Fashion For Men

This week I am going to start adding information that I’ve learned about fashion for men. There are some great sites and magazines out there that cater to men’s style, but they sometimes provide conflicting advice and confusing styles. My goal is to get you to start from the bottom up and figure out what your style is and work it from there.

I must add the caveat that I am no fashion expert and never went to school for fashion or art. I just love doing my thing and I’ve listened to the right folks and will always have my ear to the tracks to see what’s next. That being said…

WORKING IT IN NASHVILLE
Nashville is an entertainment city, so if you want to stand out, it will be harder than Kansas City or Seattle. A lot of folks repeat the same look over and over in our city, but it is generally fashion forward unless you look toward New York or LA. I give a lot of the credit to the Buckle who has popularized an easy to do, yet good look. Am I tired of Affliction and Ed Hardy shirts? Yes! Are they better than the fleece/North Face, oversized t-shirt, LL Bean denim? Hands down, it is better. At least Affliction was cutting edge at one point and is still a good look if done right.

What I am trying to say is Nashville has a lot of good role models for men who want to dress well. But if you copy someone off the street, how do you know you are copying a good or a bad role model?

ROLE MODELS
More than likely, whoever you want to dress like will have copied their style from someone else. I will even go as far as to say that if a person is very cutting edge in Nashville, no one will understand and you will not want to copy them. If you are copying runway fashion from this year, you may be cutting edge, but you will get a lot of looks that represent misunderstanding. People will look and maybe laugh because they don’t understand and for street/real world fashion, this is, in my opinion, not good. Just look at what happened to Bjork and her swan dress… She was crucified. If that was a runway show, no one would have blinked an eye. So, realize, every style has a time and place.

PICK WISELY
So, how do you pick a role model? I suggest you write down some important parts of your identity. Make a list of your career, hobbies, goals, and dreams. Is it sexy like a rock star or do you have more of a corporate identity, trying to climb the ladder? When you figure what identity you have, look around for guys who fit into that mold. Which ones are standing tall, confident, and command an almost superpower of attracting people toward him? When he is at a bar or club, lots of people are around him. At work, people are always asking him for advice and chatting with him. He may have an ability to get out of trouble or management tends to overlook his mistakes more than the average worker. None of this is hard and fast criteria, but it may be helpful. But honestly, how often do you see Donald Trump in pleated kakis? Never. Bill Gates on the other hand, might not be the best role model for high fashion. Trump cares, however, Gates doesn’t care much about fashion. So, pick wisely.

Example 1: This is a look you will see me copying, for Ewan McGregor is about my age and he tends to dress more like a professional with sharp lines and a little bit of flash. The scarf, with the stripes on the jacket make this look work.

Example 2: The drummer from the band Interpol is another one of my role models for fashion. This look comes off as almost gangster and you know he would stand out in any environment. After I started wearing a fedora, people always recognize me and think they know me from somewhere. These things tell you that you are doing something right.

TO DO
I will get into more specifics with future blogs, but for now I will leave it at this. Figure out your identity and find some great role models that are congruent with that identity and start copying. Just make sure you pick the right people to model your look after.

Look in GQ, on the web, and other sources for pictures of actors and entertainment people who fit your identity. Then copy their look and if you feel good, tweak it. I’ll also get into how you can do this on the cheap in the near future.