Best of 2024

[WBaker]

Looks like I blew it on 2023, but it was a silly time. Let's try 2024.

Wayback:
2022
2021

Please interpret the topic however you'd like,

Best: Trying Something New
This year I've been trying a new outfit most every day.

Spoiler: Closet

Year in review,
https://iili.io/2Gq0CDF.jpg

Best New Direction: Casablanca
Late to the party this year I became obsessed with AW20-AW21.

Spoiler: AW20 Bomber

Spoiler: AW21 Diamond Jacket

Best New Maker: Nightgallery
Thanks to @melonadejello for turning me onto the world of bootleg shirts.

Spoiler: 'Before' Trilogy

Sunrise

Sunset

Midnight

Best Throw Back: MMM Hightops
One of my first SF purchases was a pair of these high tops.

Spoiler: Early SF Fits

Spoiler: New Take

Favorite Item: Margiela AW01 Leather Blazer
I had spotted this maybe 5 years back but in a size too small. With a saved YahooJapan one finally turned up in my size.

 

[SixOhNine]

That last one has such a sleazy 70s vibe. It's f*cking awesome.

 

[pb1338]

Nice idea.

My 2024 Stats:

Stopped using canola oil
Stopped smoking tobacco
stopped watching filthy stuff
Got into whisky
Started posting on SF
Got into JMM (Jacques Marie mage)
Got into vintage and cordovan shoes
Blew an irresponsible amount of money on fashion

In a few days I will celebrate my birthday for the first time in a very long time and told all my friends, who are mostly not into fashion to “dress nicely” (might post a pic on sunday)

favorite stuff I bought:

Jacket:

This is very special to me because my brother made it and it’s my first bespoke piece. It’s also my first coat. I used to only wear shorter jackets and my woolrich parka in the cold.

Buzz Rickson jungle jacket is my favorite of all the military jackets I bought. It’s just perfect for how I dress.

Shoes:

Sendra suede boots on “lazo” last. Didn’t know I could wear boots with pointy toe like this, but they fit me very good and when I want people to look at me weird for my loud walking, this is what I wear.

Alden ranger moc and #8 LHS because Van last is so comfy and especially the LHS is a very good addition to my wardrobe.

JMM:

Vendome Baltic and molino Hickory fade. If I had to keep only 2 of all the sunglasses I bought this year, it would be these.

My favorite SF members:

1. @obecity - one of the reasons I got obsessed with JMM. He’s an icon and responsible for making the JMM thread my favorite.

2. @LinePlaneVolume - I feel like we started using SF at roughly the same time which makes us brothers (kinda). always posting fits, doesn’t seem to care about any validation. Also has cool beard and hairstyle.

3. @DorianGreen - a JMM thread OG and always the first one to react to me posting my new JMM on 10am EU time.

4. @WBaker - kinda carrying SW&D on his own. Could give more likes on my fits though.

5. @TheFoo - never fails to make things spicy and entertaining.

 

[LinePlaneVolume]

In a few days I will celebrate my birthday for the first time in a very long time and told all my friends, who are mostly not into fashion to “dress nicely” (might post a pic on sunday)

Good to hear you're going to celebrate your birthday. Have a good one. We need to celebrate those in our lives, including our selves.

And, thanks for the thoughtful shout out. The best thing I get out of this is to force myself to be more considerate of what I wear, and mixing it up with you all helps me do that. I see what the others are doing and, like it or not, it inspires me a bit.

 

[DorianGreen]

Nice idea.

My 2024 Stats:

Stopped using canola oil
Stopped smoking tobacco
stopped watching filthy stuff
Got into whisky
Started posting on SF
Got into JMM (Jacques Marie mage)
Got into vintage and cordovan shoes
Blew an irresponsible amount of money on fashion

In a few days I will celebrate my birthday for the first time in a very long time and told all my friends, who are mostly not into fashion to “dress nicely” (might post a pic on sunday)

favorite stuff I bought:

Jacket:

View attachment 2295661
This is very special to me because my brother made it and it’s my first bespoke piece. It’s also my first coat. I used to only wear shorter jackets and my woolrich parka in the cold.

View attachment 2295665
Buzz Rickson jungle jacket is my favorite of all the military jackets I bought. It’s just perfect for how I dress.

Shoes:
View attachment 2295663
Sendra suede boots on “lazo” last. Didn’t know I could wear boots with pointy toe like this, but they fit me very good and when I want people to look at me weird for my loud walking, this is what I wear.

View attachment 2295699
Alden ranger moc and #8 LHS because Van last is so comfy and especially the LHS is a very good addition to my wardrobe.

