On style
This may be a bit scatter-brained. It's 1AM and I just left my office—working overtime hours to try to save up some cash. But I wanted to crank out a blog post to let you know I'm not dead! I'm not dead. Just dead tired.
I occasionally browse r/streetwear, I'm a lurker. From time-to-time I dig into someone's inspo albums like these. Does looking at clothes make me want to buy more clothes? Maybe a bit. But I enjoy it. I like that style is so subjective—I've lived in a world of absolutes so long.
We're a diverse world. We're beautiful and colorful. Since the beginning of human history, we've used colors to express aspects of our identities. For example, in the first century, purple-dyed fabrics were a sign of wealth and opulence. Look up the story of Lydia, the seller of purple.
The colors we choose for our banners, logos, emblems, and flags, we often choose to convey aspects of our organizational or national identity. Colors can have a personal and sociocultural importance, but they've also got a scientific and psychological importance.
Light is perceived by our eyes as color—shorter wavelengths being violet, longer wavelengths more red. Also, there are studies that show that colors can affect our mood, can influence our spending, even increase our performance in the gym.
I know you know all of this—this isn't new stuff to anyone. I just say all that to establish that color is of great personal, interpersonal, cultural, scientific, and psychological importance. In the areas of self, our various unions, our wider culture, world cultures, nature, and the mind, color is of fundamental importance. Colors brighten our world.
In fashion, color often makes a statement. Bright colors can be loud and fun, red is rock n' roll, earthtones are muted and chill, black is sophisticated, the plain white tee is simple, timeless, and revered. Even if you wear all black—as I do—you're making a statement.
Sometimes the statement my clothing makes is, "Go away" and I'm mostly fine with that. What do you want to say with your colors? Among minimalists, I've seen some really cool color trends. Palewave is awesome. Primary colors minimalism is awesome.
Style is also an ever-evolving thing. I love this quote by Jamie Lee Curtis. She said:
My style is a distillation. I've etched out who I am through myriad haircut attempts, outfit attempts, beauty attempts, diet attempts. It's been an evolution. I've let my hair go gray. I wear only black and white. Every year I buy three or four black dresses that I just keep in rotation. I own one pair of blue jeans. I've given away all my jewelry, because I don't wear it. [It's] function over frivolity. Clean living. Clean lines.
Etching out who you are over the years... I like that. Over the last few years I've really been experimenting with what I like to wear. I tried to find the balance between comfort and confidence, cost and quality. And I think I've struck that perfect balance with the few things I wear every single day.
A turning point came when I realized that I don't want to support companies that don't share my values. Patagonia is pretty much the only label I wear because I value their push to repair and recycle.
I wear plain black tees. I bought ten of them from here. They're great—the collars don't crease. I wish I could wear white tees but I'm not responsible enough. I buy black because I spill coffee daily. I wear plain because I don't think many statements worth reading can fit on the front of a shirt anyway.
So wear whatever works for you. Wear whatever you want. If you're cool, whatever you're wearing will be cool. If you don't fit in then something's not right. Maybe one of four things is going on:
- Maybe you're being a dick and everyone around you is fed up with it
- Maybe the people around you suck and you don't want to fit in with them anyway
- Maybe this isn't your scene. You wore a t-shirt and cargo shorts to the opera? Yeah, maybe Jimmy Buffett is more your vibe
- Maybe it's all in your head. You fit in perfectly and you're just psyching yourself out
With regard to minimalism, there's just simply no right way to dress. The minimalists don't get together once a year to agree on our uniform. Don't go into debt to buy clothes, that's the one principle I think we should all follow. I wear a black Håndværk tee and jeans everyday. It's me.
I think a black suit or black dress is minimalistic. I think a t-shirt and jeans is timeless and perfectly minimalistic. Put it on and you're James Dean. Go ride a motorcycle, you beautiful person.
