"The Satorialist": Reclaiming the power of innovation for all

Kidnapped by Style: When shopping for authentic yet affordable styles, go vintage

All of a sudden, I had an urge to purchase a pair of cowboy boots. I think it started the night that I watched "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" with friends—friends who insisted on wearing cowboy boots themselves while watching a movie replete with a like-booted cast. "They're awesome, and they add just a bit of height," one friend says. The last-described characteristic of the boots attracted me especially, for, dear readers, your columnist has always looked for ways to artificially increase his diminutive height. (And before you suggest heel inserts, let me tell you, I have been there. My middle school years were spent with said inserts and, unfortunately, inserts are forever tied to those painful years of life, so alas, I must move on).

Kidnapped by Style: This spring, show your Wilde side and redefine fashion

In this column, I strive to offer sources of stylistic inspiration from outside the Bowdoin Bubble: magazines, blogs, experience in different cities and countries. Admittedly, some forays are more inspired than others. My column on novelty boxers is more my plea to humanity to cut it out than "inspiration." However, I do think, since the season threatens to change ever so gently, that I should address questions not as of yet covered by my column: "What is style?," "Why does it matter?," and "Why should anyone care?"

Kidnapped by Style

"The Satorialist": Reclaiming the power of innovation for all

February 20, 2009

Sometimes confessions are necessary to move forward, so I will go ahead and get this out of the way: I am not an innovator, at least not all of the time. Sure, there are times when I'll put an outfit together that no one else might think of (and, admittedly, sometimes with good reason), but there are other times when I look for inspiration as fervently as everyone else. At such times, images from magazines, newspapers, and news sites come to mind. What was Colin Firth wearing in In Bruges, and why did it seem to fit his character so well? What was Michelle Obama wearing on election night? Was it from J. Crew? However, the age of information offers more specific portals to sartorial thought.

Seemingly from another age, we have the old vestiges of print media still offering fashion tips to the men and women that will have them: Esquire and GQ for men, or Elle, Glamour, and Vogue for women. I'm skipping many, I'm sure. The advice that these magazines give is often useful in some capacity, but it has its limits. I once got excited by a tag line for a GQ article that read something like, "Great outfits for under $100!" It turned out that the article was suggesting individual pieces of clothing for under $100, not the whole outfit—useless. Magazines also seem to have a bias for designer labels, probably because designer labels sponsor them. The reader's say in what the magazines present, then, is limited. Need more specific suggestions that month? Too bad. In all honesty, some of the best sections of Esquire have nothing to do with style and instead focus on humor, social commentary, fiction. Great stuff, but not style.

The Internet offers a wealth of great fashion ideas and tips. The blogosphere has become a space that empowers anyone to offer an opinion, and of course, some of them are great, inventive, and insightful, while others fail on all fronts. But often times, style comes from those that practice it, not an overlord that approves or disapproves of individual wardrobe combinations. To this extent, even the worst style blog has something to offer.

Last week, I was tired of the only two ways I knew how to tie a scarf. I could sit there on the side of my bed, inventing new ways to tease wool or silk into different shapes, or I could waste less time on my trivial endeavor by simply typing "how to tie a scarf" into Google. Quickly, I found a great blog for guys (kinowear.com) that offered nine different ways to tie a scarf—one of them that I would have never thought of myself. For the record, this knot is the "fake knot," where one end of the scarf has a square knot tied into it and the other end is pulled through the knot; it's now my favorite way to tie a scarf. Try it. It's especially great for shorter scarves.

One of the better-known style blogs on the Internet is "The Sartorialist" (thesartorialist.blogspot.com). Reviews of this site appear in various print media magazines across the world, and the site has been named as one of Time Magazine's Top 100 Design Influences. This blogger bases his fashion insight on pure, day-to-day observation. When he sees someone particularly sartorially-inclined, he stops them, snaps a picture of them, and then posts the picture up on his blog for all to observe. Often, he lets the picture speak for itself.

He seems to source the pictures primarily from New York, Milan, and Paris, but the types of clothing are available anywhere. Currently, as it is winter in all of the aforementioned cities, the outfits showcase what is possible as far as cold-weather fashion. Warmth is achieved not solely through sweatshirts and ski jackets, but through the creative layering of many different articles of clothing, combining many different patterns, textures, and colors to the functional end of temperature-related comfort. And we all know how I love me some layering. If I had to level one complaint against his choices, it's that he sometimes snaps pictures of people whose clothing clearly does not fit as it should, sometimes making the people appear a bit misshapen. A good eye should be able to spot it.

Altogether, what I love about the site the most is that, unlike fashion magazines or popular culture in general, these fashion blogs seem to de-emphasize the power of brand. Look at the pictures on the site, and you'd be hard-pressed to see an article of clothing directly attributable to Polo, J. Crew, or any of the like. The blog gives the power to innovate back to the person that wears the clothing, not to whoever designs it. It says that today's Internet brings inspiration, and a bit of freedom to "stick it to the man."

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