whnay.'s good taste thread - Page 355

Originally Posted by mktitsworth 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Originally Posted by poorsod 

The coat looks summer to me and best combined with something like a textured blue shirt and textured tie. I've seen similar material in the Carlo Barbera for Lesser 8/9 jacketing book which may explain my seasonal bias. Personally, I'm currently not in the mood for summer, although it must be summer in TX 9 months of the year.

Originally Posted by ThinkDerm 

stitch. love the suit. it looks great.
the white shirt is too formal for that second outfit, but I do like the tie with the suit.

Originally Posted by Holdfast 

stitchy, it might also help if you understand that what he's is trying to do with this thread, is - coincidentally, I'm quite sure; he doesn't need my advice - the precise prescription I outlined much earlier in the day in the regular WAYWRN thread, with which you agreed. Only in that case, it was the reverse scenario and we were talking about why complaint/criticism wasn't going to work in the environment of that thread, because it serves a different social purpose.
what I wrote earlier (Click to show)
Now, flip that around, and you can see exactly why I think he's right that he (and the others judging the thread) need to be robustly didactic in their opinions here. We already have the regular thread for more casual type exchanging of views of outfits where any critique is couched within a more social chatty context and therefore largely blunted because that thread serves a different social function. This thread needs to be something different, or there really isn't any point to its separate existence. It actually doesn't matter what their opinions are, whether you or I agree with them, or even if they agree within themselves (in fact, the last outcome is best of all). It doesn't even matter whether you'd want to follow them in your own clothing choices. What is important, is that this thread will only have life if there is that overly robust expression within it

A softer but also enjoyable variant of this strong op-ed approach to the discussion was vox's old weekly digest. Were you around for those; I can't remember when they stopped. They were more of an iron fist in a velvet glove approach, but I suspect (I never actually asked) that the intent - or perhaps, just desired outcome -  was essentially the same. Think of it that way, and you can get an idea of why mafoofan is being so harsh. Mind you, I don't think he should single you out in particular. No, I think he should be equally direct with everyone who posts in this thread. Almost every other thread takes a more laid-back, inclusive approach (which, admittedly, I personally prefer in terms of my own interactions). I think there's more than enough room for a couple of differently toned threads on the board. At the very least, it will make for entertaining reading. And you never know, reading between the lines, you will probably find one or two real gems that influence your own choices, even if you still end up junking a lot of the rest.

(for example, the last thing I read on SF that really made me think about what I wear was the discussion on what makes a pocket square pattern work. I think Manton posted that one. Not sure. Anyway, they said that the most versatile patterned squares tend to be the ones that don't have patterns that could also potentially work as ties. That's a really useful mental shortcut, reducing how much thought needs to go into  scale co-ordination when choosing a square, and caused me to think about my own selections. It doesn't mean I junked all my old squares, but I did get a few new ones, and I also deploy some of the older ones much more cautiously.)

I was going to PM you the above, but actually I think it may be useful to post it out here to help others grasp why the ruthlessness is a good thing. It's not actually gratuitous, despite appearances. Naturally, this post itself may disappear (or be spoiler-coded to avoid distracting from the thread) if the thread's internal mods feel it's inappropriate! No worries if they feel that way.

Originally Posted by in stitches 

thank you, TD.

Originally Posted by ThinkDerm 

Dress for you buddy.
Realize that Foo in his own way is trying to be helpful.

Originally Posted by Longmorn 

A few other examples:

Originally Posted by Tirailleur1 

You just highlighted the universal problem with this thread. Thank you for that.

Originally Posted by benjamin831 

Agreed. After a few years on here, it occurred very much to me that fit is king. There are so many on this forum who can't even get their suit to fit well enough to start contemplating about the abstract realm of color and pattern coordination. I'd much rather see a boring ol navy suit with a white shirt and black tie that fits well than some try-hard combo that ends up looking like clown vomit.

Originally Posted by teddieriley 


Is clown vomit worse than any other kind of vomit?