Tech-styles: Advances in Mensware

Good evening to what few ardent readers and followers that I have that have stalwartly continued to encourage me to continue my blog and have held my feet to the fire in producing the new material that I’d promised months ago. First and foremost, thank you all for your being insufferable. Without your support, this blog would have faded like jeans in the white-wash. You are all as much a part of making this blog an active medium for men’s fashion discussions as I am, and I appreciate your input from the bottom of my soles.

Without any further puns and analogies to abuse, today’s post takes a progressive look into men’s fashion and considers some of the modern advances in menswear. I’m talking about fashion-tech. In a world inundated with ipods, ipads, it was only a matter of time until ifads came to be. However, the pioneers of fashion-tech were not well reviewed upon their debut. Efforts to capture markets appealing strongly towards sustainability through the use of new supposedly sustainable materials (i.e. bamboo, synthetic fibers, etc.) were sharply scrutinized by environmentalists as being misleading to consumers and in some respects had even greater impacts than conventional products. Additionally, and quite frankly, the designs that were being produced in this first generation of new men’s ware was also by-in-large fairly unimaginative in design, despite the initial creative push.



And while these issues uniform throughout the industry, it was prolific enough that it never really caught on even with the eco-minded.

Enter now the next generation of fashion-tech, the weird and extreme. While Lady GaGa’s meat dress will not soon be forgotten, some of the weird and the wild things designers came up with in this generation could have been promo-models for LED lights and glow sticks.



some more-so than others



As a fair disclaimer, the picture above was taken in 2010 and is merely an example.

While many of these styles were in fact aesthetically pleasing, if not at least amusing, they weren’t practical in any respect. However, in as fashion often does, the industry began to slowly evolve with both advances in technology and to public polls. In 2004, the first generation of solar jackets came out that were compatible with mp3 players. And while the idea was a good-one, few people subscribed to portable digital media with the same fervor that many do today. Note: the iphone wasn’t released until January, 2007. Additionally, as before, the jackets appeared cumbersome and unattractive.



However, as the widespread use of portable digital media began to take hold, and access to information on a real time basis became increasingly commonplace through such media as facebook and twitter, progressive designers again took a stab at trying to do fashion-tech right. This time, they hit the jack-pot. Loe and behold, the Zegna solar jacket. Extremely light weight, durable, surprisingly fashionable, and can extend the battery life of your iphone for hours on end.



You’d be hard pressed to find a better solar jacket that this puppy. But be warned, the price tag on these techno-threads runs around $700-900 depending on the season.

Not all new fashion tech necessarily involves technology in the conventional sense per say however. The sustainability side of fashion as also vastly improved, incorporating recycled synthetic fibers made from disposed of plastics, organic cottons and other natural plant fibers, and even biodegradable attire just in case you get bored of your outfit and have a compost heap out back. However, due to the fact that men’s retail business makes up 20 percent of the market, with eco-fashion constituting only 7 percent (5 percent of which is women’s) companies tend not to focus on eco-menswear (Ecotourre, 2011). A list of a few companies that I personally like which subscribe to these practices is listed below with links to their products.

http://www.patagonia.com/us/home

http://www.greensurfshop.com/categories/Guys/

http://www.4-rth.com

This is a directory site with multiple links can be found at

http://www.stylewithheart.com/category/mens/


With that, I’ll leave you all to cogitate upon whether or not fashion-tech designs are something you’d subscribe to, or just turn you off. Until next time –

Cade signing out…

Fashion Hijack

Recently I've been getting a lot of questions regarding the issue of -- what makes some looks 'work’ and others fall flat? Why is it when I try to be fashionable by putting on the exact same thing as so-and-so I just don't look the same? Now some of you will inevitably laugh at this remark, however this is a perfectly reasonable question. In order to both prove that this is a serious question and resolve it; I'll start by pointing out the obvious and subsequently allude to a more subtle point.

First the obvious point. When two people look nothing alike (ethnically, physically etc.) there is very little chance that either person will look as good as the other wearing the exact same thing. Indeed, John Doe down the street wearing the same thing that you saw walking down the catwalk in your most recent Armani catalog is unlikely to look nearly as "complete" -- his wardrobe may be matching but his attitude simply isn't. But now here I want to challenge you to consider whether this mismatch is due exclusively to a difference in physicality or whether there's something deeper going on. Do you happen to know any identical twins? Or even two very similar looking people where you would normally imagine them literally sharing wardrobes? If so, picture for a second what they'd look like having swapped wardrobes. Now picture them out in the real world interacting with you and everyone else in exactly the manner they normally would. Notice the disconnect? You've now discovered the subtle point, that even when all physical circumstances are equal, the way in which someone carries themselves on a day to day basis and more specifically how you perceive the totality of that person, mind, body and spirit, can make or break a look.

