Classic Menswear Lounge

[dieworkwear]

Another caustic man claiming he was being sarcastic.

 

[Caustic Man]

Nope, I meant what I said. Getting under AC2's skin was just a bonus.

 

[TweedyProf]

Let's move on, shall we, gents?

 

[Caustic Man]

I agree. Eagerly awaiting your next topic.

 

[Claghorn]

@gusw

You mentioned outfits occasionally looking too contrived regarding their use of color. Or maybe too thought out. Anyway. Is this an example of an outfit that comes across as too thought out (not necessarily in terms of what you were addressing though)?

(I like this)

 

[WillingToLearn]

I think low contrast looks, at least ones that work well, require more thought to work well. They just cut a finer line between succes and failure. So one could argue they feel contrived by the definition of being thought out.

 

[UrbanComposition]

Low contrast is the bomb. When done well tonal outfits are generally easy on the eyes. I agree that it's difficult but would hesitate to say it looks contrived. It seems more incidental.

Matching colors is also easy on the eyes, but because it obviously requires thought it stands out as looking more contrived.

 

[EliodA]

New member@Brovsko (I hope he doesn't mind me using his pic here) has been posting some really nice low contrast stuff lately:

 

[Gus]



@gusw

You mentioned outfits occasionally looking too contrived regarding their use of color. Or maybe too thought out. Anyway. Is this an example of an outfit that comes across as too thought out (not necessarily in terms of what you were addressing though)?

(I like this)

I'm not sure I ever used the phrase "too contrived" regarding their use of color but what I was probably referring too was someone piecing together a lot of color and pattern statements simply to get attention (which come across as looking like a broken color wheel or a shredded patchwork quilt) rather than them being aesthetically pleasing. I'm not against the use of colors, including bold colors, but color for the sake of color isn't enough. A truly stylish or fashionable gent understands coordinating colors and which color combinations look best on them.

I also like this photo. I think an outfit of neutrals is rather chic. It is a well put together combination of neutrals (which has been an emerging trend in fashion within the last year or two although it never really goes away). This takes some effort and coordination but it isn't hard. It requires assembling an outfit with the end result in mind and not simply grabbing a new tie. Because it is on trend with fashion it gives the outfit a more contemporary look. (I'm hoping he is wearing some sandy suede derbys)

I mentioned the other day that the best examples for fashion color inspiration come from Nature. Currently, in the warm, dry California hills around my home I see combinations of all of this outfits colors in the stones, gravel, tree bark, grasses. It looks natural and effortless. These neutrals also remind me of the beach. So, a well coordinated color story gives an easy nature feel rather than a "too contrived" feel IMO.

 

[John L]

half the battle of low contrast is having tan socks in your drawer

 

[Gus]



half the battle of low contrast is having tan socks in your drawer

Light gray is the other half and far more versatile year round.

 

[bry2000]

I am not a big fan of the low contrast look. I think the low contrast would tend to wash most people out. If you have right complexion, fine. If not, you might look sickly.

 

[AdidaSuit]

Calm down, kid.

It was a perfectly accurate description: threads go dormant when people don’t post to them. Self-evident.

And your claim that this thread replaces GNAT is just factually incorrect. GNAT was explicitly initiated to encourage newcomers to post, and to do so in a thread where they could count on getting responses from some of SF’s most knowledgeable members. If you read the thread, you’ll learn this. The ‘Lounge’ , on the other hand, was originally the ‘Grad Lounge’, and its intended audience was those whose interests were relatively advanced. Very different constituencies and very different threads. Both important and both useful.

And as for Tweedy, no one’s been more supportive than I have of his efforts, including his work on and in this thread. If you’d read it, you’ll see.

Good grief. Graduate students these days …

GNAT wasn't for newcomers. It was for one attention-whore to write his daily journal on. It was like a sitcom TV show that was sometime funny but definitely not the place where newcomers got their questions answered. If the intent of that GNAT was that, then I think the best thing that could have happened for GNAT happened when that idiot got banned.

 

[LinenMoses]

Has anybody looked at the new/redesigned Brioni collection? This new creative director is doing everything Brioni isn't and trying to take the brand into a direction away from its roots as a classic brand. I personally don't own any Brioni myself, but it's presence in classic men's suiting has always been around. I'm curious to see what others here think about the new collection, the cuts of the suits and especially the accessories they've started marketing. Everything looks cheaper and less elegant in my opinion.

 

[Gus]

The ad campaign with Metallica seems like a "Hail Mary" pass at trying to score with a new audience. The designer, O'Shea, says his influence is "70's pimp". Good luck to them.

Wilkes Bashford carried Brioni for as long as I can remember (since the 70's?) along with the SFA main store on 5th. They always had a conservative, edited assortment of Brioni. Their clients looked elegant. But when I saw the brand at other stores 5, 10, 15 years ago, there were odd design touches and fabric selections that, to me, looked far too Las Vegas or Mob and nothing that interested me. I suppose it was up to the individual store buyer to know what to select. But now, I'm really not sure who will buy this look?