Lots of sharp duds and a cool dude or two - ruined.

[mainemike]

I really and genuinely dislike/look down on this type of crap. There are some cool guys here, some cool clothes too, but this kind of shit isn't masculine, nor is it unique/original/creative/impressive/whatever the f. If I see one more pair of "dress" shoes/boots w/"work" soles, I'm gonna buy a van and become a theftless mugger, touring urban environs, and taking these pikers down one at a time. This kind of nonsense reflects poorly on all men, as if we're spending our time/energy shopping, styling our hair, consulting fashion blogs, picking out outfits, and posing for f-sake. Looking sharp - that's cool, I respect it, dressing the part, for the occasion, w/some style and flair, quality, craftsmanship, class, whimsy, a nod to _______, etc... But this isn't that, this is something else, and I don't like it.
Best men's fashion Instagrammers - Business Insider

[Gattonero]

Instagram is a good place to show fancy haircuts.

Duh, Morissey had the same one 20 years ago, but that's a different story

[Too Tall]

Wah wah Main M. is on a roll.

Funny story...we were in NYC a few years back to see a lame show, meet Chase for dinner and bomb around. After seeing a few too many underfed men in skinny jeans I joked to my pals that the next guy I see in skinny jeans and no socks I'll drop kick....uh oh hey Chase nice to meet you.

It's all good as long as they keep that @#$# inside the velvet ropes Mike, it's all good.

[zetroc]

Dress better? If we ever see the day that Dickies, Red Wings and Seinfeld t-shirts go out of style, just kill me.

PS: Team No Shave

[Peter Polack]

Tall skinny guys with weak chins and 5-day growth. Lives that haven't seen suffering. That's not fashion.

You want fashion? Just look at yourself after riding for a couple hours in the rain, splattered in mud, cold to the bone, ready to eat your dog when you step in the house. That's a real, genuine look.

[Too Tall]

If someone else were paying the tab I'd have the dresser from the NetFlix show Hannibal run my life. The menswear on that show it TIGHT!

Tall skinny guys with weak chins and 5-day growth. Lives that haven't seen suffering. That's not fashion.

You want fashion? Just look at yourself after riding for a couple hours in the rain, splattered in mud, cold to the bone, ready to the the first thing you see when you step in the house. That's a real, genuine look.

[burgess1108]

And of course it was on Business Insider. I stopped reading that shitty site over a year ago because I couldn't stand what passed for a news.

[dashDustin]

I follow Ben C/ Hodinkee.

I wonder how many of those fights shave their legs?

[caleb]

In general Mike, I totally hear your post. Two of my buddies have mostly-stay-at-home childless wives who "curate" semiprofessional "lifestyle blogs." Basically, their job is to look cute as fitness bunnies, cooks, and homemakers, and present a lifestyle to the world that keeps people looking and desiring the image that they're creating. It's a really distorted view of their world though, because it totally cuts out the fact that all the stuff they're taking pictures of in their spare time is funded by their MD husbands and family money. I can't even look at their blogs because they're so utterly partial that they're fake.

Yet, I think the fake/genuine dichotomy is a dead end road, just like the masculine/nonmasculine road. Or at least I sure don't like where that line of reasoning ends up.

this kind of shit isn't masculine

I'm from far northern Minnesota, and I know some guys who are masculine in just about every classical sense of the word: they could build their own house, put a new transmission in their truck, operate a skid steer or feller, run a trap line, and outdrink just about anyone all in the same day. Guys who can really get shit done. I suspect you know some of these guys up in Maine.

And what do they look like? Paunchy, hairy, and clad in a stained Vikings sweatshirt. They don't wear Red Wing Iron Rangers down into the mines on the Range, they wear safety toe boots from Walmart. That's genuine, and it's masculine. But should that really be the standard for fashion?

I agree that putting a Marlboro Man jean jacket underneath a wool trench is ridiculous. I think we can say that without attaching that judgment to any greater concepts about the state of gender or genuineness in our society.

[Mabouya]

I think Kathy Griffin has been following this thread:

[Diablo de Acero]

[QUOTE]I think the thing fashion does the best is sell people on nostalgia for an era or a sensation or an experience that is completely absent from their lives or may never have existed at all. For example, you can now buy your absolute favorite jeans that you've had for years and love so much that they are nearly in tatters without the boring annoyance of having to actually own a pair of jeans for years that you actually loved so much you actually wore them to tatters. Part of the reason that in use/misuse now the word "literally" has come to mean "for emphasis or to express strong feeling while not being literally true" instead of its original meaning of "exactly". Literally is now just a simulacrum of itself, so you can say "I literally wore these jeans to tatters" without saying that you actually did exactly that.
/QUOTE]

I miss going sled riding with my brand new Levi's and leaving long blue streaks in the snow after they got a wet. That was the Flintstone's version of Pre-wash jeans.

[boxerboxer]

Fuck telling someone how to "be masculine", and fuck deciding someone hasn't had a hard life because of the close/haircut you see them sporting at the moment. There is NOTHING wrong with not wanting to dress like those dudes, but projecting all the baggage you carry about how a man should be is the weakest of bullshit. Strongly worded, but meant in friendship and without malice.

[x] Eh, not for me.

[ ] Eh, not for anyone.

[chasea]

You dudes are so far behind. All this work wear is over. New York City has gone full-on #healthgoth, which I swear was started by two guys in my neighborhood 3 or 4 years ago.

[Eric Estlund]

My take away-

"I am so successful I don't have to wear the trim black suit to work suckers!".

[hidayanra]

Fuck telling someone how to "be masculine", and fuck deciding someone hasn't had a hard life because of the close/haircut you see them sporting at the moment. There is NOTHING wrong with not wanting to dress like those dudes, but projecting all the baggage you carry about how a man should be is the weakest of bullshit. Strongly worded, but meant in friendship and without malice.

[x] Eh, not for me.

[ ] Eh, not for anyone.

#applause