In entirely too brief a summary, Anton suggests that men's fashion (at least for the DC/NYC types such as himself) is a continuum with two poles: the ultra-conservative pole of strict propriety, and the fop. At the one pole is the charcoal grey suit with a white Oxford shirt and a tie that is red, blue, or a mixture of neutral colors that includes charcoal; it should be knotted according to your neck, with those who have long and thin necks wearing Full Windsor knots and those with short thick necks wearing four-in-hands. The foppish pole includes potentially very wild variations, up to and including purple suits and ostrich feathers.
The goal, according to Anton's theory, is to get as close to the foppish pole as you can without looking ridiculous. By remaining rooted in a continuum that traces to the conservative, you can add variations until you get as far away as possible without looking like you are wearing a pimp costume from a 70s exploitation film. In this way you will have an attire that is striking, bold, and develops an internal confidence. If you go too far, you will be a laughingstock. Yet by going as far as possible, you will develop a personal style that is unique and demonstrative.
Now on this base model, different people can go more-or-less far on the scale. A big muscular man can probably wear a purple suit if he wants without anyone laughing at him. One sufficiently physically terrifying can wear broad stripes and carry a skull-tipped walking stick. A weaker man may wish to add only one or two flamboyant touches, but even he should not adhere to the perfectly conservative.
What occurs to me is that this model can be usefully varied by varying the poles. For example, you can hold the one pole steady at conservatism, and replace the fop with the cowboy. Years ago now -- 2004 -- I attended a fundraiser at the Cosmos Club in DC in such an outfit: a charcoal grey suit, but a gambler's vest, cowboy boots, and a bolo tie.
I had never heard of the Cosmos Club. The email invitation I got mentioned the address of the place, and the name, but nothing more about it. Emailed invitations are particularly informal; this one came from a US Marine, for a time after business hours; and it was at a place called a "club." So, naturally I assumed it was a bar of some sort.It happened that I had another engagement in town that required semiformal dress, so I figured I'd take a bit of ribbing. Still, I had no way to change, so I planned to go in my suit. It's charcoal grey, in a traditional cut. I wore it with my black Ariat boots, my black Stetson hat, and a bolo tie.The Cosmos Club turns out not to be a bar at all. It turns out to be...the place where the National Geographic Society was founded in the 19th century. It is contained in a mansion with Second Empire architecture. The interior is as rich as the exterior, and includes numerous treasures of great value, brought back from the corners of the earth and donated by the members.Well, I'm a gambler from way back, so I simply put on my best poker face and walked right in. The doorman bowed as I entered, and I went upstairs to the gathering.After a few minutes, a gentleman came up to me and shook my hand. He introduced himself as LtCol Couvillon, United States Marines, and former military governor of Wasit province."I had to shake the hand of any man," he said, "who could get in here wearing cowboy boots and a bolo tie."
It worked really well, in other words. You could look ridiculous if you overdo the cowboy thing: if I'd shown up in Wrangler jeans tucked into fancy-stitched cowboy boots, with a pearl-snap shirt and a big sombrero, I probably wouldn't have gotten in. But by blending the styles and pushing the alternate pole as far as you can get away with without looking like you're wearing a costume, you have a striking style that carries you.
You can also swap both poles out for other ones. I was thinking about this over the weekend because of the rather piratical style I adopted for the barbecue, which was coupled (excepting the VFD-issued t-shirt) with my more usual biker boots and jeans. You can look ridiculous if you look like you're wearing a biker costume or a pirate costume. John Travolta did the one in Wild Hogs (2007):
If everything you are wearing was bought at a motorcycle shop, you will probably look like a poser wearing a costume. Yet if you swap out the black pants for jeans, the 'biker' wrap for a silk scarf, and so forth, suddenly your aren't wearing a biker costume or a pirate costume. You have a style of your own.
This is similar to Aristotle's approach in his Nicomachean Ethics to finding virtue as the right mean between two extremes. It's not the perfect middle; it will differ for different persons in different situations. Some should go more one way, some more the other. Yet by finding the balance point between two different poles, the one that is right and appropriate for yourself, you come to the best place in matters of fashion as in matters of ethics.
Nor should this be surprising; as I have always said in this space, aesthetics is a division of ethics. The confluence should be expected.
14 comments:
Heh. In DC? I’d still be in prison.
