Fashion Checkpoint (1.5 months ish)
Wanted to do a post now that I’ve been posting fit and being more intentional about outfits for a bit, about a month and a half now. I'm gonna ramble a bit about the journey with clothes and also outside of clothes but if you don't wanna read I'd appreciate "I ain't reading all that"-ing me and just giving any feedback on the fits and areas I might be able to improve or types of clothes that I could expand into, if you have any.
Fashion Stuff
Overall I’ve been really happy with my progress and improvements in my confidence about clothing. Bought several pieces that felt like very natural directions to head in for me, leather gloves, leather shoes, scarves, chore coats, an overcoat. Even pushed myself to explore pieces that I avoided for social anxiety type reasons, blazers/sport coats, ties of course. In particular something I feel more confident in is color choices and matching. I feel I have a good gut instinct for what I like and what would look good in this area, so it feels good to be validated both internally and externally on that.
Self diagnosed areas of improvement for me IMO are in silhouette and textural coordination. I also want to work on being more intentional not just in what I’m wearing but how I’m wearing it. All of these factors feel a bit like blind spots for me at the moment, in that I’m usually not thinking very intentionally about them and I probably should be. Also as much as I feel good about the colors I gravitate towards, I still want to see if I can branch out even more. I’m also perpetually looking for more ways to accessorize, have found ties and scarves so far, could look into neckerchiefs, want to hunt down more categories though (especially looking forward to spring/summer). I also kinda want to work on poses and also fit pit locations, but that feels more like a tangential thing to me that I also happen to be interested in from a photography angle but not directly relevant to fashion.
Pieces I’m thinking about picking up in the short to mid term:
- Sweaters in more colors/styles
- Corduroy pants
- More sport coats
- Denim chore coat
- More types of outerwear
- Maybe eventually a leather jacket
Like I mentioned, if you have thoughts or recommendations or feedback I’d love to hear them. I’ve attached some of my favorite fits that I’ve posted so far for convenience.
Misc Wholesome Rambling
Just wanted to write somewhere that posting fits daily has been one of the most surprising, fulfilling, and challenging things I’ve ever done, coming from a math brained tech guy who has only ever expressed himself creatively in HTML/CSS.
Some of the positive effects of it that I’ve seen:
- Turns out when you dislike how your smile looks on camera, a great way to fix that is to take hundreds of distinct photos of yourself where you’re trying to smile.
- I’ve never had more photos of myself than I do now, like I think I’ve already surpassed the total photos of myself I had before I started taking fit pics, good feeling when I’m usually pretty MIA from my own photos app.
- One of the bigger roadblocks for me wearing clothes I like is a perception sourced from anxiety that I’m wearing something I “shouldn’t be” for whatever reason I can invent for that (overdressing, bad outfit, unconfident, “trying too hard”, etc). Getting the validation from waywt has been so instrumental to really rapidly tearing those feelings down and just getting to wearing things I like.
- Expressing myself creatively in clothes has fulfilling and challenging to me enough that it’s gotten me pushing to be creative in other hobbies that I’ve been thinking about doing “some day” for years (writing, photography, music production).
Really enjoying my time here and following along with the discussions, learning a lot and getting more confident in myself and my taste. Everyone is so positive and encouraging, and it's frequently been the highlight of my days since becoming more active. ❤️
33 Replies
This is like 80% journal entry and 20% fashion advice post but I just started writing and couldn't stop for 700 words I guess
Amazing and love how insightful this process has been for you
Will definitely be on the lookout for your evolution and feel free to let us know in your waywt posts if you want feedback
ye blanket permission to throw feedback at me in those (although I'll mention it in the post if I'm specifically desperate for some). I think it'll be helpful for me to just hear other opinions about this stuff and see how it lines up with my own thoughts
thus this post kinda too
You've said it yourself in that silhouette is the next direction to push. You have a cohesive style, good eye for colour, your outfits work and make sense. It's all a matter of personal taste but the same outfits with a more relaxed silhouette would be on another level.
relaxed silhouette would generally mean like, "looser" and "baggier" pieces yeah? of course there's specificity there but like generally?
Yes, looser, wider. It's a game of cm's. Baggy might be another step up.
gotcha. olive chinos in 2nd to last pic probably fit the bill and have actually rapidly been becoming a favorite pants of mine (along with the cream pleated trousers) just due to how they flow when I walk. I'll need to look a bit into what outerwear I'd like in that looser fit.
