Mine is strictly Boom Years Americana: the drive-in, two cheeseburgers and a Coke, science fiction double-bill, DC comics, Jack Purcell.

LOL!  Okay, touche, Prof!

theres a point at which these "looks" can end up giving unintended impressions, is the thing. with the mod caricature thingy, you may look like a cartoon, but only to a tiny number of people who are "itk". someone wearing all of that shit together is still going to look sharp and put together to the other 99.9% of the population. items which either happen to be in style or never go out of style. as a caricatured uniform, it aint half bad. some of this stuff gets more problematic, imho.

shadow plaid can look fine in the right combo and context. even those horrifying catalina jackets that evoke OAPs eating catfood can, im sure, look decent with the right combination, though i wouldnt attempt it myself. my comments werent addressed at you or anyone else in particular. this is also, keep in mind, coming from someone who generally wears free shirts from pipe distributors and Incontinence pants pants,4 or 5 days a week. with some of the stuff i see glorifed on here i have a somewhat frightening mental picture of a european who has succeeded in looking perfectly, 100% american- an american who perhaps has out of control medical bills, or works in the produce aisle due to slight brain damage. to put it in context, i had a similar experience when i went over there. in northern italy, i was asked over and over again if i was "inglesi", which flattered me. people gave a me wide, concerned berth, except when inviting me to a"raving party" or offering me drugs. years later, i realized that my sartorial impression, gleaned from Girls Ball games magazines, DJ publications, and the like in the days before widespread internet, was so accurate that i was taken for the lowest strata of british lumpenproletariat yob," 'avin a bevvy wif fookin' eyeties" on the way back from raping domestic animals in ayia napa. if there is a point to my rambling, which there probably isnt, its that this stuff can be overdone. and, if crossing the atlantic, stick to the sack suits, shetlands,harringtons, etc.  so as to avoid being asked to bag someone's groceries.

yeah, it was weird. no one could possibly mistake my accent for anywhere more than 10 miles from one of the lower great lakes. besides the clothes, the beer gut, chain smoking, and pockets full of cheap canned lager probably completed the "look". we were bombing serbia at the time, anti-american mobs running through the streets of milan chanting, so looking like lager lout scum paradoxically probably prevented me from getting stabbed. i am not sure who harry the dog is, but im guessing he's not (as he sounds) a children's tv character.