WAYWRN: Classic Menswear, Casual Style

[sugarbutch]



I still don't get why you all don't just lurk SW&D for a while.

Because the strike rate (despite the incessant assertions to the contrary) is no better than it is here, and most of what is considered good there has almost no applicability to a man whose aesthetic is grounded in MC. There are definitely occasional posts/critiques that convey good information or perspective, but it is not the panacea for what ails the average MCer.

 

[hendrix]



Because the strike rate (despite the incessant assertions to the contrary) is no better than it is here, and most of what is considered good there has almost no applicability to a man whose aesthetic is grounded in MC. There are definitely occasional posts/critiques that convey good information or perspective, but it is not the panacea for what ails the average MCer.

I'm not sure i agree with this.


around 2 years ago the most loved brands were very classic-casual. Wings + Horns, NdG, EG, ToJ, various repro denim companies, etc etc. Those people haven't disappeared and honestly most fits are within "normal" realms.

Moreover I think it'd be great if a few more MCers barged over and gave the melting pot some more applicability. The premise of the forum is casual wear, right? I don't think anyone would mind if that encompassed a broader range of styles.

 

[Kid Nickels]



OJFC.

This aversion to loafers thing I will just never understand.... they're not really THAT bad.

 

[Rambo]



WWWPD?

FTFY

 

[CDHagg]

Moreover I think it'd be great if a few more MCers barged over and gave the melting pot some more applicability. The premise of the forum is casual wear, right? I don't think anyone would mind if that encompassed a broader range of styles.

Yeah... I seriously doubt this. MCers would likely get slammed and ridiculed out of the thread, or else completely ignored.

 

[caseyfud]



 Yeah... I seriously doubt this.  MCers would likely get slammed and ridiculed out of the thread, or else completely ignored. 

We can always use another acecow, just for the laughs.

 

[fritzl]



We can always use another acecow, just for the laughs.

he is not representative for MC, imo. he has his one world... :foo:

 

[fritzl]



I'm not sure i agree with this.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

around 2 years ago the most loved brands were very classic-casual. Wings + Horns, NdG, EG, ToJ, various repro denim companies, etc etc. Those people haven't disappeared and honestly most fits are within "normal" realms.
Moreover I think it'd be great if a few more MCers barged over and gave the melting pot some more applicability. The premise of the forum is casual wear, right? I don't think anyone would mind if that encompassed a broader range of styles.

your idealism is unbeatable..., imo

 

[Tirailleur1]

Yeah... I seriously doubt this. MCers would likely get slammed and ridiculed out of the thread, or else completely ignored.

I don't know if I agree HAgg... I started out in the MC threads, and feel comfortable posting in SW&D. Same with gdl There is obviously alot to take away from their posts.

 

[gdl203]

There's a number of x-posters and there are many different styles represented, and appreciated. As Tirailleur said, he x-posts, I do sometimes on weekends, Parker does and has almost entirely shifted SW&D, add to that SVB, NYR, and a few others I must be forgetting. none of these guys get bashed or ridiculed. Sometimes they get praised, sometimes they don't elicit any reactions, and other times they get critiqued. Of course, if you show up there with ridiculous #menswear affectations like silly boutonnieres and beads, you're not going to get much support and you may even get mocked - and so should you. The problem is rather that MCers are not harsh enough with bad fits and silly affectations.

 

[Fuuma]



There's a very classic, mainstream aesthetic that you are either unfamiliar with, or completely reject. I'm not sure which is the case, because you seem to wholeheartedly dismiss it every time someone posts, yet talk about it like no one in the world abides by it.
As stated above, Fuuma clearly has no idea what he is talking about. Loafers are perfectly acceptable with shorts. I prefer a driving loafer or penny.

The aesthetic of suits who don't know to dress outside of that context is indeed common, but it doesn't make it less ridiculous.

Now I never wear shorts (and I go to hotter places than you) but simple white sneakers like gnatty suggested should work fine. Try to be less golf/boating and more casual summer, these aren't the same. You don't need to pay a lot for sneakers and thin man should be able to find some canvas vans, plimsols or something like that that work. In the absolute I think there is always someone, somewhere that can pull off a piece of clothing but you're better off banning polos, loafers, boat shoes, maybe even shorts because chance are you aren't that person (this applies to everyone).

 

[ethanm]

To add to Fuuma's last sentence most serious boaters don't wear boat shoes. The best sailor I know wears New Balance when the wind is cranking and nothing in light air.

