Just say no.

[bruschetta]

The following is a list of styles that should be avoided:


Jean shorts

Sandals on men.

Pleated pants.

Pleated shorts.

White underwear.

Earlobe plugs.

Men in skinny jeans.

Button-down shirts that aren't tucked into pants.

Long-sleeve shirts with shorts.

T-shirts on men over 18.

T-shirts under sport coats.

Hoodies under sport coats.

Visible silk on a man.

Black suits.

Black dress shirts.

Crocs on anyone who isn't a chef.

Faux gold watches.

Digital watches with anything other than athletic clothing.

Calf-high socks with shorts.

Utilikilts.

Facial hair on the neck.

Blazers that are too short to cover the butt.

Exceptionally tight blazers or sport coats.

Exceptionally baggy "sack" blazers or sport coats.

Facial tattoos.

Suit jackets with non-matching trousers.

Bracelets.

Shark-tooth necklaces.

Torn or frayed shorts.

Flat caps, panama hats, derbies, bowlers, or fedoras.

Rolled chino legs.

Capri pants on men.

Tattoos immediately above the buttocks. "Tramp stamps".

Polyester shirts, pants, suits, or ties. Polyester anything.

White socks.

Black socks with anything other than black shoes.

Athletic shoes worn with anything other than athletic clothing.

Madras shorts.

Madras blazers or suiting.

Highly tapered pants.

Wearing dress shoes without socks.

Camouflage anything.

Bandanas.

Split-toe shoes.

Curl-toed shoes.

Track pants with blazers.

Track pants in a non-athletic setting.

Armless button-down shirts.

Cargo shorts.

Carpenter jeans.

Cell-phone holsters.

Shirts with more than two darts.

[nicholascrawford]

You must be a boring dresser! ;-)


-Vibram five finger shoes

-Visible mid-riffs or ass cracks

-Periliously low plunging v-necks

-Bedazzled jeans

-Anything resembling an American Apparel ad. I hope no one abroad thinks that represents even a minority of Americans.

[MagM]

Hatin' on my tramp stamp...

[Ragu]

Aww c'mon, no Crocks while ocean kayaking? =)

[JT10000]

Black socks always. With dress and casual shoes (with long pants/slacks). And short black socks with white athletic shoes. Black only and always.

[bruschetta]

I approve of all of nichlascrawford's additions.


Ragu, I approve of ocean kayaking as another appropriate use of Crocks. However, switch them out with something proper once you're back on land!

[DrBenji]

Some of those are not like the others.

[nicholascrawford]

As long as we're on a silly topic, I would just like to interject that I have a hard time distinguishing frost, trash, and bruschetta. You three have strong feelings about similar ideologies without profile pictures. =P

[bruschetta]

Nicholascrawford, I did post in the WIWT thread once: http://threads.dappered.com/topic/wiwt/page/38#post-23447


Maybe I'll post a more casual outfit at some point.

[LakeCharles]

No t-shirts? Yeah, I suppose James Dean and innumerable other stars are known as terrible dressers. And Cary Grant only wore pleated pants. Anyway, glad to see you taking a break from yelling at Dennis the Menace.

[bruschetta]

LakeCharles, I think I love you.

[Jeremy B.]

Some of these are suspect. Is this supposed to be some meta-comment on how having so many style rules is actually ridiculous?


Edit: No visible silk on a man? Really...so no silk ties. Gotcha.

[pitseleh]

No offense, but assuming this post is in earnest, dismissing all of those things writ large might make you come off as a bit of a stodgy old white guy angry about "kids these days"! Which is to say, I agree with most of what you said, but think completely avoiding some of the other stuff seems very uncreative and too heavily implies that there's a "right" and a "wrong" way to dress. I don't think the list leaves enough room for some of the more interesting elements of personal style, and I think without that, you just get a bunch of guys wearing the same boring clothing. For me, an interest in men's style is a desire to express myself, not have my creativity stifled, you know? Either way, I definitely view fashion as an art (albeit one that, like architecture, eventually intersects with practicality), and I think a lot of important and affecting art has come out of people questioning these types of things, not restating them. Fashion-by-numbers rarely leads anywhere interesting, imo.


That said, things I specifically disagree with: button downs not tucked into pants, t-shirts on anyone over 18, t-shirts under blazers, hoodies under blazers, black suits, black dress shirts, facial hair on the neck (I don't like neckbeards, but some people can pull off some scruff on the face *and* neck, I think), suit jackets with non-matching trousers, bracelets (depending), hats, polyester, dress shoes without socks.


I would actually say some of my favorite outfits that I've seen on other people have come from these, sometimes even multiple at once. I guess I'm not much of a traditionalist (though note that I'm not exactly crazy about the eccentric takes places like H&M and Forever 21 have on men's wear).

[bruschetta]

Jeremy B, darn! You got me on the ties. Ties are definitely an exception to the "no silk" rule. I was thinking about men who wear tight silk shirts in bars, clubs, and etc.


pitseleh, please feel free to add to the list of "style no's". Also, please don't take this thread so seriously. My opinion is not the word of God, nor are my style "rules" (what a silly concept) universal.


This is meant to be a fun thread where we can groan about style/fashion trends in a lighthearted way. I really liked LakeCharles' reply -- hopefully he understood that the thread was partly tongue-in-cheek and he was replying in kind.


Edit: I liked MagM's reply too!

[glen]

To be honest, I hate the trend where people seem to go sockless and show their ankles.


Edit: Oh, without rolling up their pants either.