everybody on ilx complains about reddit

did you guys see the post from the guy who wears a leather top hat and a kilt and says they aren't affectations

just woke up one morning and there they were

he just dresses how he wishes other people would dress, out there in the world

people should own their affectations. dressing eccentrically is fine in itself.

people who need tons of attention except theyre nerds so they try to pretend its all very rational and chill are so sad

open ur heart nerd u dont need to wear the stupidest clothes the world to get people to love u, as a matter of fact

i'm trying to think of a situation where wearing eccentric or individual fashions isn't some spin on peacocking but i'm struggling. guess the secret is to shrug and not get all defensive if called on it.

http://i.minus.com/ivfujsOI3E7oJ.gif

I guess living in big urban centres like London & NYC has given me a pretty high tolerance for eccentric dress and individual fashion quirks. You really have to do a bit more than "wear a fedora" to come across as quirky or affectations in any sense. But I always thought that the main objection to fedora-wearing guys (obviously apart from the gross, retro, sub-PUA personality shit) was that come on. A handlebar moustache and walking your pet armadillo on a string is an ~affectation~. Wearing a fedora just makes you look like one more unoriginal guy who reads icky pickup shit on the internet.

what about guys who wear floral patterned cowboy shirts

...

people should wear whatever they want

really want an armadillo now

Treesh, people say stuff like that as if it's a cry for freedom but i think you are conveniently ignoring all sorts of social/historical ifs and buts to get to the point of saying it

my advice to you as an individual - "hey, wear what you want, be yourself. NB being yourself may lead to a large number of IRL consequences"

yeah most of the complaints on that reddit thread are all come on a fedora and a tshirt does not a classy look make xp

there was a brief period in college when I wore a leather cowboy hat

god it feels good to let that out

here for u

i can't even describe the full horror of what i wore as a teenager but the fedora/trilby was the least of it

there was purple, there was yellow, there were beads, there were fingerless gloves, there was flowing curly locks, there was various earrings

look back at it now like it was somebody else doing it

When I was a teenager, there was a bloke at the local grocery shop that my Mum called "that man who dresses like Mozart" so, really, nothing you might have done would come close to that.

people should wear whatever they want

no they shouldnt

there are flattering and unflattering looks and looks that carry unfortunate cultural baggage. but i don't want to be the one to tell people how they should represent themselves, or to make assumptions about a person's motivations for doing something as superficial as wearing a certain kind of hat. clothing is an individual thing and for many people it is a creative outlet that i don't think can be reduced to "peacocking" or vying for attention, although that is probably usually part of it.

Wearing a fedora just makes you look like one more unoriginal guy who reads icky pickup shit on the internet.

Yeah, the problem is that even if you just like fedoras, you have to be pretty oblivious to not realise that they belong to this creepy subculture now. 'Eccentric fashions' are fine, and not always peacocking (I wear some stuff that people might think is a little unusual, but it really isn't an invitation for strangers to talk to me, at all), but when those fashions are tied to a group, you will be perceived as part of that group, for good or ill. And usually that's fine - I wouldn't judge a punk or a steampunk or a cybergoth as having any particular personality trait, but rather 'oh they like this stuff'... but a fedora is tied to creepy behaviour and regressive attitudes.

Yeah, I am totally a fan of eccentric fashions and individual style when they are individual to that person. And I don't care if it's peacocking or whatever, because those kinds of signifiers can function like stylistic flags to the kind of person who is able to read them. This is a funny story that will make at least one person on this thread laugh, but the first ATP I ever went to, there was this person walking round with long, Krautrock looking hair and a massive Russian fur hat. And me and my keyboardist were a tiny bit ~obsessed~ with this person, and every time we saw her, we were just "she looks like she would be the coolest and most chill person to hang with, ever". (My keyboardist was really obsessed with Russia.) I'm sure Reddit snobs or whatever would have said that was an affectation or peacocking, but a year or two later, I did meet her properly, and she was totally the coolest and most chill person, with the most amazing taste in music.

