"Trendy"

This is not a Provo-related post, per se, but nonetheless something that has recently interested me. I've been thinking about the word "trendy." For me, this word has a wholly negative connotation. When I think of things that are trendy, I think of things that are passe, out of style, and boring. When I think of people being trendy, I think of shallowness, caprice, and a lack of creativity. Basically, trendy signifies (to me) being on the tail end of a trend at best, and getting caught up in a vapid, flavor of the week at worst.

But I get the sense that not everyone shares my impression of this word, which genuinely surprised me when I realized it. I began to realize this when I was covering a brutal rape case for the newspaper. After raping a woman, a guy held up a children's clothing store called "Trendy Tots" (or something like that). Though it was beyond the scope of what I wrote about the case, I was always perplexed by that store name; why did they basically call their store "Out of Date Clothes"?

But Laura was just telling me that for her mom, trendy doesn't have a negative connotation (or, at least, didn't). So what is going on? Is this just a generational thing? A regional thing? Are you reading this, thinking I've completely gotten it wrong?

(After reading through what I just wrote, I realize that my underlying assumption is that once something is "trendy" I wouldn't want to wear/use/subscribe/etc. to it. Or, trendy means something is over. Is that a common impression?)

Men’s Fashion Tip For December

For this month’s fashion tip I’m going to begin what may be an ongoing series on choosing a suit. There are a lot of factors that go into choosing a suit but, judging by the suits I see on men around town, not many people pay attention to them. Obviously that can have negative repercussions; a sharp looking suit will connote success and confidence, but a bad suit can be a significant handicap.

For this first suit-oriented tip I’m going to focus on venting. When buying a suit it’s important to look at the jacket and determine how many slits it has in the back along the bottom. These slits are called vents and there are basically three main types of venting: no vents, single vents, and double vents. (This is also true of most sport coats and other jackets as well).

The most flattering of these styles is double-venting. A double-vented jacket will have two slits, just behind each hip. This style looks more European and typically has the greatest slimming effect on the body. It makes the wearer look more athletic and its lines suggest the ideal masculine shape. This kind of suit also suggests a classier look; because it requires more effort to make (more cutting, sewing, etc.) it looks more expensive (and sometimes, but not always, costs more too). All of these factors combine to give double-vented suits a sleek, flattering, modern aesthetic.

Though I prefer double vents, I more commonly see single-vented suits. These suits will have a single slit in the center of the back and the style is characteristic of looser, more billowy American suits (as opposed to European styles). When I recently asked (the incredibly talented tailor) Lady Danburry why this kind of suit is so common she speculated that it is because they are easier, cheaper, and faster to make, especially by machines. Not surprisingly for suits that have emerged under those conditions, these suits are less flattering. Of course, the single vent can be used to make the suit slimmer and more tailored, but depending on body shape it usually won’t compete double vents. (This style is particularly unflattering when paired with the great fashion travesty of the century: pleated pants).

Finally, suits with no vents are often the least tailored. They’re basically cylinders cut out of fabric and are less flattering. In fairness, some would say they look more formal than single-vented suits (more like tuxedos, for example). They can evoke a particular kind of retro vibe as well; Cary Grant wears one in North by Northwest for example. Still, double and single-vented suits can look equally retro and formal under the right circumstances and have the advantage of actually being attractive too.

Ultimately, then, a double-vented suit is going to be the most stylish choice. Though people in professional and social settings probably won’t consciously note how many vents your suit has, they will be impressed by a man that looks especially sharp and well kept. It should also go without saying that a better looking suit leads to greater confidence, which is in turn a key ingredient for success. So the next time you go decide to revamp your wardrobe remember: venting matters and there is no fashion neutrality.

November Fashion Follow-Up

Re-reading my November fashion tip I was struck by the fact that it seemed to suggest that the only good coats for winter were wool pea coats. While that type of coat (as well as coats based on it) are certainly cool and functional, there are also many other kinds of coats that can be worn effectively and stylishly.

 

One type of fabric that I personally have come to appreciate is canvas. For example I have a green, lightweight canvas jacket that I got from H&M. It’s not jean material, but it’s 100% cotton and has kind of a quasi-military look (except with a flattering, double vented-cut). Though I purchased this coat on a study abroad in England two and a half years ago, all the H&Ms I’ve been to have had equally stylish, if different, cotton jackets.

 

Cotton, of course, is not as warm as wool and it doesn’t wick water away like wool does. However, a cotton coat can be cheaper than a wool coat and if you’re just using it for short periods outside it shouldn’t be a big deal. My H&M jacket is definitely more autumn attire, but I still wear it during the winter, just with more layers.

