ehsu on the diversity of fabrics made from cotton
It’s one of many types of fabric made of cotton yarns.
One of the key differences between fabrics is how the yarns are formed into a cloth. If you knit cotton threads together like you would a sweater, you end up with a jersey fabric. Almost every cotton T-shirt is made of this type of fabric. The key property of knits is that they are a bit stretchy.
Another way to make cloth is by weaving the yarns together. Your typical dress shirt is woven like this, which makes it relatively smooth. It’s like a checkerboard of yarns where the squares are the width of a single yarn.
You can also make the squares bigger by weaving the yarns differently. If you do it like this, the fabric is rougher and thicker. This particular type of weave is used to make Oxford cloth.
Another interesting thing about Oxford cloth is that it’s typically made of *two* colors of yarn. Look here and notice that the yarns in one direction are white while the perpendicular threads are blue. This is another thing that makes it look coarser than a standard dress shirt, which is often made of a single color.
It’s cool how simple cotton yarns can be assembled in so many different ways to achieve different textures, thickness, stretch, etc.
derpturner on why he regrets splurging on a $1500 new wardrobe after losing weight
Fit was OK, but I bought clothes I thought I would like instead of clothes I did like. The only reliable way to tell the latter from the former is experience, and going slow makes that experience not so expensive.
Edit: also I didn’t start with basics, which made everything I wore feel costume-y.
Edit 2: also got carried away with tighter fits since I had the body to pull them off and paid less attention to coordination and higher quality single pieces.
Edit 3: actually still also have my beeswax CDBs and wear those regularly - what an excellent purchase. I just wish more people would be so bold as to recommend them on the forum :-p
YourLovelyMan: “Wearing clothes is a necessity in life, so why not do it well?”
I do it for the nookie.
Edit: if you want my real answer it’s like this: Everyone’s reason for appreciating fashion will be different. Some do it for the nookie. Some do it to impress their bosses at work. But I think for most of us, it’s just an art form like any other.
Do you think music is fake? I doubt it. But you might have a lot more exposure to music, you might have a finely tuned taste, and you might speak the language of music better. You’re more familiar with what makes a well written song, or an intricate guitar solo. You reject crappy radio pop for lesser known albums and genres whose unique qualities you know how to appreciate.
For most of us, fashion is like that. Most dudes wear poorly tailored suits, loose jeans, and terrible shoes that were bought because they were cheap and necessary for work. They regard fashion as superficial because they don’t understand it beyond a superficial level. It’s a language they never learned to speak, so don’t see the craftsman’s technique behind a well-made pair of boots, or the subtle genius behind the design of an hermes tie.
Wearing clothes is a necessity in life, so why not do it well?
TheHeartOfTuxes lends his thoughts on The French Wardrobe and integrating high quality clothing in with one’s lifestyle.
I agree with twisted_spoon’s comment:
>You can invest in quality pieces that are meant to be worn in…
I don’t think that getting clothes dirty or rumpled has to mean that you give up on them. There are more alternatives than simply either “good” or “grubby”.
If we look beyond the strategy called The French Wardrobe to the French/European mindset itself, the approach is a much more organic and engaged relationship between people and their clothes, possessions, living spaces, and surroundings. Sophistication and enjoyment of culture aren’t the privilege of a higher class, they are a relationship with life that can be accessed by everyone.
The American approach is turned around: in America, there’s a mindset wherein “good” things, including “good” clothes, are for special occasions; and when they are used, they make you somehow special. Fine wines are partaken of by imperious people in high-flown situations. Fine clothes (whether formal or streetwear) are worn to rise up in status. I’m not saying it’s this way across the board, but that there tends to be this disconnect in the American approach. The European approach tends to be more organic. All wines, fine or otherwise, are sampled with interest; and in the wardrobe, texture and color and pattern are explored for their own sake. Flavors and fragrances are available to enjoy at any station of life, not only among the rich or well-bred.
In the European approach, things are meant to be used. There’s a sense of comfort in stylistic expression because people are used to it — it’s what you do every day and is part of who you are, not something you add from the outside that somehow makes you better.