Take your time. I know for myself it was a journey of degrees. My first "wide" pair I'd thought I'd made a huge mistake but now those pants are on the slimmer side compared to what I currently shop for.
Hah yeah, there’s been plenty of things like that I’ve warmed up to more and more.
I love these posts!!
I actually think your color and textures are awesome. The purple tie with the blue shirt is a stand out to me.
All of these thoughts are just a matter of taste but for silhouette I think your pants are universally too short and sometimes too slim. I think simply uncuffing your pants in all of these fits would change the silhouette drastically.
Overall tho you’re crushing it imo
Love this thank you. I’m still expanding out away from my previous wardrobe of slim pants so I’m wearing some of them out of necessity at this point. Hadn’t clocked the too short bit yet though, so thank you
Tapered pants w/ exposed socks at the ankles reads a bit like 2016 lol
the colors are real nice though
It’s not bad, it just looks a little dated to me and I think is the main thing you can easily mess with to change the silhouette
Stupid example lol
No I get ya
The olive chinos in the 2nd to last pic I referenced before seem like a good fit to model after, they are cuffed in that pic and I could simply uncuff them to get that length. And anyway, having them long enough to touch my shoes means if I want to show sock I can just cuff upwards
great writeup! As someone who buys 99% of their stuff online, trying stuff on in person is a great way to go out of your comfort zone without spending any money or "paying school fees" as Ethan/the teenage gentleman would say
Yep yep I’ve pivoted to majority shopping in person when I can, good shout on the idea of just trying stuff on as a way to model things. Shopping in person great for feeling more confident about my purchase but of course if I’m blind to all the ways to evaluate fit on me then it can only help me as much as the staff are knowledgeable (some great shops with very knowledgeable staff near me, but still better to not be blind to it)
Someone might've said this already, but I don't think the cut/cuff on the pants is that bad, especially the jeans in the middle 2 fits. On the other hand I'm not sure if that cut/cuff is always the right choice as a piece in the whole fit, like with the big coats.
Hasn’t been mentioned but appreciate it, goes along with the thing I mentioned of not being as intentional as I want to be about how I’m wearing vs what I’m wearing
have u read bishops post on styling or wuz's on how to breathe? Both of those rewired my brain tbh
I have but I should reread now, now that I’ve been trying for bit (and probably several times after at various points in my progression)
Hits different with more familiarity
re: your point about how you're perceived, that is valid and ethan's post on occasion helped me get over that
yeah really it's something that every logical part of my brain knows with extreme confidence that my fears are not sound, but that don't always stop em
familiarity and validation and confidence do tho
validation being a kinda quick hack way to get around it that hopefully can be subsumed by the other two over time
getting little fire emojis from internet strangers hits different
it really really do
there's been several days, even still recently, where I put together something and I'm just like "this sucks it's bad I suck" and then I post and get like 8 little emojis and I flip to being king of the world
kinda just the creative process really, I just don't flex those muscles that often
something else that's also helped my confidence is seeing how my favorite posters used to dress not even like 2 or 3 years ago
hah that's a fun idea
off the top of my head, ethan, art, bchan, bishop, ler, puma, wuz, kamotejoe have all posted their old fits before, either here or on reddit
yeah, and honestly I can even just look back at my own progression and see all the progress that happened there and that validates me a fair bit as well
there's a lot of echoes to how i shifted dressing at the start of the year, and i applaud the level of introspection taken as it's not always considered when developing a personal style
i think the fits do have aspects of texture to them (denim, wool, leather), but agree with the others on exploring silhouette, both with widths of pants and more varied lengths of items
Yeah it’s less that I think I’m ignoring texture and more that it doesn’t feel intentional to me. Like I’ve clearly got some opinion in my head about texture coordinating but it’s not something I consciously think about when picking clothes and it should be
Length of pieces also is a good shout, I keep ogling everyone’s long but thinner overcoats so I should probably listen to my heart at some point on that xd
I am nothing if not introspective, occasionally to my own detriment xd. Thank you tho
These outfits look great but in all of them your pants are cropped or cuffed. It would be cool to see you wear something with a full break.
I love how thorough and self-aware you are with your sense of style and fashion. It really shows in your fits too.
I agree with thomas and Elvander, you can start playing with lengths in order to get the new shapes you desire
I love fit #1, the sweater and pants look so good together