Some style lessons from Gerard Basquiat, a Haitian immigrant whose son helped define the New York art scene and neo-expressionism. 🧵
In tailoring, the term "gorge" refers to the seam that connects a jacket's collar to its lapels. This determines the shape and placement of the lapel's notch. The most classic placement creates a horizontal line running from the notch to the collar points.
As a counter reaction to 1990s Armani, which had excessively low gorges, men's tailoring has seen gorges creep up over the last 20 years. It's not uncommon to see a notch lapel almost sitting on top of the shoulder. Or peak lapels flying off the shoulder.
Something interesting about Gerard Basquiat's tailoring is that he always wore a notch that was basically level with his collar points. In this way, the notch is never too high or low; it's just classic. Compare to Ted Cruz's overly high gorge.
Interestingly, Gerard carried this proportion into the later part of his life, bucking ready-to-wear trends. This again looks very tasteful (compare to the peak lapel a bit up-thread, which was flying off someone's shoulder).
People often think about clothes just in terms of sizes (small, medium, large). But a more defining aspect is their shape. Gerard's tailoring had tremendous shape, as evidence in the lapel's roll at the buttoning point. Compare to Cruz's lapel, which is pressed flat like panini
Men are often reluctant to wear a higher-rise trouser because they don't want to look like an old man. But in a tailored outfit, the trouser rise serves a function: it covers up the bit of shirt fabric that would otherwise peek out from beneath the coat's buttoning point.
A suit is simply a garment where the jacket and pants have been made from the same cloth. This should create a coherent whole. When shirt fabric flashes beneath the jacket's buttoning point, it disrupts the line and spoils the sense of elegance.
Gerard's sense of elegance is carried into his accessories. When wearing dark worsted suits, Gerard wore small dress watches on a leather strap. This looks much better than chunky sport watches, such as Cruz's Tag Heuer chronograph, which are better for casualwear.
I suspect Gerard wore a Cartier Tank. His son's friend, Andy Warhol, also famously wore a Tank, once quoted as saying: “I don't wear a Tank to tell the time. In fact, I never wind it. I wear a Tank because it's the watch to wear.” Maybe Gerard suggested the style to him.
Gerard's sense of quiet sophistication is also reflected in his ties. This spotted one reminds me of something Gore Vidal once wore while hanging out with JFK. Very demure, very tasteful.
It's hard to talk about how to choose tasteful ties without spinning out an entire thread. But it's a generally good idea to stay away from overly shiny materials or busy designs. Jacquards, where a pattern has been woven into the silk, can also be dangerous. These are ugly:
Most men today don't wear ties; they often look for ways to dress down tailoring. When doing so, I encourage you to never wear dress shirts with black buttons or contrast linings, as these look cheap and tacky. Go for something more classic, like Gerard's skipper collar polo.
Additionally, when wearing knitwear, consider getting something that's a bit more textured. Texture is an easy way to add visual interest to an outfit, which is helpful when you can't layer with a coat or jacket.
They can also be warmer and more rugged. Here's Gerard wearing a heavy woolen Shaker knit with a collared shirt and cotton pants while feeding his son at a park. A good dad outfit.
Ultimately, you will look great if you choose clothes that fit and flatter, develop an eye for details, and add dimensions such as tasteful textures and patterns when possible.
It also helps to keep clothes clean.
To end, here are some of my favorite photos of Jean-Michel Basquiat. These were taken by Yutaka Sakano in 1983 when the artist was visiting Tokyo. As such, he's also wearing vintage items from Japanese designer Issey Miyake. Note the concept of "shape and drape" here.
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Tomorrow is Geeks & Nerds for Harris, a free livestream hosted by @RealLyndaCarter bringing fandoms together in support of Kamala Harris. I don't know if anyone is planning to show up in a costume, but if they do, I want you to think about the work that goes into costuming. 🧵
If a costume dept has done its job well, you shouldn't think about the costumes at all. The clothes should just pull you into the show. Such is the case of The Boys, where the clothes were made by a network of tailors and designers operating under the name LA Specialty Costumes.
To understand what makes this type of work special, you have to understand how clothes are made. Generally speaking, there are two types: ready-to-wear and bespoke.
In ready-to-wear (RTW), a designer comes up with an idea and works with a factory to make a series of samples
Let's talk about how the political positions I support—such as greater freedom for all, multiculturalism, and respect for different ways of living—have, in fact, improved fashion. 🧵
There's a certain kind of mindset, which we'll call "declinism," that asserts things are always getting worse. Remarkably, declinists always point to some period in history they believe was the ideal, but was, in fact, a period of decline for some other declinist.
History is full of declinists: Henry Adams, Oswald Spengler, and Arnold Toynbee among them. In the 19th century, Arthur de Gobineau believed the Aryan race would one day be tragically “contaminated” through its contact with the Latins, the Gauls, and other "lower orders."
Some misinformation in today's US presidential debate about who bears the cost of tariffs. So let's talk about how tariffs affect what you pay for a suit. 🧵
Note, the following model is very stylized since I can't capture all the nuance in a Twitter thread. But the info was given to me by the Senior VP of a major US suit factory, who also happens to serve as the president of a trade organization for clothing designers and executives.
There are three ways to make a suit: fully fused, half canvassed, and fully canvassed (in ascending order of quality). Let's assuming for this model that the suit is designed in the United States and manufactured in China, then imported into the US for sale.
It's true that fashion once served as a form of class differentiation, and as soon as hoi polloi caught on, the elite moved on. German sociologist wrote about this in this 1902 essay On Fashion. An excerpt:
This largely explains why the Duke of Windsor was the most influential male fashion figure of his day. He popularized belts, zippered flies, cuffed trousers, and a style of tailoring known as the drape cut. For a while, when he wore something, others followed.
I don't believe there's a single "correct" way to dress. Just as there many languages, each with their own unique grammatical rules, there are many aesthetics, each governed by their own ideas about fit, proportion, and styling.
So my only strong belief is that you should think of style first and foremost as social language, not purely as artistic expression. Aesthetics are rooted in culture—punk, skate, prep, workwear, etc. Identify a cultural language that resonates with you.
As a technique, it's believed that the four-in-hand originated with 19th century British carriage drivers who used this method to wear colorful scarves. This includes members of the exclusive Four-in-Hand Club, which is where we likely get the name.
But why was the club called Four-in-Hand? It's because the coach would be pulled by four horses, and the reins of those horses would be carried by one of the driver's hands, leaving the other free to operate the brake. We see a reference to this in a May 1965 issue of the NYT: