WAYWRN Composite -- 25 thumb minimum

[kulata]

Unexplained best fit (suit) - In stitches
Unexplained best fit (odd jacket) - EFV
Notable mention overcoats - Adolesco and PandArts
Notable mention FFA (Finally f-ing) - PandArts and Heldentenor

 

[heldentenor]

Unexplained best fit (suit) - In stitches
Unexplained best fit (odd jacket) - EFV
Notable mention overcoats - Adolesco and PandArts
Notable mention FFA (Finally f-ing) - PandArts and Heldentenor

I beg your pardon, sir, but this is my second 20-thumb appearance.

 

[in stitches]

Thanks, Elio.

Damn EFV robbing me of the sweep!

NickP deserves some kind of coolness award.

 

[Gerry Nelson]

Thanks, Elio.

Damn EFV robbing me of the sweep!

NickP deserves some kind of coolness award.

So Cool That The Temperature Drops When He Walks In The Room Award: NickP

 

[in stitches]

That works!

 

[The Noodles]

I am not getting 20 thumbs up anymore

...wait, I probably need to post first

 

[EliodA]

sorry to hear that

Anyway, I spend most of my time in my underwear now (except when I am asleep).

I wrote the following over the last few hours that I was bored. Its long and tedious, so don't read it unless you suffer from insomnia.

There are so many aspects and subplots to this whole posting pics/critiquing outifts thing. I don't do much of either anymore for various reasons but neither is really easy to do. Starting with the static pics, there are lots of variances and distortions in pictures. A person wearing the same exact outfit can look vastly different depending on picture quality and stance.

Secondly, you have the "bias" of the forum. This is a forum because many people share the same thoughts, otherwise they wouldn't be here. So that does lead to "groupthink", but since groupthink is a bad word, lets say its a group of people that share similar tastes. Similar tastes leads to similar likes and dislikes. Italian styling is the "it" thing all over the menswear world (in terms of cut and patterns/colors), and there is nothing wrong with that, but it has lead to the tastes of this forum being somewhat one dimensional. Yes, I know there are people here who wear non- Italian type clothing, but those are the exceptions. So I think that leads to a lot of people attempting to acheive the same results, and there are various levels of success, but overall it results in maybe more positive comments than is warranted, or at least not enough constructive criticism.

Another issue, kind of an elephant in the room, is money and to an almost equal extent, time. Its easy to tell someone, "just look at how Voxsartoria dresses and do that" but the reality is, to dress like vox/foo/iammatt/il vecchio/medtech/a harris/whnay/rss/slewfoot/manton/rjman/will etc etc (lots of old school names in here, forgot others) requires a lot of money and time. Thats just how it is and there really aren't any shortcuts. And by shortcuts I mean more the time than the money. You can't come on the forum today as a clothing newb, spend $20K on clothes tomorrow, and all of a sudden be well dressed. You may have good looking and maybe even well fitting clothing, but you probably won't be well dressed.

When I mention time, I mean experience and the process of trial and error. I, like most human beings, dressed before styleforum and the internet. Living in NYC, I've had access to many brands/tailors and I always enjoyed dressing up. Starting off with a limited budget, I indulged my desire to dress, starting with the inexpensive indian/china tailors, moving up to Brooks Brothers and then to Bergdorf, with various other stops. At any of those points, I never thought that I dressed badly but obviously looking back at it now, I don't like what I wore. So in a sense, the best tool you have to learn is yourself and time, the internet can "time shift" your experience but I am a believer that you have to do it yourself. You have to understand why something works for you or not. I can tell someone to wear a jacket longer/shorter, different colors etc but you have to get your hands dirty. You have to recognize what you are trying to do and recognize that there is always room for improvement. Its the journey that should be the goal, not the destination. The minute you decide that you are simply going to dress in the same brands/style as poster A, you are effectively setting yourself up for failure. Two people of varying body types wearing the same outfits, will not look the same.

Which then leads me to my newest realization thats been brewing in me the last year or two. My body is not conducive to certain styles. We won't all look good in what a particular poster looks good in. I won't get into the specifics but as I took a critical eye to some of my recent wardrobe items and how they made me look, it was not a look that I wanted. I thought I looked bigger (wider), slouchier and some of my patterned stuff was such that I was never happy with how I wore it. So this was a case where I looked at people whose dress I admire and who had a look similar to what I wanted to achieve. I looked at what my body was telling me in terms of the slouchy look I was getting and I made changes. Small stuff but important stuff. I am at a point where I am very happy with my clothing but still recognize that I will make a mistake now and then. So I'm not going to nit pick every little thing about my wardrobe to the point where I am never happy but I know that in this journey, next year may bring some other small changes and I am open to that.