So it may serve you well to overturn the distinction between dressing up and dressing down, and consider that style unfolds from within you — it comes from the center of who you are, and works with your life as it is. Your work clothes may have to be less expensive because they will get dirty or worn out more quickly; but they don’t have to be a lost cause. And on the flip side, your good clothes don’t have to be hermetically preserved under glass; they can live a little and begin to take the form of your actual life. A little faded here and there, a bit of fraying at the edges — when you can see someone’s life in their clothing, that is very interesting. It speaks of character and soul.
The basic elements of style apply to any fashion or level of formality. Awareness of fit, cut, color, contrast, pattern, texture, movement, and design features will always be applicable. For example, you can wear jeans in a bad fit that go poorly with a badly fitting t-shirt, and the colors can make you look sallow, and they can be uncomfortable and impractical to boot… OR you can wear jeans that fit well and that harmonize with a well-fitting t-shirt (or henley?) in a color that makes you look healthy, and they can have a cut and design features that make you comfortable and assist you in your work. Same theme, different application.
The thoughtful approach of the French Wardrobe can be extended to include assessment of your lifestyle and work needs, and subsequent planning of purchases. It sounds like you would be using some of the problem-solving skills you use in your job, but applying them to your wardrobe.
The general assessment may involve these kinds of questions:
- What are your needs? What kinds of activities are you engaged in and out of work? What existing areas need to be addressed, and what are the areas that you would like to offer more energy to, to help them grow?
- What is your personal style? How do you like to feel and look? How do you like to be? And what parts of yourself do you want to encourage to emerge?
And what you come up with can be addressed in a specific manner with these kinds of questions:
- What kinds of fabrics will be most useful (durable, dirt-shedding, easy to clean, etc.)? What colors work for me and work together? What properties do I require from my clothing (stretch enough to take different postures comfortably, adjust easily to different temperatures, help me feel a certain way, etc.)?
I find that I want to ask you: Have you ended up ruining clothes that you work in? How much foundation does that concern have? There’s nothing wrong with wearing clothes that show you’ve actually been living. But if you do in fact destroy your clothes often, it may take some clever adaptation to mitigate that trend. If wearing a tough twill or denim jacket as a buffer over a nicer shirt won’t be good enough, then maybe you need to look for the best-fitting overalls you can find. ;)
suubz approaches the unfamiliar with curiosity and maturity. You should too.
All taste is subjective. But that’s irrelevant for this discussion.
For example, I know nothing about rap music. At the very most I can appreciate some of it as an aesthete, but no more. Often the only types of rap music I find pleasing to listen to are those that are more accessible and what I’m comfortable with given my limited exposure to the genre. Stuff with more obvious influences from EDM or pop (which I am familiar with)
However, that doesn’t mean that other types of rap that are beyond my understanding can’t be objectively good. I’m not qualified to comment on them beyond a basic level of “oh that sounds kinda strange” or “hmm maybe that’s alright”
In the same way, recognize that your limited exposure to fashion and the accompanying aesthetics and heritage permit you to only observe things on a very shallow level.
Discussing what looks good and what doesn’t can often devolve into what seems like a bunch of people circlejerking about stuff they read is supposed to be cool, but If you were to spend enough time here, you’d realize that most of the frequent posters do not have drastically similar taste. Once someone has learned the basics (which is exactly what MFA strives to aid with) they take their style into whatever direction pleases them or suits their lifestyle and personality.
This is done by broadening one’s taste through critical observation. See something in a lookbook? Like it? No? Ask yourself what exactly about that article of clothing or look you dislike. If you can’t answer those questions specifically, you probably have no business commenting on them at all beyond, “I like it” or “I don’t”
The link you posted referencing the “worst of” from NYFW is another matter entirely. Bear in mind, this shorts guide is something that is relatively accessible to beginners. It’s not “fashion” it’s just generic. Those looks from runway shows are often seemingly ridiculous or not even actually meant to be worn because they’re usually made with the purpose of showcasing a collection in mind.
Meaning those ridiculous prints or that headpiece giving you the finger was placed there to display the designer’s inspiration for the collection or to provide cohesiveness to a vague aesthetic the designer was attempting to create. A lot of it is just designers trying new things to be original or something, and just because it’s in a runway show doesn’t mean it has to be good. Designers put out shit collections on the reg, in fact this year has been pretty disappointing so far, as I only saw a handful of collections I liked from NYFW, Paris, and London.
