senior lifestyle editor. With brands like Bode, Story MFG or By Walid, 'you really feel like you're spending that money getting something unique and truly special, as opposed to a jacket from a conglomerate-owned brand that is produced in its thousands'. Hess also notes that not only is the attention to detail higher, but 'their business practices are generally more sustainable, and you're supporting an independent brand in the process'. While a Bode quilted shirt costs around £700 (enough to make an original folk grandad spit out their ginger tea), you can also master the look on a charity shop budget. 'The cool thing about this folksy, craft-led trend is that if you're into it, you can achieve the look by investing some time to scour vintage stores and eBay,' adds Hess. 'It's fun that it feels more democratic.' Plus, visible repairs and imperfections only add to the charm. 'Nothing says folksy grandad like something well-worn and mended,' adds Will Halbert, menswear writer. 'Invest in good vintage – that way, most of the mileage and natural patina is done for you – and remember that scuffs and scars are character building, as is learning how to sew on a button.' It does, however, require considered styling so that you don't actually look like Nicholas Hoult in About A Boy. 'Stick to one statement garment that leans into the trend,' advises Maoui. 'Going too OTT will make you, as with anything, look costume-like and pretentious.' Davis agrees that it's essential you 'avoid the crime of everything at once'. There is such a thing as too much craft, so don't mix patchwork with embroidery with novelty knits, or you will rapidly enter into retired art teacher territory. 'Your grandad has always dressed better than you, it just took you this long to see it,' quips Halbert, who notes that 'the gorp-core hangover is real and skinny-fit fatigue is at full peak', so people are experimenting with looser silhouettes and returning to natural fabrics. 'The rises are getting higher, the legs are getting wider, and people are having more fun with denser textures and less conventional volumes,' he explains. SS Daley Clarence Cotton Blend Trousers in Yellow, £525, John Lewis You do need to exercise some caution when it comes to the volume, however, in order to not look like an actual grandad. 'Lots of these pieces are cut big, with natural volume, so don't lean into that,' advises Davis. 'Don't tuck shirts in, or overly layer up accessories and other distracting items.' Take the mustard yellow SS Daley trousers that you can buy at John Lewis, which have a curved, tapered leg and lots of excess fabric at the knee, for example. Davis advises you style these with a structured coat or jacket on top to focus attention on the voluminous shape of the trousers, which is 'the point of them'. The idea is to bring a youthful energy and a wink and a nod to once dusty, grandad staples. 'Harry Styles is a good person to look at, as he gives folksy dressing a modern edge, wearing band tees with cardigans and Bode shorts,' says Maoui, along with Saltburn 's Jacob Elordi who 'loves an oversized cardi'. These stars are ushering in a more playful approach to menswear, with clothing that invites conversation and has a sense of humour. If a mallard jumper can't spark some interesting chat, then what can? Folksy grandad brands to discover
Sydney Morning Herald
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘It's the little things that keep you balanced': Designer Lucy Folk
This story is part of the May 11 edition of Sunday Life. See all 13 stories. To the casual observer, the world of Lucy Folk has a dreamlike quality. The designer, jeweller, businesswoman and mother has a style that's rooted in folk art and mysticism. Her fashion and jewellery is worn by Snoop Dogg, Beyoncé, Suki Waterhouse, Elle Fanning and the like, and her photo shoots evoke early morning dips in the south of France and sleepy summer afternoons in Ibiza. Folk, 41, is a natural beauty with a magnetic personality and incredibly down-to-earth demeanour. A dazzling smile is never far away. While we're talking, there's the constant joyous clatter of her children – Malon, four, and Lala, 19 months – in the background. Her family is with her always, and she shapes her life around them. A goldsmith by trade, Folk creates pieces that have a rough, organic edge to them, as if they'd laid buried in the sand for centuries, just waiting to be discovered by some lucky person. And yet, there's something so quintessentially Australian about her style – soft cottons, rough linens, towelling and hand-woven garments that feel as much at home on Bondi Beach as they might in a seaside taverna in Cadaqués. What started in 2007 as a small line of food-related jewellery (never forget the gold pretzel necklace, or the bejewelled pizza ring) is now a business with 13 staff across three stores – two in Sydney, one in Melbourne. However, Folk believes going any larger would run the risk of diluting what she's worked so hard to create, and in July she intends to take that notion a step further by focusing on one-on-one customer service. 'That means you can have a very intimate experience with the brand, which is quite rare these days,' she says. For Folk, family is everything. She describes her parents as best friends. 'I feel like they inspire and challenge each other,' she says, crediting their example for the relationship she enjoys with her partner, Joffrey Cauchy. With one difference. 