I see a lot of backlash here against men not wearing socks. IMO, this is a knee-jerk counter-reaction to the trend, which is as misguided as wearing something just because it's trendy. There is a better way to think about when you should wear socks. 🧵 As always, do what you like. But if you're wearing a formal suit with formal shoes, I think you should wear socks. Not doing so is incongruous and confusing. Or, at the very least, looks dated and twee in a 2012 menswear way.

I get this sort of question a lot: "How should I dress given that I'm XYZ?" The XYZ usually has something to do with age or physical characteristics, such as height, skin tone, or body shape. So, let me do a thread here. 🧵 I don't really believe you have to dress for your age. You may want to consider your lifestyle, which sometimes correlates with age. But I don't think you have to dress in any particular way. Here are some older guys wearing all sorts of stuff that I think is stylish

If you like quality for quality's sake, and you mostly wear casualwear, then I think you should check out the Japanese brand 45rpm. 🧵





I fell in love with 45rpm 15 years ago after coming across their lookbooks. Their lookbooks at the time were often shot by Eric Kvatek, a talented photographer who now works for Kapital. Here are some images from more recent lookbooks (my old image files are too low res)

Quality fabric is still being made today, but it often costs more than what people are willing to pay for clothes. I will give a few examples. 🧵

https://twitter.com/sumpfgas/status/1785553774834008232

In this old Brooks Brothers catalog from 1915, we see an entry for Chesterfields, a type of single-breasted "city coat" made with a velvet collar. At the time, Brooks Brothers offered these in Vicuna, Cheviot, and Elysian. Coats were lined in satin and piped with velvet.

Someone from @piersmorgan's staff asked if I would like to come onto Pier's show, Piers Morgan Uncensored, to talk about the state of his attire. Since he invited feedback, I thought I'd do a thread comparing his style to menswear icon Kermit the Frog. 🧵

Let's again start with the basics.

The core of any outfit is fit and silhouette. Pier's suit jackets often have lapels that buckle away from his chest and a collar that floats from his neck. This suggests his jackets may be too small.

Let me show you something. 🧵 The buttoning point is the topmost button on a two-button coat or the center button on a three-button coat. It serves as the coat's visual fulcrum, determines the narrowest part of a jacket, and is where the lapels bloom.

I disagree that you dress like Cary Grant. In this thread, I will list some of the ways in which your dress differs and why such important details matter. 🧵

https://twitter.com/TateTheTalisman/status/1783875443210227761

On Twitter and elsewhere, I often notice that people collapse men's style into very broad forms. A suit is just a suit, and pants are just pants. But in fact, tiny differences make a huge impact, and more attention should be paid to silhouette, shape, and detailing.

Along with keeping you warm and protecting you from the elements, our clothing performs other important functions: making us look good, communicating our identity, and speaking in a language that makes cultural sense. In tailoring, the number of buttons communicates something. 🧵

https://twitter.com/SaferHaywood/status/1784258188885348767

A one-button closure is considered formal. With the exception of Huntsman, a Savile Row tailoring house that has made it part of its house style, it is typically only seen on evening wear, such as dinner suits (aka tuxedos).

Here are two suits from the NFL Draft? Which do you like better?

Before reading on, please take the time to make up your mind independently, so you are not influenced by what I'm about to say. I will give my opinion below on which works better. 🧵

I should note I don't know anything about sports or these two men. The following is just commentary on the clothes, not them as people or athletes. Getting into the NFL is a massive accomplishment, and clothes don't take away from that. Congrats to both on their achievements.

Let's talk about how to find a good dry cleaner. 🧵 First, dry cleaning can be harsh on clothes, so it's best to minimize how often you dry clean them. Suits, sport coats, and wool trousers don't have to be dry cleaned often, but your frequency depends on your lifestyle (e.g., smoking, climate, etc).

