It needs to be worn with a black suit. I mean, if people don't like the tie, I'm not going to get upset, but there is not enough black in that outfit to warrant that tie, the black needs to be the bass-note. IMO
Last edited by Oo Bop Sh'bam (2012-03-07 04:59:12)
Another thing I would like to add, on my own thread, no less, is that for a "given" like English style, it really was never before covered the way I covered it. James Darwens book to the French gave some insight but the actual physical and psychological reasons for the development and current approach to the English style was never examined empirically.
That's why entire cultures (French/German/Italian?American) have tried to emulate the style but gotten it wrong for generations which results in new adaptations. That's why the Americans think English style is a tattersall shirt with a heraldic tie, chalk striped suit and brown suede shoes. It's why the Germans think that green bengal stripes are so very English. Everyone approached it superficially and the result is like a painting of English style, all face and no heart.
Now through cultural experiments and theorems, I basically changed my sartorial DNA.
OK, my essays are not complete and they are not in a bound form but I think there's good stuff in there for everyone to get a feel for what the UK mens business style is really like vs the fantasy. The English style is perfect for the business environment. That isnt just my opinion, it's most mens opinions from Sydney to NYC to Tokyo. Most men, actually most cultures, just haven't bothered to figure it out. Some of my theories for the English style being so good are their historic love of uniforms, subtlety, wit and good form over flash and dash. The concepts of balance of power and fair play plus a class system that doesn't try to hide from itself have all contributed to a well balanced male wardrobe with just the right amount of function, colour and proportion.
I put it down to the weather. And I'm not even joking.
Last edited by Oo Bop Sh'bam (2012-03-07 11:13:11)
I think in England we have the Northern European approach to design, colours, and geometrics, but we get the French influence to of over-the-top ostentatious design. We seem to hold this line between taste, refinement and eccentricity. I find England is a place you shouldn't take yourself too seriously, as people will soon cut you down, but I think we all appreciate the seriousness of authority, and the romance of the Empire and the dress of the higher-classes. I suppose because of the class system, people have always looked to dress above their station to. And the urge to stand out in a crowd sums up most of our teenage subcultures, since the Teds.
Last edited by formby (2012-03-07 12:35:25)
Yes which actually takes most of its influence again from the Saxons and Normans (more Nordic than French). I think it isn't too far or too absurd to say the studies made by the Saxon and Normans on colour has given us the biggest influence on how we began to use colour in this country. I'm sure the Celts were happy just with brown!
Last edited by Oo Bop Sh'bam (2012-03-07 12:31:19)
I think the problem is we have the cutting edge of British designers, and the safeness of the TM's and such like. And the average chap either goes along with the safeness of the basics and look like it's still the 90's, or they completely go mad, and try and run before they can walk, and get a half arse attempted at what is in vouge. Or even worse they try and dress like Gary Lineker on Match of the Day.
Either way it is normally a massive disaster. I can't afford to dress beautifully. So I don't even get to have a go.
...you also mustn't forget the influence of empire. There's something of the magpie about the British. They took the best the empire had to offer and made it their own (literally in a lot of cases), incorporated it.
We see this in the architecture of the country for example, but most of all we see it in our Language.
Last edited by Oo Bop Sh'bam (2012-03-07 12:46:42)
Last edited by Oo Bop Sh'bam (2012-03-07 13:32:09)