Non-Rule "Rules"

[Manton]

that's closer to what I would recommend but I don't love it for a lot of reaons.

 

[dopey]

1. If you don't love your first try, live with it anyway. There is always tomorrow.

 

[NORE]



Awesome thread idea. Here are some of mine.
1. Socks should never be the same color as trousers.
2. Linen squares should only be TV-folded.
3. The only acceptable linen squares are solid white, and they should never be worn with solid white shirts.
4. Cotton squares don't belong anywhere.
5. Silk squares should only be poofed, never folded. Corners should not show.
3. If not black, belt and shoes should not match.
4. Only button-down collars should be worn without a tie.
5. Trousers worn with jackets should be pleated.
6. Pleated trousers should be double-pleated.
7. The only acceptable tie knot is the four-in-hand.
8. Shirt collar points should not show when wearing a jacket.
9. Bow ties should span the full width of the shirt collar.

not much I disagree with here.
A white linen square with a white shirt is fine. I like my drake moghul print cotton squares for summer. My belts don't exactly match my shoes but I try to keep the tone close. E.g., I wil not wear a tan belt with dark brown shoes or vice versa.

This overly analytical thinking is what makes you guys & boring. Live a little.*

* I agree with the bold part(s).

 

[TheFoo]

"LOL. My wife's blink was "these guys really don't like themselves." Don't go there I told her . ."

Yeah okay.

 

[comrade]



mother of god that orange pants thing is terrible...my point in my earlier post was, I don't suggest you ever wear red shoes or green pants...but if you want to wear those green pants and those red shoes and that patterned bowtie, etc., you should wear them put together into something like this, rather than on their own against a blank canvas.
I guess what I'm saying is, I find it more elegant to have the louder piece "blend" not "pop". Depending on what it is, this can be done without other loud items. Here's a very famous picture of the DoW in a suit that while not bright in color, is loud in pattern. He seems to wear it effortlessly by blending it with the other elements:

Yikes! Even the late Duke erred.

 

[R.O. Thornhill]

SF seems to be back on song. Here are mine

1. Only wear white shirts to weddings / funerals (exception is white linen when on hols)
2. Only white linen pocket-squares with suits
3. No belts with suits, only side adjusters
4. Cuffs on all formal trousers (not moleskin / cords)
5. Single breasted suits are either 1 button (if English) or 3-roll-2 (if Italian)
6. Always black captoes with navy suits. Have tried every shade of brown under the sun - just don't like it
7. Never use the 'keeper' on your tie
8. FIH is the only tie knot a man needs
9. With suits, socks always match trousers. Can't abide 'fun' socks with suits
10. None of my shirts are made with button-down collar (though I do occasionally go for a capri collar on linen shirts)
11. French cuffs on all formal shirts, 2-button cuff for linen, linen/cotton, tattersall
12. Belt and shoes should match approximately, never perfectly

R-O-T

 

[TheFoo]

R.O., #7 is gold. I keep to it myself.

Not that I can ever tell if someone has their back blade in the keeper. It just strikes me as fussy in the worst sort of way.

 

[unbelragazzo]



R.O., #7 is gold. I keep to it myself.
Not that I can ever tell if someone has their back blade in the keeper. It just strikes me as fussy in the worst sort of way.

+1. My custom ties I get without a keeper if I remember to ask for it.

 

[CBrown85]



R.O., #7 is gold. I keep to it myself.
Not that I can ever tell if someone has their back blade in the keeper. It just strikes me as fussy in the worst sort of way.

That's being fussy in the worst sort of way??

 

[TheFoo]



That's being fussy in the worst sort of way??

Yes.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

I concur.

 

[Manton]

I admit, I do this too. I didn't use to. I have been influenced by SF.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

About a year and a half ago I stopped using collar stays and tie clips as well. I feel so free and clean.

 

[Bounder]



It seems we fundamentally disagree on what it means to dress well.

Indeed we do. I have argued in the past that dressing, as practiced by some people on SF, is a legitimate art form. People like Manton and Vox have even gone some way toward developing a theoretical basis for it.

The inability to commit is an inability to take real risk (and reap real reward), and demonstrates a lack of fundamental taste for what is good over what is bad. I am not always right, but I endeavor to be.

This is, of course, pretentious nonsense.

Foo, you are like an opera singer who has perfected a single aria and can sing it better than anyone else in the world. But you refuse to even try and learn anything else and simply belt out La donna e mobile even if you are suppose to be appearing in Sweeney Todd. I suppose there is a real risk in this, in that you risk eventually being perceived as an eccentric, one-trick pony. But there is no real reward. What there is is a maddening waste of potential and talent.

Like me, Manton has very strong preferences and recurrent practices. He will be the first to tell you that he dresses very similarly day to day, year to year. I don't know how you can have missed that after seeing so many of his outfits.

Manton's genius is that, while adhering to the principles of conservative business dress, he is consistently able to surprise and startle. He has an ability to make seemingly small changes that transform the boring into the elegant. He also dresses "adaptably" for want of a better word. While he is almost always true to the tenets of conservative business dress -- there was that extremely unfortunate incident with that orange-striped shirt -- he is able to adapt those tenets to the situation at hand. Manton is not going to go to a garden party looking like he'd rather be at the office. But he's certainly not going to look like he'd rather be at the used car lot, either.

Also, it is ironic, because I find the notion of conservative business dress over-restricting and too formalistic. It's a way of getting many less astute dressers to fall into an acceptable range, but it will never be more than that.

Given the restrictions of FooBD, I am having trouble parsing this statement.

If you have a bunch of stuff that only goes with this or that and always has to be worn together, then you are spending your money unwisely and dressing poorly. You should be able to reach into your closet and with only a few seconds' thought be able to put together an ensemble that works, grabbing almost anything. Any one piece should be easily swappable for something else, and the whole will still work. If you can't do that, your wardrobe needs considerable work.

This is true as far as it goes but no further. First, the fact that something "works" does not mean that it is appropriate. For example, A navy blue suit goes great with a wedding tie, but you wouldn't wear that combination to a funeral. Less obviously, but more importantly, you should be able to adapt your wardrobe to the season, the weather, what business/social activities you have that day and even your mood. This is not consonant with owning a single pair of shoes, not matter how great that pair may be.

This is exactly what you do yourself. A few other posters have this knack but very few manage to achieve such notable results with the same degree of elegant understatement.

This may be true of those people, but there are also those people who say buttondown collars AND flat front trousers are great. It is, of course, classic American style.

You are too kind.

 

[TheFoo]

First of all, you can say whatever you like about how I dress, but to say I have not developed a theoretical basis for it means to me that you haven't been paying any attention to anything I've ever said. That's perfectly okay, but then you should probably withhold judgment of how I think about things.

Second, when Manton "startles" you with something, he will be the first to tell you he f*cked up.

Third, your accusation that I only do one thing well is absurd when considering context. Manton does not post photos of himself dressed to go grocery shopping, watch a baseball game, or take his kids to the movies. Neither do I. Virtually everything posted here by anybody falls into a relatively narrow band: what we look like when we put the most into it. Within that scope, I don't see myself dressing in a fashion any more singular than anybody else--certainly not those I care to be compared to.

Anyway, that's the last I'm going to comment on your abstract criticisms. I have posted too many photos of myself to count and a half dozen in the past 24 hours. If you have something worth saying, why not speak to something real?