MCLankyLegs breaks down the essentials of fit and silhouette on a particular fit
This is gonna be a pretty quick explanation that should probably be longer, but using the example of this image, we can see that he is taking an oversized coat, a long sweater or maybe even a skirt, shorts, and leggings/long underwear/ and then putting a small break before hiking boots.
Really breaking down the outfit, and looking at the silhouette and how it works, we can see that the sweater/skirt is the baggiest item, followed by the shorts, then the coat, and ending with the leggings. If one were to apply this to the MFA basics, perhaps they would use a baggy sweater, an oversized shirt with the tails poking through the bottom, and super skinny indigo died jeans with chunky redwings on the bottom.
Of course, this is just an example, and it would probably look really weird to apply this directly to the MFA basics, but this just gives you an idea of what to do with these albums.
Hope it helps.
Yo, it’s an 80’s rap ode to espadrilles by needlesslyambiguous
Alright I wrote a rap about espadrilles. It’s not bela level, but it’s pretty good, so here goes.
PS I know fly-est doesn’t really rhyme with espadrilles but it was the best I could do
Summer Shoes Jayzbee feat needlesslyambiguous
Ambiguous: Damn Jdbee, those are some fresh kicks
Jayzbee: Oh these? These are just my espadrilles, they’re great for summer
Ambiguous Man, I fucked up my vans like milkyfunk said and put leather laces in them, but I still feel like I need something better
Beat Drops
Jayzbee:
When summer comes around,
Don’t look down and frown.
Upon seeing, your ratty old vans
Get something better,
something light as a feather,
That you can even wear to the beach and in the sand
Ambiguous: But what about Common Projects? I thought they were the bomb diggity
Jayzbee:
Sure CPs are cool,
But you can’t wear them to the pool,
So take em, and throw them in the trash
You need a better shoe,
something more versatile,
that will still last you quite a while
Get somes espadrilles
And your feet will look the fly-est
In navy, grey, red, or chambray
I hope that I have helped you
In your search for a summer shoe
Now go get yourself a pair
teckneaks explains the world of “zany” high fashion using the power of metaphor
Goddamn it I wrote this thing:
One day you’re hungry. You’re typically a take out guy, but this day is a bit different and you decide to cook some pasta. You boil some noodles and get the sauce out of a can. It’s acceptable. The next day you’re watching Food Network and you see them add a bit of garlic, and you decide to try it on your sauce. As you take that first bite, you realize what a dramatic improvement it makes. Suddenly it’s not just some mushy tomatoes. Suddenly the plate starts to make sense. You’re hooked. You’ve become a foodie.
You start researching online, delving into all the variations of pasta there is. Carbonarra. Al Fredo. Ragu. As you continue to explore and your palette becomes finer, you start upping the quality of the ingredients. Organic tomatoes. Free range chicken. Fresh peppers. You end up growing your own basil.
Within about a year you are quite an expert in Italian cooking. Your friends marvel at your creations, which are beginning to veer from basic as you learn to create your own spin on the classic dishes.
Then one day, you find you don’t have any pasta in your cupboard, so you decide to go out to eat. There’s an Italian place around the corner, but you’ve had Italian food four days a week for the past twelve months. You decide, just on a whim, to check out this Ethiopian spot.
You order something you can’t pronounce, and it comes in a brown clay bowl with a side of flat bread. You’re skeptical, but you give it a taste.
Wow.
You taste an amazing wave of sensations. If the register for Italian is low and warm waltz, then what you’re eating is like an ecstatic foxtrot. There’s some usual ingredients, like carrots and potatoes, but they’ve been given new life by the cuisine. It’s a revelation. You realize now all you’re missing by sticking to just Italian cooking.
The next day you decide to try out the sushi place across town. The raw fish plays like a pared-down jazz flute. It’s subtle and tremendous. Being already a seasoned eater and consumer, you already know what to look for — all good cuisines have a balance, even if the ingredients and preparation techniques vary widely. Rather than encroach on your love of Italian, it broadens it, as you learn to find inspiration from unexpected sources.
