The two most important people in the history of men’s clothes:

1. Beau Brummell, one of the buddies of King George IV, killed foppish dandyism and started the trend of men wearing less flashy clothes than women.
2. The Duke of Windsor, who abdicated as King Edward VIII, started the trend toward less formal clothes, set the standards for a number of functions, and invented a number of significant details (including cuffs on trousers).

Note that individual designers have not had significant influence, probably because they’re all busy stealing from each other. Those of us interested in men’s clothes have been waiting for the next British courtier or other role model to revolutionize men’s style. Charles, William and Harry aren’t it: they dress respectfully, but none of them has any particular flair. Obviously it’s doubtful that society is structured in such a way that any single man could have such a great influence, but it’s fun to dream about like how religious people fantasize about the second coming of their gurus.

The only individual woman I’m aware of who has had much influence is Queen Victoria, who popularized both the white wedding dress and wearing black for mourning. Women’s designers (eg: Coco Chanel) seem to have more influence, and so women end up with a fashion cycle instead of stylistic periods. Within each fashion cycle, women of note can be influential. This article discusses Kate Middleton’s move into influence with her wedding dress by McQueen (her influence will be of a more upmarket variety than Michelle Obama’s).

Good

Darren Aronofsky wore a very sleek and short two-button double-breasted tuxedo by Philip Lim. I’m not sure why two-button double-breasts aren’t more popular for tuxedos: they have the appropriate formal minimalism while alleviating the need to wear a cummerbund or vest.

I don’t love the fit of Matthew McConaughey‘s tux by Dolce & Gabbana, but the slim, just-barely-peak lapels with a contrasting button hole are so striking. It’s what a designer tux should look like.

Technically you’re not supposed to wear such a high vest with a tuxedo, but Jeff Bridges gets points for demonstrating how a vest can be quite flattering over a belly. His whole outfit looks very distinguished.

As he does at every awards show, Colin Firth follows all the rules to perfection.

For Discussion

I can’t decide if Hugh Jackman is too beefy for a six-button double-breasted jacket? Anyway, I like his shoes: I think they’re wholecuts with a chisel-toed last.

Bad

Dear Justin Bieber: you are not a rock star.

Robert Downey Jr never fails to wear something notable to the Oscar’s. White ties are only for mobsters and highschool students. And someone needs to cut off his bottom jacket button.

Trent Reznor‘s tux gets all the details wrong and doesn’t fit – is it a rental?

The super-wide lapels, rumply fabric and saggy fit make Justin Timberlake‘s tux look like a cartoon.

GQ and Tom & Lorenzo‘s posts got me started.

On Wednesday, President Obama held a state dinner in honour of Hu Jintao, the Paramount Leader of China. Jintao conspicuously wore a business suit while the Obamas dressed in black-tie (Hu’s wife stayed home with the kids). This is because, as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, it would be inappropriate for him to appear in bourgeois European dress. The White House’s protocol office should have set the dress code for the evening to “informal” so the guest of honour would not be overshadowed – but then they have a history of incompetence in the dress code for state dinners.

Although as the commenters on this Washington Post blog post note, Hu is appropriately dressed if he is not a party guest but a banker checking on his investments. But as Stephen Colbert pointed out, what kind of debtors throw a party for their lender with loan money, anyway?

There is a bunch of discussion over in the Washington Post’s gossip section about whether some of the celebrity guests wore appropriately formal dresses. In particular, Anna Wintour wore a cocktail dress with a matching shawl:

And according to Kyla, Michelle Kwan was dressed in American Apparel:

Well at least they didn’t outdress Hu. I think we should assume the invitation said “black-tie optional”.

There are three levels of evening “dressing up” in contemporary Western society:

* Hems that end mid-calf don’t look good on anyone, so the gray area is empty.

It often seems to be the case that the dress code specifies how men should dress and women take liberties. I think it should go the opposite way: the women choose what kind of dresses they will wear and the men dress to match. This seems particularly prudent for events like highschool “formals” where the organizers have no clue about specifying dress codes. Another example is a wedding: a traditional dress is a ball gown, so a matching groom wears white-tie for an evening wedding and morning dress for one during the day.

Given the small number of dressy events in modern society, most men don’t have dress up clothes. Therefore, events can be “black-tie optional”, which means wear em if you got em (highschool formals are a good example: wear em if you rent em). Personally, that strikes me as a way to make all of your guests a bit uncomfortable.

