Don't tell me what to do
September 21, 2015 3:57 PM Subscribe
What are some good men's style blogs for someone who hates most men's style blogs?
I'm going to pick on Put This On here, because it's among the most visible, although it's far from the only offender. The things that drive me crazy about it, in no particular order, are:
1. The super-condescending "this is how to look like an adult" prescriptive rhetoric,
2. The way that following its advice would basically just have you looking like mid-twentieth century British minor gentry,
3. The narrow perspective on just what style consists of, though maybe that's just a restatement of point two.
So: lay on me the style blogs out there that value pluralism and that have an evaluation rubric other than "what would an old white dude think about this." A hundred years before I see another post extolling the virtues of a herringbone sport coat in Scottish tweed would be too goddamn soon.
I'm going to pick on Put This On here, because it's among the most visible, although it's far from the only offender. The things that drive me crazy about it, in no particular order, are:
1. The super-condescending "this is how to look like an adult" prescriptive rhetoric,
2. The way that following its advice would basically just have you looking like mid-twentieth century British minor gentry,
3. The narrow perspective on just what style consists of, though maybe that's just a restatement of point two.
So: lay on me the style blogs out there that value pluralism and that have an evaluation rubric other than "what would an old white dude think about this." A hundred years before I see another post extolling the virtues of a herringbone sport coat in Scottish tweed would be too goddamn soon.
Who do you want to look like? What do you like wearing?
posted by oceanjesse at 5:42 PM on September 21, 2015
posted by oceanjesse at 5:42 PM on September 21, 2015
Hmmm....This AskMe is far more about your own skin than pointers to fashion.
Best advice that will ever hit this thread (no pun intended) - dress in what makes you feel comfortable and confident. Choose things that define you.
If perhaps fashion needs to find you given a situation or circumstance, better to explain a bit more of the requirements. "what would an old white dude think about this" - isn't enough, it just means you are overthinking and possibly slightly pedantic.
OceanJesse has it right - start with what you like to wear and build on it :)
posted by Funmonkey1 at 5:59 PM on September 21, 2015
Best advice that will ever hit this thread (no pun intended) - dress in what makes you feel comfortable and confident. Choose things that define you.
If perhaps fashion needs to find you given a situation or circumstance, better to explain a bit more of the requirements. "what would an old white dude think about this" - isn't enough, it just means you are overthinking and possibly slightly pedantic.
OceanJesse has it right - start with what you like to wear and build on it :)
posted by Funmonkey1 at 5:59 PM on September 21, 2015
The Sartorialist's men category might do you right. He generally just posts pix, but his eye is inclusive and interested in the broad range of human expression via clothing.
Bill Cunningham has a similarly populist/descriptivist view of fashion. He doesn't have a proper blog but his video series gets at what he's good at pretty well. He mostly focuses on women there, though there's some great mens vids too.
posted by wemayfreeze at 6:09 PM on September 21, 2015
Bill Cunningham has a similarly populist/descriptivist view of fashion. He doesn't have a proper blog but his video series gets at what he's good at pretty well. He mostly focuses on women there, though there's some great mens vids too.
posted by wemayfreeze at 6:09 PM on September 21, 2015
I really like Dappered.com. It's a little more grounded and reasonable than what you're describing. They do have a sort of uniform that involves various combinations of blazers, polos, chinos, merino v-necks and monks, but it works for me and is minimally pretentious. They're not condescending, and I've never read much that said "This is how to adult" or "You're wrong if you don't do x..."
posted by cnc at 7:33 PM on September 21, 2015
posted by cnc at 7:33 PM on September 21, 2015
Response by poster: OceanJesse has it right - start with what you like to wear and build on it :)
Well, I guess I'm not looking for immediately actionable advice on what to wear. I'm okay with what I wear as is, but I'd love to branch out over time, and to that end I want a diverse view on what people are doing with themselves.
posted by invitapriore at 8:37 PM on September 21, 2015
Well, I guess I'm not looking for immediately actionable advice on what to wear. I'm okay with what I wear as is, but I'd love to branch out over time, and to that end I want a diverse view on what people are doing with themselves.
posted by invitapriore at 8:37 PM on September 21, 2015
I really like all of these guys. I am a woman and wear women's clothes and I find fashion blogs lacking because I live in Houston and it's just not fucking practical to layer layer layer when it's 90 degress out eight months a year. So I look for fashion blogs not based in NY or Paris but in the Deep South. The five blogs listed above are all written by men of color and include some cool casual looks instead of just three-piece suits.
