derek guy
@dieworkwear • 1,494,797 subscribers
Menswear writer. Editor at @putthison. Bylines at The New York Times, The Financial Times, Politico, Esquire, and Mr. Porter
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this is what some of you look like in short sleeve button-up shirts
derek guy2,040,554 görüntüleme • 15 gün önce
I love brown summer suits. Personally prefer them with ecru or even soft yellow shirts, as I associate white button-ups with business and think they often need a tie. With ecru or pale yellow, there's no mistaking that it's a more casual take on tailoring. Light blue works too.
derek guy420,696 görüntüleme • 5 gün önce
New issue of Popeye, a Japanese menswear mag, looks great. It's a rare all-English edition and looks at how people from 18 different countries dress. Very aligned with my view of style: diversity and differences are good; dress is a form of social language. Avail at Kinokuniya
derek guy220,227 görüntüleme • 12 gün önce
the new middlebrow podcast with kate wehwalt is very enjoyable. many of the points raised feel salient to menswear — deskilling in the trades, rise of bad taste because an uneducated customer goes wild with options, poptimism vs cultural criticism, etc IG middlebrowpod
derek guy318,761 görüntüleme • 17 gün önce
This is the cut that professional athletes, such as those in the NHL, should wear. This cut can only be achieved by drafting the pattern from scratch, rather than adjusting from a block (unless the company has a block built for pro athletes, which I've yet to see). IG bntailor
derek guy550,964 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
Sure. I can explain why I think this outfit is good. As always, it starts with an understanding about clothing history. 🧵
derek guy1,735,876 görüntüleme • 3 ay önce
On April 30th, Josh Smith of Montana Knife Company said you won't have to worry about tariffs if you buy American. Last week, he realized his costs are going up bc he imports equipment and steel. And so do his suppliers. IMO many people aren't aware of how much they import.
derek guy6,041,673 görüntüleme • 10 ay önce
2:20
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This video has made the rounds on nearly every social media platform—and like others in its genre, it's led people to reduce fashion production to overly simplistic narratives. So let’s take a look at why this bag might not be quite the same as the one you’d find at Hermès. 🧵
derek guy8,238,199 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
Not true. Pete Hegseth's clothes are custom-made. A few years ago, my friend and I had a debate about whether you can spot custom tailoring. This friend has more than 30 years of experience working with some of London's best bespoke tailors. He believes that an educated eye can spot the difference between a custom and an off-the-rack suit. I don't think you can, assuming certain conditions (too detailed to get into here). Ultimately, we agreed on one thing: you can spot custom tailoring when the clothes are so ugly that no designer would ever make them. This explains a lot of the clothing you see nowadays. On a television segment aired long ago, Pete Hegseth said he used a company called Book a Tailor. And in the recent email hack, it was revealed that Kash Patel's email address was linked to this online clothing review, indicating he uses Rocky's HK Fashions. Long ago, Gavin McInness also talked about his tailor. They all share one thing: they wear clothes that were made in low-wage East Asian countries. I should note at the outset that there's nothing inherently wrong with East Asian tailoring. In fact, some of the world's best tailoring is done there, including at firms such as WW Chan (Hong Kong) and Atelier BRIO (Beijing). I would stake my reputation on saying that some of the best East Asian tailoring today rivals that of Savile Row. Seoul is also a tremendous hub for quality custom tailors (e.g., Assisi, The Finery Company, B&Tailor, Hamin Kim, among others). However, these people are not using such firms. Instead, they are relying on a new system developed sometime in the late 20th century that has since taken off with the development of digital information technology. In this system, someone with little experience in the clothing industry will set up a custom clothing company. For the sake of discussion, let's call this person Mark and the company "Custom Threads." Mark doesn't know much about tailoring, but he likes suits and wants to make money. So he contacts one of these factories in East Asia and sets up a partnership. Mark meets with clients in the US. Since he's wearing a suit and has a tape measurer around his neck, customers assume he knows what he's doing (some may even refer to him as a "tailor," even if he's not one). He takes detailed measurements of these clients, jots down their fabric choice, and sends the information to his partners in East Asian. The garment is then made by adjusting the block pattern, sewn straight to finish, and delivered to Mark, who presents it to the customer for a fitting. Small adjustments are made here and there — maybe taking up the sleeve or nipping the waist. But since Mark is not actually a technically trained cutter, he may miss things, such as a wrongly placed neckpoint that makes the jacket scissor in or out. If the customer is very far off from the block pattern, it may not fit him at all. But Mark is not in a good position to address these matters — he neither has the skills nor the margins to put this customer in a proper garment. If Mark is not very well educated on tailoring, then his customers are even less so. Thus, the customer is just happy with the crude hallmarks of custom-made goods, such as the monogram he asked for. Or the contrast colored buttonhole that he believes makes him stand out in a good way. The customer doesn't know how to check for more meaningful issues, such as front-back balance, so it's the blind leading the blind. This system is very different from the system of your grandfather's generation. If a man wanted a custom suit, he would have gone to a custom tailoring shop, which may have been owned by someone who wasn't a cutter, but the cutter would have seen you in person and thus been able to address technical issues. At the very least, the person running the "front of house" would have had more experience in the clothing trade (e.g., Tommy Nutter). Last year, The Wall Street Journal did an article about a pastor-turned-tailor. He, too, relies on this system: he measures customers and sends the info to an overseas factory, where the clothes are made in China, Thailand, and Vietnam. Again, there's nothing inherently wrong with Chinese or Thai tailoring. But when the starting price is $300 for a suit ($500 after Trump imposed his tariffs), you can be sure he's not using the best shops. This is why Hegseth's suits look the way they do. He got his clothes from someone with little experience in the clothing trade and has no technical tailoring skills. Thus, both he and the company owner are easily led by stale trends (e.g., short jackets, tight pants, low-rise, etc.). Hegseth has little experience with custom tailoring and a low level of personal taste, so he checks every possible custom option — funky lining, contrast buttonhole, etc. This is why I often tell people that they should try ready-to-wear first. Custom tailoring is not a guarantee of quality tailoring, especially not in this new system where people with no experience or technical skills are just sending measurements to a distant factory. Hegseth also demonstrates the one bit of common ground I found with my friend during our debate: you can tell clothes are custom-made when they are so ugly, no designer would ever make such a thing.
derek guy817,776 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
Many jackets can cost $2k and more. Much depends on the material and how it's made. You don't see this bc you are disconnected from the production process and only think about clothes as objects. Marx called this commodity fetishism. IG ninapenlingtonbespoke and sartoria_salino
derek guy565,342 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
This comment seems to have resonated with and rankled some people. The London shop Subdial has a great YouTube channel, where they recently did an episode on whether Rolex would be in a new Holy Trinity. The episode is great; you should look it up on YouTube. YT subdialwatches
derek guy341,550 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce