derek guy
@dieworkwear • 1,571,005 subscribers
Menswear writer. Editor at @putthison. Bylines at The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, Politico, Esquire, and Mr. Porter
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Derrick Downey Jr. runs a popular Instagram account, where he shares videos of how he takes care of local squirrels. He provides them with food and medical care, and has even helped them nurse their young. Recently posted a charming video of his new tattoo. IG derrickdowneyjr
derek guy105,269 Aufrufe • vor 1 Tag
Useful video from Justin Kwan. You can press trousers in a similar manner (use pressing cloth; only press down, don't iron). Jackets are trickier bc of amount of shaping, esp in shoulders and chest. But this can help with most issues. Much better than steaming. IG justin__kwan
derek guy117,427 Aufrufe • vor 4 Tagen
Neiman Marcus closed its downtown Dallas flagship yesterday. The store played a notable role in the history of desegregation in Dallas during the 1960s. Previously, Black shoppers across the US could enter department stores, but they weren't allowed to try on clothes before purchasing without adhering to certain conditions. For instance, they had to try on clothes over their clothes, put on protective covers when trying on hats, or weren't allowed to make returns once they purchased clothes and brought them home. These policies stemmed from the racist fear that white customers would refuse merchandise previously worn by Black shoppers. The downtown Neiman Marcus flagship was one of the first major Dallas businesses that broke with these practices. In 1961, the company desegregated its Zodiac Room, a swanky restaurant frequented by Dallas elites. Neiman Marcus later welcomed Black shoppers without restrictions. These victories were achieved through the efforts of Civil Rights activists, along with support from Neiman Marcus president Stanley Marcus, who was an early advocate for desegregation in Dallas. The Neiman Marcus store manager purportedly warned Marcus that he would ruin his business — and indeed, some shoppers closed their accounts — but he stuck with his decision. At the time of the flagship's closure, the Main Street store had been open for 112 years.
derek guy528,762 Aufrufe • vor 15 Tagen
If you see something expensive on my page and wonder why it costs what it does, the answer is always the same: its production involved more skilled human labor. As mass production has evolved, industrially produced products can seem indistinguishable from their handmade counterparts, thus raising the reasonable question: "why would anyone pay that much for something?" People have wrestled with this question since at least the rise of The Second Industrial Revolution. I can't adequately answer this question for you in a tweet, but it lays at the heart of many our contemporary debates around AI. I am not necessarily against industrial production. But I do think there's something beautiful about someone dedicating their life to mastering a traditional craft. To understand why someone would pay a lot of money for something, you have to look beyond the object itself and think about the process and person behind the object. This requires a new relationship with objects, so you are not thinking purely about utility (e.g., buying a watch to tell time, a cup to hold water, a jacket to keep warm, etc). Examples below of handmade mugs, ornamental plaster, clothing, and watches (via IG floriangadsby, foster_reeve_plaster, sarto_kang, and peterelliotglomb)
derek guy97,279 Aufrufe • vor 3 Tagen
I think Hasan could use a tailor, but I disagree with your reaction to that specific suit. My impression is that Hasan's jackets don't fit as well as they could because he has a very broad chest. In the first photo, you can see how the jacket's collar isn't really seated correctly, which is causing the lapels to spread apart. In the past, I've talked about a collar gap, where the back of the jacket's collar lifts from the person's neck. This can be easier to spot in two-dimensional images. But a correctly seated collar isn't just about that one part — it's about the totality of the collar. In the second slide, you can see photos of four men with similarly broad chests. None of the men featured in this tweet have a collar gap. But notice how, in the second slide, the jacket collars sit better on all four men. They come up on the wearers. Edwin DeBoise, founder of the bespoke tailoring house Steed, once explained this to me as an issue of crooking and straightening a jacket. I should warn ahead of time: this issue is controversial among tailors and notoriously difficult to explain even in person, let alone online. The issue revolves around something called the neck point, where the jacket's shoulder seam meets the collar. When drafting a pattern, a tailor can adjust the neck point and shoulder line so the collar sits correctly for the person's build and posture. In the video featuring Edwin, you can see how a jacket can be thrown off depending on whether the person has a prominent chest and erect posture or a small chest and stands very stooped. You