Why?

I emerge from my long sabbatical to ask - why is it that I really enjoy rolled-up sleeves on a long-sleeve dress shirt, but think short-sleeve dress shirts are an abomination? I can even go with untucked dress shirt with rolled up sleeves, and think it dressyish (in a business casual sense) but short sleeves? Yuck.

Why is that?

And I'm gone again. For now. Pictures to possibly follow.

Why I love fashion/style illustration

Fashion and style illustration can be an odd thing - in so many ways, it does present an idealized world, in which there is always that perfect breeze which floats the tails of your coat without endangering your hat. More than that, one always has the perfect wardrobe - well dressed for every occasion, in items that actually fit. What a novel concept. At the same time, the pictures are oddly less idealized than much modern fashion photography. The people here come in many sizes, and some of the men seem positively chunky under their overcoats. Complexions range from brown to pale to red, unfortunately never including anything darker than brown... and, oddly, the rumples in the clothes are not always perfect. Look at the suit in the upper right. I would not describe these rumples as "idealized" in fact, the back is realistically tight with the arms crossed. I enjoy this odd mingle of idealization and reality, and find it more compelling than many of the modern airbrushed and frankly, all too normal photos in which the most that changes is, perhaps, with more drama than necessary, the cut or color of a jacket.

I want that suit... no wait... those suits...

no, wait... that club... I want to be part of that club.

Another wonderful apparel arts illustration. I enjoy the mid grey-blue sweater (or is it a sweater vest?) under the lightish gray tweed suit. And are those brown suede shoes? Delightful. Also notice the black shoes and blackish bowler on the man in the left in navy. It's a grayish navy (I'm seeing a theme) so the black seems more than acceptable. At least to me.

Apparel Arts

Men's Flair this week found this link to a Fedora Lounge scan of Apparel Arts images. Apparel Arts was a magazine which presented to men in the first half of the twentieth century the styles of that day, and is one of the best records of the ideals of men's clothing. The beautiful illustrations still inspire, and, at times, present timeless clothing in timeless art.

The above illustration, for example, makes me want more tweedy suits, and a fedora with just that curve in the brim. Look at the contrasts in pocket squares, and the way they balance each suit. The peak lapel model on the right sports a square linen whose material speaks of a casual nature unlike that of the suit's cut. The student on the left wears a silk pocket square, well-contrasted to his dry-looking tweed suit, with single-breasted cut and flexible informality.

Gary Cooper is consistently wearing clothes I wish I could pull off. In the previous image, it was the white shirt, in this, its the white turtleneck. It's obviously thin, in colder climes one could begin to wear it now, especially in the evening. Look at the shine and vibrancy it adds to his face, the way he stands above it, and the eyes are set aglow by the white turtleneck, but you are still drawn to the face more than the sweater.

Though one could debate that.

White Shirts

Some days, I wish I had dark hair, just so I could carry off a white shirt like this.

Cooper and wide pants for summer

Gary Cooper seems to many truly one of the great early heroes of film style, and for many good reasons. Here, I use him to uphold my argument that wide pants are acceptable, even elegant for summer.
A few things to notice:

Though his pant legs are wide, his sleeves are not.

Along with that, if anything, the width of his pants emphasizes the slim lines of his coat.

Though there is obviously a bit of texture to the suit, Cooper eschews a tendency towards pattern (as Alan Flusser noted, his height allowed him to wear large patterns). However, patterns generally add width, and enough of that is added by the pants as-is, besides this, the solid attracts less attention to the leg width and thus allows the pant width to be subtle enough to be classic.