I’m typically requested for model recommendation. That is unsurprising. Not as a result of I gown cool or look good. It’s as a result of I work at GQ. Giving model recommendation is an inherent a part of my job. Unusual then, maybe, that I essentially don’t imagine in giving model recommendation. I do know loads about garments and carrying them. However in the case of giving recommendation—particular, prescriptive recommendation—I’m not simply disinterested, I’m diametrically opposed. Sorry. I need to make it easier to in your journey in the direction of a extra fulfilled and classy life, however I’m not going to present you a algorithm to reside by. Even when these guidelines truly exist, I don’t know them!
Typical model recommendation follows sure recurring patterns—how ought to one thing match, what to put on it with, and when to put on it. For menswear particularly, there’s a lengthy historical past of guidelines, primarily based on standing traditions of tailoring and uniform dressing. This journal has made many vital and proper contributions to that historical past. And nonetheless does! However I imagine there may be another path to model nirvana—one which for some could be simpler and extra pure.
My philosophy usually is that model recommendation is a form of fallacy. Not that each one model recommendation is dangerous. It may be good, sensible, and helpful. (For the file, Glenn O’Brien’s very glorious archive of Type Man recommendation columns nonetheless holds up, however I’d argue that he may have been writing recommendation about auto restore or landscaping and it could have been simply as entertaining and enlightening.) It’s merely not the best way I take into consideration what I put on.
For starters, most model recommendation is usually primarily based on the final premise that if you happen to put on the proper garments in the proper mixture you’ll feel and appear higher. It begins with the result, not the garments.
Type recommendation that does begin with the garments—explaining how a factor ought to match or what it is best to put on it with—tends to take a slightly one-dimensional method to garments. That phrase “ought to” is the problem right here. It signifies a certainty and rigidness that comes from a spot of insecurity and self-doubt. Don’t be a ought to man. Be a may man! Cultivating a deeper understanding of the garments you personal and put on will get rid of the ought to out of your life. When somebody is looking like this, looking for the reply to some outfit riddle, it’s not as a result of they don’t know the reply. It’s as a result of they don’t perceive the query. Good garments don’t go away you questioning how it is best to put on them.
Plenty of model recommendation additionally boils all the way down to: Inform me what to purchase. Honest sufficient. Buying generally is a ache. Searching e-comms is dangerous for the soul, and procuring in shops brings its personal set of existential issues. Determining which issues in your closet are complementary and which issues conflict is all simply a part of the method of proudly owning, carrying, and changing into conversant in your stuff. You don’t want another person to let you know what to do—what it is best to do. You simply must put that shit on and go outdoors and see the way it goes. Worst case situation, it didn’t work out and also you gained’t do it once more. However if you happen to aren’t shopping for dangerous garments, if you happen to solely personal issues that you simply like, if you happen to’ve accomplished the due diligence of being thoughtful about how and the place you spend your cash, it’s arduous to go too far mistaken. The cool half about having good garments is that you simply get to attempt carrying them in numerous methods.