Over the next six months you continue to explore more and more dishes and foods. You find a highly experimental molecular gastronomy place, and you bring some friends to enjoy the experience. At the restaurant, bizarre foods are being served: shrimp paste that’s been frozen with nitrogen into an nice cream. Pasta that’s been processed into foam. Eggs than have been shaped into cubes and then flash fried in hollandaise. it’s crazy. And delicious.
But your friend is unimpressed. As he spoons a handful of spherical chicken onto his plate, he laments loudly: “What is this? Why don’t we just eat some fried chicken?”
You smile at him, turn back to your plate, and take a bite.
TL:DR you should take these “bizarre” fashion pieces as an extension of the basics, an exploration of what clothes can be, and as a way of adding on to your wardrobe in new ways.
havestonaut on the aesthetic and historical appeal of Bean boots
Here’s the thing. Fashion is about creating an image that evokes a feeling right? A great outfit isn’t just about what looks good at an impulsive level. It’s about working around the limitations of a medium. It *inherently* has to follow a function.
Why are work boots in right now? Because they “look good” purely? No. They bring to mind a time of blue collar practicality. When paired with an outfit, they give it a rugged, classic vs. a fancier european shoe. And that mindset is extremely in fashion right now. We’re coming out of a recession, and our fashion trend zeitgeist is borrowing from “simpler times”. We’re looking for stability. Timelessness. And sure, the most attractive of that genre of boot has risen to the surface, but that doesn’t negate that the *purpose* of the shoe is very much involved with choosing it.
The same is true for duck boots. At this point in our culture, the LL Bean boot is a bit beyond an impulsive assessment. It has history attached to it. The boot harkens back to a time of rugged American utilitarianism. The same can be said about tweed jackets, wool cardigans, leather elbow caps, and all manner of other current *fashion trends*. These are implemented to draw our minds to another time, and another place. A navy peacoat takes us to a foggy, dew covered dock in a foreign port. A great vest takes us to a bustling London street, or the turn of the century in New York. A pair of great fitting raw denim jeans don’t just “look good”. They *feel* good to behold. And they do that in large part because of the history that comes attached to them. You can’t separate the two.
So, I think it’s a bit short sighted to universally regard an item of clothing as “hideous.” I don’t particularly like the look of cowboy boots. But if someone has an outfit down, and the personality to match, cowboy boots look utterly badass on someone. The same is true with Bean Boots. They look damned *elegant* when someone is trudging through the snow in them. It’s all about what sort of tale an outfit tells. After all, the old adage that “form should follow function” applies just as readily to fashion as it does to design. An airplane that flies beautifully will look beautiful. A suit that fits beautifully will do the same. When fashion or design place form *before* function, we end up with a Louis XIV mindset, and every day people start trying to pull off this sort of thing. No thanks.
TL;DR - Don’t disregard utility, even when wearing clothes only for “fashion.” Good function breeds good fashion. Or rather, good fashion borrows the best from good function.
fluent_in_wingdings on the role of inspiration albums
I don’t know why I’m surprised but a lot of the comments on this thread are painfully ignorant. I was about to respond to people individually but I really don’t have the energy for this shit.
Metcarfre has put together a solid inspiration album on a style that he likes, not everyone has to like it. In fact it’s good that not everyone likes it, it’d be boring if we all had the same opinion all the time.
But there are 70 pictures here, there is no way that someone could put 70 pictures together and some complete stranger on the internet would like every detail of every single one of them. That’s not the point, you’re not supposed to be like ‘eh hold on I really don’t like the way he’s wearing a watch over his shirt in picture 234, this album is shit’ or ‘picture x isn’t inspiring so I closed the album’ Just look through and try to see what, if anything, you can learn from each picture. Or just look at the pictures and enjoy. Or just move on.
By all means start a discussion about how you the aesthetics you like/dislike, but don’t just say ‘i don’t like that, real men shouldn’t wear navy’. Try to actually build a discussion about it.
Finally, there is no one true way anything should fit. Don’t be like ‘uh why cuff jeans, why not buy just jeans that fit’ if you like the way jeans look cuffed, then jeans with a slightly longer inseam DO fit you.