I call this level of personal wardrobe matching 'aptitude'; if someone has a high aptitude for a certain fashion, that person is very likely to be successful at a look with some diminutive bearing being granted to physical restrictions. Why is there any weight given to physical restrictions? Because at the end of the day, no matter how cool you may be as a dude, there's simply no way you'll be able to wear a V-neck T shirt as successfully as, say, Russell Brand without having a comparable physique.

The following is an arbitrary formula I've invented to demonstrate this quantitatively for all you business and math majors out there.

Attitude = (2 x Aptitude) - Physical restrictions

So what's the solution to wearing something successfully? First Stop. Now Breath. Now ask yourself in the privacy of your own head; am I comfortable with who I am deep down? If not, ask yourself, who do I want to be more like and why? Next, will others accept me more readily if I acted more like this person? Would they really see me in a similar light? Lastly, will wearing something different accomplish my goal of changing who I am? These are not easy questions to answer in honesty, and to be perfectly fair there is no right answer here. There are a lot of people whom deep down truly feel that they'd rather be someone else and work their asses off to be that ideal person; indeed so strong is their conviction that they eventually manage to pull it off. But this is where rubber meets the road folks, you need to be honest with who you feel you are and how you feel you want to express that through your wardrobe.

The golden rule: If you feel self conscious or uncomfortable about what you're wearing, that discomfort is magnified 3x by those viewing your discomfort.

This isn't to say you shouldn't try new styles and create new fashion. Far from it! Because everyone is unique there is no ONE fashion that is right or wrong. Indeed, nearly every rule of fashion is malleable so long as you're committed to working with it. It may not be ideal at first, but then again, where fashion is the reflection of a person, what person do you know is perfect to begin with?

Above and below are some photos from The Satorialist that I find to be masterful expressions not only of fashion, but of self. The last picture is undeniable proof that following this principle, you don't need to look good, to look great.

Like a Bad Itch...Styles Always Come Back

Before I get any further into this post, first and foremost I'd like to apologize (to my admittedly limited viewership) that I've not updated my blog in the last half year. Due to the rigors of law school I find myself with less and less time to spend with friends and family, and admittedly, by comparison to these two elements of my life, blogging about fashion falls short of the most rewarding use of my free time. Nevertheless, I am committed to what few of you there are whom have shown an interest in my blog with keeping you updated upon what I see brewing in the world of men’s fashion.

All that being said, today’s post will be a blend of history and observation of what I feel might be coming down the cool kid’s assembly line.



Behold Exhibit A: The Men’s Clutch: not so affectionately dubbed the 'man-purse'
The era of the men’s clutch bag never made the same splash in American fashion through the 1970s-1990s as the dramatic fashion shift from Beatnik to the ready-to-wear simplistic styles of Gap, Calvin Klien, Banana Republic and the like. However, through this same period, the casual use of men’s clutches in Europe remained prolific, with major brands including Prada and LV having continued their production to date.

So what, the educated reader should ask, would cause a come-back of the man-purse. I propose the following hypothesis.

If we accept the premise that the man-purse never truly left the world of men’s fashion to begin with, having persisted (valiantly) in Europe throughout the years, then it becomes less of a surprise that in a time of increased globalization and through the hyper-evolution of western fashion in Asia (e.g. Japanese/Korean pop-couture) that the man purse would eventually naturally find its way back into the hands of people willing to experiment with its use again. Subsequently, there has been dramatic feminization of men’s fashion in the last few years (e.g. skinny jeans, V-neck tops) the cause of which expands from media reinforcement to a market response by designers further perpetuating the process.

Needless to say -- guys, expect to get a lot of flack for trying to rock the man-purse. This is one look that you'll need to have some tremendous machismo going for you in order to overcome the man-purse stigma. But rest assured, you're not alone. David Beckham was recently seen rocking the new Prada man-purse shown above, and Brad Pitt is said to have one as well (unconfirmed). I leave you now with a bit of humor and paradox.



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Leave a Comment

Ross says:
December 5, 2010 at 11:10 am
um…anyone happen to know what brand or name that advertisement is from…? Cause that murse & jacket are amazing! hahahah but yeah…seriously…

Reply
knightmeric says:
December 5, 2010 at 11:43 am
Its not a purse its a satchel.