can try this at home. Put on a tailored jacket (suit jacket or sport coat) and throw your chest out like you're very proud. This will cause the jacket to be thrown off your shoulders. This is similar to what's happening on Hasan's jackets. To fix this, the tailor will need to adjust the neck point, which can only be done during the pattern drafting stage. You can't adjust it in ready-to-wear. Many made-to-measure programs, possibly even most, can't accommodate this. In the fourth and final slide, you can see Hasan in a Zhongshan suit, which is a traditional Chinese garment modeled after something Sun Yat-sen used to wear (which, in turn, is modeled after gakurans, a Japanese school uniform). You can see this suit does not have this problem. Whatever you may think of the style, it's well tailored in a technical sense. If the jacket's neck point were incorrectly placed, you would see the top few buttons starting to pull. Instead, the body fits very cleanly and the front-back balance (how the jacket hangs from the shoulders when seen from the side), seems to be correct. Many people nowadays use the term "tailor" to mean all sorts of things. For instance, if they see trousers they think are too baggy, they will often say something like "those pants need to be tailored." All they are really saying is "that garment needs to be slimmed down." This is partly because their experience with tailoring is limited to alterations and they are mostly buying ready-to-wear. But tailoring isn't just about slimming things down. Something can fit quite full and still be made correctly. IMO, it's useful to separate out the styling of a garment from its technical construction/ fit.
derek guy1,482,879 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
Let's talk about how to shop for flannel shirts. When people shop for clothes, they are typically looking for value for the price. This means they look for markers of quality (e.g., brand name, where the garment was made, fiber composition, and such). This is all very reasonable. However, you should take it one step deeper: think about how to develop taste. When you choose a restaurant for dinner, you don't just think about the quality of the ingredients. You think about what satisfies your palate. The same is true for clothes. For instance, Vuori makes contemporary-styled clothing. The flannel pictured here (slide one) is marketed as having four-way stretch and moisture-wicking properties. It's made from 63% polyester, 34% viscose, and 3% elastane. The fabric is midweight. It's the kind of thing you wear with slim chinos and minimalist sneakers. In slide two, we see a Polo Ralph Lauren flannel. This is made from pure cotton and features what's known as "cat-eye buttons" (called so because they resemble a cat's pupil). Notice that the fabric is heavier and you can almost make out the individual yarns. That's because the designers drew inspiration from mid-century flannels worn by American laborers. This is the kind of thing you wear with jeans, trucker jackets, and boots, not slim chinos and minimalist sneakers. In slide three, we see an Iron Heart Ultra Heavy Flannel. This is made from a 12oz fabric woven from Aspero cotton grown at the foothills of the Andes Mountains. Remember, a midweight flannel is made from a fabric that's maybe 5oz — so this is like wearing two flannel shirts at the same time, plus a little more. The interior is double-brushed for a kitten-like softness. This is not really a shirt, but a jacket, which is why it retails for $380. You will not find a heavier flannel on the market (also, size up). I don't believe in telling people that they should wear this, but not that. I think everything starts with helping the person look inwards. How do you want to dress? What aesthetic inspires you? What is your identity, lifestyle, values, etc.? This way, you develop your own taste and improve your relationship with the objects you buy. It doesn't matter if I prefer the Ralph Lauren flannel over the Vuori because we are different people and therefore have different identities and values. I hope to give people a framework for understanding clothes (social language, design culture, craftsmanship, etc.). Then send them off to figure out what works for them. I also try give people tips on how to shop for a budget. My friend Zach (IG aimeleondad) gives some good tips on finding vintage shirts on eBay in the fourth and final slide. Online today, you will find lots of people telling you to buy this or that. These people are often being paid by brands to do so. That approach isn't very useful because it negates the wearer's personality. IMO, a better approach is to help people develop their own taste so they can express themselves better through clothes and build stronger relationships with what they buy. I personally don't like thin fabrics, stretch fabrics, or business casual. I prefer older styles, classic tailoring, heritage workwear, vintage clothes, and such. But that's my personal preference and they may not be yours. I would rather you purchase something you really love than mindlessly adopt my taste, only to realize later that's not you.