So why do I think I will only be making small changes going forward and not wholesale changes? Therein is my next point. Like anything else, you have to have a foundation in the classics in order to properly deviate from it. If you don't understand why a solid navy/grey suit, solid dark tie and solid white or blue shirt are the foundation to the menswear house (among other things), then when you go off on your own to peacock, you are probably going to miss. If you don't understand classical proportions of lapels, sleeves, pants, gorge etc, you are not going to understand how to deviate from it. I could never wear Tom Ford or Thom Browne (going back to the body thing again) but look at that stuff closely and you see people who understand the foundation of classical menswear. You see very balanced clothing from them. Yes, Ford's stuff is in your face F.U. and Browne is pee-wee hermanish on its face, but again, when you take a critical eye to it, you see items that with some small changes would be worn easily by Kennedy/Nixon/Sinatra/Astaire etc. Yet when others try to copy it (corneliani and RL tried to do big Ford lapels in one collection), it typically fails miserably. Ford and Browne's clothing does not look like that by accident or a stroke of luck. We each know what we are trying to accomplish when we get dressed, you have to be realistic as to what your body is giving you. Regional styles are regional for a reason. They are based on cultural and social parameters and also on physical characteristics. Realize that you can't simply scale up or scale down styles, some will work for you and some won't.

the last thing about all this is the human aspect to all this. Regardless of how cool we think we are, we still like approval from others. In life, on the internet etc. No one wants to hear, "wow, you look really awful", no matter how secure they are. And everyone likes to hear "wow, that is amazing!", no matter how "advanced" you are or how many thousands you spend on your bespoke. Its common human nature (except for

of course) so I think this creates two issues. One, when you know what will get plaudits on the forum, you are more likely to head in that direction, sometimes at the expense of self discovery. Two, when you dress outside of the norm and possibly get negative comments based on that, you may go in the direction of being forum approved rather than again, exploring your own discovery.

For example, I love the way Fred Astaire and Prince Charles dress. Two very different styles. Imagine Charles coming on here with his tiny tie knots and 6x2's all buttoned. There would be an endless chorus to change those things. Imagine Fred with his tie belts, really loose clothing and BD collars with everything. Again, there would be critiques telling him how to dress better. But both of these guys have a thoroughly developed style that includes these idiosyncrasies and to me, makes them even better dressers. Many great dressers do things that would not be forum/internet approved. i'm sure there were many mistakes along the way but these guys know who they are and are very comfortable in how they dress. You can't teach that type of comfort, you can only self learn it. So sometimes what the forum will do is, bring everyone in under the same tent but that is not always the right answer. You see it here all the time, guys wearing the approved brands yet still looking off.

Lastly (once again), not everyone takes criticism the same way or is even looking to go on this journey. Some people just like they way they dress and want to post a pic. Who am I to explain to them what is wrong or tell them how to dress? There are people that have been here for many years and dress pretty much the same way as they did on day one. I don't think they are dumb or don't get it, they are just perfectly comfortable with how they dress and there is nothing wrong with that. I am from the Manton school which says that good taste is not subjective but I am also from the school that says if you want to wear cargo pants with a sportcoat, knock yourself out. As long as you realize the historical context of cargo pants and of sportcoats and you realize that you are not in good taste

So long story short is, dressing well takes time and money (time being more important than money), the forum is both good and bad in helping people, you can dress well but not in good taste, the answer to all questions is Voxsartoria.

In hindsight, I'm not so happy with this one: trousers are too casual for this fit, PS and tie are too matchy-matchy (though less so IRL).
On top of that, I'm getting fat and the detail pic sucks...

People's Choice: ctp120 (37)
Elio's Jury Prize: Spoo!
Claghorn's Jury Prize: Claghorn

Honourable mention: edmorel & zayyarwinthein for very different reasons....

 

[in stitches]

Best Fog - Cleav
Best Looking at Appreciation on iPhone - Garry
Best Stripes - Crusty
Best Words - Edmorel
Best Wedding - ctp
Best Cardi -Anden
Best 3 Pc - A2
Best Tags - Spoo
Best Tan - zayyarwinthein
Best Orange - Elio

 

[Gerry Nelson]



Best Fog - Cleav
Best Looking at Appreciation on iPhone - Garry
Best Stripes - Crusty
Best Words - Edmorel
Best Wedding - ctp
Best Cardi -Anden
Best 3 Pc - A2
Best Tags - Spoo
Best Tan - zayyarwinthein
Best Orange - Elio

Actually, my award offends me.


Do you REALLY think that I'm using an iPhone?

 

[in stitches]

I assumed you would be using the best, yes.

 

[Adolesco]

Notable mention - Adolesco wearing a grey odd jacket well.

Thank you but actually the jacket is green. This photo is more true to color.

@Adolesco , that is a great outfit! I'm particularly interested in your trousers. Deets please!

Thanks!

Thank you! The trousers are SuSu Jort from last year's F/W collection.

 

[kulata]

We should name this the 3 piece batch

Unexplained best fit (suit) - Academic2, ctp120
Unexplained best fit (odd jacket) - An Acute Style 2 (Corduroy and Moleskin)
Notable mention 3 piece - Everybody wearing 3 pieces (Cleav, Anden, AAS 1 and 2, uprcrust 1 and 2, Academic2, Butler)
Notable mention (Colors) - EliodA
Wabi Sabi Award - zayyarwinthein

 

[in stitches]

Small batch to get the weekend started with a bang.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Henry Bucks - Uniqlo - Versace - Canali - Henry Carter - Sea-Gull - Sartore - C&J

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Spoiler: DEETS!

Spoiler: Warning: Socks!

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Spoiler: Warning: Full shot, breakdown

Excuse the leaves. We intentionally left things untidy for Halloween ambiance. Hope they'll be gone sometime this week.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Peoples Choice Award - Choc (36) Best Beard - NYI Best Purple - SeaJen Best Suit - Spandexter Best PoW- GMM Best Casual Cool - EFV Best Hat - Tibor

 

[PandArts]

Honored once again to be included in such company. That was my AAS inspired fit and my new personal thumb best.

 

[chocsosa]

Its been awesome the past week or so in terms of fits..Thanks all for thumbs given..means a lot guys! Panda, that was a bad ass fit too btw!