Pulling it off - Topic of the day 4/2/24
How do you know if you're pulling something off? If there's a look or garment you feel as though you can't pull off, why?
83 Replies
if someone ssays I look fruity I know I put that shit on
There's definitely fits that are harder to pull off for various reasons but it's just a :skillissue: . I don't think anything is impossible.
The secret sauce of “pulling it off” is the same as the secret sauce of making a good fit it’s just only noticeable with more “challenging” fits
It has to “click”
It has to cohere and become more than the sum of its parts
With more extravagant things it requires more commitment
You can’t go halfway to dressing like a clown because the story gets muddied
Clarity of vision
confidence also key
also i just have to call out booooooo AI generated picture booooooo oeven though the pope has that shit on incredibly
Oh I thought this was real smfh
I think this is communicated the same way as the other things though
Communicate confidence in your idea
Im not pulling it off if I feel that the clothes are wearing me. Self confidence is the key, who the hell is someone else to say I'm not pulling a fit off?
For me this has always been less about skill and more about sincerity. Which is hard because so much of what we wear is so long divorced from how it was originally worn, and it’s so fun to play dress up.
Make sure your execution is holistic and it will read as confidence
Like I feel jokey in a leather jacket, and I think that shows immediately
yeah 100%, basically just a diff way of rephrasing what you said, but i do think ppl psych themselves out
like im sure you look completely normal in a leather jacket
society is so fucked jesus H christ
I think the adages are true but not actionable, like yeah believe in yourself and yeah “clothes are wearing you” looks bad but what is it that mechanically is different
Is that the necklace from your recent fit battle pic?
This is a visual communication medium
Everything you do is communicating
Yeah I think if you're expressing something sincere, you're generally going to pull it off. Second part of that is communicating it well.
Maybe, but like, other stuff that I thought I would look silly in. Like bigass culottes or berets I found I actually loved sm because they felt more sincere to me
If you put on something challenging you have to back it up by communicating well everywhere
Idk maybe that devolves into like “authenticity” which is pointless
I mean look at the image quality for the past week of totds I'm clearly just bad at my job
im describing people that i think people do have outfits that are put together enough to look good but still have some fear about it
i look at the mirror
and I know
I think this is just about personal style though
simple as
This is learning what you like and what feels like you
Which is absolutely important
True. Being able to pull it off isn’t being able to wear everything
And contributes to how you present yourself in your clothes
Also ya, feel like "the clothes are wearing you" is mostly false
But if you are put in a position where you have to wear something that doesn’t feel like you, you can still pull it off
You just have to execute
I think as you get older and more confident in yourself/know yourself better, it gets easier to be more confident in what you wear
Confidence doesn't mean you're executing well of course.
I definitely feel way more confident in tailoring as an old than I did when I was younger.
Execute, believe in your execution of vision, so that you believe in yourself and that is clear
I think repetition is key too, you gotta keep wearing stuff to feel comfortable wearing said stuff
Self confidence alone doesn’t make it work, first and foremost you have to do a good job, and the more challenging or abnormal, the better you have to be
I used to feel goofy as hell wearing ties so I just kept wearing ties
Also people will just stop asking why you're wearing a tie.
Its as simple as the outfit has to be you at some level. Even if its currently aspirational.
If we take “pulling it off” as something that is an external judgement, the only thing that contributes is how you present the vision
Wait that’s kinda sick to think about a new style like a garment itself. Drapes kinda stiff n weird at first and the more u wear it the more it fits u
It doesn’t matter what you looked like yesterday or tomorrow or whatever
I might be missinterpreting but I feel that this implies there is a difference betweeen "pulling it off" from the self's perspecitves vs from the outside persepective. Is there an objective measure of "pulling it off"?
you answered my question before i finished typing lol
Pack it up. Totd solved
100% there is a difference between internal and external
somebody put this into mathematical terms so I can better understand it
what's the equation
how do I calculate if I'm puttin that shit on
Yeah personal validation and confidence is about whatever helps you get there, that’s personal
yep 100%, that is the key. you need to execute well first
If we’re talking about someone walking past you on the way to the grocery and thinking “damn that guy looks sick” it’s just about the visual communication
And I really think people are limiting themselves by thinking there is some other factor
Anyone can learn to execute
It’s all attainable
There’s no magic of this person has it and this person doesn’t so they can wear leather and the other guy can’t
this is why posting in #waywt is so important, gets you out of your head and gets you basic feedback of "sick or not"
Everything that makes you make a judgement about what someone can or can’t wear is right there in front of you and can be changed
It’s all there and you can take it and make it yours if you want to
great ideas all around, lots to think about here!
++++ to what bishop has said. I’ve always disliked the “just be confident” advice. Look how many people confidently wear bricks all the time (me). Obviously it takes more than the earnestness within yourself to make a fit good.