derek guy289,608 Aufrufe • vor 17 Tagen
Black dress shirts have become oddly popular in the last decade, but most men would do well to avoid them. It's not because they're verboten, but because they require a trained eye to style well. And most men don't have the eye for it. Black dress shirts were historically the mark of the lower working classes, often the type to patronize or own seedy nightclubs. This doesn't necessarily make them bad, but it does help us contextualize their meaning. For much of the 20th century, men wore dress shirts in white or light blue — or combinations thereof — partly because White Anglo-Saxon Protestants defined respectable culture, and that's what they wore. So by wearing a black dress shirt, you were either defying these rules or signaling that you had no interest in partaking in them. We see this kind of character in this scene from Goodfellas, which I've attached in the first slide. This is what gives the style its allure, much like how black leather motorcycle jackets hold a certain mystique. However, to wear this look well, you have to know how to style it. For instance, Ben Shapiro in the second slide is wearing a light gray sport coat with a black dress shirt and black pants. The sport coat has relatively soft, narrow shoulders and thin lapels. The cut of the jacket and color combinations are all wrong. Overall, the style looks more low-rent than rakish. This is the sort of outfit you see on prom DJs or cruise ship magicians, not louche nightclub habitués. In the third slide, the style is pulled off a little better. The lapel has a bit more verve; the jacket is slightly fuller, with an extended shoulder line. The trousers are high-waisted with double pleats. The overall effect is very convincing — more cool lounge lizard than maître d' of a restaurant that serves $20 spaghetti. So yes, black dress shirts allow you to forgo a tie, but the chances of you looking good in a black dress shirt are very low, at least if you're wearing a tailored jacket. If you're in a suit or sport coat and want to wear a black base layer, you are safer with a black turtleneck or knitted polo (something made from a finer knit than a pique cotton), as you see in the final slide. This shifts the shirt away from "I bought this at Express."
derek guy433,284 Aufrufe • vor 26 Tagen
Check out the first slide below. This is a scan of a 1949 San Francisco phonebook. By my count, there are about thirty businesses listed under the heading of "reweaving." The term reweaving encompasses several techniques, including French weaving, inweaving, and reknitting. While the methods differ, the general idea is the same: when a garment develops a hole or tear, a skilled reweaver can repair the damage in a way that's virtually invisible. Sometimes this involves adding a patch to the underside of the fabric and blending the edges; other times, it means painstakingly weaving or knitting new material into the damaged area. Either way, these techniques are distinct from simply patching or sewing over the hole or tear, which can leave visible signs of repair. Reweaving, by contrast, aims to restore the garment to its original condition. Hence why this is sometimes called invisible mending. A few weeks ago, I found a moth hole in one of my sport coats, so I called my usual reweaver: French American Reweaving Company in NYC. No one answered, so I tried again the next day. And the next. After several days, I gave up. Their voicemail box was full, so I couldn't leave a message. (They may still be operating; I don't know). In the 1980s, French American Reweaving Company had six full-time reweavers. As of a few years ago, they were down to three — all of them over the age of 70. Rave FabriCARE in Scottsdale, Arizona (my dry cleaner of choice) stopped offering reweaving services after their reweaver retired. Across the country, these once-common businesses are disappearing. The reason is simple: people are wearing simpler, cheaper clothing today, so there's little economic incentive to repairing things. Depending on the damage, reknitting a hole in a sweater might cost you $100. That's more than some people pay for an entirely new sweater these days, even in cashmere, so it's cheaper to replace things once they wear down. Consequently, repair culture is disappearing. Few people even know that you can repair clothes. Those who do may struggle to find someone with the skills to perform this kind of work. And as older craftspeople retire, they take their knowledge with them, as they typically don't have young apprentices. In 1949, there were at least thirty reweaving businesses in San Francisco, according to this phonebook. Today, I only know of two such services in the city. The last three slides show repairs from Garment Butler, one of the few mail-in services nowadays for this kind of thing. I also use Without a Trace in Chicago (they take mail-ins). IG garmentbutler
derek guy50,294 Aufrufe • vor 4 Tagen
