Under the Influence is a series highlighting creatives who have genuine influence on art and style culture. The term “influencer” has been tossed around so freely that practically all meaning has been lost. Marketing departments and ad agencies have misconstrued follows and likes for genuine cultural influence and diluted the title. This series will attempt to refine the criteria by building a list of worthy examples.
Central Division, as the name suggests, is a collaborative effort between two good friends to consolidate their like-minded content. It just so happens that these friends are two of the leading minds in menswear. Michael Williams and David Coggins are creating a mindset for modern men (and women) to follow for a more considered and rewarding life. Their musings proselytize style over fashion, quality over quantity, and integrity over trend. They avoid altogether what Michael calls “fashion with a capital F” in favor of timeless ideals and guilty pleasures.
Williams pioneered style blogging with A Continuous Lean in 2007 and rose to become somewhat of a deity amongst that particular niche. Inspiration for ACL came from Japanese menswear magazines of the early 2000s along with William’s appreciation for dwindling high quality American manufacturing. He likened his approach to the Farm-to-Table movement, highlighting the best goods and showing consumers where they came from.
Williams started his career in PR. When he started to burn himself out a few years ago (just as the blogosphere became saturated), he redirected his focus back to PR. He co-owned a boutique agency throughout the ACL glory days but now he has his own shop called ACL & Co. Then the pandemic hit in early 2020 and completely devastated the fashion industry, along with everything else. As if he were Batman responding to the Bat Signal, Williams rebooted ACL as a newsletter and returned to the style blogging game with renewed vigor to provide solace for a following laid low.
Coggins is a writer with a backstory so literary that it would fit neatly into a Wes Anderson film. His father is an artist and writer who taught him an appreciation for the finer things in life (going by the same name, the two are often confused on social media). He grew up in Minnesota surrounded by nature and high culture. His career began with travel writing as he made his way onto the staff of Conde Nast Traveler. Coggins’ writing focused more on the culture of foreign places rather than the nuts and bolts of travel and this often included style. This led to style focus bylines in a growing number of periodicals including Esquire and The Wall Street Journal.
In 2016, Coggins published his first book, titled “Men and Style.” It’s a collection of essays and gathered quotes from friends that form a guide to finding one’s personal style. The wisdom found in “Men and Style” has stood as a mission statement for just about everything Coggins has written since. He wrote a follow up called “Men and Manners” in 2018. Just as Williams was tapering off ACL, Coggins filled the void by launching his own blog in 2019 entitled The Contender. However, Coggins’ blog is less expository and more a series of anecdotes that are both amusing and thought provoking. As he put it in a recent post “I’ve been writing about how men dress for years now. Generally, I encourage men to try harder and care more.”
After humanity shrunk into isolation last Spring (the sensible ones, anyway) and 2020 started dragging on like Groundhog Day, Coggins and Williams decided to pal around together on the internet for our enjoyment. Thus became Central Division: a subscriber based Substack publishing a newsletter and podcast that also provides full access to both ACL and The Contender. Style and travel are the starting off points for these two gentlemen to expound their grand philosophy on life while having fun doing it. Their conversations are like listening to two sage philosophers that you met in a bar, already a few rounds deep.
Notoriety, and the financial gains that come with it, have not eluded Williams or Coggins but they have never let it dilute their integrity. Both men certainly could have chased greater financial gain by selling their souls to the marketing devils. Williams summed it up in an interview with Rescapement last year, “Don’t be a fucking sell out. If you do one good thing a week, and people really like it, that’s better than doing five shitty things a week. Just do good shit.” This integrity is exemplified by the format of their writing. Conventional trends like click-bait morsels and clunky SEO phrasing have been disregarded for intriguing prose and a studied publishing cadence.
If you’re going to find style and leisure influence somewhere on the internet Central Division is a great place to start. However, both writers would probably cringe at the idea of being called an “influencer.” To anyone with good taste, that term has a bitter flavor to it these days but their influence is hard to miss. Williams has an impressive roster of fashion clients that he consults. Coggins was just named the first ever guest editor for L.L. Bean. Still, they represent the antithesis of a common self proclaimed “influencer.” Their shared goal is to promote ideas, not products or themselves. That is why they opted for a moderately priced subscription service so they can finance their endeavor without the sullying tinge of advertising.
While Williams and Coggins have done very well on their own, Central Division has proven to be greater than the sum of its parts. Their report and collective wisdom are a shining beacon for our tumultuous times. With humanity in the midst of a collective existential crisis, travel practically off limits, and the fashion industry in full rebuild mode, Central Division provides a mental safe space to consider our culture as it has been and how it ought to be. If there is one influence that these reluctant influencers would like to have, it is for all of us to just do good shit.
P.S. : While researching this article I stumbled upon a photo of the moment I met David Coggins at a 2016 book signing. I look far more awkward than I remember being at the time. So thanks for that, internet.
