https://twitter.com/dieworkwear/status/1794467026846814501
IMO, this is a very bad way to build a wardrobe. If you build a wardrobe like this, you will be constantly cycling in and out of clothes. Nothing will ever feel like “you.” And nothing will look like “you” because you won’t wear things for long enough. https://t.co/M9bFdjRatD
Trends certainly matter. John Malone, the head trouser cutter at Anderson & Sheppard, tells me he makes slimmer trousers now than he did in the 1990s. Even Prince Phillip once sent a 51-year-old pair of pants to his tailor, John Kent, to be slimmed up.
But caring about “where the puck is going” will always leave you chasing trends. There are much better and more sustainable ways to build a wardrobe. Here are three tips:
- Dress for your body type
Some clothes work well across a range of body types. The type of tailoring I often talk about here cuts in certain silhouettes and proportions works well if you’re tall, short, thin, heavy, or have an athletic figure. https://t.co/wCEE1WcLc2
Other styles require certain body types. If you want to recreate a look you saw on a runway by Hedi Slimane, you prob need a very lean figure. But that doesn’t mean you can’t wear stuff like leather jackets. You just have to find the right cuts and styles that work for you.
- Learn the cultural language of clothing
I know I’ve said this a million times before, but fashion is rooted in culture. Learning how to dress well is like learning how to write a sentence but using clothes. Find a cultural dress language you identify with. https://t.co/qw7gFMv3i8
Numerous articles have recently been written about whether the Adidas Samba trend is dead. But who tf cares if some influencer or writer declares it dead? These people are meaningless. Sambas are rooted in British football, American hip hop, and streetwear culture.
Influencers and fashion writers don’t make things cool. Culture makes stuff cool. You know this bc whenever something starts bubbling, influencers reference historical culture. As long as you understand the roots of what makes something special, you’ll know how to wear it.
- Figure out what makes you excited
In his 2008 book, Emotional Durable Design, John Chapman noted that “we are consumers of meaning, not matter.” Many people throw things away long before the end of their useful lives because the item bears some immaterial defect. https://t.co/o7IADALU9S
To break out of this endless and pointless cycle, you have to pay attention to what he called “emotional durability.” Find stuff that you will love using and wearing not just on day one but in ten years. This requires some experimentation and self-reflection.
I can’t list all the ways in which you can do this in a tweet, but here’s an article I wrote a few years ago on how to build a more “emotionally durable” wardrobe. The short of it: pay attention to your emotional relationship with clothes
In his 1960 book The Waste Makers, Vance Packard criticized the idea of “planned obsolescence.” Some things are obsolete because something new is genuinely better, while others only seem better because they’re new. We should care less about “the new trend.”
In fact, real personal style comes from knowledge: knowledge of self, knowledge of how to dress for your body, and knowledge of culture. These four men below: Luciano Barbera, Yohji Yamamoto, Rick Owens, and Monty Dona have dressed the same their entire lives. This is much cooler.