'We are a lot more romantic, but he's French so he can't help it. I think that you can almost be each other's muse. It's quite powerful.' Her parents have also, in their own ways, shaped her professionally and her mother, interior designer Anne Folk, is a huge creative and aesthetic influence. 'I grew up in a house full of obscure objects, rare books and interesting interiors,' she says. 'I think that really shaped my eye.' Folk remembers her mother taking her to her favourite design stores, such as Market Import in Melbourne. 'I would chat to her friends and was besotted by all the incredible Mexican creations that were sold there,' she says. 'I also remember our travels fondly and all the interesting places my mum would take us to.' Her father, Pitzy Folk, migrated to Australia from Austria in the '70s and quickly made his mark on the Melbourne hospitality scene, starting with a gourmet food shop before adding several cafes and a successful coffee company. Today, he is the man behind sparkling beverage company Capi. He's also her mentor. 'He's had these incredible businesses and his perspective is quite unique because he really values making mistakes and learning from that,' she says. 'He's always had this lust for life, and I think that's infectious.' Growing up, the nurturing environment created by her parents extended to the designer's friends, who were warmly absorbed into the family, from the regular Tuesday schnitzel nights to holidays. 'There was always this huge welcoming of people,' says Folk, 'and that's never changed. But I think I've always felt uncomfortable asking people for things. I'm really happy to provide for others, but perhaps not as comfortable asking. Because actually, sometimes you do need help. You can't do it all.' Folk is nothing if not adaptable. She lives wherever feels right, whether it's Paris, Mallorca, Marseille, Ibiza or, right now, bouncing between South Coogee in Sydney's east and their Boreen Point beach bungalow in Noosa Shire, the location for this Sunday Life photo shoot. A friend mentioned the idea of a Mexico sojourn not long ago, and that was tempting too. 'Sometimes Joffrey's like, 'Can you just keep your feet on the ground?'' The pull of Europe will always be there for the family ('Joffrey needs to see his family every year, and they need to see the kids') but it also provides a creative inspiration for Folk, whose work always reflects her surroundings. 'It really feeds us in so many ways,' she says. 'And as much as travelling with young children is exhausting, it is also beautiful and rewarding. You see things through their eyes.' She achieves all this by travelling as a family unit, keeping work and life completely intertwined and at the same time as free-flowing as possible. 'It's the little things that keep you balanced and grounded,' says Folk. 'It's making sure you're eating well and having sunshine. Nature is a huge one for us. We have this little ritual as a family where we go and watch the sunrise in the morning. And then, if we can watch the sunset, that's even more wonderful.' The hope is that they'll be able to keep up their nomadic lifestyle as the kids get older, but Folk also knows there will need to be more structure as they start school and make friends of their own. 'If they love travelling like we do,' she says, 'then we will most certainly keep it exciting for them culturally.' Folk says she doesn't need a huge amount of solo time to recharge, but she does need plenty of self-care to make sure everything works as she'd like it to. She looks after her wellbeing much as she manages her business, putting a high value on time, health, peers and family. Loading 'You have to be true to it though,' she says. 'I think it's really nice to try to educate the people around you to live a healthier life by making sure you have time for yourself so you're working efficiently, and not overworking. That's such a big thing. That's why people enjoy working in the business, because we actually try to accommodate everyone in their own way.' Folk thinks of her life in chapters. That different places are for certain periods of time. Her current chapter is focused on raising her young family in Australia. 'It's very much about sitting in our skin, being vulnerable and rethinking what we've been doing and how that works as a family unit.' Equilibrium looks different to everyone, and it's rare to meet someone who comes by it easily. For some, it's taking time out to read, see a film, meditate. For Folk, it's about finding nourishment and inspiration while keeping everybody close. 'Balance is everyone being comfortable in an environment [where we all feel] creatively or culturally stimulated.' Historically, Mother's Day has been a day of work for the Folk clan. Famously one of the busiest days of the year for the hospitality industry, the whole family – Anne, Pitzy, Lucy and her sister Saskia – would put in a shift at their Melbourne cafe, The Observatory at the Botanical Gardens. 'It was a significant part of my childhood,' she says. 'I remember scooping a lot of ice-cream.' Afterwards, the family would all go out to dinner together to celebrate. This year, Folk and Cauchy's plan is to take Malon and Lala to the beach for some time in the sand and a little bit of vitamin D ('that's always a wonderful vibe for us'). But while it's highly unlikely you'll ever see Lucy Folk sling another scoop of peppermint choc chip, there are other traditions that remain close to her heart. One of those includes making Mother's Day cards by hand: 'That was always a ritual, and still is.'
