Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with clothing and style

I'm right, but lack visual evidence of my rightness

B-squared — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:45:07 -0800

Help me find images of handsome, manly men in white sweaters. I'm trying to convince my husband that a white sweater is as versatile as his dour browns, blacks and grays. If they are layered with shirts under or jackets over, all the better. Thank you!

Help a fussy, picky dresser look better.

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:10:40 -0800

I'm embarrassed by the way my husband dresses. He says he wants to dress better, but that he "physically can't". My husband has told me repeatedly that he wants to look more stylish and more professional (he's 30). This is great, because I'm tired of feeling like he's my kid brother instead of my partner when we go out. However, he has a bizarrely long list of tactile sensitivities that make it "impossible" for him to wear certain things because they're so uncomfortable that he "can't concentrate on anything else".

I don't really know what to make of these objections. I remember when I was a child thinking wool sweaters must be punishment for bad behavior, but I definitely grew out of it. Is he just being ridiculous, or could these issues be physically and/or psychologically real? Any other picky dressers have insight?

Here is partial list of his self-imposed sartorial restrictions, along with his rationales. (He also has a rather spartan aesthetic sense, you'll notice). He won't wear any of the following things except under extreme duress:

Things that are "scratchy":
denim (i.e. all jeans) and corduroy
synthetic fabrics or blends
wool or wool blends

Things that "make me feel like I'm suffocating":
sweaters
ties
undershirts
slim-fitting shirts

Things that are nonspecifically "uncomfortable":
blazers and jackets
shirts tucked in
belts

Things that "look dumb":
stripes, checks, or patterns of any kind
v-necks
boots
pink, yellow, purple, and pastels
vests
watches
hats
(pretty much any accessory/nonessential)

Things that are "inefficient":
shoes with laces
owning more than one pair of shoes
owning more than one coat
buttons

The end result of these limitations is that he typically wears Gap chinos, a t-shirt, and slip-on shoes every single day. On dressier occasions he'll swap the t-shirt for a solid-colored oxford-type shirt, but only if it's half a size too big, loose at the collar, and untucked.

So...

1) In the short term, what can he do to dress better within the boundaries he's set for himself? I'm not very knowledgeable or creative in this department, unfortunately.

2) More importantly, in the long term, can he be desensitized to blazers, belts, shoelaces and sweaters? How should he go about it, and how can I help?

Anonymized for my Mefite husband's privacy, who would die of embarrassment.

Looking for some style advice for a 21 year old from the HiveMind!

Junior687 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:49:10 -0800

Looking for some style advice for a 21 year old from the HiveMind! I just recently turned 21 and I would like to dress more like an adult. I have grown pretty tired of sneakers and gaudy t-shirts. I have been reading various blogs and magazines, but I want to get the opinion of the average person. HiveMind is the greatest!

I'm 6,4 and 167 pounds. I'm in the process of gaining weight, but I would like to get outfits that show off my height, but don't make me seem pencil-thin. I don't want to dress too formal, but a casual stylish look is what I'm trying to achieve. What are some outfit essentials for a young man's closet? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

On a side note, a friend bought me a sweater from Banana Republic to celebrate my goal of trying to dress like my age. See here. Does anyone have any ideas to dress up/down this sweater so I can wear it for an upcoming retirement ceromony? Thanks!!!

What do wear under 3/4-length sleeves?

otherwordlyglow — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:20:43 -0800

What do you wear under a 3/4-length sleeve jacket? I just bought a cute jacket from an online vendor. It's nylon-coated and clearly outerwear. When it arrived, I realized that it has 3/4-length sleeves, which in theory is fine; I like that length in sweaters and shirts but in outerwear, I'm finding it a bit problematic if I'm wearing long sleeves as a shirt or jacket. Do you usually just let your long under-sleeves extend out past the cuff of the jacket? The jacket is pale green so not everything I wear under it will be color coordinated with it and I sort of think that long sleeves peaking out of a shorter sleeved jacket looks odd. But then the alternatives are push up the sleeves to the shirt/sweater and keep my arms bare below the cuffs of the jacket or.....wear another jacket. I take the jacket off when indoors. Please believe me when I say that I am not losing sleep over this and I do realize that my concerns over sleeve coordination are pretty minor issues in the grand scheme of things.