I also think it’s up to advice givers and asker to do a good job at actually IDing what the issue is. Sometimes it does look great and you need a bit of a boost from your homies. Sometimes it does not tho and your confidence likely wasn’t the issue.
Eh, you need to be confident to try
everyone who dresses well has had a bunch of bricks at points
you need the confidence to try in the first place
after that the best way to grow is feedback, which is what #waywt or #styling-suggestions is for in this server
obviously theres more than just being confident
but being confident gets you to the starting line
looking good is work
Sure but it’s not the only facet and there are so many stages of confidence. Do you have the confidence to try? Are you confident in the execution now that you have tried? Most of that isn’t directly shown in a fit pic either
I just find “you gotta be confident bro” to be reductive and unhelpful a lot of the time.
it is unhelpful as sole advice
what comes first, the confidence to try or strong execution, probably depends on the person. telling people to be confident is for someone who is executing well but too scared to do something different from their usual
Something I think might be helpful is defining the exact difference, if any, between pulling an outfit off and just wearing an outfit that's good
"Pulling that shit off" vs "putting that shit on"
i dont think there is a difference
I tend to think pulling an outfit off implies a sense of ambition
This is what I was talking about with something being more challenging requiring more
Challenging meaning “challenging to norms” not as in degree of difficulty
If something is relatively in scope, the scale of commitment required is lower
If your executing solidly decent ivy fits, your jewelry and hair and makeup aren’t as much of a factor
But if you want to execute some whacky goth ninja shit you have to make sure your story is cohesive all the way through
tbf you can brick an ivy fit with jewlery/hair/makeup
And that’s when the outfit becomes about more than just the clothing and about the whole story
but its harder to brick it
for my context of this conversation im thinking in the mfa context of people afraid to like, wear a pair of pants that isn't default skinny straight cut
Yeah you absolutely can
agreed with this though
if you have abnormal personal style with tats/hair/whatever you just gotta make clashes intentional when you go for clean cut, simple as
idk im with mew here mostly
i think the majority of people lack the confidence to start putting in work. Cause it is work to develop a sense of style
and a lot of that work is putting yourself out there
and also thinking about what you like, don't like, finding ideas, looking at past fits and seeing what people called out and what you can improve, etc
self-improvement is always work basically, the further you wanna stray from the norm as bishop said the more work you will need to put in
A lot of pulling it off consistently is having put in the work to just have a good sense of when things are working and when they aren't
and identify issues in a fit yourself
As you mention, I think that, when we think about pulling something off, "the whole story" takes on greater imporance than usual.
I just think as you grow your sense of style the rest of how you present yourself will naturally follow
few people are neglecting their hair/tattoos/accessories/make-up while putting a ton of effort into fashion
i was being too generic with my statement i think but yeah i meant more towards the beginning of your journey. bishop is bringing up a very important point that there is no inherent steez and that "pulling it off" can be considered a purely technical exercise
Yeah I agree that initially many folks just need to be told it’s all going to be okay. The wide pants won’t hurt you.
I’m mostly raging against the reductive advice that you just need to be confident, bc that’s step 1. And it’s the hardest step.
Having the confidence to brick is huge
I think some of it is people want a shortcut
there isn't a shortcut you gotta work and make mistakes
yeah i agree its overprescribed. it is not as simple as just being confident
Tbh it is a shortcut. You can be super confident and just wear bricks lol
its overprescribed to some extent, but i feel like its cause a lot of the time the question is lacking
it depends on your goals too, some people want to dress better for their self confidence in general
But I think that precludes most folks from “pulling it off” since that’s an external judgement
even if that means wearing bricks
If I still like the fit the next day
As a fat guy the idea of “pulling it off” always felt illusive to me before i got good at putting that shit on. There were aspects of how my body looked that i hated and it would make me refrain from doing certain things like tucking in shirts, wearing high waisted pants, ect. And it really limited my range. Its taken a lot of years but ive gotten to a point now where i can remind myself that body image stuff is in my head.
A big turning point for me was going from the idea of wearing clothes to hide the parts of my body that i didnt like to wearing clothes in a way that make them look good despite how it may make me feel about my body image and its really improved the way i dress. I think this is part of the “don’t let the clothes wear you” theory
what's been helpful for me is dressing with intention - '7 habits of highly effective people' frames it as starting at the end but imo you're more likely to pull off something that you can an idea of the finished product
as a former fat guy this 100% there's a lot of mental baggage that can come with clothes and sometimes "pulling it off" was a measure of how effectively things were camouflaged or whathaveyou. it took a while (and a lot of clothes) to get used to the idea that effective style was accessible and attainable and i think being able to believe that is how to pull anything off
Inherent Steez, the long awaited sequel to Inherent Vice?
Yes exactly. And i say this in the context of my specific relationship with clothing and being fat but the idea can be applied more generally for sure. Pulling it off requires a shift in focus no matter the context