The Age
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘It's the little things that keep you balanced': Designer Lucy Folk
This story is part of the May 11 edition of Sunday Life. See all 13 stories. To the casual observer, the world of Lucy Folk has a dreamlike quality. The designer, jeweller, businesswoman and mother has a style that's rooted in folk art and mysticism. Her fashion and jewellery is worn by Snoop Dogg, Beyoncé, Suki Waterhouse, Elle Fanning and the like, and her photo shoots evoke early morning dips in the south of France and sleepy summer afternoons in Ibiza. Folk, 41, is a natural beauty with a magnetic personality and incredibly down-to-earth demeanour. A dazzling smile is never far away. While we're talking, there's the constant joyous clatter of her children – Malon, four, and Lala, 19 months – in the background. Her family is with her always, and she shapes her life around them. A goldsmith by trade, Folk creates pieces that have a rough, organic edge to them, as if they'd laid buried in the sand for centuries, just waiting to be discovered by some lucky person. And yet, there's something so quintessentially Australian about her style – soft cottons, rough linens, towelling and hand-woven garments that feel as much at home on Bondi Beach as they might in a seaside taverna in Cadaqués. What started in 2007 as a small line of food-related jewellery (never forget the gold pretzel necklace, or the bejewelled pizza ring) is now a business with 13 staff across three stores – two in Sydney, one in Melbourne. However, Folk believes going any larger would run the risk of diluting what she's worked so hard to create, and in July she intends to take that notion a step further by focusing on one-on-one customer service. 'That means you can have a very intimate experience with the brand, which is quite rare these days,' she says. For Folk, family is everything. She describes her parents as best friends. 'I feel like they inspire and challenge each other,' she says, crediting their example for the relationship she enjoys with her partner, Joffrey Cauchy. With one difference. 'We are a lot more romantic, but he's French so he can't help it. I think that you can almost be each other's muse. It's quite powerful.' Her parents have also, in their own ways, shaped her professionally and her mother, interior designer Anne Folk, is a huge creative and aesthetic influence. 'I grew up in a house full of obscure objects, rare books and interesting interiors,' she says. 'I think that really shaped my eye.' Folk remembers her mother taking her to her favourite design stores, such as Market Import in Melbourne. 'I would chat to her friends and was besotted by all the incredible Mexican creations that were sold there,' she says. 'I also remember our travels fondly and all the interesting places my mum would take us to.' Her father, Pitzy Folk, migrated to Australia from Austria in the '70s and quickly made his mark on the Melbourne hospitality scene, starting with a gourmet food shop before adding several cafes and a successful coffee company. Today, he is the man behind sparkling beverage company Capi. He's also her mentor. 'He's had these incredible businesses and his perspective is quite unique because he really values making mistakes and learning from that,' she says. 'He's always had this lust for life, and I think that's infectious.' Growing up, the nurturing environment created by her parents extended to the designer's friends, who were warmly absorbed into the family, from the regular Tuesday schnitzel nights to holidays. 'There was always this huge welcoming of people,' says Folk, 'and that's never changed. But I think I've always felt uncomfortable asking people for things. I'm really happy to provide for others, but perhaps not as comfortable asking. Because actually, sometimes you do need help. You can't do it all.' Folk is nothing if not adaptable. She lives wherever feels right, whether it's Paris, Mallorca, Marseille, Ibiza or, right now, bouncing between South Coogee in Sydney's east and their Boreen Point beach bungalow in Noosa Shire, the location for this Sunday Life photo shoot. A friend mentioned the idea of a Mexico sojourn not long ago, and that was tempting too. 'Sometimes Joffrey's like, 'Can you just keep your feet on the ground?'' The pull of Europe will always be there for the family ('Joffrey needs to see his family every year, and they need to see the kids') but it also provides a creative inspiration for Folk, whose work always reflects her surroundings. 'It really feeds us in so many ways,' she says. 'And as much as travelling with young children is exhausting, it is also beautiful and rewarding. You see things through their eyes.' She achieves all this by travelling as a family unit, keeping work and life completely intertwined and at the same time as free-flowing as possible. 