derek guy Profile picture
Menswear writer. Editor at @putthison. Creator of @RLGoesHard. Bylines at The New York Times, The Financial Times, Politico, Esquire, and Mr. Porter
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Sep 15 16 tweets 8 min read
I disagree that Obama wore "slick suits."

Let me tell you about Obama's tailoring. 🧵 I've seen people here suggest Obama was a stylish president. I couldn't disagree more. Outfits like these read better in 2025, but during the slim-fit, Euro style craze of his presidency, Obama was routinely panned for his "frumpy dad style." See Vanity Fair. Image
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Sep 9 25 tweets 15 min read
Although it's rarely expressed in outright terms, people often use a very simple heuristic when solving fashion problems: they wish to look rich, which is often disguised as "respectable."

I will show you why this rarely leads to good outfits. 🧵 Image In 1902, German sociologist Georg Simmel neatly summed up fashion in an essay titled "On Fashion." Fashion, he asserted was simply a game of imitation in which people copy their "social betters." This causes the upper classes to move on, so as to distinguish themselves. Image
Sep 6 17 tweets 9 min read
It's funny to see people imbue traditional men's tailoring with their own prejudices. They assume every man who wore a suit in the far past must be a staunch conservative like them. The truth is much more complicated. 🧵 This bias, of course, stems out of the 1960s and 70s, from which many of our contemporary politics also spring. I don't need to belabor this point because you already know it. The framing is neatly summed up in this Mad Men scene — the rag tag hippie vs man in a suit.
Sep 6 6 tweets 4 min read
Which of these two jackets do you prefer?

There's no "right" or "wrong" answer here, so feel free to go with your gut. I will then give you my views below. 🧵 Image
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In men's tailoring, the area below the jacket's buttoning point is colloquially known as the "quarters" among menswear enthusiasts. Or the "front edge" by actual tailors. These terms refer to the edge of the coat, connecting to lapels. Image
Aug 30 23 tweets 17 min read
Here are ways to dress up in the summer if you wear menswear. 🧵 We will start with the most formal and work our way down, so that you can adjust things in ways that make sense for you.

The first and most obvious choice is to wear a soft-shouldered suit rendered in a material such as linen or seersucker. Seersucker can even be tonal (pic 4) Image
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Aug 26 19 tweets 11 min read
I will tell you why I think the split-toe derby is the greatest dress shoe of all time. 🧵 Image Let's first start with some terms. The term oxford refers to a footwear style where the facings have been sewn into the vamp. By contrast, the term derby refers to a style where the facings sit on top of the vamp.

On the left, we see an oxford. On the right, we see a derby. Image
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Aug 18 4 tweets 1 min read
I interviewed a clothing factory once who said he's excited to implement robotics AI. He said this will make US manufacturing more competitive against China. I asked, "And what happens when Chinese factories also implement robotics AI?" He said, "Oh, I hadn't thought of that." Chinese factories also have these machines. All you've done is deskill the worker, making it harder for their wages to grow. Your land and labor costs are still higher than China, India, or any other place where they can pay someone to do this simple manual operation.
Aug 17 17 tweets 10 min read
This is a beautiful garment.

Let me show you what makes it special. 🧵 Image This is a bespoke sport coat made from vintage oatmeal-colored tweed and finished with natural Loro Piana horn buttons. It's from a relatively new South Korean tailoring company called Hameen, run by a woman named Hamin Kim. Image
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Aug 13 25 tweets 19 min read
Have you ever noticed that people dressed better in the past? Even in the summer, when it was scorching hot?

Why is this? 🧵 Image
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I want to first dispel some myths.

Contrary to popular belief, people didn't look better because they were slimmer. We see many corpulent men in the past who dressed better than the average man today. It's not true you can look good in anything if you have an athletic body. Image
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Aug 5 10 tweets 6 min read
I disagree. I will tell you what's wrong with his jeans. 🧵 Let's start with an experiment. Here are two men wearing tailored jackets with jeans.

Which do you think looks better? Image
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Aug 3 5 tweets 4 min read
On April 30th, Josh Smith of Montana Knife Company said you won't have to worry about tariffs if you buy American.

Last week, he realized his costs are going up bc he imports equipment and steel. And so do his suppliers.

IMO many people aren't aware of how much they import.
Genuinely not posting this to gloat, but hoping that people reevaluate how much of their life is connected to an international supply chain. Many small businesses, including artisans, will see their businesses shutter because of these tariffs, regardless of how they voted
Aug 2 23 tweets 14 min read
I've had enough.