I figure that once we're done with its utilitarian aspects, clothing, or lack of it, is for communicating something. What do I want to communicate?
Interesting!
I usually have to wear "business casual," so sports coats sans tie and such. I would like to find a book on men's business casual => formal attire for the armed man.
@James: Yes, and yet at the same time also... Cowboy clothes are actually very utilitarian in spite of their flamboyance. The broad brimmed hat keeps the sun off your head; the high-heeled boots catch the stirrup so your foot doesn't hang up in it; the pointy toes slip easily in and out, which can spare you a broken leg or being dragged if you are thrown; the high stitched sides keep the leather stiff and upright, and protect you from thorns while you are riding. Heavy denim jeans like the Wrangler 13MWX ("Cowboy Cut") are rugged and long-lasting in the saddle. The silk scarf can be used against dust on the trail, or as additional protection from the sun, the rain, the cold.
But by the time you've assembled all this utilitarian protection, you're already conveying something about who you are and what you do.
I used to wear Stetson hats everywhere, including around Iraq, because they were utilitarian garments that were excellent for the desert. But wearing a cowboy hat in Iraq definitely sent a message, as it did in DC.
These days I don't generally wear them because they won't fit in a motorcycle saddle bag, and you can't keep them on your head on the bike. So I took the same silk rags that I was using and now just tie them around my head when the sun threatens to burn my pate. It has a piratical flair, but it's utilitarian in nature: I'm trying to avoid a sunburn more than anything else, and this is the garment that suits the lifestyle.
Yet it still sends a message. Nothing is more utilitarian than a knife, but the habit of wearing a knife says something: which kind and how says more.
@Tom: Try Anton's. He can definitely help you be more dapper.
Concealing a firearm does cause issues with getting a well-tailored suit. Shoulder holsters still work reasonably well, but they're irritating if the firearm is any kind of heavy, and they are the least efficient for drawing effectively. The key problem is that having to reach across your body is both slow and, if the aggressor is on top of you, can be easily blocked. However, I found that wearing the pistol butt-forward allowed you to draw it from the shoulder rig on the same side of your body: right hand can draw a butt-forward gun that's on your right side.
These days there are lots of attractive vests and jackets and cases of all types that are purpose designed for concealed carry. The granddaddy of them all such makers is Coronado Leather. Their products are a little pricey, but if you want something that will really look good and well-made, so that you might build it into a business/formal outfit, they're worth the money.
https://coronadoleather.com/
If you want a holster, well, there are so many manufacturers of those these days you're spoiled for choice.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Ironically, sometimes cheaper is better- a crushable wide brim wool hat is useful for motorcycle travel.
Yeah, that's true. I often wear a crushable army bush hat -- I have several of those from the old days -- when I want to bring brimmed sun protection along.
C. S. Lewis notes somewhere that Aristotle himself was reputed to be a "very dressy man."
I used to wear Stetson hats everywhere....
I started wearing broad-brimmed hats while walking between my apartment and the psych lab in Des Moines. The walk was along streets lined with mature, broad-canopied trees in which birds sat, dropping their business below. The broad brim protected me more from that than from the sun. I wore low-crowns to better resist the wind.
I wear low-crowned, broad-brimmed hats that are black because, yes, I'm messaging.
Other than that, it's jeans and t-shirts, many of which have image messages, and many of which just have jokes (vis., "There are 10 kinds of people....").
Eric Hines
I wore a straw stetson the years I punched cattle on my grandparents ranch. These days it just feels fake to wear one, like all the other wannabe cowboys in Houston. lol, that and the Corps turned me off wearing a cover in civilian attire. Which is a shame, because when hats were expected of a man... it seemed a more civilized time.
If you've ever punched cattle or trained horses, you've got a better right to wear one than most people who do.
Admittedly, though, having learned to live with the military standard is discouraging. Cowboys don't necessarily take their hats off the second they cross into the indoors, and Stetsons can't be stuffed into your cargo pocket. You end up carrying the thing around and being one-handed a lot of the time. (Of course, if you're armed....)
"I usually have to wear "business casual," so sports coats sans tie and such."
Tom, I've got a tip for you for that style of dress- under the open collared dress shirt, wear a brightly colored undershirt, and if you really want to have a little fun, wear matching socks. It gives you some of the highlight a tie does without the trouble, and is kind of a semi-hidden surprise element.
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