'It's the little things that keep you balanced and grounded,' says Folk. 'It's making sure you're eating well and having sunshine. Nature is a huge one for us. We have this little ritual as a family where we go and watch the sunrise in the morning. And then, if we can watch the sunset, that's even more wonderful.' The hope is that they'll be able to keep up their nomadic lifestyle as the kids get older, but Folk also knows there will need to be more structure as they start school and make friends of their own. 'If they love travelling like we do,' she says, 'then we will most certainly keep it exciting for them culturally.' Folk says she doesn't need a huge amount of solo time to recharge, but she does need plenty of self-care to make sure everything works as she'd like it to. She looks after her wellbeing much as she manages her business, putting a high value on time, health, peers and family. Loading 'You have to be true to it though,' she says. 'I think it's really nice to try to educate the people around you to live a healthier life by making sure you have time for yourself so you're working efficiently, and not overworking. That's such a big thing. That's why people enjoy working in the business, because we actually try to accommodate everyone in their own way.' Folk thinks of her life in chapters. That different places are for certain periods of time. Her current chapter is focused on raising her young family in Australia. 'It's very much about sitting in our skin, being vulnerable and rethinking what we've been doing and how that works as a family unit.' Equilibrium looks different to everyone, and it's rare to meet someone who comes by it easily. For some, it's taking time out to read, see a film, meditate. For Folk, it's about finding nourishment and inspiration while keeping everybody close. 'Balance is everyone being comfortable in an environment [where we all feel] creatively or culturally stimulated.' Historically, Mother's Day has been a day of work for the Folk clan. Famously one of the busiest days of the year for the hospitality industry, the whole family – Anne, Pitzy, Lucy and her sister Saskia – would put in a shift at their Melbourne cafe, The Observatory at the Botanical Gardens. 'It was a significant part of my childhood,' she says. 'I remember scooping a lot of ice-cream.' Afterwards, the family would all go out to dinner together to celebrate. This year, Folk and Cauchy's plan is to take Malon and Lala to the beach for some time in the sand and a little bit of vitamin D ('that's always a wonderful vibe for us'). But while it's highly unlikely you'll ever see Lucy Folk sling another scoop of peppermint choc chip, there are other traditions that remain close to her heart. One of those includes making Mother's Day cards by hand: 'That was always a ritual, and still is.'
The Guardian
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Flying is an act of surrender': a new novel about a woman who wants to be ravished by an Airbus
If we told our forebears that we could soar in the sky nearly seven miles above the ground, they would stare at us agog. But now air travel is one big grumble: it's degrading, everyone is ill-mannered and you used to get free peanuts in this country, but now the peanuts are not free. Air travel, like everything else, is about the politics of resentment. The skies are feeling a lot less friendly, and that's before you get to a year in which Americans have experienced profound tragedy in the air, as well as significant cuts to an already strained Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In this turbulent time for flying lands Sky Daddy, the unusual debut novel by Kate Folk, a San Francisco author and screenwriter whose short story collection Out There was released in 2022. Sky Daddy is narrated by a woman called Linda who, like many of us, lives her life in dogged pursuit of love. She just wants that love to come from a commercial airplane in free fall. 'I believed this was my destiny,' Linda tells us, 'for a plane to recognize me as his soulmate mid-flight and, overcome with passion, relinquish his grip on the sky, hurtling us to earth in a carnage that would meld our souls for eternity.' Yes, Linda is kind of the female protagonist for whom the descriptor 'quirky' is not quite strong enough. She gets off on simulations of aviation accidents. She calls airport terminals her own 'personal red-light districts'. Her style of objectifying airplanes is impressive: she admires their 'testicular engines' and ogles at a 'naughty landing gear shot'. The Boeing 737 is the 'sky's narrow-bodied workhorse', the Airbus A320 has the 'handsomest face of any commercial airliner'. And then there is the retired McDonnell Douglas DC-9, an airplane that she says 'flaunts a 'bad-boy' image' given its historically spotty safety record. Linda spends as much time as her paltry salary affords her up in the sky. 