In this thread, I will tell you, definitively, whether Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.

This way, you will be more informed when shopping for your wardrobe . 🧵 Image I should state two things at the outset.

First, I never comment on womenswear because I don't know anything about it. This thread isn't actually about Sweeney's jeans (sorry, I lied). But in the last few days, I've seen grown men buying American Eagle jeans and I can't abide. Image
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Jul 31 4 tweets 3 min read
Sometimes I think about the closure of G. Lorenzi, a Milanese gentleman's shop that had been around for almost 100 years until their closure in 2014. The shop was special because it carried so many one-of-a-kind items from artisans — total handmade craft production, not factory. Image
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At the time of their closure, they still carried over 20,000 items of 3,000 models, including speciality knives, picnic sets, and nutcrackers. They had over 100 styles of nail clippers and 300 different hairbrushes alone. Proprietor Aldo Lorenzi scoured the world for artisans. Image
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Jul 30 20 tweets 14 min read
I spent 15 yrs on a menswear forum. The longest argument I had was over a tiny detail that can be seen in this photo. For 6 months, I argued with the same five guys non-stop every day. The argument got so heated the forum owner banned one guy for life.

Here is the detail. 🧵 As I've mentioned before, there's a lot of coded language in menswear. Navy suits can be worn with black oxfords because this was the uniform of London businessmen. Brown tweeds go with brogues because these clothes were worn in the country. In this way, we get formal vs. casual. Image
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Jul 27 13 tweets 6 min read
How are Trump's economic policies impacting you?

Let me give you a hard example. 🧵 Image The year is 2024 and you're browsing for a new shirt online. You come across a store selling shirts from Portuguese Flannel. You do your research and find they make quality garments: clean single-needle stitching, flat felled seams, quality fabrics, MOP buttons, classic designs Image
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Jul 25 18 tweets 10 min read
You should never follow any of these color charts. They are all stupid.

I'll show you why. 🧵 First, let's do an experiment. Here are two relatively similar outfits: a blue shirt with a pair of dark blue jeans.

Which do you like better? Reply to this tweet with your answer. This way, people can see how the majority of people "voted." Image
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Jul 23 7 tweets 4 min read
I both agree and disagree that it's subjective. Like with anything, my views on tailoring stems from a "first principle." That principle is that men wore tailored clothing better in the past (specifically the period from about the 1930s through 80s). 🧵 If we agree on this, then there are certain ideas that naturally flow from this principle, partly because men's dress during this period was governed by time, place, and occasion. As stated before, one such idea was city vs country clothing. Image
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Jul 19 19 tweets 8 min read
Twitter has a character limit, so I assume (intelligent) people will read context and know I'm talking about interior design and fashion, which today are coded as "gay interests" for men. Not painting or architecture, which carry no such stigma.

I will elaborate 🧵 IMO, it's absolutely true that American Protestants were uniquely against certain forms of ornamentation, including fashion. For instance, the Quakers deliberately shunned adornment and extravagance in dress, stressing the importance of simplicity. Image
Jul 17 19 tweets 11 min read
I believe this jacket is from Dobell, a company that produces their tailoring in Turkey. I'll show you some telltale signs of quality and where you can buy a tailored jacket made in Britain. 🧵 I don't think there's anything wrong with buying clothes made abroad (I believe in free trade). However, I think it's strange when people rail against "globalism" and free trade, while benefitting from these things. Talk is cheap; one should put their money where their mouth is. Image
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Jul 15 15 tweets 9 min read
I disagree that this is an aesthetically pleasing photo. Tristan's outfit ruins it and I'll tell you why. 🧵 Image I'll assume Tristan is telling the truth when he says he used Photoshop and not AI. If so, this is a very impressive Photoshop job. By removing the scaffold tarp, you reveal more of the building. By removing the other cars, you also achieve more aesthetic coherence. Image
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Jul 14 16 tweets 9 min read
Some people are incredulous that you can wear certain shoes without socks, such as leather loafers. Much depends on your body and climate. But I'll tell you one reason why you find this difficult to believe: you buy low quality footwear. 🧵 Image It's absolutely possible to wear certain shoes without socks. As mentioned in an earlier thread, men have been doing this for over a hundred years. Going sockless makes sense if the outfit is semi-casual (not business clothes). Image
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