 

The point here is that in addition to wool coats there are number of other things that work. Ideally, everyone would own numerous pieces for every possible occasion. Since that isn’t the case it’s a good idea to get a few coats and jackets that have some flexibility. My H&M jacket, for example, is decidedly less formal looking than my black coat. I can still wear it to work, but I can also wear it out to see concerts or just to hang out with friends. If I need something more professional or formal I’ll go with my coat.

 

Ultimately fabric choice is extremely important when choosing a winter coat. Find a vendor that has some variety and assess how you’ll be using the coat. In keeping with November’s fashion tip, I’d say that a pea coat is a good first choice because of it’s versatility, functionality, and style. However, if you’re branching out from there consider something that addresses a completely different need. 

Halloween: The Worst Holiday of the Year

Halloween was last week and while that probably made candy hungry children happy, the fact is that Halloween is actually the lamest holiday of the year.

 

The biggest reason that Halloween ranks near the bottom of my holiday list (in a distant last place after April fool’s day) is because of the dressing up. Now, many of my Facebook friends have recently posted status updates criticizing people’s tendency to use Halloween to look like sluts. Specifically, these friends have pointed out how many women use the holiday to look like sexy nurses, sexy witches, sexy maids, or other variations of sexiness. To this I would also add guys who choose virtually nothing on Halloween (albeit not always in a “sexy” way).

I concede that sexy/scanty costumes can unfortunately objectify the wearer, but I would also say that I’m not terribly bothered by them. If you want to look like a slut and objectify yourself, that’s your choice. What I do think is silly is the need for a holiday to do so. Why not just dress like that all the time? Or why not do so in conjunction with other holidays wear dressing up isn’t an end in itself. (What better to celebrate the fourth of July than with sexy nurses and guys in loincloths?)

 

Slightly more seriously, the persistence of dressing up seems to suggest that many people have latent or repressed desires that they express on Halloween. The prominence of sexual costumes indicates that many of those repressed desires are sexual, though other Halloween staples like zombies or robots equally represent social insecurities simmering beneath the surface of people’s psyche. It’s possible to look at Halloween in this context through the lens of Stephen Greenblatt’s theory of subversion and containment; people subvert social norms through their Halloween behavior, but such momentary subversion allows them to continue participating in those norms the rest of the time (a rough, inadequate summary of the theory, I admit). Still, it seems like it might be better to try to reconcile desire with belief. For example, instead of condemning sex or allowing technology to pervade our lives (while simultaneously expression trepidation about those issues through costume), we could figure out a lifestyle that would balance our values with our desires.

 

There are other reasons that Halloween doesn’t make sense as well. Take for instance, its complete detachment from its harvest origins. Since few people participate in harvests, or have any connection to agriculture, it makes little sense to celebrate a harvest holiday. In light of the kinds of costumes that people tend to wear, we could at least move it to a warmer month. (August is hot and doesn’t have an abundance of holidays.) In reality, however, the point is that the meaninglessness of Halloween actually detracts from the pleasure it brings. In Guy Debord’s book The Society of the Spectacle he includes a chapter called “Spectacular Time” in which he introduces a concept called pseudo-cyclical time. Basically he makes the point that society has moved to an industrialize, arbitrary, and falsely seasonal concept of time. Though he doesn’t get into Halloween, the celebration of such a holiday clearly contributes to the thesis that society may merely be a parody, and consequently less fulfilling, than it once was.

 

The reasons that Halloween is both outdated and inadequate could go on and on.  Hopefully, however, the notion of “holidays” like Halloween—where we get to take a break from our labor, standard behavior, and the values predicated on these things—will eventually become unnecessary.  

Men’s Fashion Tip For October

With its cool temperatures, brisk breezes, and cloudy skies, October is the perfect month for…accessories! If you’re a typical guy, the word “accessories” might conjure images of handbags, jewelry, or any number of items more commonly used by women. However, while those things are indeed accessories, there are also a number of men’s items that can add charm, sophistication, and class to an outfit. This month, given the cooler temperatures, I’ll focus specifically on hats (and implicitly on scarves as well). 

 

The primary use of hats and scarves, at least in cold weather, is probably to retain heat, so the first trick to choosing an accessory is to make sure it actually does what it’s supposed to.  That may seem obvious, but for the hat or scarf to fit the outfit it also has to look like it provides warmth.  For example, I recently saw a guy wearing a Panama hat on a cold and cloudy day. Because Panamas are typically worn in warm weather near coasts, they guy actually looked colder and more out of place than he would have with a bare head. The same could be said about many kinds of loose, thin scarves that are currently out there; they might look cool but before adding one to an ensemble make sure it looks autumnal or winter-esque too. This is a pretty basic rule, but we have to start somewhere. 