I would also suggest looking on Pinterest under "men's fashion." You can find a much wider variety of looks there that might help you inform your own style versus just following one blog with a particular aesthetic.
posted by Brittanie at 5:25 AM on September 22, 2015
I would also suggest looking on Pinterest under "men's fashion." You can find a much wider variety of looks there that might help you inform your own style versus just following one blog with a particular aesthetic.
posted by Brittanie at 5:25 AM on September 22, 2015
It sounds like you're just interested less in the trad aesthetic, and I'm curious as to what you wear, just because it would make it easier to find blogs that serve your style. There isn't, to my knowledge, a comprehensive site that examines all trends in men's fashion, although you could browse Styleforum and r/malefashionadvice and read the discussions there, but both sites can be fairly exhausting in their in-jokes and griping.
To your second point, I can't think of anything Put This On has suggested that's dated; rather they're advocating items and outfits that have been, and still are, considered smart for the past few decades. It's certainly more formal than most people wear, but I'd like to know what dressing like a "mid-twentieth century British minor gentry" looks like to you, as there isn't anything on Put This On posts about that, short of just following streetwear, you won't see everywhere else. If you find the entire mode of dressing that Put This On favors to be completely stodgy, you aren't going to find another blog also interested in formal wear that presents a radical departure. Dappered is good if you're on a very limited budget and veer towards business casual attire, but they also recommend very low-quality, and at times simply ugly, clothing, and given that it's really just a guide to business casual wear, it likely won't lead you to become more adventurous in your own clothing choices.
To your third point, if it seems like Put This On has a narrow perspective of style, it's because it does--men's style, unlike women's, follows, as I'm sure you've read many times over, a set of rules. Streetwear blogs, like Hypebeast and Four-Pins, are also out there in abundance and present a completely different style if that's more in line with your interests, but the language they use is often fairly obnoxious. Put This On's rhetoric doesn't strike me one way or another, but unfortunately, unless you're just looking for outfit photos and a mix of sponsored posts as posted above, most men's style blogs are a mix of snark and condescension, and as a result, Put This On is one of the few I actually read. I quite like Die, Workwear, a blog by one of the poster's of Put This On, although I suppose his style leans even more heavily into gentry cosplay. Well Spent is also good if you're looking for specific articles of clothing, but you'll have to get past their writing which isn't quite as funny as they think.
posted by lunch at 5:34 AM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
To your second point, I can't think of anything Put This On has suggested that's dated; rather they're advocating items and outfits that have been, and still are, considered smart for the past few decades. It's certainly more formal than most people wear, but I'd like to know what dressing like a "mid-twentieth century British minor gentry" looks like to you, as there isn't anything on Put This On posts about that, short of just following streetwear, you won't see everywhere else. If you find the entire mode of dressing that Put This On favors to be completely stodgy, you aren't going to find another blog also interested in formal wear that presents a radical departure. Dappered is good if you're on a very limited budget and veer towards business casual attire, but they also recommend very low-quality, and at times simply ugly, clothing, and given that it's really just a guide to business casual wear, it likely won't lead you to become more adventurous in your own clothing choices.
To your third point, if it seems like Put This On has a narrow perspective of style, it's because it does--men's style, unlike women's, follows, as I'm sure you've read many times over, a set of rules. Streetwear blogs, like Hypebeast and Four-Pins, are also out there in abundance and present a completely different style if that's more in line with your interests, but the language they use is often fairly obnoxious. Put This On's rhetoric doesn't strike me one way or another, but unfortunately, unless you're just looking for outfit photos and a mix of sponsored posts as posted above, most men's style blogs are a mix of snark and condescension, and as a result, Put This On is one of the few I actually read. I quite like Die, Workwear, a blog by one of the poster's of Put This On, although I suppose his style leans even more heavily into gentry cosplay. Well Spent is also good if you're looking for specific articles of clothing, but you'll have to get past their writing which isn't quite as funny as they think.
posted by lunch at 5:34 AM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by deathpanels at 5:15 PM on September 21, 2015