I don't understand the appeal of spending that much on a designer belt made in a factory unless it has a particularly interesting design. But I can understand spending as much, or even more, on a benchmade belt produced by a skilled artisan. For instance, Troy Oviedo is a Native American silversmith in Arizona who makes these beautiful buckles by hand. He uses a traditional Native American technique called tufa casting, where a design is carved into a block of stone and then filled with molten silver. A natural stone, often turquoise, is then used to finish the piece. I think his designs look particularly good with workwear-inspired casualwear, such as what you see at RRL. Another example is Bellanie at Chester Mox, who makes bespoke leather goods by hand. Many years ago, she trained under a former Hermes artisan and learned the craft of saddle stitching. In this technique, the craftsperson gently marks the leather using an awl, and then passes thread through from either side using two needles. The result is a much more durable seam. Whereas the interlocking seams on a machine-made product can unravel if one stitch breaks, a saddle-sewn seam has to be unpicked using a special tool. This is why the technique was historically used to make equestrian equipment. Bellanie uses this method to produce all sorts of leather goods, including bags, wallets, catchall trays, eyewear cases, and belts. I have a brown alligator belt from her, which I think looks better than its machine-made counterparts for two reasons. First, since the leather is carefully selected and cut by hand, the scales can be arranged in a more even, visually pleasing pattern. Second, hand stitching allows for a cleaner, more refined seam, without the conspicuous needle holes sometimes found on machine-sewn belts. Most of all, I like both of these things because they represent the culmination of someone's dedication to a craft. The items are not inexpensive. If your goal is to simply look good or impress people, the prices may also not provide sufficient value. That's because it's not always easy to detect the handwork, especially to an untrained eye. There are factories in other countries pumping out Native-American-inspired design using efficient machines. Also, no one will notice that your belt has a saddle stitch, rather than a machine stitch. But this gets at the heart of so many AI debates today: what value does a human bring to the production process and how much are people willing to pay? Images via IG troyoviedo and chestermox; the last video is from an old promo video released by Hermes
derek guy84,942 Aufrufe • vor 6 Tagen
The reactions to this tweet are telling. About a year ago, I spoke with someone who has worked in the high-end denim industry for a few decades. He's traveled the world to meet with some of the best indigo dyers, fabric weavers, and cut-and-sew factories. He lives and breathes denim. We talked about whether the US could ever create a high-end denim industry that could rival Japan's. His answer, delivered to me without any sentimentality, was a straightforward "No." According to him, the issue isn't just history. To be sure, Japan has a long history of weaving textiles, which has led to a particularly robust denim industry in and around Okayama Prefecture. It was here, after all, that farmers found that the soil was too saline for rice cultivation sometime in the 17th century, so they switched to cotton. Over the next four hundred years, cotton cultivation here supported the development of yarn spinning, fabric weaving, and eventually a cut-and-sew industry that specialized in producing some of the world's best jeans. Economists call these "industrial clusters," which can be remarkably durable and particularly fruitful for innovation. But according to my friend, history is not enough to explain why Japan excels at producing high-end denim. He believes culture also plays a role. It can be uncomfortable to invoke culture as an explanatory variable, especially in today’s political climate. To be sure, sometimes "culture" is just used as a lazy variable to explain things when someone doesn't know enough about history, institutions, or laws. It's not the first variable I turn to when trying to understand social outcomes. However, my friend feels strongly that differences between Japanese and American culture lead craftspeople in Japan to approach spinning, dyeing, and weaving more as an art than as an industrial processes. They are also more open to experimentation — tinkering with machines to get neppy weaves, using slubby yarns, dyeing hanks in unique ways. In the US, he claims, people are much more focused on profit and efficiency. There's less appreciation for craft and therefore less incentive to produce the kinds of unusual, labor-intensive fabrics that distinguish high-end Japanese denim. I still think some structural factors are involved. In a nation of 350 million people, I'm confident