 

[bourbonbasted]



The aesthetic of suits who don't know to dress outside of that context is indeed common, but it doesn't make it less ridiculous.
Now I never wear shorts (and I go to hotter places than you) but simple white sneakers like gnatty suggested should work fine. Try to be less golf/boating and more casual summer, these aren't the same. You don't need to pay a lot for sneakers and thin man should be able to find some canvas vans, plimsols or something like that that work. In the absolute I think there is always someone, somewhere that can pull off a piece of clothing but you're better off banning polos, loafers, boat shoes, maybe even shorts because chance are you aren't that person (this applies to everyone).

I see sneakers as shoes to be worn when working out. I just don't feel comfortable in them and never feel they work with anything as well as a loafer. Again, as discussed with Hendrix, this is just a difference in ideologies. Agree to disagree about the utility and appropriateness of sneakers vs. loafers.

As someone who has lived the majority of my life in the Southeastern United States, I'm not sure where you are that is hotter (or, perhaps more appropriately, more humid), but I'll assume there are hell holes out there I am unfamiliar with. Regardless, I run hot naturally and am forced to wear shorts. I prefer pants, but I can only stand so much heat and sweat does no one any favors.

I agree that "casual" is not the same thing as "golf/boating" attire. However, I am simply most comfortable in "golf/boating" attire (for the record, I would not categorize my style with these words at all, but I think you're on the right page, at least with your limited knowledge of such an aesthetic). So then, you're asking (or better yet demanding) that I change my style to something I am uncomfortable with just because you are uncomfortable with my natural style. You do see the ridiculousness of this, right?

At the end of the day, just because you don't think something looks good doesn't mean it's wrong. Nor does it qualify you to make sweeping generalizations about what is and is not proper. This type of thinking is reminiscent of the absurd "MC dresses like adults" crap that surfaced a few months ago in MC WAYW. There is no right and wrong. It's what you're comfortable with and what you most readily identify with.

 

[F. Corbera]

Only a small segment of the activity in SW&D can be "useful" or illuminating for guys who are primarily or entirely active in MC.

This is because most of the stuff discussed in SW&D is not a casual aesthetic that fits in with wearing coat and tie: most of the stuff in SW&D represents a replacement aesthetic.

There is no "formal" or "casual" in SW&D, by and large. It's the same stuff top to bottom, day in day out, morning, noon and evening. Jeans to work. Jeans to a casual sports bar. Balmain by day. Balmain by night. There are many different types of it, and many different designers and retailers, true. The concepts might range from low brow to high, but there really isn't a forum-common "off duty" concept for SW&D as there is neither a forum-common "formal" concept.

In contrast, there is a common "formal" concept (such as it is) in MC: that is suit, shirt, necktie and leather shoes. The way that this common concept plays out in the contemporary world implies a lot of the day and week might be spent in other clothes; thus, "casual" clothes.

So, I don't view SW&D's favorite topics as "casual" clothes, but a minority selection...a tip of intellectualized or designer-y clothes atop a larger iceberg...of a casual world wearing cheap, floppy, slobby clothes. This casual world ever encroaches on and displaces the world of formality that still endures in the habit of wearing coat and tie, in dressing for occasion and place.

This is why it is very hard to fit the two together. The few guys on SF who wear things from both types of makers tend to abandon the other when they're doing one. gdl203 has mentioned that if he could, he would stop wearing coat and tie entirely and that American traditional casual dressing depresses him. He also mentioned that Parker is almost exclusively active now in SW&D. Neither seems like a method to bridge any gaps; it just seems like an attitude that says everyone should dress in SW&D types of things, and coat and tie only if they must because of external forces.

Switch one light on. Switch the other light off.

And then there's fuuma, of course. He's made some ridiculous and amusing statements in the last few pages that come from a very narrow place. That narrow place is a type of good taste that will have zero utility for the guy who loves...not likes, not must, not forced...but who loves to dress in coat and tie and can do so in the ever-diminishing world in which others do so as well.

That's really it, I think. There is a lot of uncomfortable evidence in this thread and in the main WAYWRN that a lot of the posters are actually from the casual world that dominates the present, and are new to the habit of wearing any type of classic clothes, whether "formal" or "casual."

This is the point, usually, when someone will say, "At least they'll find out about nicer jeans."

Yes, that's true. Big deal.

When something fails in this thread, it is not from lack of knowledge of what people like in SW&D. There would almost certainly be equal levels of failure if that knowledge was acquired.

After all, dudes in SW&D fail right and left no differently than in MC.

 

[SandWigga]

I am taking from the photos that "MC" isn't what I thought it to be.