Good evening, ballers. I’m writing this from about 20,000 feet up, flying back from a wonderful vacation in Colorado with some old friends. I had a blast – we explored Denver and Boulder during the days, partied at night, and just enjoyed each other’s company. I know I already posted once in the new year, but just coming off vacation makes this feel like the first one, so: I hope you all had a great Near Year’s and are looking forward to an amazing 2008. Let’s keep going with Sebastian’s lessons on fashion.

Lesson with Sebastian Drake: Fashion, Part 2

Last time, we (and by we, I mean Sebastian) broke fashion down into two main elements. We already talked about the one, fit. Now we’ll cover the other one, detail.

Detail

Detail refers to little eccentricities that imply that your clothes are of high quality. Some signifiers of quality are inherent in the quality of the clothes itself – the fabric, stitching, etc – but those can be hard to spot, so high-end designers also put lots of special detail into their clothes as alternative signifiers of quality. Some examples would be interesting and eccentric stitching, cool pockets, non-functional zippers, cool buttons, artful rips or distressing in jeans, and so on. Any cool, funky little detail that makes the clothes more interesting is the sort of detail we’re talking about, and it’s a good thing to throw into your look.

This doesn’t mean that you should be gaudy. Sebastian’s not suggesting I go over the top with lots of flashy crap all over my clothes. That sort of attire is typical of the fashion philosophy called peacocking, popular in certain schools of “pickup.” Peacocking involves wearing flashy and eye-grabbing clothes to make yourself the focus of attention. A heavily peacocked pickup artist can be quite a sight – Erik “Mystery” von Markovik, for example, might be seen sporting a hat with goggles perched atop it, gleaming vinyl pants, a transparent mesh shirt, and massive New Rock boots. Personally, I don’t peacock, and neither does Sebastian – I suppose the Tibetan bracelets I wear are attention grabbers to some extent, but it doesn’t really go beyond that. Peacocking makes a lot of sense if your goal is to attract attention, but my goal is to be a stylish, high-status guy who attracts other high-status people. Sebastian is teaching me a fashion philosophy more in alignment with my personal aims. So if your goals are similar to mine in this area, then don’t be too outrageous, but do add some little details that give you a stylish edge, especially things that stand out at a distance.

If you add too much flash and dazzle to your look – say, big iced-out chains – you can lose some attainability and legitimacy. In other words, you’ll come off as a player or as hopelessly out of people’s league (or, if you can’t pull it off, as goofy-looking), and these are not good things. A great way around this, which will let you add some flash and ball out without sacrificing your attainability, is to add flash in your functional accessories. The functional accessory slots are: socks, scarf, belt, and watch. These are things that you wear for functional reasons, and so somehow you get a little more slack in being flashy with them than you would with a non-functional accessory like a bracelet or even a tie. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t wear non-functional accessories – I love wearing neckties, myself, and I also have a few bracelets – just that you have less leeway in getting super flossy with those items.

Again, the functional accessory slots are: socks, scarf, belt, and watch. Always wear cool socks – I like argyle patterns, and I also have some ridiculous, brightly-colored ones that I like to wear when the rest of my outfit is more monochromatic and subdued. I also picked up two scarves that I’ve been wearing a lot lately. One is very long and thin, sort of rolled in on itself, with a grey-and-black stripe pattern and tassels at the end. The other has a cool pattern of grey, purple, and pink. My watch is a ballin’-ass Diesel that an ex-girlfriend bought me as a birthday present, and my belt is… well, to be honest, my belts are pretty boring. I should upgrade soon.

Sebastian suggests matching your shoes, belt, and watch if you can. Personally, I only have one watch, which makes that a little tougher. I might buy some cheap, cool-looking watches, or I could also swap my current black watch-band for one in the color “cappuccino,” a dark brown that Sebastian says matches with brown, black, and red. Sebastian gave another cool little tip here: if your job involves corporate dress – say, if you’re at a law firm or investment bank – you can quickly go from a work look to a going-out look by swapping out your shoes, belt, and watch for a pair of white shoes, a white belt (or black belt with white buckle), and a white-plastic-coated metal watch (Sebastian says Guess makes good ones). Just keep the white gear in a box under your desk, and there you go.

A Quick Word on Buying Clothes

Before Sebastian buys a new item of clothing, he first makes sure that either: 1) it’s an incredibly good bargain, or 2) it will instantly become the coolest item of its type in his wardrobe. If neither of those is true, he doesn’t buy.

And that wraps up the lesson on fashion. Go forth, get fly, and have fun.

Cheers,
Clark