Nerdy white girl wonders about hip-hop fashion and subcultural stereotypes.

bubukaba — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:37:07 -0800

I am curious about different varieties of hip-hop style (basically, the kinds of things I see cool [mostly] black teenagers and young adults wearing). I'm interested in looking at pictures of it (are there street fashion blogs for this kind of thing?) and also in finding out more about the history, origins, and cultural associations of this kind of dress (anything from academic articles to fashion magazines). Even information as simple as where one can buy this kind of clothing, or what you know or have noticed to be "cool" things to wear among the hip-hop set these days would be good to know. I'd also love to see any trendsetting music videos or whathaveyou that you can recommend.

I'm also interested in anything you can tell me about specific nuances of music or other cultural artifacts that have associations with different 'parts' of hip-hop culture. (I guess one thing I'm trying to hash out here is what the different 'parts' of hip-hop culture even are.)

I'm in Chicago, if there's anything specific to location that I should know about.

Things that I've noticed in particular and wouldn't mind knowing more about:

1: Men wearing outfits that match, completely. I saw a guy on the train the other day wearing a really cool hat/shirt/pants combination with a sort of macabre Jack the Ripper motif. (Is wearing clothing that matches signify anything special? Does one buy the whole outfit together, or is Jack the Ripper the logo of some particular line of clothing that I know nothing about?)

2: Women wearing clothing highlighted with intense neon colors.

3: Women wearing masculine clothing (wife beaters, baggy pants, do-rags, close-cropped hair or cornrows). (Are they lesbians? Tomboys? Some female analog to the banjee boy?)

4: Men with a hip-hop look sporting mohawks.

Aside from aesthetics (I really dig how a lot of this clothing looks, though I as a nerdy white girl could never get away with wearing most of it), a lot of my interest rises from my familiarity with the styles of dress associated with predominantly white subcultures and my apparent lack of familiarity with the styles of dress associated with black subcultures. I feel like I'm culturally literate enough to recognize the stereotypes that are being played with (or played to) when I see a kid with a mohawk and a leather jacket, a guy wearing a salmon pink polo shirt, a guy with a goatee and skinny jeans, or a girl wearing Birkenstocks and dreadlocks (to use some simplistic examples) - but I have no idea how to read similar signals from people who are part of 'scenes' that aren't dominated by whiteness. I can't even tell if the kinds of things I've described as "hip-hop style" in this question are part of the same 'scene' or not. In the world of subcultural stereotypes, would the guys with hip-hop mohawks hang out with the guys in matching outfits, or would that be as 'weird' as a skinhead hanging out with a hippy kid? (Note: I know that in the real world people hang out with all sorts of people - I'm just particularly curious about stereotypes at the moment.)

How would I find a place in DC that could make some custom-made dress shirts for me?

decrescendo — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:43:54 -0800

How would I find a place in DC that could make some custom-made dress shirts for me? Or should I tailor my normal store-bought "fitted" shirts? Will this remedy my issues? I'm 6'4" 190 lbs and most shirts seem to balloon out too much when I have them tucked in. It unfortunately makes me not want to take my blazer off. And when I wear them untucked with jeans they seem to be a little too wide at the bottom.

How can I remedy this? I'd like to find a place to get custom shirts in the Washington DC area. Or is there some other option I could pursue. The shirts I own are "fitted" but not tailored. Is tailoring a good way to fix this without buying custom shirts? I'm not sure what tailors can actually do with fitted 16-1/2 36/37 store-bought shirts.

Help me with clothes for my lifestyle--SAHM/Travel/exercise/errands/small town/comfort/classic

seekingsimplicity — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:09:19 -0800

I would like some direction about making my wardrobe work well for my lifestyle that I see as diverse. I am home much of the time in our smallish conservative town (SAHM to teens)
I do yoga/biking/weights/run
I run errands/clean house/do yardwork/cook
I am the wife of a business exec and we do a fair amount of travel to board meetings and dinners (international and US) where I must dress nicely and walk for hours
I go to church about once a month
belong to a knitting group

The other parameter for me is that I am comfortable when walking a lot in foreign places but still want to look good!

Please help me find classic/timeless practical clothes and shoes that I might feel good in!

Thank you!

Dear Fashion Diary

mathlete — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:25:54 -0800

Is there a site out there that can help me keep track of what I wear? I'd like to look at my clothes-wearing habits, such as how often I wear something or when the last time I wore something was, and I thought there might be some software or a web site that could help with this out there already.