Reply
Psilence says:
December 5, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Is this from Water for Elephants? I read the book and heard they were making a movie of it with Robert Pattinson in it… not sure if want :S

Reply
Lorna says:
December 5, 2010 at 12:37 pm
It’s not a purse, it’s called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one.


And the verdict is: the forum trolls approve.

The Great Paradox of Fashion

Photo: property of luciano barbera

“Lose your mind and come to your senses” –Unknown

Much of what confounds the every day fashionista is the debate being waged within the fashion community over labels; where the industry is divided between have and have not’s. Those believing the fashion community to be exclusive, tout labels in order to hyper-saturate the fashion community and media with brand names, effectively causing what I call ‘designer inbreeding’- keeping the fashion community from naturally evolving over time in response to trends and innovation by inundating the media and social forums with the pre-selected fashion aristocracy.

Let’s consider first the background of labels; what they mean and where they come from.

Historically, labels were a standard of quality, pioneered by Charles Fredrick Worth, an English tailor of the late 19th century who first began sewing his name into garments he designed. His work began the era of Haute Couture; where tailors would pre-design garments for their clients first as sketches, then if a client approved, the tailor would begin work. A couture garment is made to order for an individual customer, and is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric, sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. The look and fit of each peice took priority over the cost of materials and the time it required to make.

If you were to compare the original work and craftsmanship of tailors like Charles Fredrick Worth to the mass produced, over priced, garbage that now consumes the general fashion world, I’m sure Mr. Worth would be rolling in his grave. I highly doubt that Pamela Skaist-Levy or Gela Nash-Taylor, the original founders of Juicy Couture, have handcrafted anything in your closet. In fact, I’d be hesitant to presume either knows what’s being sold within JC now. The illusion that ‘bigger labels mean better quality’ has persisted and misled the general consumer since its deviation from its origins, and the fashion community as a whole has failed to openly communicate this.

It can be argued that the general quality of designer labels is above average and falls into what’s called the ‘ready-to-wear’, where designers don’t individually design garments, but selectively pick fabrics and design cuts with quality and exclusivity in mind. This is generally true and not something I dispute. However, when it comes to labels, there are designers whose quality and costs are dramatically overrepresented, and most of these companies are a part of the fashion aristocracy I mentioned earlier. Want an example? Take this year’s newest LV bag and a Kooba purse to any leather expert and ask him which is made of higher quality leather. Not only will you find the Kooba bag to be of higher quality, but best of all, a Kooba bag will run you at max 800 bucks. Here’s another one, close your eyes and have a friend let you hold any Jcrew T-shirt in one hand and compare it against a Gucci T-shirt in the other. See if you can identify which is which or notice any discernable difference. The only difference you’ll fine is one’s 20 bucks on sale and the other is 120 bucks on sale.

It’s time the fashion world came to its senses; using them to feel and see what’s better, and not what we think SHOULD be better. Just something to consider.

Cade-

A day late but not a minute short of being well deserved

I know this post is late on my part, but I want to thank all those serving in our country. Without your sacrifice, the last thing any of us would be worrying about would be what we're wearing. Thank you for keeping red, white, and blue the colors of freedom for all of us here at home. In addition, my sincere wishes for the best go out to my friend Oz, who will be deploying with the Marines to Iraq. Stay safe and Godspeed.

Cade-

Revenge of the Nerds!

It's the triumphant return of nerdy-ness in a style I've affectionately dubbed,

Nerd Swagger: tipping past the brink of not giving a damn about being cool, to the point that you're hot.

As an example of this, consider Forrest Kline- the lead singer of Hellogoodbye. Here's a man who's so out, he's in, and women LOVE it. Don't believe me? Here's a sample of some of the comments he's gotten off of youtube.

Liinchen94 (5 months ago) Reply
he's such a damn hot nerd!

DaNgErOuZz08 (5 months ago) Reply
damn i love you hahaha :))

suckkapunch (5 months ago) Reply
i want to marry him one day.

angiemcn (7 months ago) Reply
So freakin nerd! So freakin hot!

Admittedly, a lot of what makes him so desireable lies more in his attitude than his wardrobe. However consider the inverse; could you picture Forrest Kline in a pair of Ecko sneakers, Sean John jeans, and a LRG shirt? I think not.

Moving past the stardom example of Forrest Kline, let's now take a closer look into what goes into pulling off that elusive nerdy look, and why it's so attractive. We'll begin with repetition of design: what patterns have shown up in the style consistently and what period(s) do they date back to?

