Which fashion “rules” do you follow and which do you disregard? - Topic of the day 11/14/23
Black belt goes with black shoes? No mixing jewelry? Never tuck in something with a waistband? What are some classical fashion rules that you think are worth following, and which are old adages that don't really matter in 2023?
42 Replies
Probably the one I care about the least is the idea of "looking taller". I'm 5'6", so pretty short. There is countless fashion advice out there for short people about proportions and types of clothing that will make you look taller than you are, or your legs longer. These are just not traits I value and being short with shorter legs isn't something I'm insecure about or feel needs rectifying. I like oversize clothing, I like long torso silhouettes ( @TGO is the master of this imo), and I think these rules tend to result from insecurity from the social utility side of fashion rather than the hobbyists.
1) rules that are centered toward specific regions/climates, may not be applicable to another. dress codes for regions like nyc and london dont work in tropical areas.
2) rules that ignore how how other people around you are dressing. for example, a dressy outfit may be great in downtown metro area, but overkill in a more rural area.
Basically all traditional “rules” apply only to formal tailoring and contexts where formal tailoring is actually required are vanishingly few these days.
For casual wear I think it’s useful to disregard ~all fashion “rules”.
I’ve yet to hear something that sounds like a rule and makes sense without copious amounts of context
im gna be honest i dont rly ever actively think about "rules" of fashion i just put things on and evaluate whether i think they work well together
Short kings rule the world
I don’t even think most are worth “learning” these rules to “break them” even. Like don’t wear black and navy together makes zero sense unless you’re talking about suit separates. Black boots are awesome with blue denim
Best approach
I've heard the black and brown rule one time and was like that sounds lame so I never thought about asking again
Again only a rule for suiting! Don’t wear brown shoes with a black suit. That’s it!
i've neglected black as a colour (or...the absence of it, i guess) because i took that rule as gospel for everything. was only when i started playing around with it that i realised it was pretty nonsensical when it came to casual wear
fashion rules are like music theory. they're a good guide for making an outfit, and you can point to them in describing why one particular outfit "works" but they are never hard and fast rules, nor are they often considered by a large swath of people
Black shoes are so hilariously easy to wear
I tried to type out a similar sentiment and then you swoop in and say it perfectly
I don’t know if this is a fashion rule or just a rule I set for myself but I try not to have more than 1 set of cuffs in an outfit. Like I am not cuffing my pants and sleeves in the same outfit
I honestly feel like this goes too far. I’ve never seen an outfit and been like “oh this does/not work bc ‘no brown in town’” or something
thats fair, it's a bit of a stretch. i was thinking more about "do this" rules as opposed to "dont do this" rules. nobody's going to say that some specific piece works because theres never a tritone in it
My caveat being MFA newbies always seem to find the weirdest rules to latch onto. I suppose I have heard decent rules of thumb for silhouette stuff like where a waistline can hit to help proportion a look
Oh great point “do this” rules I tend to find to be much better
Adding to the music theory analogy, sometimes the circumvention of rules is what makes something interesting. I guess what I'm saying is that "rules" can be engaged with both as something to abide by or something to challenge with both having possibly pleasing results.
its true for all art!!! subversion is cool!!!!
I had a dream last night where I tried to harmonize but everything came out being a tri tone
Every style has its own rules or meta (🤓) that you should know, as beans said trad #menswear rules dont apply to most people
i need to see someone who dresses in full rick but follows traditional menswear rules to a T
I think there are some rules that most should follow 100% of the time (don’t wear sneaker-dress shoe hybrids, some traditional tailoring rules etc), and 80% of the time (don’t wear a fedora without a full suit, always cover suspenders) but a lot of the time it’s era dependent: stacking vs cuffing, wide vs slim, high rise vs low rise
I have my personal rules too
Like my belt line and the bottom of my tops shouldn’t match up etc
But do you break your own personal rules? 👀
I think the masculine thirds vs the feminine fourths is a very breakable rule (especially being tall with narrow shoulders, a more louche proportion can work well)
Yea ofc
That’s why there are rules
To break them
I think establishing personal guidelines can be useful, although i wouldn’t declare them “rules” necessarily. I think having set (but flexibile) boundaries around expression can allow for a type of creativity and refinement that pays close attention to details, without it i think it’d be hard to articulate a coherent personal style
A means of honing in on something rather than a barrier from experimenting and making discoveries
Music theory in relation to rules of fashion and no one has brought up jazz smh
Applying rules to fashion is approaching it all wrong ngl
like outside of menswear
which is arguably more a uniform in most cases than fashion
and the people doing the fashion side of menswear might break the rules and make it work anyway
Mostly cause all the rules that spring to mind are things you "can't" do
Music theory being taught and received as "rules" is such a disservice, I prefer to think of it as methods of articulating and guiding the way we hear music in relation to style. It dosnt help that music theory is most often taught in the context of 18th cent. Western classical music (and the most typical examples, at that), and then when that language is transposed onto other styles/genres/traditions, alot gets lost in translation. Probably similar to applying classic menswear "rules" outside of menswear. Instead of saying "know the rules" before you break them, I think its better to get fluent in the repertoire of your preferred styles, and use that aesthetic sensitivity to either adhere or diverge.
I've got alot stronger opinions on music than fashion, but I feel like there is some carryover
it's technically impossible but I think there are some specific menswear Rick fits
if I didn't have Guidi 992 I'd looked harder for a good more-formal-looking Rick shoe to pair with my jacket and slacks
is there a good Rick white button down
(as an aside, the only rules that really should be always followed are shirt and shoes required)
Couldn't have said it better! Grew up reading a lot of articles telling short men to avoid xyz and internalized a lot of those (in retrospect, pretty silly) rules. The moment i started breaking them my style got SO much better.
theres some on runway stuff that gets pretty close
ill see if i can go find any
Just like DnD the first rule of fashion is the rule of cool. If you look cool no other rules matter
there's some stuff from his 2013 Island menswear that gets pretty close (minus the toes but somebody can subsitute that)
S/S23 got close as well
yeah i feel like through assembling separates you can definitely put together a rules-compliant Rick fit
but it might not end up that interesting
I think this makes a great point. Alot of fashion “rules” are just things we know works in an outfit. You can fall back on safe color combos and what not cause you know it works but its not necessarily a rule
the whole “navy and black is whack” rule. it looks really good together, period.
brown and black too
great combos
My autistic brain wants there to be rules for clothes because I never found fashion to be intuitive and rules give me a way to know that what I'm doing at least doesn't look bad even if it's not exciting. Music comes to me intuitively so learning the rules gave me a language to explain music but never felt limiting to me.
I've had to reframe how I think about rules in fashion to just being tools rather than criteria. I've definitely taken more risks in how I dress even if it means I have to get comfortable with some outfits failing spectacularly.
Rules that I currently find helpful mostly have to do with sillouhettes (e.g. the rule of thirds) because I didn't learn to think about different ways clothes could fit when I originally learned to dress myself.
The one rule I follow strictly is don't buy things you can't afford
In fashion releases, color palettes tend to go with seasons (just look at any seasonal lookbook). Yet, it's fun to wear colorful clothing on grey winter days. So, wear what color you feel like!