This section of my little portfolio of scribbles, is going to be focussed on ‘Menswear’, which is basically, to me, a nicer way of saying my interest clothes. I don’t really like the term fashion, as I don’t really feel like I relate to it. When I think of fashion I think of two things, either the high-fashion runway stuff, which I’m not sure I fully understand, or fast fashion, which makes me feel a little sick, due to the conditions of the workplaces required to sell clothes so cheap. I also think of fashion being something highly cyclical, where I don’t believe my interest in ‘menswear’ is the same, due to the classic / ‘timeless’ nature of what I like.
But basically, when it comes to menswear, or womenswear, or any form of clobber… when it’s done right, it can get me so giddy. The way that the clothes can make someone look and feel, I think, is really special. It’s an art, and the people who design these clothes are artists. It’s a form of self-expression, just like music is, or painting, or drawing is.
The first thing I want to focus on is the part about how it makes you feel – when you’ve put some thought into an outfit, and find something which you feel comfortable and feel happy in, similarly to music, can make your day just feel better. You leave the house already feeling positive. Which is why some people also believe there is a science of fashion, where different colours, textures & patterns can have a physical effect on your attitude.
And this isn’t just about when getting dressed up in a suit or a nice frock… While a lot of people do enjoy this, it’s not that accessible to everyone, as we don’t all need to get dressed up to work, and there may not be loads of special occasions in the year which warrant it either, but it’s about feeling comfortable. When you put some thought in, and find clothes you feel comfortable and feel yourself in, then this same sensation of happiness can apply. Although it does work the other way round too – if you don’t need to dress up or wear formal clothes regularly, but these are clothes which you enjoy wearing and feel comfortable in, then do it! Because as a certain Oscar Wilde once said, “you can never be overdressed or overeducated”. It’s about you, and if that’s what you want to do, then do it and don’t worry about what other people think.
I, like many others, have spent years worrying about what people may think about me and how I look. Over this time I have definitely had the odd bit of stick regarding what I was wearing, but I came to understand that in reality, all that really matters, is that I was happy. And this then ties back into the self expression piece, about dressing exactly how you want to – that doesn’t just mean dressing up or being eccentric or standing out, it can mean looking subtle or casual too – but after speaking with a few people who have said to me things along the lines of “I could never pull that off”, I feel its important for me to say, you can, and you should. If it doesn’t work, fuck it, move on, at least you tried, and now you know that that doesn’t really work, but something else might. Trust me, we have all made some mistakes with a few of our sartorial choices over the years, but like any mistake made in life, you should use it as a learning experience to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
That was quite a big chunk on how clothes can make a person feel, but there is so the other, fairly substantial side of it, how they look. This is naturally instrumental alongside all of the above, in how they can be considered an art form, but I also believe that the construction of well made clothes is also important in why it can be considered a science, because as I mentioned in my intro, this is just how my brain works. It involves quantifiable techniques in terms of the angles in which the materials and cloth come together to make the clothes fit in different ways – whether they hug the body or drape off it, for example. It involves testing, analysing and adjusting the process, which, to be fair, when put like that, it doesn’t sound like the most thrilling thing in the world, but I think the outcome of all of these things is class. And I do just think it’s cool that it can be viewed as an art and a science, because for so long have these two things been considered so inherently different, and the more I think about it, the more I see how the two intertwine.
