Monday, September 8, 2008

Dress Up: Playing with age

After reading Luke Leitch's article How to get dressed: what is your outfit age? it made me want to mix things up and play with my age a little (plus it gave me a chance to play dress up and there just aren't enough opportunities to do so!). In general, men, especially when at leisure, rarely consider the effect their sartorial choices might have on their perceived age. Not too long ago I mentioned my desire for a smartening up across the land and although I could never be found guilty of dressing like a prepubescent (unlike many other men who should know better) I certainly don't like dressing a set age, I find the very idea of this quite absurd. Is there anyone who dresses in perfect correlation with their sartorial age? Does even a thing exist? If so, I put my name forward to mirror those reading helpers who used to help quantify a child's reading age at school and set forth and quantify one and all with sartorial age, it sounds like an interesting project. Regardless of whether this can be measured, we all need to be aware of our age when dressing ourselves in the morning and most importantly our limits which extend way beyond age. One thing is for sure, you can get away with a lot more when you have youth on your side, if nothing more you can blame naivety.



Outfit 1 - My most youthful look; Hurwendeki Biker Jacket, Hooded Plaid Shirt by Scotch, Red Skinny Jeans from Uniqlo, battered old converse.

Outfit 2 - Somewhat daring/getting too old for this look; American Apparel bowling jacket, TV t-shirt from Urban Outfitters, Skinny jeans from Uniqlo, Adidas tennis shoe.


Outfit 3 - Everyday casual look (Mid twenties); Purple wool sweater from Uniqlo, Lanvin shirt, apc jeans, suede shoes by bstore.

Outfit 4 - Now; Navy wool jumper from M&S, stripey polo from Hurwendeki, trousers by Peoples Market, shoes by b store.

Outfit 5 - Age defying?; Polka dot umbrella (found on train), apc jacket, polka dot pocket square (Haberdashery find), grey shirt by b, apc jeans, blue shoes by swear.

Here I've set my age spectrum quite narrow but even within the teenager-to-mid-twenties-to-late-twenties there is still a lot to think about. Perhaps tomorrow I will take this further but I need more props. In the meantime...what's your dress age?

Update: It almost slipped my mind but this post looks at themes explored within a previous post where I looked at the style of Nicky Haslam who dresses in High Street attire even though he is 67 years young. This example shows that we really shouldn't discriminate by age, we should only judge a person's style on whether it suits them as an individual, a case by case basis.

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