Hi, Kevin, another thoughtful and insightful entry. “Dressing for context” brings some reality to the whole “menswear” enthusiasm. I think we’d all love to wear Aldens, 3/2 roll blazers and ties every day, but like you, I don’t live in Instagram and am just a lowly operations manager at a university. It can be difficult to wear what we’d truly like, when the rest of the office is in sneakers and anyone who is seen to be putting any effort into their wardrobe is suspect. I typically stick to chinos, an OCBD and blazer most days. No tie, no flashy shoes; a watered down version of what I’d really like to wear.
It’s a sad state of affairs when you feel like you have to dumb down your wardrobe to fit in, but in our society, unfortunately, it’s not just wardrobes that have to be dumbed down. Popular music, literature, film, etc. are all manufactured to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I realize I sound like a snob, but believe it or not, I don’t think I’m better than anyone else. It’s just that most days, I’m glad I’m me.
Agreed, comfort is definitely taking a front seat when it comes to style. It's a weird situation we find ourselves in, where the smaller efforts (like dressing well) are looked at so questioningly. Hopefully there is a change in a positive direction here, but I fear that we will get so casual as a society that even wearing a collared shirt will be seen in an aggressively negative sense. I guess only time will tell!
So I'm over a year late on this (just found your 'stack thanks to a friend's recommendation--absolutely love it).
Up until recently, I was a teacher. One of the things I was excited about in teaching was the chance to dress a bit more formally on a daily basis (I was teaching at a prep school that at the time required faculty to wear either a tie or a sport coat every day except Fridays). I usually stuck with a sport coat and no tie, or else wore a tie and a sweater.
It was exciting at first but quickly became tiring and when the principal altered the dress code to be more casual, I found myself slipping into more casual wear (basically just dropped the tie/blazer except on Mass days). Partially this was social pressure. Most of my coworkers hated the stricter dress code and preferred to be maximally comfortable. I felt weird being relatively pro-strict dress code and I think I internalized a bit of that. Also, I live in Houston and it is dreadfully hot most of the year!
But then I started exercising and watching my diet and lost about 20 or so pounds. All of a sudden my desire to wear nicer clothes came roaring back and hasn't really gone away sense. This, I think, speaks anecdotally to your observation about BMI affecting how much we want to wear nicer clothes.
Now I'm in marketing and have more flexibility in my wardrobe. I've been experimenting with cowboy boots or penny loafers + straight cut jeans + thrifted baggy Ralph Lauren button-downs as a means of dressing a bit more nicely but contextually still fairly casual.
I too would like to live in a social context that demands me to dress a bit better. It's startling how hard it is to motivate yourself to do so when everyone around you is wearing Mizzen + Main performance dress clothes or whatever.
Despite my online presence being as a menswear blogger, my desire to dress well ebbs and flows too. I recently got back into rowing after many years away from the sport and lost the small pandemic belly that I'd been harboring as a result. I find that everything seems to just hang off of my frame in a more appealing way now, and similar to you, my desire to dress well has increased significantly. It really just feels like that tiny bit of extra effort to throw on a button down pays way more in dividends.
Anecdotally, and I think this is in large part to the current grip that TikTok has on the zeitgeist, I've noticed over the past year that there is a lot more intention in the outfits that I see people wearing. Do I like the styles? No, not particularly, but the fact that people are genuinely going out of their way to try is such a massive improvement over what seems like a decade-plus of it being lame and dorky to put effort into your appearance. We may be on the verge of a paradigm shift WRT how people view/present themselves in a broader social context, and if the general trend of dressing with intent strengthens, we may see a better future for us clothing lovers. Either that, or we end up wearing those gray trashbag suits that people from the future wear in those cheesy sci-fi flicks. Only time will tell!
It’s certainly a challenge. I work in corporate advisory and in the office it goes from suit to tee shirt - there seems to be a full spectrum. But, most is now WFH and I feel ridiculously in anything more than a button down and slacks/jeans.
I recently wore suspenders and an OCBD with a chore coat and pleated pants to a family lunch and nobody commented. That was a reminder that mostly everyone is more preoccupied with how they look than how I look.
That’s a good point, I think in a casual setting you can get away with looking more formal (provided it’s not *too* different from everyone else).