'Like dating,' she tells us, 'death by plane crash is a numbers game.' Sky Daddy is a very strange and very funny book. But it does not exist as mere provocative gag, or mean-spirited attempt to belittle one woman's absurd romantic delusions. Linda defies diagnosis: her aims are more spiritual than they are symptomatic. 'She's a singular character,' says Folk. 'I kind of imagine her as a real person, it's hard for me to accept that [she's] just something I've made up.' When Folk was a child growing up in landlocked Iowa, she read a version of Moby-Dick that was modified for children. What stood out to her most was the description of Ishmael's experience of waking up as a child and feeling a ghostly presence hold his hand. 'A supernatural hand seemed placed in mine,' writes Melville, 'and for days and weeks and months afterwards I lost myself in confounding attempts to explain the mystery.' It had a lasting effect on Folk. 'I still never sleep with my hand outside the covers,' says Folk. 'Because I'm afraid of that happening and I don't want to invite it.' Later, when she was drafting a novel about a woman sexually obsessed with airplanes, she returned to Melville's classic. 'I saw Linda as a mixture of Ishmael and Ahab,' says Folk, adding that she felt both her work and Melville's were about humans trying to dominate the natural world. 'Both planes and whales involve oil.' She loved the many different registers of Melville's novel, its playfulness and its enthusiastic anthropomorphizing of whales. 'It's very silly a lot of the time,' says Folk. 'Calling them gentlemen and fellows.' Linda too has a strict understanding of how things in her fantasy world are sexed and gendered: 'I allowed people to assume I was heterosexual,' she explains, 'and I suppose I was, as all planes are male in spirit, just as all boats are female, and helicopters possess the souls of mischievous children.' Unlike Ishmael and Ahab however, Linda is a creature of the internet. 'That's how she's fueled her obsession,' Folk says. 'It's how she researches her plane lovers and keeps tabs on them, and looks at past plane incidents.' Linda's life revolves around planes, but her passion is sustained by her work as a content moderator in the Hate & Harassment sector of a tech company, where she and her colleagues make near minimum wage scrubbing the internet of its various maladies: violent images, crude and predatory pornography, onslaughts of verbal threats and assaults. Their office amenities are a yoga ball in a so-called wellness room and monthly pallets of Rockstar lemonade. Sky Daddy is a workplace novel as much as it is an epic romp. 'It's this unseen pool of workers who are doing this like terrible labor that supports our use of the internet,' explains Folk. 'They're absorbing the trauma for our sakes.' The fact that Kate Folk dreamt up and drafted this book years before the recent spate of high-profile plane crashes filled the news, and before the new administration fired several hundred workers at the FAA, is a coincidence. But it's also not. Governments have a special way of corrupting and polluting those things that literally keep us afloat: social services, environmental protections, any semblance of a humane healthcare system. There is no premium on the dignity of human life in the US. To be an American is to believe fundamentally in the power of one's destiny. But Sky Daddy reminds us that air travel in a way is the opposite of the agentic American dream. To get on a plane is to submit to a fate you have no control over. 'Even in better times when there weren't these incidents … it is such an act of surrender,' explains Folk. 'When I get on a plane, I really am not in control of what happens. I have to just put my faith in the machine and also in the pilots and air traffic control and everyone working to make sure the flight gets to where it's going safely.' Then there is the existential question of the climate crisis, and how it threatens to upend any notion of the future we might have previously conceived. The day the sky in San Francisco turned a shocking orange due to wildfire smoke haunts Folk's fiction. The distinction between literary fiction and sci-fi or genre fiction became less meaningful to her. 'Basically my entire life is just this sense of hurtling toward a catastrophe,' she says, referring to the climate crisis. Linda's obsession with flying is part of that. Her death drive, her lust for this carbon-intensive mode travel, is inevitable ending; it's not hard to feel like to some degree we are all Linda, hurtling towards a fiery conclusion. 