Another, better option is “creative black-tie”. This puts unusual pressure on men to be creative, but if they’re not and they just default to black-tie, they won’t stand out (precisely because men’s black-tie is designed to blend in). They also won’t stand out as much if they screw up black-tie, as almost everyone does these days (which kind of makes me wonder if I’m the one who’s wrong?).

I consider the Golden Globes to be “creative black-tie” while the Oscars are proper black-tie, but almost everybody was trying to wear a plain tuxedo this year. Kyla pointed me to the collection of photos assembled by Tom & Lorenzo.

Best

Justin Bieber shows all the old dudes how creative black tie works: those slim pants don’t have too much break, they’re stacked!

Harry Shum nicely adds some creativity with a checked shirt to a nice jacket and bow-tie. He obviously needs to hike his pants up though. And those shoes were ugly when they were in 10 years ago.

Ryan Gosling pulls off velvet. Note that it’s not proper to wear a belt with a tuxedo. Given how reflective creases are in velvet, I think his pants should have been no break.

Robert Pattinson wore a midnight-blue tuxedo, first invented by the Prince of Wales because it looks blacker than black in artificial light (you would have thought it was black if you saw it out of context). Good thing that the tie matches, although I wish it were a bow. One of the few people wearing pants with the right rise and break, but his sleeves are too long.

Colin Firth has the best classic tux. He captures the aesthetic of sprezzatura: effortless elegance.

Worst

Mr. Big clearly bought his tux from Brooks Brothers, because it is very widely cut – the least sexy tuxedo I have ever seen.

Dear Kevin Spacey: Why do you need your watch, do you have somewhere more important to be? Besides, don’t you have people for that?

Is Ricky Gervais dressed in character as David Brent? Because this suit-thing is appropriately clueless. I hesitate to make fun of his shoes in case they’re orthotic.

It’s often said that women aren’t dressing to attract men, they’re dressing to impress other women. Similarly, I can tell you that men who are into clothes aren’t dressing to attract women. We frequently remark that the best outfit to attract women is boring:

• a black or white t-shirt
• dark-wash Levis straight-leg jeans
• Chuck Taylors or Vans

StyleForum is devoted to discussion of what you should wear if you don’t want to wear that. The streetwear section recently had a discussion of how they would like women to dress [NSFW]. (I believe the trad section also had a discussion, but I don’t care what they had to say.) Obviously it’s impossible to consider the clothes apart from the hotness of the girl wearing them, but I think the results are still interesting.

The uncontroversial top five:

And the five most debated:

…Including the eternal question: “would you like to date yourself?”

Best

Colin Firth wore a shawl-collar tuxedo to the Golden Globes. Firth followed the rule that the Oscars is more formal than the Globes by wearing peak lapels, which are more formal than a shawl collar. The fit is better and I dig his bowtie and studs, but he’s docked points for an extra jacket button.

Taylor Lautner similarly demonstrated that the Globes are creative black-tie while the Oscars are a more serious matter. His jacket sleeves and pants were too long, but the thin shawl lapel with narrow trousers is definitely the fashionable look for a tuxedo.

Christoph Waltz actually wore the same fashionable style as Lautner with distinctive pointy shoes. His sleeves are a little better and he remembered to leave his watch at home.

Notable

Bradley Cooper wore an unfortunately-styled tuxedo over an awesome double-breasted formal vest.

Worst

James Cameron, on the other hand, wore a lounge vest that’s too small, making him look like a sausage (maybe it was supposed to act as a girdle?). Combined with a four-in-hand tie and aqua pocket square, he looked like the loser he turned out to be.

Jeremy Renner combined a bad vest with the tie and pocket square he wore to his highschool prom.

Jamie Fox wore a smoking jacket?!

And Robert Downey Junior dressed in a rumpled child costume complete with clip-on bowtie: so much for most improved!

There’s a subculture of men’s clothing fans known as “trads”. They wear clothes that are inspired by (or, preferrably, actual vintage) traditional American menswear. It’s more of an Ivy League / Martha’s Vinyard look than Mad Men.

Brooks Brothers is the most mainstream retailer they’ll shop at. (Brooks Brothers invented the button-down collar in 1896, which is what I think of as being the item that best defines trads.) Ralph Lauren is inspired by traditional Americana, but trads are looking for the actual look, not a modern take.

Most trads are middle-age and of a build that is flattered by a sack suit (although I know a few exceptions). The Ask Andy About Clothes forum is their headquarters. Trads do a lot of research into quality clothing, so they’re on my radar even if I don’t follow their style (although I’m sure some would beg to differ).

