'iGent Myths Busted!' - Page 10

My 'rules' would be:

1. It fits well

2. It looks good & matches the rest of the outfit

3. It isn't inappropriate

Beyond that I would say everything is subjective taste, fashion, and so on. Let's face it, suits didn't exist back in the middle ages, and many cultures have utterly different styles of dress to our own. A good outfit for a Masai warrior or a Mongolian sheep herder is going to have nothing in common with western ideas of 'permanent style'. However, a good outfit in those cultures should still fit well, look good, and be appropriate in the context of when and where it is worn.

Quote:

Originally Posted by unbelragazzo 


I agree. To play the game you have to know the rules and the language. Just like you should know whether or not it's polite to belch at the table in whichever country you're about to eat dinner.

But you don't have to play the game to look stylish. You can utterly ignore the game and all its rules and language, and still dress very stylishly. 

You only have to play the game if you want to be fashionable, or to fit in. Although those may be useful goals, depending on what you are trying to achieve, they have little to do with style.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cantabrigian 

There is or should be more to 3. Not messing up shouldn't be your sole aim. There is a modern style vocabulary though not ubiquitous and more in flux than in the past.

There are multiple style vocabularies - consider what would be appropriate at a biker meet or a rodeo. Unless we are to say that it is impossible to dress with style in those situations, then we must admit that style is not restricted to just one way of dressing. Even if you are a conservative elitist and say that those other social settings have inherently unstylish dress, then consider this - no modern style vocabulary was worn by a single person in the whole world as little as 300 years ago. Therefore it is either impossible that style is limited to any one modern style vocabulary (or even all of them), or it is impossible that anyone dressed with style 300 years ago. The latter conclusion is clearly absurd, so style must therefore be something that is wider and longer-lasting than the predominant way of dressing in any part of the modern world. 

In other words, style transcends all fashions and social conventions. It must be based on timeless universal factors, not on what is the taste in place X or time Y.