TIMELESS, ELEGANT MEN'S STYLE FOR THE TASTEFUL SUCCESS OF THE THINKING MAN'S CLASSIC MAN


Those "guide to men's style" books have long been a pet peeve of mine: the timid, drab middle-class textures passed off as tasteful, the exploitation of people's insecurity and social anxiety, and the weaponized "dress for success" phallic sparring mentality just oozes from them. It's all just too passive-aggressive, smug, dull, fussy, banal and depressing to take for more than one paragraph. I love seeing the mindset parodied, of course (as seen in the hilarious clip above), but when taken in earnest, it's fairly odious stuff.

The books in question often seem to come in two main flavors: fratty prick or bitchy fashionista. They tout "style", but more often than not they really mean "fashion"--just like when some people talk about "manners," they really mean "etiquette". I'll take style and manners over fashion and etiquette, thanks. Etiquette is dead manners, and fashion is unearned style.

And what the hell does "classic" or "timeless" style even mean in a world that's constantly in flux? What was "timeless" in 1940? 1840? 1740? From what I can tell, "timeless" is just a cover for timidity and dewy-eyed nostalgia. There's no play, no leap into the unknown, just a plodding herd. It allows the clods to seem smarter than they really are, because it relieves them of the task of having to draw their own lines; instead, they hide behind cries of "time-honored tradition" and color within someone else's faded draft. Nuts to that--you don't need permission from your 'betters' to respond to the times in which you live, because you are already an authority. In the words of nineteenth-century architect Owen Jones: "The principles discoverable in the works of the past belong to us; not so the results. It is taking the end for the means." Be timely, not timeless! Refined vulgarity, not vulgar refinement!

Into the fireplace with them all. If we are to make sartorial mistakes, better that they're our own rather than someone else's.