Last edited by yachtie (2008-06-10 14:43:01)

A) Sorry about the confusion between Castiglione and Gracian (I have two translations of their books, both named "The Courtier");
B) Even if there is an obsession with "sprezzatura" on the SF, there are few that achieve that - compare WAYWRN with some photos from the Sartorialist or other blogs;
C) That being said, there are people with indubitable taste over there;
D) As I said before, there is a certain americanism in conventions (or better said an american conventionalism) - e.g. the debate about how casual is business casual - trying to conciliate the extreme group formality that you find in the american society with individual taste. IMHO you do not need to wear a tie or a suit in order to be an elegant person, you can be very elegantly dressed by just achieving an harmonious ensemble between your clothes and attitude. I am, and was always, scared by the degree of conformity and the sense of uniform that you find in the american society, and that comes from a person which lived 25 years of his life under a communist regime, where conformity was a rule. Personally (even when I had to join the sartorial undertaker brigade) I leave place to small details that brought my personal touch, and often I've overdressed even my bosses (and did not get fired). It's real that you will not have everyone as your friend, but what in your life makes you friendly to any person that you interact with. For the rest, my feeling is that there is "a SF approved" look that is pushed, that making elegance quite impossible, because, in my view, elegance starts with the personal touch, not with conformity to a certain rule (that is an uniform, not personal style).
The rest is achieving the right balance between your person and your clothes.

Greetings Turd, welcome to the forum old boy.

One of the problems with assuming groupthink is that it is applied to everybody who enjoys or dislikes a certain thing.  Hermes ties are a great example.  My father taught me to avoid them way back in the day, and I always have done.  I don't know that this makes my reasoning aany more sound than somebody relying on groupthink, but it is different.  I can't say that I like them much anyway, but they do make on particular color green that catches my eye.

The knit ties are a great example of groupthink, probably the best.  That doesn't mean that nobody likes them, or that all the people currently into them don't like them.  It is just odd to see such a bubble.