that there are tens of thousands of people interested in craft. However, they can't become artisans because few apprenticeship programs exist. Skyrocketing rents and car dependency make it hard to earn a living as an artist or craftsperson, as you have to forgo earning a lot of money for a long time. The US government also provides little support for apprenticeships and craft-based businesses. Additionally, US fashion media focuses much more on trends and celebrities. In Japan, you can find hundreds of speciality publications that really get into the weeds about bourbon, woodworking, denim, tailoring, and any other hobby you can imagine. This creates an informed consumer base ready to purchase things from artisans. This came to mind as I scrolled through the replies to this tweet — the incredulity of jeans costing $300 and confident claims that jeans are just jeans. Lots of people insisting that some brand's $100 jeans are the same as these that cost $300. $300 for jeans is not even expensive in this corner of menswear. This Business Insider episode below gets into why a pair of Momotaro jeans can cost upwards of $2,000. It has much to do with how the material is dyed and the fabric is handwoven. Is this ridiculous? Yes, on some level. But to my mind, no more ridiculous than a lot of stuff celebrated in the US, such as monster truck rallies, sports memorabilia culture, and the garages full of expensive recreational equipment that gets used once a decade. Textiles are one of our earliest forms of art, so it's never a surprise to me to hear that some prosaic garment can be made in a more artisanal and thus expensive manner. Of course, whether you're willing to pay the price of these garments is another matter. But appreciating craftsmanship is always free.
derek guy866,417 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
Tweed is such a beautiful fabric to wear this time of year partly because it produces, in Dolly Parton's phrasing, a coat of many colors. Even a solid colored brown is not just brown, but bits of red, blue, and yellow inspired by the Scottish landscape, as Alan of Lovat explains.
derek guy225,451 Aufrufe • vor 18 Tagen
Javier Milei's tailoring is bad in ways that need no explanation, but the reason why people react positively to the King of Spain's outfits may not be immediately obvious. Last week, the Spanish media released a video of the King celebrating as the national team qualified for the World Cup finals. In the video, we see a rare moment when the King is not wearing a tailored jacket but rather a very simple, casual jersey. Here, you can see the King's actual physical form. He's tall and lean but not particularly muscular. I suspect that if he dressed this way most of the time — slim jeans with a football jersey, or perhaps a t-shirt — no one would really remark on his style. On the second slide, you can see the King as he normally appears in the media, and suddenly he looks much better. Yes, it helps to be tall, handsome, and even bearded, but here the tailoring is doing the heavy lifting. There are some obvious things, such as the precision of the tailoring. Everything fits cleanly without much puckering or pulling. The collar hugs the neck. The jacket also covers his seat, which allows the buttoning point to be placed just below the narrowest part of his torso. This button placement elongates the lapel line and allows the waist to be cinched a bit tighter. But there are also less obvious things. Compare the broadness of this shoulder line to the video of him just wearing a jersey. The chest also curves outward slightly, making him look much more muscular. The result is a V-shaped silhouette sitting on what would be a set of columnar legs (if you could see them in the photo). As I've explained before, this is entirely the effect of good tailoring. The combination of shoulder pads, wadding, and ironwork creates that molded shoulder line. The sculpted chest is created using haircloth, canvas, pad stitching, and ironwork. You can see this in the third slide, where the innards of a suit jacket are exposed. If you hold up a T-shirt, dress shirt, polo shirt, or soccer jersey like this, it will not hang the same way because the material is limp and lacks structure. Being muscular and wearing tight suits will not achieve the same effect. On the contrary, it will produce exactly the opposite. You can see this in the fourth slide with Conor McGregor. Here, we get three things. First, the shrunken tailoring produces all sorts of ripples and wrinkles. Second, the small jacket actually hides the V-shaped figure underneath. Third, and perhaps most importantly, he looks tight and uncomfortable. Whereas the King always looks confident and at ease — making his style appear effortless — McGregor here looks forced and contrived. This is not to say that slim-fit tailoring (or slim-fit clothing in general) is always bad. They can look great on certain figures. I'm only trying