As an aside, chore coats have become one of my favorite ways to dress down an outfit. Really takes the formal edge off of a fit while still keeping everything cohesive
Hi, Kevin, another thoughtful and insightful entry. “Dressing for context” brings some reality to the whole “menswear” enthusiasm. I think we’d all love to wear Aldens, 3/2 roll blazers and ties every day, but like you, I don’t live in Instagram and am just a lowly operations manager at a university. It can be difficult to wear what we’d truly like, when the rest of the office is in sneakers and anyone who is seen to be putting any effort into their wardrobe is suspect. I typically stick to chinos, an OCBD and blazer most days. No tie, no flashy shoes; a watered down version of what I’d really like to wear.
It’s a sad state of affairs when you feel like you have to dumb down your wardrobe to fit in, but in our society, unfortunately, it’s not just wardrobes that have to be dumbed down. Popular music, literature, film, etc. are all manufactured to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I realize I sound like a snob, but believe it or not, I don’t think I’m better than anyone else. It’s just that most days, I’m glad I’m me.
Agreed, comfort is definitely taking a front seat when it comes to style. It's a weird situation we find ourselves in, where the smaller efforts (like dressing well) are looked at so questioningly. Hopefully there is a change in a positive direction here, but I fear that we will get so casual as a society that even wearing a collared shirt will be seen in an aggressively negative sense. I guess only time will tell!
So I'm over a year late on this (just found your 'stack thanks to a friend's recommendation--absolutely love it).
Up until recently, I was a teacher. One of the things I was excited about in teaching was the chance to dress a bit more formally on a daily basis (I was teaching at a prep school that at the time required faculty to wear either a tie or a sport coat every day except Fridays). I usually stuck with a sport coat and no tie, or else wore a tie and a sweater.
It was exciting at first but quickly became tiring and when the principal altered the dress code to be more casual, I found myself slipping into more casual wear (basically just dropped the tie/blazer except on Mass days). Partially this was social pressure. Most of my coworkers hated the stricter dress code and preferred to be maximally comfortable. I felt weird being relatively pro-strict dress code and I think I internalized a bit of that. Also, I live in Houston and it is dreadfully hot most of the year!
But then I started exercising and watching my diet and lost about 20 or so pounds. All of a sudden my desire to wear nicer clothes came roaring back and hasn't really gone away sense. This, I think, speaks anecdotally to your observation about BMI affecting how much we want to wear nicer clothes.
Now I'm in marketing and have more flexibility in my wardrobe. I've been experimenting with cowboy boots or penny loafers + straight cut jeans + thrifted baggy Ralph Lauren button-downs as a means of dressing a bit more nicely but contextually still fairly casual.
I too would like to live in a social context that demands me to dress a bit better. It's startling how hard it is to motivate yourself to do so when everyone around you is wearing Mizzen + Main performance dress clothes or whatever.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply Noah!
Despite my online presence being as a menswear blogger, my desire to dress well ebbs and flows too. I recently got back into rowing after many years away from the sport and lost the small pandemic belly that I'd been harboring as a result. I find that everything seems to just hang off of my frame in a more appealing way now, and similar to you, my desire to dress well has increased significantly. It really just feels like that tiny bit of extra effort to throw on a button down pays way more in dividends.
Anecdotally, and I think this is in large part to the current grip that TikTok has on the zeitgeist, I've noticed over the past year that there is a lot more intention in the outfits that I see people wearing. Do I like the styles? No, not particularly, but the fact that people are genuinely going out of their way to try is such a massive improvement over what seems like a decade-plus of it being lame and dorky to put effort into your appearance. We may be on the verge of a paradigm shift WRT how people view/present themselves in a broader social context, and if the general trend of dressing with intent strengthens, we may see a better future for us clothing lovers. Either that, or we end up wearing those gray trashbag suits that people from the future wear in those cheesy sci-fi flicks. Only time will tell!
It’s certainly a challenge. I work in corporate advisory and in the office it goes from suit to tee shirt - there seems to be a full spectrum. But, most is now WFH and I feel ridiculously in anything more than a button down and slacks/jeans.
I recently wore suspenders and an OCBD with a chore coat and pleated pants to a family lunch and nobody commented. That was a reminder that mostly everyone is more preoccupied with how they look than how I look.
That’s a good point, I think in a casual setting you can get away with looking more formal (provided it’s not *too* different from everyone else).
As an aside, chore coats have become one of my favorite ways to dress down an outfit. Really takes the formal edge off of a fit while still keeping everything cohesive