BUT if you pick a signifier of creepiness, then you have to deal with what that piece of sartorial language is saying about you.

Been thinking about this recently, because I used to have an ex-boyfriend in NYC who was really into military paraphernalia, and would often wear old fashioned uniforms both onstage and round to gigs/scene parties. And he had this perfect WWI German officer uniform, with an iron cross and everything that I used to have to beg him not to wear (let's not get into my totally questionable taste in boyfriends during my 20s, OK?) because I don't care if Brian Jones and Ron Ashton did it first, when he would go to a party dressed like that, I would have to go round explaining my questionable taste in boyfriends as he blithely told horrified party guests "don't worry, it's totally fine, it's not Nazi, it's WWI, it doesn't matter if you're Jewish, why are you so offended?"

Not to compare a fedora and creepy PUA antics to, y'know, quasi-Nazi uniforms, but still.

I was a boring young person but I feel my dress sense is getting ever more 'eccentric', I kinda worry that soon I'll be some subcultural equivalent of fedora guy.

I'm successfully fighting off my bizarre desire to buy galaxy-print leggings, at least.

i always used to see a woman slumping the village w/ purple hair + a black cape w/ a print of an anime woman on it. what's the opposite term of peacocking? porcupining?

Ha, porcupining is good. She sounds pretty rad, tbh.

I feel bad about this, because I know dressing for "leave me the fuck alone" really means, leave me the fuck alone, but for real. When I see someone "porcupining" what I am really thinking is "OMG, be my friiiieeeennnd, u r awesome."

Ha, yes.

I am not good at dressing subculturally and always envy those who pull it off, but I am good at looking like an unapproachable sourpuss, and then going "whyyyy is nobody talking to me", even though when they do talk to me I run away and hide. perhaps I should try to accessorise this cycle more creatively

there was a brief period in college when I wore a leather cowboy hat

did u listen to a lot of Tool: y/n

i used to wear a fedora with jorts.

I didn't! tbh I've never listened to Tool

the look was more country than trenchcoat

i bought a bowler hat when i was 15 but never wore it

oh shit I forgot when I was on a school trip my freshman year of high school I bought a black beret. like, the frenchy kind with the little tab on top. and wore it most of that trip, despite the fact we were in florida

bahahahaahahah

disney world, even

god I thought I had no embarrassing hat stories, can't believe I forgot

I tried to find a porkpie hat circa my PICK IT UP PICK IT UP PICK IT UP phase but thankfully e-commerce wasn't a thing and no local stores had completely given in to ska

So all the bell-ends from reddit atheism came and set up camp in reddit debatereligion recently and it's been pissing me right off - never posted there but used to enjoy reading that one. They're now downvoting not only anything non-athiest but even anything that questions the premises of a blatantly leading-question thread.

I would like to mention the tech columnist for the chicago sun times
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ihnatko/photo

sweet hat

don't forget the wolverine sideburns

http://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke/comments/1wvx09/subreddit_squatting_a_phenomenon_where_users/

A couple of weeks ago, a /r/badhistory user discovered that the domains for /r/holocaust, /r/shoah and /r/jewishstudies were all owned and run by a group of Holocaust Deniers, a phenomenon which is morally abhorrent for obvious reasons. Several of us realised, however, that the mod team was largely inactive beyond using the sidebar to link to Holocaust Denial websites and "resources" and having a few old posts lingering on the page.

free speech

http://youtu.be/AAB858elJOw

When I was a teenager, there was a bloke at the local grocery shop that my Mum called "that man who dresses like Mozart" so, really, nothing you might have done would come close to that.

Jon Pertwee?

ok I JUST watched a clip of Jon Pertwee

No, I mean ~dressed like Mozart~ - the full Amadeus - knee length breeches, stockings, buckle shoes, foofy linen shirts, embroidered waistcoats. Went to work in full 18th Century clothes every single day. He was really quite admirable, to be honest, because he never seemed to be the slightest bit showy or show-off about it, in fact he was quite shy and retiring. He just went to work every day, dressed like Mozart, like it was no big deal. I truly admire people like him.