I haven't found anything remotely close to what I'm looking for with Google. I saw this previous question, but the discussion there is more about whether an outfit is good or bad; I'm looking for a different kind of analysis.

Skinny ties in Austin

rush — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:16:44 -0800

Where can you get skinny ties in Austin?

A Fatal Attraction to Cuteness

Metroid Baby — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:07:28 -0800

My favorite styles of clothing and accessories tend to be whimsical, cute, and generally suited to children or teenagers... but I’m in my late twenties. I obviously need to outgrow this eventually, but I’m not sure when or how. I love wearing things that are fun. I love cute. I love bright colors. I love Hello Kitty, neon eyeshadow, Claire’s Accessories, and dinosaur shoelaces. I even love Hot Topic. If there were no dress codes, I’d wear lobster-print pajama pants or deliberately mismatched flip-flops everywhere I went. This is not to say I can’t dress myself appropriately: I do have suits, and various Ann Taylor separates for work, but I don’t really like wearing them. I generally have the good sense not to do a full tilt boogie Harajuku Rainbow Brite Punky Brewster rollerskating in drag in space ensemble, but I like putting on a clump of plastic bracelets or a smidge of glitter eyeliner if I go out.

I have always known, in the back of my head, that the day will come when I can no longer pull off. I fear that day may be coming faster than I’m ready for, or that it may already be here. As much as I love Betsey Johnson’s spirit, I’m probably not going to be able to pull off her look at 35, never mind 65.

When is the time to put the cute stuff away and start dressing one’s age? Is it a numerical age, a change in one’s life (such as becoming a parent or getting a promotion), or the point when you start to notice wrinkles? Or is it one of those "I know it when I see it" things? Was it in fact five years ago, and no one told me? I very much doubt I’m going to wake up one morning, look at my closet of glitter and pink, and say, "Gee, I’m just too old for this and I don’t feel like wearing it anymore."

And how can I let the kiddie fashion go without tears? I have eclectic tastes and a good eye for style, so I know I’ll probably find things to wear that are both appealing and age-appropriate, but sometimes that plastic jewelry really does seem like the only thing standing between me and a slow slide into corporate casual, mom-jeans, three-shades-of-beige sartorial senility. And I can’t just decide to stop liking Hello Kitty… or can I?

(Please, please, please do not suggest that I watch "What Not to Wear" – even though I admit they sometimes have okay advice, overall I hate that show, I frequently disagree with their taste and half the time I’ve seen it they’re trying to get some poor soul to wear a blazer and heels to the supermarket.)

Clothing/fashion analysis websites?

ml98tu — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:39:12 -0800

I enjoy watching What Not to Wear and find myself analyzing real people on the street through the lens' of Stacy and Clinton. Help me find a kindred website! I've been doing some Google and AskMe archive searches, but can't quite find what I'm looking for, if it even exists. Ideally, the site would post a photo of a person in normal clothes (preferably along the lines of the style choices often used in What Not to Wear) and then analyze why that outfit is or isn't successful for that particular person. Even better: it would have info on how to purchase the clothes or suggest similar items. My biggest challenge is creating a cohesive outfit, including accessories, and finding the right pieces. Stacy and Clinton pair seemingly random pieces because they "go" and I often like the result. My fashion eye doesn't work like that - I'm sort of Ann Taylor Loft vanilla right now and think such a site might help me take it up a notch.

It would be sort of like The Sartorialist or these sites, yet less edgy and with more/better commentary. I'm not really looking for cutting-edge or radical fashion. StyleDiary also almost works, but it's just people posting photos of themselves and doesn't really explain why a particular skirt works on that person.

My style is similar to the style choices used in the show, yet I'm not quite as adventurous as I could be. I'm hoping that finding/reading such a site will allow me to learn more about how to dress, help me find good clothes, and let me experiment with fashion while still looking great.

Please tell me such a site or blog exists Mefites!

Identifiy this pattern!

tev — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:26:49 -0800

Can anyone identify the pattern on this shirt and tell me what these people are or anything about the pattern. I bought it at a vintage clothing store a little while back and while its one of my favorite shirts and I'd like to know more about it. here are the photos

Wow, that looks...snug

TheWhiteSkull — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:20:03 -0800

Cycling clothes that won't make me look like a jackass? I've recently bought a road bike and started riding to work pretty frequently (and doing longer rides on weekends). I'm looking for good riding clothes but I don't want to look like some of the lycra commandos I see around (and frankly I don't think I have the ass for it).