I recently came across this wonderful blog called The Trad. Each post starts out discussing a piece of clothing or other material good that a traditionally-minded gentlemen might wear. The posts usually end with a quirky bit of creative nonfiction. Here’s a recent favorite:

During an after work drinks party I wound up sitting across from a friend’s very attractive assistant. I was bumming Marlboro Lights from her and she was drinking as many Miller Lights as I could order.

Five or six beers in to the night she arched an eyebrow (I wish I could do that) and said, “That’s a very attractive suit. ” I blushed visibly. “Do you like it?” I said. “Mmmm, very much,” she said. I explained to her it was Made To Measure and not custom and explained the difference adding, “I picked the color of the lining myself.” She smiled, “Show me your lining.” I unbuttoned my jacket and parted the lapels. She shifted in her seat and whispered, “Oh, I think I’m getting wet.”

I only remember thinking, “If this is what Made to Measure can do — What in the hell happens with bespoke?”

Best

Colin Firth was just about the only person who got all the details right on his tuxedo (or “dinner jacket”, as he would say). His jacket sleeves are riding up in some of the photos, but since I have exactly the same problem with my tuxedo, I’m not going to dock him points for that.

If I were a 17-year-old wearwolf, I’d wear a crazy-shiny black suit like Taylor Lautner. But I’d know that a crazy suit is enough and wear a classic shirt and tie.

Most Improved

Compare to the 2009 Oscars.

Mickey Rourke actually seems to have a black tie uniform: he’s not just wearing random shit. All-black is easier on the eyes than the white from the Oscars. Snakeskin lapels are amusingly over the top.

Omitting a tie is probably within Robert Downey Jr’s artistic license and much less of a disaster than past outfits. His peak-lapelled tuxedo is pretty good: big shirt studs, silk pocket square, he even has a cummerbund! The only acceptable watch to wear to something like this is a big diamond-encrusted one worn over the shirt sleeve.

Worst

I liked Kevin McHale’s (Glee) outfit when I could only see the bowtie. When I saw that it was an oversized black suit with the bottom button incorrectly fastened, he ended up here. (Note: McHale is 21 – no excuse for dressing like his character.) His costar Matthew Morrison almost fell this far as well.

Brenden Gleeson is a good example of why you can only wear a tuxedo with an exposed waist if you’re a rough&tumble James Bond.

Obliquely because of Coco avant Chanel, and partly because of my recent obsession with photography, I’ve been watching documentaries about fashion.

Fashion and photography are siblings — the arts of seeing and of being seen. Aside from live shows, and what’s worn in the café, photography is the prime medium used to communicate about fashion. It also informs photography, and not just wrt advertising: Any photograph that includes faces or spaces inherently also contains an element of mode de vie.

Valentino: The Last Emperor

Okay, this one is mostly about how to be a giant fucking baller when you have infinite money and lots of villas.

Fashion Director: His dogs are Spartan. They don’t have a wardrobe.
Majordomo: What about the cashmere jackets?
Fashion Director: Well, they only wear those when he’s skiing in Gstaad.

The special features are required watching and the documentary itself is actually pretty amusing. It’s obviously all done to the aggrandizement of Valentino’s massive ego, but it somehow comes across as deserved. Masterful propaganda.

According to Wikipeda Valentino’s signature epy-red, rosso Valentino, in CMYK, is (0%, 100%, 100%, 10%), which I’ve reproduced in Photoshop:

Anna Wintour makes an appearance in the “big show” set piece around which the film is constructed.

The September Issue

This one follows Grace Coddington and Anna Wintour as they put together Vogue’s 840-page 2007 September issue. Wintour’s stolen the narrative of the film — she’s one of its USPs and the supposed basis of Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada — but Coddington is the creative force, spending most of her time setting up photographic homages to Brassaï and beautiful color blocking shots for Anna to nix.

Lagerfeld Confidential

I watched this because Lagerfeld visits Valentino in the first film above to congratulate him. Comparing Lagerfeld to Valentino you can see why the latter deserves the “Emperor” sobriquet — Lagerfeld is an artist, and Valentino something else entirely. Also, in a pleasant show of accidental wabi-symmetry, Grace Coddington makes a pre-show appearance at Chanel’s apartment (which was featured in avant).

The distro on TPB needs subtitles unless you parlez. Luckily they’re easy to find.

Lagerfeld comes across as highly-eccentric and perhaps more psychologically damaged than he cares to admit. He started shooting in the 80s because no one around him was doing it right, and his implicit advice to new photographers seems sound: Put in a bit of practice and you’ll see that you’re not terrible.