to highlight an important principle: the point of clothing, whether suits or otherwise, is not always to recreate your physical form. A bomber jacket can have a rounded silhouette; an overcoat can have an elongating silhouette; a suit can have a V-shaped silhouette. All of these are ways that clothes can give different impressions other than your corporal form. One of the most common misconceptions I see on Twitter is people who think clothes "fit badly" because they don't exactly conform to the person's figure underneath. They assume, for instance, that a shoulder seam must end at your shoulder bone. Not so. Every aesthetic — whether traditional tailoring or counter-cultural — has its own rules for fit, silhouette, and styling. A good outfit is about knowing how to communicate in those visual languages. The King's style is broadly well-received because he's communicating in a hegemonic visual language. Everyone understands classic tailoring to be "good," just like how many people think Received Pronunciation is "correct." But there are, in fact, many different visual languages, none more legitimate than the other, even if they may not play a hegemonic role. Baggy jeans may look great in certain aesthetics for reasons not dissimilar to the principles discussed here.
derek guy1,241,304 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten
this is what some of you look like in short sleeve button-up shirts
derek guy2,054,204 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten
Personally, I think this is nonsense. I will break down what I think is happening in this video. It appears that Jeff Banks is a longtime Reform supporter, so Nigel is granting him two favors. The first is the opportunity to secure a contract to produce Reform's merch. The second is the opportunity to appear in this video, which effectively functions as an advertisement. I think it is a mischaracterization to call Jeff Banks a "designer." A more apt term is "businessman." There's nothing inherently wrong with being a businessman, but if we were to survey everyone in the menswear industry, the greatest concentration of hucksters would be in this category. For decades now, Jeff Banks has been sourcing his production in low-wage countries and then importing those items into Britain, which in turn undercuts British production. For instance, this shirt pictured below, which was made in China. To be clear: there is nothing inherently wrong with Chinese production. Some of it can be quite high-quality. But when someone arrives in the country with only the intention of maximizing profits, quality is not their central concern. If Nigel actually cared about British manufacturing, he could have contacted Patrick Grant, who has been a champion in this area for decades. While Jeff Banks was outsourcing his production, Patrick was not only manufacturing in the UK, but also saving British factories. In 2015, he saved the Blackburn factory Cookson & Clegg from closure by purchasing the operation and saving countless jobs. That factory could have easily made Reform's merch. And the money would have gone to someone who has been a genuine champion of UK manufacturing. Jeff Banks claims that it's a "nightmare" to produce neckties in the UK, so he had to go to Como, Italy to get his silk. This is the sort of lie you can expect from a huckster who is principally concerned with profits, not British jobs. I'm sure he knows that Macclesfield has a long tradition of producing British silk. Adamley still produces there, as you can see in the third slide. Some of their designs are inspired by David Evans's archival prints, which would have given Nigel and his team the opportunity to promote a long-forgotten British tradition. (I will save the story for David Evans for another time). These Macclesfield silks could have been given to Drake's, a domestic British neckwear producer. Yes, this would have been expensive for the end consumer. But this is what you would have had to tell Reform supporters: if you want genuine, high-quality British manufacturing, it will cost you. Jeff Banks doesn't take this route with his production because he knows supposed "British patriots" are often cheap bastards, much like their American counterparts. So he cuts corners where he can. By cutting costs in this way, you undercut actual British producers. Consumers see this advertisement, go to Jeff Banks, and see that the goods are cheap. They then wonder why British manufacturers are charging so much more. Unfortunately, this corner of the market is full of hucksters who are not real patriots. Nigel promotes this guy in return for his support, which brings consumers to him, helping line his pockets — much of it cheap imports. If you want real British-made clothing, there is no shortage of options. But you have to be serious about supporting domestic craftspeople and factory workers.
derek guy481,103 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