 

The next two rules for choosing a hat or a scarf go hand in hand: make sure your selection exhibits cohesion with the rest of the outfit, and make sure to bring a sense of history to your choice.  First, cohesion means ensuring that the accessory you’ve chosen blends well with the colors, cuts, and (most importantly) formality of the rest of the outfit. If matching colors and cuts should be fairly obvious, formality may not be. With the exception of the baseball cap, hats tend to dress an outfit up. That can be great, but keep in mind that wearing a beret or a flat cap with grubby wear can look incongruous. Though it’s not necessary to wear a suit and tie with most hats, it is worth trying to spread formal and informal pieces throughout the outfit so you don’t look like a casual dude with a bit of gentleman perched atop your head. 

 

Similarly, bringing a sense of history to your hat and scarf selections is essential.  Before choosing what kind of accessory you’re going to wear (or buy), ask yourself when that item was commonly worn. Most likely the item’s heyday was not today, due to the waning use of accessories and the increasingly casual nature of men’s fashion in the western world. However, depending on which time period you’re drawing from you can sometimes get away with a slightly anachronistic piece. 

 

For example, for a long time I felt that fedoras were a serious fashion faux pas. Though some famous people manage to look decent in a fedora from time to time, I usually saw them on Indian Jones fans’ head.  Fatally, these fans often pared their hats with t-shirts, or (worse) sneakers.  The problem with this combination isn’t simply that it illogically mixes layers of formality, but also that during the fedora’s golden age t-shirts were thought of as undergarments. Consequently, a fedora would never have been paired with a t-shirt, historically speaking, and if most people haven’t watched enough film noir to consciously know that, they will recognize a person who has no sense of history when it comes to choosing an accessory. 

 

Recently, however, I have seen a few (admittedly older) men wearing fedoras with more somber suits, and I was surprised at how sharp these men looked. I’m not sure that a young person could pull the same thing off (again, unless you’re a celeb on the red carpet), but the incident drove home the point that with the right outfit you can get away with a lot. 

 

Still, history is important and many kinds of hats only work as costumes. For example, unless you’re a magician, a flamboyant celebrity, or the star of your local production of A Christmas Carol, you probably shouldn’t be wearing a top hat. Assuming the wearer makes a careful selection, an unofficial rule of thumb I like to follow is this: the hat style you’re thinking of needs to have been common (a.k.a. not a costume) during the lifetime of someone who is alive right now. That gives you at least 70 or 80 years into the past to draw on, and potentially even more.

 

Picking an accessory is tricky, not least because wearing this type of clothing is increasingly becoming an anomaly.  However, asking yourself about an item’s functionality, formality, and historical origins should at least provide a basis to work from as you go out into the cold winter.  And remember, there is no fashion neutrality.   

(Belated) Men’s Fashion Tip For August

I’ve been washing my own clothes since I was nine years old.  I started doing it because I felt that my mom wasn’t washing them well enough.  Sometimes they’d shrink.  Other times they’d fade.  Though I occasionally had those same problems myself, at least I could spend the time to do whatever was most appropriate for the garment.  In turn, my clothes have generally held up well and looked nice for a long time.  (This isn’t to say that I always look nice, but to suggest that the clothes I’ve taken care of don’t wear out quickly.)

 

Which brings us to last month’s belated fashion tip: take care of your clothes, guys.  While that may seem like a simple, or even obvious statement, I’ve found that many guys don’t have a clue about how to take care of what they wear. 

 

The first, and most basic, part of taking care of clothing is knowing how to wash it and washing it yourself.  If someone else is washing you clothes for you (mother, wife, girlfriend, roommate, etc.), you’re already doing something very wrong.  It’s important to wash your own clothes because you (should) know how they fit and (should) have the largest stake in making sure they don’t shrink or fade.  Conversely, if you don’t wash your own clothes don’t be surprised when that cool new shirt you got is suddenly three inches shorter and two inches wider.  So, check the tags and sort the colors yourself.  Again, this may seem basic, but if you don’t want to look like a dork all the time it's the very least you can do.

