Monthly Archives: February 2012

How could I have only discovered the Sportstorialist 20 minutes ago?!

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Despite a difference in opinion about the 2011 University of Maryland football uniforms–not only was the “Pride” uniform awesome beyond description, but the players were so obviously pumped to be wearing it–I love the Wesley Morris’ “The Sportstorialist” column at Grantland.com.

The Maryland flag is head and shoulders (LOL...or something) above every other state flag in the Union.

It fills a void in fashion writing especially in light of the recent widespread hetero-male-awareness of style beyond jeans, flip-flops, and a GO GREEK [insert frat letters here] t-shirt from two years ago that just barely fits over a burgeoning beer belly. In fact, The New York Times recently profiled a crop of what they called “macho fashion bloggers, writing for a post-metrosexual world.”

But those blogs focus more on runways, street-style and lifestyle, while much of the credit for that new-found awareness among the average couch potato has to go to professional athletes. Now I would love Morris’ column if its only purpose was to call attention to and plead for an improvement of the sartorial choices showcased by the LPGA, but what makes him stand out is the respect he has for fashion as a social construct.

In what might be my favorite of his columns, “The Rise of the NBA Nerd: Basketball style and black identity,” Morris comments on how black style has evolved from being undeviating in its emulation of rappers to being more nuanced and varying. In one paragraph, where he makes the point that before now Kanye West would have been too weird to be successful, Morris writes,

“But 21st-century blackness has lost its rigid center, and irony permeates the cultural membrane. More than kids knowing they can be president of the United States, it might be more crucial to the expansion of black identity that — thanks to, say, N.E.R.D or Odd Future — they know they can be skate punks.”

I love following men’s fashion blogs and writing like Morris’ because I think fashion tells us so much about how a person wants to be perceived by the world, and for a long time now, fashion as armor (as Bill Cunningham called it) has been underutilized by men.

In one of my favorite pieces of writing, fashion-related or not, a GQ feature entitled “My Father’s Fashion Tips,” Tom Junod writes about how his father used obsessive grooming and fashion to elevate himself into something more than just a suburban dad, if only in his own mind. And despite the fact that this man only ever found marginal success career-wise, the confidence he projected as a result of the image he so carefully cultivated left an impression on everyone he met.

Remembrance of fashions past

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Being that it is Super Bowl Sunday, my Ravens were eliminated two weeks ago, and I can’t stand to hear another analyst talk about how well Tom Brady plays under pressure, I decided to do a room sweep and toss some of what I’ve accumulated over the years.

I came across a whole storage bin, the contents of which (essentially a copy of Bergdorf Blondes and ripped out pages of early aughts issues of Vogue) proffered me a Proustian rush as I remembered being a chubby, frizzy-haired seventh-grader in love with fashion.

Then, a sample of my sartorial obsessions included Kylie Minogue’s Givenchy Grammy dress (the reminiscence of which was recently sparked for me by the Spring 2012 Balmain collection), Molly Ringwald’s wardrobe (princess bridesmaid dress included) in Sixteen Candles, and the costume designs for Padmè Amidala in the first two Star Wars prequel films (you had to assume I was a SW nerd as soon as you read the words “chubby” and “frizzy”).

early 2000s fashion obsessions: Natalie Portman's pastel dress in AotC, Samantha Baker and Tracy Reese Spring 2003 RTW

Being in the early years of an eventual seven at a suburban Baltimore prep school, I also possessed the requisite passion among my classmates for popped collars in pastels and for the palm tree prints prominently displayed on their Lilly dresses. After all the spirit colors chosen by my graduating class were pink and lime green (something that I hated during my adolescent romance with punk rock and diy scenesters in high school, but now love).

As for designers, I held Chanel in the highest esteem then as I do now and, in fact, it was a coffee table book on the life of Coco housed in the baroque living room at my mother’s best friend’s columned home that really sparked my awareness of expression through personal style. I loved Zac Posen, Tracy Reese, Anna Sui, Betsey Johnson, Cynthia Rowley, and Sass and Bide (almost as much for the name as for the clothes). How I even became aware of that array of designers is lost on me, but I suspect the Style Network (back then in its Jerseylicious-less heyday) played a large role.

I’ve only recently started paying attention to some of those designers again and spent a good part of today looking at their latest outings on Style.com. I’m glad I did because I still find myself attracted to the collections that these designers are putting out.

top row: Cynthia Rowley Fall 2011, Anna Sui Fall 2011 and Spring 2012; bottom row: Sass and Bide Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 and Tracy Reese Fall 2011 and Spring 2012

Anna Sui is creating vibrant, lively clothing and her rockstar-hippie aesthetic still feels fresh and interesting. Tracy Reese is still producing the sartorial soundtrack for my dream trip to Cuba. And Cynthia Rowley’s sense of whimsical sophistication is as swell as ever. As for Sass and Bide, there simply aren’t words. I’m absolutely nuts about everything they’re doing.

I’m always a little surprised about what good taste 12 year old me had (that being within the slightly biased context of what 22 year old me now considers to be good taste, of course). But at the end of the day 12 year old me and 22 year old me also share a similar bank account balance, so I’ll just have to content myself with the obnoxiously mindless popping of all my collars and a movie ticket to obsess over how the Hunger Games costume designers decided to interpret Katniss Everdeen’s girl-on-fire outfit.