An approach to style
HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
WB Yeats
Let your imagination lead you, not your brain. Try to see the world as you did when you were a child, capturing images spontaneously without thought. Put those images together and let your eye be your guide. Have fun, laugh and make others laugh with you! If you can do these things, you will be at the doorstep of style. The last few silent movies on DWS were created to illustrate just this point.
We pass from the joys of innocence into the turmoil of experience. We are taught to be builders. To survive we must use our brains, design, lay foundations, add infrastructure, elaborate, furnish, render things useful with logic and reason.
Do you dress yourself like a builder, layering clothes one upon the next? If so, does the result appear studied, forced, can your intent be read and blunt the apparition of style?
Put down your measure, let the ruler fall from your hands, close your eyes and imagine the walks you took when you were a child, the smells, the colors, the textures, feel the breeze and your mother’s hand. Now look at your dress with the same enlivened eye.
Cheers
Michael Alden
Men’s style: Dress ME with style!
I am pleased to introduce a new feature on DWS called “Dress ME With Style.” In these segments I am offering my 1.91m for 90 kilos body to makers of high end menswear to show their clothes on a “real” person and not a professional model.
If you take a look at any of the major men’s magazines, you will see the majority of fashion houses feature muscular young boys as models for clothes targeted at more seasoned men, those who can actually afford to buy the garb.
So there is a gap between the youth oriented marketing and the reality that includes you and me. So far a few fashion houses have signed up to do DWS segments to show the clothes they choose draped on yours truly.
If you have a favorite maker whose clothes you would like to see featured on DWS, have their public relations or marketing people contact me by email.
First up is the great Savile Row house, Huntsman, whose one button coats have been the favorite style of many well dressed men for decades. Together with Peter Smith, Huntsman’s General Manager, we will spend a few moments in the “Colin Hammick” dressing room looking at a handsome blue coat.
Enjoy the show!
Cheers
Men’s style
“Most traditions are just a succession of bad habits…lesser actors imitating the affectations of bigger ones…I don’t believe in tradition I believe in the living practice of things.” -Orson Welles
Style is seen in the living practice of things. It has no heritage, no father, no paradigm, it simply is.
Great dressers have style before they ever step into the tailors or a shop, where they go to buy clothes. You cannot buy style. No one can make it, craft or package it. It has nothing to do with your physique or tailoring manuals. It has to do with you.
Men’s style: Be swell like Jacques Brel
Dress like a poet, dress like a swell, learn how to do it with Jacques Brel.
An ode to the great Brel, a constant companion.
Men’s style: Top it with two tilts
Wear them like a Leone
A tribute to Sergio Leone
A special note of thanks to my camerwoman Megumi Inoue
Men’s style: Have a handkerchief always handy
In this video you will see one way to prepare and wear a handkerchief in the breast pocket of a coat. The idea is to make the handkerchief look as natural as possible, simply placed in the pocket with no thought.
The linen or cotton hanky is a functional instrument of dress and not a decoration, something all too often implied by the idea of a “pocket square.” Avoid complicated folding techniques that render a studied and dwelled upon look. The ideal handkerchief should look like it is growing out of your pocket.
We will also look at how to knot a cravat or ascot using a simple “four in hand” technique. Once again, the ascot, like this one made of moleskin, is a functional and often necessary item of dress, it keeps the neck warm on cold days and helps avoid those nasty colds and sore throats in winter. You would like that, right? We will be looking at how to wear a full sized silk scarf as an ascot in an upcoming feature.
Cheers.