 

The next part of taking care of your clothes is acquiring an awareness of what kinds of fabrics they’re made out of (again, check the tags).  Most of my clothes are made out of cotton, and if you’re in the same boat you might want to consider taking some extra precautions.  For example, if you have a cotton t-shirt and you ever put it in the dryer, it will almost certainly shrink.  Also, most cotton clothing continues to shrink indefinitely.  It’s true that most of the shrinkage will occur in the first few washings, but that process may never stop.  (How much and how long your clothes continue to shrink depends greatly on the quality.  A three dollar t-shirt will become ridiculously deformed after two or three washings, while a twenty dollar t-shirt will last much longer.) 

 

Similarly, if you have dark jeans (which are perfect for the cooler weather!), they will continue to lose color as long as you have them.  This frustrates me to no end, but if you want proof just go to the nearest thrift store; most of the shirts will be short and wide (i.e. very shrunken), and most of the jeans will be very light (i.e. faded). 

 

For cotton there are a few things you can do.  First, always wash anything cotton in cold water.  Second, hang dry your clothes.  (Hang drying is also cheaper and environmentally friendly.)  Third, if you have a colored garment, wash it inside out.  Taking precautions like these won’t keep your cloths in mint condition, but it will extend the life by months or years. 

 

The other big thing you can do to preserve you clothes, no matter what they’re made of, is hand wash them.  I was lucky enough to learn all about hand washing while in Brazil, but my sense is the few people have hand washed something before.  To hand wash something you can either go out and find all the proper materials (washboard, ringer, etc.), or you can just find a clean bucket.  The easiest way to do it is to fill the bucket up with cold water and a little soap (don’t use too much), and let the clothes soak for a while (I let them soak overnight when I have time, or for an hour or so if I don’t).  Then gently plunge the clothing up and down in the soapy water, making sure the they’re moving against each other and that water is moving through them.  When you’ve done that for a few minutes, empty the bucket out and fill it up with clean water, non-soapy water and repeat to rinse.  Finally, hang them to dry. 

 

Some people might express doubt that that this process gets clothes clean because its not mechanized, but in fact you can actually get things much cleaner by hand washing.  In fact, I often hand wash my favorite clothing both to preserve it and to keep it fresh. 

 

Ultimately, the point is that to look presentable you have to be conscientious of you clothes even when you’re not wearing them.  A hands-off approach to clothing care will leave you looking like a fool.  (When it comes to fashion I’m reminded of the old quote “I didn’t say it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.”  So true.)  And remember, there is no fashion neutrality. 

Men’s Fashion Tip for June

First, I realize that many, many men do not like to think about fashion.  I don’t know how many times I’ve heard them say “I just wear what is comfortable,” or “I don’t want to expend the energy thinking about my clothing.”  These statements seem to stem from the mistaken belief that something like “fashion neutrality” exists.  Well, men, it doesn’t.  Everything we wear is a statement.  You may not be thinking about that statement, or you may not want to, or you may not be capable of thinking about it.  I don’t know.  But if you refuse to put forth the effort to think about what you’re wearing (something that really takes almost no effort), you’re probably broadcasting to the world that you refuse to do other, more important things.  And while no one wants to look terrible all the time, mistakenly aiming for “fashion neutrality” is the surest way to achieve a disastrous image that will be prejudicial in just about any setting.  Also, remember that comfort is relative; it has to do more with being accustomed to an article of clothing than any objective cut or style.  (If you don’t believe me, switch styles for a month.  For the sake of experimentation, try wearing skinny jeans or something else radically different.  When the month is up I bet you’ll be more comfortable in the new style than the old one.) 

 

So, think about what you wear.  One way to start doing that, now that it’s late spring, is to not dress like an old man in 1995.  One of the most common articles of clothing I see on men at this time of year is the pleated pant.  Worse, I often see pleated khaki pants.  If you wear this type of pant, please STOP NOW.  It is hideous, and no matter how good you think you look, you’re wrong.  I understand that the dotcom boom of the late 90s made casual wear acceptable all over the place.  What I don’t understand is why that casual wear had to make everyone look fat and ugly.

 

Luckily, that was ten years ago.  Today it’s permissible to wear light, spring colors in relaxed cuts, without looking like you’ve got two hot air balloons around your legs.  So avoid pleats, as a pleat-less pant is slimming, professional, and athletic looking.  Also, be creative with colors.  Khaki is ugly.  It was designed, if my memory serves, for the British Army to wear in 19^th century India.  So if you’re in the British Military and stationed in India, go for it.  Otherwise, try something else.  I recently got a modern looking pair of brown pants that has a light pinstripe.  Those stripes make a huge difference.

 

Just remember, for a little bit of money at infrequent intervals you can look a lot better.  This translates into success in every field of life.  And remember, your clothes really are a statement.  There is no fashion neutrality.