'There is no greater intimacy than to be fellow passengers on a doomed flight,' Linda tells us. She is an accelerationist. She dreams of self-annihilation, sure. But she also dreams of being chosen. She hopes her life amounts to something more than eating work-grade string cheese and deleting lewd comments on a video of a busty kindergarten teacher reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. During our conversation, I got the sense that Folk had a fond appreciation for her fictional character Linda, which I shared. Linda is a little freak for sure, but she's endearing to me, and somewhat pure (I like how she calls joints 'cannabis cigars'.) Maybe I could learn something from her. It just so happened that the week Folk and I were talking, both of us were taking flights. I asked her if she wanted to text me when she was taking off, to see what she noticed about the miracle of flight to which I had maybe been deadened and desensitized. I told her I would do the same. She texted me in the middle of the day that she was boarding an infamous Boeing 737 Max, the model that made headlines for its previous history of nosedives. Linda would love that, I thought. 'We're turning left,' Folk wrote. 'A plane is like a bird', she added, 'clumsy and slow on the ground.' Then she told me the engines were firing up and changing tenor. What was the inadvertent rhythm of our conversation reminding me of? I thought. And then with a little pang of shame, I realized it had the faint whiff of sexting. Two days later I was crawling through that yonic jet bridge, feeling dispirited. Historically I have been afraid of flying or at least dreaded it. I was on Linda's beloved 737-800/900 ('a long boy', Kate texted me when I told her), and it looked dingy, worn-in and world weary. But then we began to move, the wings wobbling as we inched forwards on the tarmac, a polite row of seemingly animate planes lining up behind us. And then we lifted off into the sky. I could see all of Manhattan and Brooklyn before me: the wide sandy beaches of the Rockaways where I swim every summer, the dark patch of cemetery by my apartment, the skyscrapers in the distance. I held their gaze until suddenly everything was vaporous and white, occluded by cloud. I had no romantic attachments to the plane, but I could feel the eternal romance of it, Like maybe Linda was holding my hand as we flew closer to the sun and left the whole world behind.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Perfect kicking option is now available for Commanders
The Tennessee Titans are moving on from kicker Nick Folk after the veteran made 50 of 52 field goals over the last two seasons. Tennessee's decision has more to do with Folk's age — he's 40 — than his performance. Tennessee chose to sign former Washington kicker Joey Slye, making Folk available to any team that needs kicking help. Could the Commanders be an option? If not, they should be. Age is no concern for kickers when they prove they can still deliver. It should certainly not be a concern for a team looking to reach the Super Bowl. Younger kickers are much more unpredictable, as Washington learned all too well last season. The Commanders went through multiple kickers after releasing veteran Brandon McManus due to an off-field incident before Washington signed him. With Joey Slye signed, it means the #Titans are officially moving on from 40-year old Nick Folk, who hit 50 of 52 FGs over two years with Tennessee, including 11 of 12 from 50+. He led the NFL in field-goal percentage in each of those two years. — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 24, 2025 One concern for older kickers is range. That's not an issue for Folk. Over his last two seasons in Tennessee, Folk has made 11 of 12 from 50 yards and beyond, with a long of 56 yards. Folk has made over 84% of his field goals for his career. Consistency is, of course, a strength for Folk. He made 53 of his 55 point-after attempts during his two seasons with the Titans. Folk has made 97% of his PATs throughout his 18-year career. Washington re-signed Zane Gonzalez, who became its kicker after Austin Seibert's leg injury. Gonzalez was solid, but did nothing to earn the job outright without competition. Surprisingly, the Commanders didn't re-sign Seibert and have them compete. But maybe Washington was looking for another veteran to compete with Gonzalez. What if that veteran is Folk? If Folk isn't on the radar of general manager Adam Peters, he should be. If Folk's kickoffs are a concern, they shouldn't be, as over 63% of his kickoffs went for touchbacks last season, which led the NFL. Of course, with the new kickoff rules, NFL teams often employ different strategies, making touchbacks less critical. Washington has several veterans signed to one-year deals. Folk should be the next one signed, and the Commanders should bring him in to compete with Gonzalez throughout the spring and summer. This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Commanders should sign veteran kicker Nick Folk