I'm in my early 30s and in pretty good shape, but I'm not about to ride the Tour de France, if you get my meaning.

I used to run year round, so I have a pretty good sense of materials and practicalities- this is more of an aesthetics question. Where can I find clothing that sensible, somewhat distinctive and suitable for cycling? For traditional cycling clothes, what should I be aware of in terms of fit? What retailers (online or otherwise) do people like? Bonus points for physical locations in Chicago or Toronto.

looking for a sweater style

freddymetz — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 04:35:53 -0800

Looking for a style, it includes sleeveless sweater vest over a white shirt with black trousers or tight jeans and I think a studded belt. Im looking for the name if one exists or some pics that will help me find the clothes to buy. We recently had swedish exchange students here and one of them had it and I remember seeing a swedish band clothed like that too so I think its a swedish trend

Warm Stylish Coat for Cold Nasty Weather

turbanhead — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:14:51 -0800

Where can I get a coat like this? I've seen a lot of men wearing these on the streets of London. Is there anywhere I can get something in a similar style here in the US that doesn't cost $1000? Yes, I know it is the end of the season for such items.

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2901729/0~2376777~2374609~2374631~6004479?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6004479&P=1

Aidez-moi choisir les vêtements!

Jess the Mess — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:54:11 -0800

How do people dress in the summertime in the South of France? When I was in college I spent a semester in Paris and quickly realized that my colorful, American hipster clothes made me stick out like a sore thumb amongst the perenially black-clad Parisians.

Call me insecure, but I'd like to avoid that feeling of being la laide americaine again when I spend a month in Provence next summer. I haven't spent much time in the southern part of France and would like to know what kind of clothes I should bring. I imagine the style of dress down there is a bit different from that in Paris considering the milder, sunnier climate, but is it that different?

I'll be doing all the normal touristy things in addition to taking some classes and hopefully a trip or two to the beach.

Merci pour votre assistance!

Cool threads to buy online?

nickerbocker — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 09:56:28 -0800

Cool threads to buy online? I need some new cloths. I hate going to the mall because all the cloths there seem to be targeting teeny-boppers. Right now I have this really vanilla Mossimo meets New Navy look (like every other bloke my age), and I'm ready for something a little more eye catching, unique, and stylish.

I'd have a hard time spending more then $50 for a pair of jeans (but I have in the past). I'm also looking for a new watch. I really like those watches from fossil with the fat leather bands. What do you think?

What about a good place to buy shoes online?

Things were so much simpler when I was in high school and the only thing I needed to be "cool" was to wear a pare of JNCO jeans and a T. I wouldn't be caught dead wearing JNCO now :).

I've fallen out of style. Please help this 24 year old male. Thank you.

-nickerbocker

Dressing well for the large man?

callmejay — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 14:50:30 -0800

Where can I learn about dressing well as an overweight man? I'm more interested in casual clothes than in formal ones.

Blend in Stockholm and Copenhagen

thomascrown — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 23:02:35 -0800

Help me not look like a tourist in Copenhagen and Stockholm. My brother and I, both mid-twenties US males, are off to Sweden and Denmark for two weeks. Having lived in New York for the past five years, I'm increasingly sensitive to how out-of-place many out-of-towners look.

So, aside from the obvious (skipping shorts, garish t's, fanny packs, etc.), does anyone have thoughts on how to look more like 'native' Danes or Swedes?

Suggestions for changing my style.

pissfactory — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 05:29:20 -0800

I would like to change my style. Who makes hip clothing? I'd like to check out some stuff online to get an idea of what I like that is stylish. Are there resources online about fashion/style in general that you can recommend? For instance, something that would show different styles (say, "urban chic"... pictures/examples follow).

I'm 6' 1" and I weigh 180lbs. with slightly longish hair (that women say they wish they had), but my current style is very, very casual- shorts, t-shirt, sandals. I like comfort, I'm just wanting to look a little more stylish. Any suggestions? Also, suggestions for cultivating style in ways other than with colthing are welcome...

This seems kind of silly, but I really want to figure this out.

T-Shirts

DyRE — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 17:29:46 -0800

Does anyone happen to know where I would be able to get a hold of a shirt like this one? I have no idea how I would even search for this sort of thing.
(Googling some of the words on the shirt along with the word 'shirt' or 't-shirt' just gives a bunch of random, very unrelated results.)