i dont know if this is a hot take but more men should wear jewelry
jewelry can be tough to wear if you're normally in conservative clothing like traditional suits and sport coats. although, some men in the mid-20th century wore their suits with things like signet rings and WWII bracelets. can be very look-dependent
IMO, it's a lot easier to incorporate jewelry into a casual outfit. this can be esp nice in the summer when an outfit has less going on. can be something as simple as a thin 3mm gold franco or rope chain worn with a camp collar shirt and some shorts
Options:
- Kei Shigenaga at @selfedge: Japanese jewelry inspired by the art of kintsugi
- Reliquary in San Francisco: Lots of cool vintage options
- Native American jewelry: Get the real stuff, not the cover bands
- Garcia's Jewelry in Hialeah, FL: Handmade Miami Cuban chains
bummed this person deleted bc i think this touches on something weird about men's style. lots of guys are uncomfortable with having an interest in fashion, so they seek outside reasons to "rationalize" something. wearing a school ring is OK; a decorative ring is not.
a suit is worn for respect. wearing a tie is simply something grown men do. you can wear a watch bc it tells time, but a bracelet is bad. in these ways, men can re-code fashion as being about masculine values, utility, and respect, rather than aesthetics. avoids gender anxiety
forgot to mention! i spoke with my friend @CBBarker about a month ago for a story he wrote regarding men and jewelry.
so many trad/ retvrn accts here fetishize the suit but know so little about it. every tweet is just jibber jabber emo nonsense. "facts not feelings" but every tweet about the suit is just feelings and not a single, informative fact
it's true that nothing flatters like a suit. why? because the suit is made of many layers of material: haircloth (made of wirey horsetail hair), canvas, and sometimes fusible and felt. the shoulder often has padding. these layers are pad stitched together to form a 3D shape
if done well, the suit will confer a flattering V-shaped figure, which gives the illusion of a more athletic body underneath. this is the body of the Statue of David: broader shoulder line, full chest, nipped waist, and then columnar legs. this is useful as you age
As many may remember, MiUSA was core to American Apparel's brand identity. Founder Dov Charney made a big deal about how he employed people in LA's garment district. But when the company folded, it was clear that the business model did not work.
The new owners, Gildan, had a choice: they could continue with the LA garment district model or produce clothes through Gildan's existing global supply chain. So they gave consumers a choice.
ive kept the aesthetic here fairly conventional as my acct has grown but it's time to speak my truth. i love brands like engineered garments, who just dropped their FW23 lookbook
lookbooks are always going to push the envelope a little to show the vision or vibe, but many of these pieces can be worn w/ basic things like raw denim jeans and shetland knits bc they're just riffs on classic workwear & Americana
Engineered Garments FW12 vs old hunting designs
when put together the clothes can be as funky or basic as you want them to be
there are a bunch of companies right now that are doing really cool things with traditional indian textiles: kardo, karu research, and harago among them. the aesthetic sits somewhere between bode and by walid.
these companies are cool bc they use labor-intensive textiles that are unique to the region. khadi cotton is hand spun and woven. kantha is scraps of deadstock fabric beautifully quilted together. many textiles are block printed by hand. requires lots a lot of skill to be precise
block printing used to be practiced in the west, but has fallen out of favor due to mechanization and lower-cost imports. before they closed, the silk printing house david evans in Macclesfield England used to print silks by hand.
A lot of ppl ask me about tailoring for queer bodies, which is not something I know much about. But an NYC tailor just told me about K Zao, a Providence, RI shop that bills itself a "queer tailoring." The work looks quite good to me.
quite an impressive level of handwork evidenced in the photos. the pick stitching along the lapel is very light and gentle, which can only be done by hand, not machine. flip the lapel over, and you see dimples, which is evidence of hand pad stitching.
the in-breast pocket here is done with a technique called "sculpt facing," which gives the pocket a stronger baste to sit in. if the pocket ever rips, you can repair it without replacing the lining. this takes more work to make than the more common pocket style seen on right
It's a small thing, but I often see guys in the city wearing mid-calf socks with tailored clothes (suits, sport coats, or dress shirt + trousers), which results in their bare legs showing when they sit down. This is ... not great. An easy improvement is to get over-the-calf socks
Over-the-calf socks are exactly what they sound like. Since they sit over your calves, they stay up all day, unlike mid-calf socks, which fall down. Get them in the same color as your trousers to lengthen your leg line. Or in navy, which goes with everything except black pants.
Some options:
Gold Toe: super affordable, but not very comfy. 57% wool to 43% synthetic content. On the upside, this is what Obama wears.
Mes Chaussettes Rouges: Good online store that mostly carries Euro brands. Higher quality, but can be pricey