I know 70s tailoring has a bad reputation ("the decade taste forgot"), but you can pull some elements in a way that will look good today: slightly structured shoulder, longer jacket, flared pants. Can be colorful or muted
Low Cut T-Shirts
Affectionately called "slutty tees" on menswear forums, these can be worn with directional tailoring or certain types of casualwear (e.g. Margiela). Here you see it with E. Tautz tailoring. Be careful with washing. Delicate tees need laundry bags.
Silky Shirts
A silky shirt—made from actual silk or an alternative like rayon or Tencel—will make you feel like Richard Gere in American Gigolo. Unbutton the first two top buttons if you want to look slutty. Pair with a cool pair of pants (I like Lemaire) or casual tailoring.
Wrangler Wranchers
They're like $30, cool looking, and let you experiment with a 70s silhouette. Size-up two in waist and take regular inseam. Best in black, brown, or taupe. Wear with Western denim shirts, rayon shirts, trucker jackets, etc. Note they're pure poly
Giant Sunglasses
These will make you feel like a movie star. I love the ones from Jacques Marie Mage, but they're dearly expensive (please don't SCREAM AT ME). The Molino and Taos are good places to start.
Five-Inch Inseam Shorts
Wear them with long-sleeved tees, thin merino knits, or sweatshirts in the late spring, along with slip-on shoes such as camp mocs, espadrilles, penny loafers, or huaraches.
Gold Chain
They go with surprisingly everything short of a conservative suit: Westernwear, tracksuits, prep, casual suits, etc. You can either go thick or thin for the chain. I'm partial to handmade Cuban link chains from Miami (IMO, 7mm is a good width).
Mesh Shirts or Retro Styled Knits
Wear them over a ribbed tank top or a t-shirt. There are also mesh polos if you're more daring. If you do this right, you will look like a declious Asian pear.
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It's true that progressives valorize "ugliness." But I think this person doesn't interrogate this position enough and thus lands at the wrong conclusion.
Let me give you a new perspective on ugliness. 🧵
In popular discourse, the world was once good, people were virtuous, and all things were beautiful. Then modernity came along and destroyed everything. In this view, beauty is an objective standard that has been corrupted by liberalism.
I contend that beauty in personal appearance is subjective, not objective. In fact, its standards rest on the shifting tectonic plates of politics, economics, and technology. Let me give you examples.
Today, we think of these photos as the standard for male beauty and dress:
Earlier this week, I asked which tie knot you think looks better. Of course, you can wear whichever you like. But here's the social history behind both knots and why some people consider one better than the other. 🧵
In the mid-19th century, as ready-to-wear tailoring started to take form, people got around in horse-drawn carriages. After all, the car had not yet been invented. During this time, some formed driving clubs, where they rode drags.
Check out the text in this lithograph:
The term "drag" refers to the carriage you see above, which was a sporting vehicle that was lighter than the more robust stagecoach. Men in driving clubs raced drags. Hence the term "drag race" first appearing in an 1863 issue of Racing Times.
People keep asking me to do a thread breaking down why these suits don't look great. I gather that these are famous, very well accomplished F1 drivers (I don't know these people). Since I only talk about famous people, I will do a thread. 🧵
Please note nothing in this thread is meant to diminish the men in these clothes. If anything, it's the people who dressed them that failed them. I am only talking about the clothes. Hopefully, by pointing out these issues, you will learn something for when you're shopping.
A pinstripe suit with a white business shirt cries out for tie. If you don't want to wear a tie, then you need a more casual shirt or a more casual suit. Additionally, the shoes are too chunky for this outfit.
The US Army celebrated its 250th year today with a massive parade in Washington, DC. It appears @ComfortablySmug believes that this is an appropriate tie for the occasion.
It's once again worth reminding that men's dress used to be governed by time, place, and occasion (TPO). If you were of a certain social station and had to do a certain thing, you were expected to wear a certain outfit.
This tradition can be seen in men's neckwear.
In Britain, where we derive most of our traditions for classic men's dress, the term "regimental stripe" refers to neckwear with diagonal lines, like you see below. These were not purely about decoration. Each design symbolized belonging to some organization.
This is the suit in question. It's a bespoke suit by Anderson & Sheppard in London. The cloth is a 60/40 mohair-wool blend from Standeven's "Carnival" book. The stylist was George Cortina.
To understand why this suit is interesting, you have to know a bit about tailoring history
In the early 20th century, Dutch-English tailor Frederick Scholte noticed that a man could be made to look more athletic if he belted up his guard's coat, puffing out the chest and nipping the waist. So he built this idea into his patterns. Thus the "drape cut" war born.
In 1881, Hans Wilsdorf was born in Bavaria, then part of Germany, to parents who died not long after he was born. At a young age, Wilsdorf set off into the world. He landed in England in 1903, which at the time had virtually no formal immigration controls.
Lucky for him. Two years later, fear of poor Eastern European Jews flooding the UK led to 1905 Aliens Act, which moved the country from an open-door policy to one of stricter control. This was the first British law that labeled certain migrants as "undesirable."