The 50 Most Stylish Men of the past 50 Years-GQ

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by SoCal2NYC

He was the poster boy of Seattle and grunge that brought that style of dressing into the limelight and onto the catwalks

And in my opinion we will forever look back on that and think "ugh, that's horrible. What were we thinking?" Just because he encouraged others to dress like him does not make it a good thing. To quote my mother, "Just because everyone else jumps off a bridge are you going to do it too?"

Popular does not equal stylish. Sure, it's a "style," but it's not a good one.

b

 

[whnay.]

Overall not a bad list but surprised these guys were off the list...

Frank Sinatra
Fred Astaire
Pierce Brosnan

 

[Edward Appleby]

Originally Posted by SoCal2NYC

Just because he wasn't dressed in 3 piece suits with perfectly styled hair and shined shoes doesn't mean that he didn't leave an impact on fashion and style.
He was the poster boy of Seattle and grunge that brought that style of dressing into the limelight and onto the catwalks of Commes des Garcons/the other Japanese AG and Perrry Ellis (Courtesy of Marc Jacobs). You had all this flannel and dirty jeans that people were wearing in Seattle via second hand shops, thrifts stores or whatever means they could find. Soon after that you have a plaid flannel shirt jacket coming off a designer's runway for $500. Kurt Cobain may not have been stylish by this forum's standards; but, he did help the impact of a style that lasted nearly 1/5 of the time frame of people they are choosing from.
We aren't talking about how important he was to fashion though, are we? Also it had nothing to do with his personal style, he was just dressing in the idiom of his scene and he happened to be the most high-profile member of it.

 

[SoCal2NYC]

Originally Posted by rdawson808

And in my opinion we will forever look back on that and think "ugh, that's horrible. What were we thinking?" Just because he encouraged others to dress like him does not make it a good thing. To quote my mother, "Just because everyone else jumps off a bridge are you going to do it too?"

Popular does not equal stylish. Sure, it's a "style," but it's not a good one.

b

Again...you are looking at it from your own personal taste and what you thing is appealing. I was talking about it without trying to inject my own personal style choices into it.

Originally Posted by Edward Appleby

We aren't talking about how important he was to fashion though, are we? Also it had nothing to do with his personal style, he was just dressing in the idiom of his scene and he happened to be the most high-profile member of it.

Well I quoted Conne in talking about ****** music and ****** dressing; so, one would imagine we were talking about how important he was to fashion as being on this list. And your second part is touching on what I was saying about being the poster boy of a fashion movement.

 

[LabelKing]

Grunge is one of America's worst export. It looms larger than Bush's attempts at overseas democracy, but it's not as terrible as Crocs.

 

[satorstyle]

I feel the list was fair. Stylish does not always mean what is consider well dressed, but when a statement is made that defines you.

 

[Teacher]

Originally Posted by Edward Appleby

Have you seen the clothes he wore?

Also insinuating that Cobain was more of a legend than Dylan is is rather ridiculous.

But he died young!!!

 

[Teacher]

Originally Posted by SoCal2NYC

Just because he wasn't dressed in 3 piece suits with perfectly styled hair and shined shoes doesn't mean that he didn't leave an impact on fashion and style.
He was the poster boy of Seattle and grunge that brought that style of dressing into the limelight and onto the catwalks of Commes des Garcons/the other Japanese AG and Perrry Ellis (Courtesy of Marc Jacobs). You had all this flannel and dirty jeans that people were wearing in Seattle via second hand shops, thrifts stores or whatever means they could find. Soon after that you have a plaid flannel shirt jacket coming off a designer's runway for $500. Kurt Cobain may not have been stylish by this forum's standards; but, he did help the impact of a style that lasted nearly 1/5 of the time frame of people they are choosing from.

That doesn't mean it was a good thing.

 

[Maharlika]

Edward, the former Duke of Windsor was also omitted. What's going on here?

 

[Parker]

Wow, great photos. Nice to see Marcello at numero uno. What struck me about this list is that not only are these guys stylish, but most are extremely talented and also possessed a kind of trademark distinction. So, it's not a surprise to me that Cobain made it, even if his style was not conventionally good-looking.

Some other faves: Miles Davis, Woody Allen, Bjorn Borg

 

[kitonbrioni]

A most interesting listing, but the emphasis on smoking as a favorable aspect of style was sorta sad.

 

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by SoCal2NYC

Again...you are looking at it from your own personal taste and what you thing is appealing. I was talking about it without trying to inject my own personal style choices into it.

How can you not say "he is stylish" without being subjective? It is by definition subjective to say that one person has style and another doesn't. Sure, you can quote general facts like "he influenced a lot of people," but that's not what I'm concerned with.

I'm saying he might have had a big influence, but it was not for the better. It was for the worse. That's my opinion, yes. The point of a list like this isn't simply to say who had the biggest effect, but who Esquire things had a good effect. I think it was a bad choice.

b

 

[LabelKing]

Originally Posted by kitonbrioni

A most interesting listing, but the emphasis on smoking as a favorable aspect of style was sorta sad.
Smoking is one of the greatest things to happen to style since women started wearing makeup.

 

[lasbar]

We must establish a clear difference between being stylish and being influential and that is quite difficult because the essence itself of style is very personal.

Being stylish for me is being personal and telling a story ....A stylish person is always looking good without making any efforts...

I do give you a list of my personal heroes:
Giovanni Agnelli,Aga Khan,Steve MacQueen,Cary Grant,Duke of Windsor,Yves Saint-Laurent,Alain Delon,,Bryan Ferry and so many others..

Sid Vicious ,Kurt Cobain ,Mc Hammer,Eminem and others are fashion embodiments of a special era and do not have an eternal sense of elegance and style...

In the fashion arena itself,Mary Quant ,Coco Chanel,Vivianne Westwood and many others may have been very influential people but are not still seen and perceived as being stylish and that's the main difference...

 

[Tokyo Slim]

The problem is that you are looking at STYLE from the perspective of people who think The Duke Of Windsor and Cary Grant were stylish. There are equally as many people, if not more, that find people in suits to be the antithesis of style, and will immediately discount most of them in favor of Run DMC. Whether right or wrong, Kurt Cobain made dressing like a real person ok. My look over the years has been far more Kurt Cobain than Cary Grant. I don't see anything necessarily wrong with wanting to dress like the imagined public image of Cary Grant, but there is also nothing, IMO wrong with wearing jeans, chucks, and a comfortable sweater, assuming, of course that you aren't attending a funeral or something.