It's all relative, wear what you want.

[Manton]

I mean, it's just clothes and it's all a matter of personal taste. YOU need to like what you wear, not anyone else. There are no absolutes and the rules are for a bygone era.

Sometimes I think we lose sight of these important truths.

I'm glad we had this chat.

 

[Veremund]

 

[Fuuma]

Can we close the forum now that it has been settled? End of history, clothing style. Nothing to see, move along.

 

[Galix]

Moral can be relative. I tend to think that project themselves with their choice of clothing and that classical clothing (which does not mean old) can be seen as an statement of some social values we should not loose. Though they seem nowadays also from a bygone era

 

[Thomas]

gaaah, I can't move this to Dumb Threads!@!

 

[John Doe]

Who is the hippie that hacked Manton's account?

 

[YRR92]

Are we just being tricked into having a serious discussion about the value of following rules and dressing in a way that is grounded in an awareness of tradition?

How do we make that one last forty pages of fuzzy thinking and misused buzzwords? I volunteer to get weirdly offended and touchy about my income level!

 

[chogall]

Over compensating could be an interesting thing.

 

[emptym]

Wouldn't a real relativist not be able to criticize someone who thought there were rules?

 

[John Doe]

I'm confused, you literally wrote the book on rules.

 

[Veremund]

He's achieved enlightenment.

 

[kcox68]

I know this is a dirty word in today's lexicon but I do think there's a place for moderation in style as much as anyplace else. Yes, there are rules to follow for good style but there's also a place for individual expression. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive and just as no one person can dress in any fashion he chooses and rightly call it style, no one can lay down absolute laws about what to wear and expect that to be the end of discussion. There must be a meeting someplace in the middle where one can identify within the group yet retain enough difference to call oneself an individual. Maybe this amounts to something as simple as wearing loud socks with conservative dress or as intricate as having one's suits cut in a fashion forward manner while retaining the elegance of classic style. This doesn't mean one can wear a bright green suit with a pink shirt and rainbow tie and call it stylish but there are definitely nuances to good style that allow for individual expression.

It would be a boring world without those people with the ability to break the rules a bit and help us all evolve our own sense of style.

 

[JackAndy]

I tried to wear my diaper on the subway but I keep getting comments.

 

[YRR92]

I know this is a dirty word in today's lexicon but I do think there's a place for moderation in style as much as anyplace else. Yes, there are rules to follow for good style but there's also a place for individual expression. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive and just as no one person can dress in any fashion he chooses and rightly call it style, no one can lay down absolute laws about what to wear and expect that to be the end of discussion. There must be a meeting someplace in the middle where one can identify within the group yet retain enough difference to call oneself an individual. Maybe this amounts to something as simple as wearing loud socks with conservative dress or as intricate as having one's suits cut in a fashion forward manner while retaining the elegance of classic style. This doesn't mean one can wear a bright green suit with a pink shirt and rainbow tie and call it stylish but there are definitely nuances to good style that allow for individual expression.

It would be a boring world without those people with the ability to break the rules a bit and help us all evolve our own sense of style.

You want more moderation than that.

Some thoughts:

Why have "interesting" clothes? I address my deep-seated anxieties about being a boring person by being loud at parties and telling jokes during class. Interesting clothes, for this statement, are not things like a navy hopsack blazer (which is fascinating in its way), but stuff that you don't know how to wear -- the "running before you can walk" items.

I'd rather eat simple food cooked well than something complicated cooked badly, regardless of the quality of the ingredients.

Merely being well-dressed is pretty distinctive. Being well-dressed in a style that's more formal than those around you (heaven knows I'm in that boat, and I reckon more than a few on here are as well) is incredibly distinctive. The individual clothes don't need to call attention to themselves.

Most days, I'd rather wear a pocketsquare than be try to be impeccably dressed without one. That's idiotic, irrational, and it contradicts what I've written, but I've accepted it.

 

[add911_11]



I mean, it's just clothes and it's all a matter of personal taste. YOU need to like what you wear, not anyone else. There are no absolutes and the rules are for a bygone era.

Sometimes I think we lose sight of these important truths.

I'm glad we had this chat.

That is a very late arrival. Consider how many young iGent has been intoxicated .