JMM:

View attachment 2295701

View attachment 2295703
Vendome Baltic and molino Hickory fade. If I had to keep only 2 of all the sunglasses I bought this year, it would be these.

My favorite SF members:

1. @obecity - one of the reasons I got obsessed with JMM. He’s an icon and responsible for making the JMM thread my favorite.

2. @LinePlaneVolume - I feel like we started using SF at roughly the same time which makes us brothers (kinda). always posting fits, doesn’t seem to care about any validation. Also has cool beard and hairstyle.

3. @DorianGreen - a JMM thread OG and always the first one to react to me posting my new JMM on 10am EU time.

4. @WBaker - kinda carrying SW&D on his own. Could give more likes on my fits though.

5. @TheFoo - never fails to make things spicy and entertaining.

Thank you for mentioning me, I feel honoured. You will always count on me providing my genuine opinion and enabling you to spend furtherly irresponsible amounts of money on futile sunglasses (just as I do).
You may be at the beginning of your sartorial journey, but, as I see, have already developed an individual, distinctive taste, kudos to you.

 

[zissou]

I picked up a handful of nice clothes this year, but it was overshadowed by all of my professional dreams coming true:

• Hired in a faculty position where I teach students how to design outdoor gear and apparel.
• Training young designers to push themselves beyond their current abilities to maximize growth.
• Hooked up with Beams who wants me to set up a recurring internship for students (which, of course, involves me going to Japan each summer)
• Acquired a historic backpack company from the 1970s.

Not sure what 2025 has in store for me, but I'm not sure I need much else.

 

[gardenvariety]

@zissou congrats on an amazing year and what surely must have been a ton of hard work preceding it. I would love to hear more about this backpack company you acquired! (Guessing you may have already written about it in depth somewhere on here?)

 

[zissou]

Thank you! It sure was a lot of work- about five years of intense focus, but in the timeline of a career, not too bad. I’ll make a post about the pack company in RFT soon.

 

[blacklight]

2024 took me through some of the most shameful lows I’ve yet to experience in this life. The standard stuff; family issues, terrible break-up in which we both came away with some pretty deep wounds, health issues, career stagnation (if I can even call it that), and some worse.

But in spite of or more likely because of all that it was a year of enormous personal growth.

Put myself on SSRIs, deleted IG permanently, learned a ton about what I want for my life via the experience of a summer spent dating (much) older women, and closed out the year with a completely out of the blue contract to go work in the southern Caribbean on basically 24 hour turnaround. My phone stopped working pretty much right after I landed and rather than bother to get it fixed I embraced the whole island living thing with no cellular device and just one suitcase for a few months and the experience has completely reinvigorated my self-concept. Though I’m still digging my way out of that very deep (and in some ways, very self inflicted) hole, I’ve come into this year with more conviction and clarity as to what I want for my life than I’ve had probably since high school. Specifically I’ve finally figured out what it is I hope to do with my life, which as it turns out, is a combination of the first two things I ever seriously wanted to do as a kid.

Would not go as far as to go call myself an ascetic but watched Perfect Days at the suggestion of a friend while I was in the islands and felt a deep affinity for the protagonist. As a single dude in his 20s who neither has nor wants children I’ve come to peace with the reality that I just really don’t want or need all that much as it pertains to objects or material success. It feels bordering on sacrilege as an American and particularly one who came of age in the 2010s to say I’d consider myself accomplished and satisfied with a small apartment, a two-seater, and a career in which I don’t wake up every morning wishing that I didn’t. But that’s all I need.

I only bought two articles of clothing last year, one of which I’ve had saved on my laptop (and was a WTB in my SF signature) for like 6 years. I hope to cut that down to 1 this year.

At this point in my life I’ve never felt more enamored of the little things. A cup of jasmine at the nearest cafe, walks at the park when I am healthy enough to do so, getting back into becoming a student of language again. It’s boring, unspectacular, and probably deeply unambitious in a way probably besmirching my “maximum potential” but honestly I’m fine if not outright happy with that. Goals for this year are mainly just to beat addiction, work towards the best version of myself (as opposed to what other people expect from me as A Real Man) and disconnect from pop culture and my phone as much as possible.

 

[LinePlaneVolume]

2024 took me through some of the most shameful lows I’ve yet to experience in this life. The standard stuff; family issues, terrible break-up in which we both came away with some pretty deep wounds, health issues, career stagnation (if I can even call it that), and some worse.

But in spite of or more likely because of all that it was a year of enormous personal growth.

Good luck to you in 2025 and beyond!