1. Plaid:

Plaid, historically known as tartan, has a rich background and is deeply rooted in the Hallstatt culture. The checkered and striped pattern was not thought to have existed before the 16th century in Scotland and was then used to delineate between different regions and populaces of the Country. Highlanders would wear multiple tartan patterns into battle and the design was long considered Jacobian by nature. In 1822 visit of King George IV to Scotland rekindled the demand for tartan cloth and made it the national dress of the whole of Scotland rather than just the highlands and islands, with the invention of many new clan-specific tartans to suit. Of relevant note, Argyle is a form of tartan derived from Clan Campbell in western Scotland.

Plaids have literally been revolutionary clothing, a symbol of protest against the norm. Today, where conformity is thought of as passé, it's no coincidence that this style has continued to remain edgy and eye catching.

2. The short-shorts:

In the 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States and much of Europe, shorts were worn as outerwear only by young boys until they reached a certain height or maturity. As they matured, the boys would receive their first pair of long trousers. This produced the perception that shorts were only for young boys. Because of this, men avoid wearing shorts, for fear of looking immature.

Looking immature, never growing up, and never having to be a dull boring adult? Hell yea I could go for that! Short-shorts hold their own form of wildness and rebelliousness, not the Hugh Jackman kind of wildness, but attractive none the less.

3. Bow-ties:

The bow tie originated among Croatian mercenaries during the Prussian wars of the 17th century: the Croats used a scarf around the neck to hold together the opening of their shirts. This was soon adopted (under the name cravat, derived from the French for "Croat") by the upper classes in France, then a leader in fashion, and flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries.

HO HUM! Another example of battle born attire! Imagine that.

So let's recap, what we consider as 'nerdy' has either historically been battle attire for some of the most fearsome warriors history has every produced, or a manifestation of the need we all have to want to remain youthful and free from the burdens of the world maturity thrusts upon us, or visa versa.

Nerd swagger has my 100% approval as being Metro ready and I encourage you all to give it a whirl.
This is Cade London, signing out-

Wear What's Wearable

Abstract Art: A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.

- Albert Camus

Welcome to Metro Method, the metro man's blog dedicated to you- the fashion forward man, with the goal of looking your best for all social occasions. Today’s post is focused on the basics; the necessity of wearing what's wearable. Though it may seem common sense, fashion by its nature attempts to stray away from the norm in an ever escalating cycle of standing out, for better or for worse. Being fashionable is not necessarily about being designer savvy or trendy; it's about looking and feeling comfortable in what you're wearing and with yourself.

So let's begin with how to find what's comfortable. As men, we're blessed with our complete LACK of choice in what we wear; the gambit we run between pants, shirts, shoes, belts, and accessories is but a fraction of what women have to contend with additively. However, within our choices it's often best to go with a design that's survived as a classic through the years, a likely result of its utility and comfort. If it's not comfortable enough that you could crash on your couch in it, it's not worth your time.

Next, consider your color palette. Without getting sidetracked with an in depth discussion of color theory, here's a basic crash course. Generally speaking, the color schemes that generally work best in the fashion world are analogous color schemes or complementary color schemes. Complementary colors are any two colors which sit opposite each other on the color wheel, such as orange and blue, purple and yellow etc. Where as analogous colors 3 colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel, dark green, light green and yellow for example. This is by no means a make or break rule, as your skin tone, hair and eye color all play an indivisible part in determining what colors will add to you, rather than washes you out. The following is a limited list of common do’s and don’ts.

1. If you're a blonde with lighter eyes and skin:

DO wear bold colors that match your eyes, greens, blues, etc. black are also a nice if you want to add a pop of color with the eyes as opposed to complementing them with color.

DO NOT wear light yellow; it's inclined to wash you out.

2. If you're a brunette with darker eyes and skin

DO wear orange, it's a great bold color that works for most seasons (arguably except for winter) I also strongly recommend violet if you've a slightly lighter complexion.

DO NOT wear browns that are significantly lighter than your skin. Again, the combination will often leave you washed out.

OK so you've got your design, you've got your colors, the last thing left is to add your own personal style, that little fashion edge that makes you stand out from the rest of the crowd while not wearing an ostentatious ed hardy shirt. For me, it's something as simple as rolling up long sleeves, wearing a certain belt or loafers. For others, it might all be about putting on that hemp wristlet that you've grown so fond of. Whatever it is, it should be that little adjustment that makes you smile in the mirror and think, 'damn I look good'. Your fashion is a representation of you, who you are and what's going to make you feel you look your best. That's not to say you should not try new styles, far from it, it means you should try EVERYTHING to see what you like and how you can further customize it to you.

As a final thought for this post I leave you with an image owned and provided by 'The Sartorialist' (http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/) as an example of being comfortable, looking great, and most importantly: having fun with fashion!