derek guy Profile picture
Apr 3 16 tweets 6 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
I get this question a lot, so I will answer it in a thread because it will make it easier to answer for other people in the future. 🧵
There's a lot of info online about how to dress. Or how to build a simple, affordable wardrobe. I think these prescriptivist approaches are bad because they herd people into a bland, flavorless wardrobe that they don't actually end up loving. A clothing subscription box shows a navy quilted jacket, whi
It's easy to tell how someone should dress if they need to build a wardrobe for an office that requires suits. That's because there's a clear way that you're supposed to wear such things as a result of history. Obama in a navy suit, white shirt, blue tie
Things are a little harder once you get into business casual. But I laid out some ideas here, if it helps:

putthison.com/how-to-do-busi…
Once you get into casualwear, it's impossible to be prescriptive. I'm a big believer that fashion is a visual language. Learning to dress well is about knowing how to speak a language.

Classic tailoring is like Received Pronunciation. Or a linga franca that everyone understands
But there are also many types of languages. Even in English, there are diff dialects and regional slang. Once you break outside of English, you may not even follow the same grammar rules.

Such aesthetics are shaped by our past and various subcultural groups. 1990s Lo Heads1980s Japanese punksMid-century cowboysMid-century Ivy League students
Many brands take slices of that history and remix the aesthetic for today. Aime Leon Dore is 1990s Polo streetwear. Nigel Cabourn is British adventurer. RRL is American Southwest, workwear, and Westernwear. Savas is rock and roll. Etc etc etc. Aime Leon Dore lookbook shows people in various forms of casNigel Cabourn lookbook shows a man in a navy down parka, bluPeter Zottolo in a red chamois shirt, blue jeans, white henlSavas model in a green leather jacket, blue chambray shirt,
Successful aesthetics are about knowing how to speak well within a language. That doesn't mean you have to slavishly follow rules (think of e.e cummings). But it means knowing how to express something legible to others.
Noam Chomsky is famous for the phrase "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" as an example of a sentence that is grammatically correct but makes no sense. I think guys who approach dress as a kind of art project often make this mistake, where the outfit has no cultural meaning. Mike Cernovich in a blue suit with white piping and tan striJordan Peterson in a brown striped suit and tan double monks
"How do I build an affordable wardrobe" should start with "how do I want to dress?" This is going to be informed by your cultural identity, personality, lifestyle, etc. I can't answer those questions for you. See this post on how to develop taste

dieworkwear.com/2022/08/26/how…
Secondly, I try to encourage people to buy things that they will LOVE WEARING, not just on day one, but in year ten. Real sustainability comes from having an emotional connection with your clothes, so you're not constantly replacing things. Read this:

dieworkwear.com/2020/08/01/on-…
So, in short, I can't tell you how to build an affordable wardrobe bc once you get out of classic, tailored clothing, it's very hard to tell someone how to dress. This is like me reading your personality; you have to figure it out yourself. You also have to find what EXCITES you.
That said, most people need to start somewhere. So years ago, I wrote this post about what I call a "springboard wardrobe." The idea is to be less prescriptive and give you a foundation that allows you to *explore* your own taste

putthison.com/the-springboar…
Most of my service writing is at Put This On. Use the "Start Here" link at the top to explore the 12+ year writing archive. Nearly any question can be answered by Googling "[topic] putthison."
Most of my writing is also focused on classic or classic-adjacent aesthetics: tailoring, workwear, Americana, etc, and their slightly more fashion-forward counterparts (e.g., Japanese brands doing workwear). This is only a slice of all of menswear.
If you need some starting places for exploring casualwear, I listed some aesthetics here, along with the associated stores.

