Fashion! (Ongoing)

Is anyone else loyal to a brand or store, for like, one thing?

Like, the Target Levi's Denizen jeans I mentioned above are a good example. I also really dig Aerie's underwear. And Old Navy's workout clothes.

But I don't really like Target's underwear selection, or Old Navy's jeans, and I don't buy anything else at Aerie/American Eagle. There's not one particular store I'm super loyal to, just specific items at those stores.

Every pair of underwear I own is old Navy boxers.

Anybody have strong opinions on men's monk strap shoes? I've been interested for a while in seeing how they work with my blue or burgundy suits, and finally grabbed a pair. My girlfriend was not a fan (she wasn't a dick about it, she just doesn't care for that style), and I'm personally still undecided as to how I feel now that I've acquired some. If you're not familiar, this is the variety I bought:

They look good to me!

But why? Why are they more inappropriate than oxfords or whatever?

For sure, and that's a great point. I'm not at all operating in a serious business environment, but if I was I realize these would more or less be viewed like loafers - less formal than Derbys and waaaay less formal than Oxfords. But I work in the brewing industry, so typically even at the most fancy-ish of events, I'm the only one even remotely dressed up, so I'm not too concerned about their being perceived as too informal.

Generally, sleeker/simpler designs are more formal. Buckles are less simple than laces. Also, formal menswear is generally defined by “what did the Duke of Windsor wear?” which means it’s defined by the English tradition, and monkstraps are more of an Italian thing. Italian-associated stuff is coded as inappropriate for business.

The original problematic fave. But god damn could that asshole wear clothes. 


Also, pretty much every influence the Duke of Windsor had on menswear was some form of "what if we made this, like, 20% more relaxed?" so I'm not sure what we're complaining about here.

Pff, those morons all wore their jackets cropped too short. It was like a racist Uniqlo catalogue out there!

I wonder if the fact that they aren’t coded as Anglo is one of the reasons I’m monkstrap-curious. Also given that one of the major clothes-wearing men of the twentieth century was the head of Fiat (not joke Fiat, but Fiat at its peak) I find it kind of funny that the definition of appropriate-for-business is correlated with English-ness.

Ultimately, though, in California at least unless you’re hanging out with the likes of Michael Anton classicism’s not expressed that way—the extent one follows a set guidelines (with a little artful breaking, of course) is probably more a signifier of who you read online nowadays (again, see Manton). You want authentic classicism today it’s, at least in CA, it’s based on some combo of price, materials quality, and showing you’re too busy making money to worry about how you dress. We could use a bit more Mediterranean flair.

Well, you can but it might look a little patriotic. Cute dress though.

I vote yes to the shoe dress combo.

You know, I really actually like hats. I would wear one more often, but I find baseball caps kind of annoying (and barely qualifying as "hats"), and MRAs have completely sullied the good name of the fedora. I had a top hat, but I don't know what happened to it, and I'd probably look kind of silly wearing that all the time. I kind of want a bowler hat, but I don't know where I could get one for cheap enough that I wouldn't feel like I wasted my money when people tell me my hat is dumb and I shouldn't wear it anymore.
My grandfather wore a paperboy cap informally, but I don't know if I could make that work. My other grandfather I vaguely remember occasionally rocking a straw fedora, but see above re: fedoras and I don't know if I could pull off straw.
Really, I just want to keep the rain off of my glasses.

Sometimes I think I'm the only person who still thinks fedoras are cool. (Then again, the stigma around them isn't quite there for women)