STYLE GUIDES: essential or obnoxious?

*case study*

this pic & quote is from a dude i follow on tumblr, seems like a nice dude, takes good photos and has some nice clothes.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mav7k0sFqp1qdb4s4o1_1280.jpg

Pattern Mixing

Perhaps the gingham of the shirt and the PoW check is too close in scale. I also thought the faint burgundy overcheck would draw out some of the reddish hues in the tie.

so, i appreciate how he's mindful of scale and color, but it saddens me that it's done with such a reliance on established rules about pattern and color. like, dude, you look fine, why do you think that wearing a faint blue micro gingham shirt is some kind of risky style move, the fuck

men who internalize style guides as some sort of prevailing superego of fashion, that shit is dumb, stop doing it

who the fuck dresses like that, prime ministers?

you can do that shit with a t-shirt and a hoodie

who the fuck dresses like that, prime ministers?

tumblr #menswear powerbloggers, half of styleforum, moderators at r/malefashionadvice

i'm not endorsing wearing a t-shirt and hoodie to work

but i do think if you're a lawyer or accountant dressed like that a lot of people are gonna be like wtf.

you can get the same dose of color theory with a dress shirt and a sweater

there are teachers who are menswearish, like they'll wear suspenders, old-timey shirts, rolled up jeans with dress shoes, etc

i think it makes more sense to dress like a camp counselor than going that route

i think there's a line of overdressy that you don't need to go very far to step over comfortably in business clothing

like if you get the fit right, you can wear basics all the time and wear a tie or something and look a million bucks

I pretty much agree that the shirt in that picture is way too same-but-different in pattern to the jacket and they don't look good together, especially with the busy tie. Two of the three would work, but not all three.

All this stuff is like jazz -- you can make the wrong notes sound right. But since most men are not miles davises of style, the rules are there to help them avoid looking like a mess. That said, yeah, these style bloggers get a bit fascistic about it.

I say that a man who is not a miles davis of style.

idk, i wouldn't have picked the combination but fair is fair and i'm not wearing it, i think it looks nice but it's not even very noteworthy imho. & i'm not going to criticize anybody for overdressing because i overdress for any & every occasion.

the thing that bummed me out was the "oops i broke a rule please don't pick on me" vibe from the caption.

it's hard to tell -- it looks like the kind of thing that, if everything was otherwise high quality and well-tailored for the man wearing it and the guy was well-groomed and put together etc then it might work very nicely, but if it was just your average midtown manhattan guy with off-the-rack clothes, the clash would make it look extra sloppy.

i dunno, it's not even that defensive in tone i guess, but i just get VERY SUSPICIOUS of dudes who consistently annotate their WIWT shots by explaining how they put their outfit together, what rules they followed, why they chose blue socks, why it's appropriate for the weather or the occasion. like everyone's gotta play the role of gq assistant fashion editor all the time? stfu.

also i think i have a higher tolerance for clashing than many other ppl fwiw

the tie is a dark "value" than the shirt and the jacket is inbetween, as it should be

the hue of the jacket is brown which is like a shade of orange which goes nice with the gingham which is like a hue of blue, complementary colors etc if i'm reading it right

there a consonance between the gingham and tweed and the tie itself is tying it all together HOHO but with a pattern that breaks up the non-square lines in the tie and he's correct it picks up some of the colors in the jacket

big fucking WHOOP