Developing a good wardrobe is a long process, but it can be fun and fulfilling. Take it as a journey instead of task to check off

putthison.com/tag/five-start…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with derek guy

derek guy Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @dieworkwear

Apr 4
TRICKS FOR REMOVING STAINS

Trump appeared in court today in a stained suit jacket. The stain appears to be from cosmetics. I commented on how oil-based stains, such as this, require care to remove. Some people had questions, so here's a quick thread on how to treat stains 🧵 ImageImageImage
First, some basics

1. Always consult your garment care tag. It knows best.

2. Some items should always be dry-cleaned, such as suits, sport coats, and pants that aren't jeans. These items have multiple layers of material that can shrink at diff rates if put in a wet wash Image
OK, now that we have some basics, let's talk about stains.

There are two types of stains:

1. Water-based stains come from things such as sweat and coffee.

2. Oil-based stains come from things such as pizza and salad dressing. Image
Read 9 tweets
Apr 3
this is how franklin d roosevelt dressed as a child Image
for comparison, this is how his future wife Eleanor dressed as a baby. baby clothing was gender-neutral until the 20th century. babies, including boys, wore dresses bc they weren't toilet trained. clothes were white, not pink or blue, bc the color was easier to bleach. Image
as the 20th century marched forward, baby clothing became increasingly gendered—blue for boys, pink for girls (even though pink was once considered a masculine color until marketers decided otherwise). now even simple things such as t-shirts have graphics to mark gender. Image
Read 8 tweets
Mar 31
I'll give this a shot. Ideas threaded below 🧵
70s Tailoring

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 wisdom kaye in a teal sport coat, orange pants, and open whiNicolas Gabard ins a Husband's Paris suit. Black, single-bre
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. Powder blue suit with black-and-white striped tee with low nCream double-breasted suit with low-cut teeBlack and grey striped sport coat with black low-cut tee andBlue and red checked sport coat with cream color pants, red
Read 9 tweets
Mar 30
Chris Pine has been getting some fits off Chris Pine in an olive single-breasted, notch lapel, three-rChris Pine in white double-breasted suit with wide peak lapeChris Pine in a shawl collar, self-striped, black tuxedo andChris Pine in a black, snap-button, Western styled jacket, r
i like how the jackets aren't super tight and short. and the pants are well-proportioned to match the jacket (i.e., they're not super skinny). the result is a much more flattering and comfortable-looking silhouette. A full shot of Chris Pine's olive suit outfitA full shot of Chris Pine's cream double-breasted suit outfi
tailoring trivia: line here is called a front dart. it's added to give the waist some shaping. most front darts terminate at the pocket. if you see a front dart extend past the pocket and reach the hem, there's a good (but not 100%) chance the suit was made in Naples, Italy A close up of Chris Pine's olive suit shows the front dart.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 28
A very enjoyable article about J. Crew.

newyorker.com/magazine/2023/…
along with being beautifully written, i love how this piece interweaves multicultural history, deep references, and a genuinely good understanding of menswear (despite being written by someone who doesn't typically write about menswear). wish more menswear writing was like this
Something not explored, but I've sometimes wondered about, is how JCrew's retail footprint looked from 2005-2015-ish. IMO, the fall of Brooks Brothers is deeply tied to its real estate agreements. As the company expanded its number of retail stores and got locked into leases...
Read 6 tweets
Mar 28
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SUIT JACKET, SPORT COAT, AND BLAZER?

A friend of mine recently emailed me to ask whether he accidentally bought a suit jacket by mistake, when he wanted a sport coat. I see this sort of thing happen often, so let's break down the differences 🧵
First, understand that a suit is just a garment where the jacket and pants have been cut from the same cloth. This distinguishes it from the frock coat, which is what "proper" gentlemen wore before suits became popular. A man in a frock coatMen in suits.
By the early 20th-cent, the frock coat fell out of favor and was replaced by suits and sport coats.

See how the suit on the left is made to be worn with matching pants. The sport coat on the right is made to be worn with pants cut from a different cloth. Duke Ellington in a flannel suit.Humphrey Bogart in a tweed sport coat and what looks to be g
Read 24 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(