Glamour Girl
Well, Glamour Girl admits it—she’s smitten. She always liked his music and she always knew he was cool, but she had never before been initiated into The Live Experience. As hubby put it, “she drank the Boss’s Kool-Aid, and she drank deep.”
Yes, I finally saw Bruce Springsteen live for the first time, and I can’t stop talking about it. In case you’ve been in Outer Mongolia lately, he played Charm City Friday night, to a sell-out crowd of over 14,000 in the relatively intimate space of the old Baltimore Arena. You can read all about it here, in Sam Sessa’s spot-on review in the Sun (photo by Gene Sweeney, Jr.).
He’s just as buff and gorgeous at age 60 as he’s been most of his life, and his energy level—and that of the E Street Band—is off the charts. But I also noticed, for the purposes of this column, that even in the fashion department Springsteen has a sense of style. He was wearing what I suppose one could call the classic rocker ensemble of denim and black. But why the buttoned-up vest over the T-shirt? Seems a little formal, doesn’t it, for a modern-day troubadour at a concert?
It got me to thinking about the way American men dress in general, and why they so often equate “casual” with boring, unimaginative, or just plain slob. When I looked around at the crowd Friday night, I saw that most men were wearing baggy T-shirts, usually with some kind of logo or illustration or saying printed on them, ill-fitting jeans, and those ubiquitous, inexplicably popular baseball caps, often turned around backward for an extra fillip of doofus-ness.
Why? Why is this the casual uniform of the American male?
Even the idea of “dressed up” to most born-in-the-USA men is a pair of khakis with a bland button-down shirt. That’s it. Where’s the pizzazz, the whimsy, the personality? You don’t have to dress like a dandy (though that can be fun) and you don’t have to spend a boatload of money. You just have to exhibit the tiniest appreciation for color, for texture, for shape, for something. For distinguishing yourself in some way. Even those painfully hip, terminally black-clad young 20-somethings with their pants so skinny and tight they look like it would take the Jaws of Life to pry them off are at least showing some personal style.
What, for instance, is wrong with dressing like British designer Ozwald Boateng in this picture:
He’s wearing jeans. Pretty worn jeans from the look of them. A simple turtleneck. And a sportcoat. An unusual sportcoat. A sportcoat with a—gasp!—windowpane plaid. Perish the thought.
Here’s another one where he’s kind of semi-casual and semi-dressed-up:
Again, note the jeans. You don’t have to wear a tuxedo to look good.
You also don’t have to search high and low for such a look. J. Crew has lots of great menswear at reasonable prices. You buy one good-looking, versatile sportcoat and you can wear it forever. How about this one—a little unexpected because of the velvet, perfect for the holidays and parties in general:
If velvet’s not your cup of tea, they have plenty of more traditional fabrics such as corduroy and tweed to choose from.
Here’s a look by Tom Ford that’s a bit more bold:
Bolder still is Ozwald Boateng again, this time in a gorgeous suit that, yes, I know, I know, no straight American man is ever going to wear. But see how great he looks in it (and yes—he’s straight):
What’s wrong with bold? Why not make a statement? Why do you want to look like the perennial college kid who has no idea how to dress so he just slaps on his older brother’s hand-me-downs?
If you want to get dressy, take a cue from the master:
Valentino, in an impeccably fitted classic suit. No wild color here, no strange shape or cut—just a straightforward tailored suit.
Now I’m not suggesting you pay Valentino prices (unless you can afford them, in which case, god bless!). The picture is to get across the idea that classic need not mean boring any more than casual must.
And if you do want to venture into brighter territory, show a little guts with ties. So many American men are afraid of anything but standard stripes in dull colors. The same reds and blues and muddy maroons. Why not beautiful patterns? If you really wanna make a splash, especially with women, wear a floral tie (French and Italian men wear these all the time, without worrying about their masculinity). These Robert Talbott ties are stunning:
But if you’re reeling from all this pattern, okay, no problem. Here’s a Louis Féraud tie that’s just as lovely, just as statement-making, but a lot more subtle:
There are many places in Baltimore where you can find great men’s clothing, from Nordstrom to J. S. Edwards to Samuel Parker to Gian Marco to Cloud 9 to vintage stores such as The Zone (fancy a Cary Grant look? that’s where vintage comes in handy). And if you’re a newcomer or just uncertain about how to handle all the choices, these places also dispense great advice.
Oh, and always check out The Sartorialist for a wide range of fashion ideas in general. You never have to look like a clone.
I’ll leave you with a slideshow of jaw-dropping makeovers done by Tim Gunn, of Project Runway fame, recently on Oprah. See—he didn’t ruin anybody’s personal style or try to jam his own down anyone’s throat. He just made these men look like the grown-ups who were lurking there all along.
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