Amazing to me how much better tailoring was back in the day. Just watch this scene and pay attention to your general impression of the clothes. Then, I'll point out some things in the thread below. 🧵

https://twitter.com/DannyDrinksWine/status/1781740866086097266

One of the things that sticks out to me is the degree of care taken to align the stripe across the panels. This is not always possible across the collar, shoulder seam, and gorge because the panels are different lengths. But care was clearly taken here to minimize the mismatch.

In the old days, people became tailors because they had few other economic options. Their father was a tailor, and their father's father was a tailor. And so forth. In his book "Nothing but the Best," Thomas Girtin describes tailors as illiterate but talented people. 🧵

https://twitter.com/Resentneedacct/status/1781458418764595659

In post-war Britain, such tailors were working-class people who were more motivated by booze than money. One guy went around Savile Row during lunchtime with cheese sandwiches stuffed into his pockets and pails of beer hanging off a broomstick. This he sold to hungry tailors.

Charles may have visited the shop and perhaps even accepted a gift, but this does not make Sam "his tailor." The king's civilian suits are made by Andrson & Sheppard (for decades now), and his military garb by Gieves & Hawkes. You can tell bc he wears a drape cut. 🧵

https://twitter.com/tmpbrowne/status/1781447723306061830

The term "drape" refers to the extra material around the chest, where excess fabric "drapes" along the armhole. This cut was invented by the Dutch-English tailor Frederick Schlote, who trained Per Anderson, co-founder of Anderson & Sheppard. Here he is with A&S cutter Hitchcock

Mescal's shoes here don't fit very well. Here's how to tell and how you can use this bit of information to buy better shoes when shopping. 🧵

https://twitter.com/21metgala/status/1781312400278368586

Let's start with some terminology. "Facings" refers to the part of the shoe that holds the eyelets (through which your shoelaces are threaded). Oxfords have "closed facings," which means the facings are sewn under the vamp. Derbies have "open facings," as the facings sit on top.

You've heard of the King of Spain, now get ready for the Duke of Huéscar. 🧵 Fernando Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Huéscar, might be the second most stylish living royal (after the King of Spain). Let's explore what makes his style so great. And how some of these things can apply to your own wardrobe (I promise, you don't need to be an aristocrat).

Let's talk about shirt monograms. 🧵

https://twitter.com/Waller7J/status/1778770040281587909

We should first start with some definitions. Technically speaking, these are not monograms.

OK, I'll comment. 🧵

https://twitter.com/THR/status/1779320315098906931

The jacket is pretty good in that there's minimal waist pulling, and the collar hugs his neck even as he moves his arms. The main issue is that the sleeves are too slim, causing them to catch on his arms. Compare this to the second pic, where sleeves drape cleanly.

NYC, 1930s (colorized)

Have you ever felt that the average person dressed better in the past? IMO, the reason has nothing to do with respectability, body shape, or even suits.

It has to do with the loss of what I call "shape and drape." 🧵 Let's start with some definitions. The term shape refers to silhouette, which is the shape of our clothes when we remove all the details (i.e., the outfit's outline). Notice that Hepburn's outfits have a distinctive shape that's not just her human form.

I will tell you what I notice. 🧵 Most people would not describe Trump as someone who wears slim-fit clothes. But here, we can see his trousers are quite slim in relationship to his body. You can tell because the hem barely covers the opening of his shoes.

Aside from the fact that this guy sells online courses on how to get rich, I will explain why it's obvious from his clothes that he's not an aristocrat but rather a middle-class striver. 🧵

https://twitter.com/bayneframework/status/1776350601091121531

When I use the term "aristocrat," I'm referring to the ruling class in Europe with hereditary rank and titles. For the sake of this thread, I will mostly focus on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries, as that's where we get most of our norms regarding classic men's style.

I will give two reasons why you should wear a tie if you're in a formal business suit. 🧵

https://twitter.com/chrisjollyhale/status/1776113497467695615

IMO, the best way to have these conversations is to start with what inspires you. When it comes to men's tailoring, I think the period between the 1930s and 1980s, especially as these clothes were worn by certain people, is the most beautiful (in the genre of men's tailoring).