Sweet Enlow

The blog has been a little weak over the last week, but I have been swamped with mid-terms and my parents visiting this weekend.  I am sure you were all dying for an updated posts so for that I apologize.

Considering I live in upstate New York and have for the last 3 and 1/2 years, I consider myself savvy at handling extreme winters.  Also, I like when it gets cold because it allows me to accessorize.  In lieu of this accessorizing, I wanted to comment and suggest for this winter fingerless gloves.  I just purchased a pair last week and wore them this weekend receiving a fair amount of compliments. 

There are two types you can purchase.  There are the fingerless gloves that look like you cut the fingers yourself (shown below).  These are the type I prefer and of which I bought.  It gives me I think a nice eclectic flair to my usually fairly preppy attire.

The other kind is the fingerless glove that has the piece that folds back and forth basically looking like an oven mitt.  These are fine for girls, but for guys I think they are kind of effeminate.  Here is a pair

my apologies on the scarf

Gloves are a great present in my opinion.  They are fairly cheap and will be used alot.  I personally got mine from Ralph Lauren’s Rugby.

Here is the link to and a picture of the Rugby pair…http://rugby.com/shop/item.aspx?productId=3757367&categoryId=3138720&cp=3138868

Very quickly

I just wanted to point out a typo I had in my earlier “Fashion Respekk” post.  I mentioned in the parentheses that if someone chooses to wear nice dress shoes that they hopefully make them square toe black shoes.  I did this by forgetting to add a negation in the sentence.

Nothing is worse… let me repeat… nothing is worse than square toe black dress shoes.  Cheap, terrible structure, and almost always terrible quality, these shoes are an abomination.  When this New York hipster friend-of-mine  I know called me out on it, I immediately had to laugh at myself because had I actually meant that statement, no one should ever read my blog again…period.  I will post more soon on shoes in the future, but for now I just wanted to save my dignity. 

Shout out to my hipster for the service…

I spent this last weekend with two of my closest friends, Baby and Bru, in NYC.  It was an incredible weekend filled with just about everything that is awesome about New York: Beautiful women, great food, hipsters.  However, this post is not going to detail the weekend, but rather talk about a few noticeable fashion faux pas that I saw during my weekend. 

1.  The cargo short

I am at a loss for explanation on this topic.  I know that for some unforeseen reason these ridiculous things became popular in the late 90’s.  However, their time has passed.  Unfortunately, their appearance is like a ghost haunting the streets of every city in the US.  My own father wears these sometimes and I just have to shake my head.  This “trend” may be to blame on stores like Hollister, Abercrombie, and Aeropostale, but ultimately it falls on the consumer.  Either way, my biggest issue with the Cargo Short is that the solution is sooooo simple – one could simply buy normal (by normal I mean one without the sweet side pockets) khaki short of any color for basically the same price.  This is predominantly why I blame this epidemic on the aforementioned stores because they consistently stock their supply with cargos.  Unfortunately, a large majority of men shop at these hellholes, thus taking the logical route that cargoes must be acceptable… they are not.  Just go to the GAP or J.Crew and buy normal shorts (have them stop above the knee please).  You look exponentially better.  I personally prefer to buy 5” Khaki shorts from J.Crew – they are extremely short, but look very good with muscular legs.  Also, I think it looks pretty good if you take some old khaki’s, cut them to about a 7” inseam, and then wash them.  A nice homemade frayed pair of khaki shorts.

Nobody has gotten a hand job in cargo shorts since ‘nam!

- Seth Superbad

2.  Lugz

Where I am from, (the extremely fashion forward scene of Oklahoma) this unfortunate sight does not exist… thank god.  However, this epidemic resounds throughout every corner of New York (and most of the Northeast I presume, except I think they prefer Tims).  The epidemic I am speaking of is the Lugz boot showing.  Someone needs to let New Yorkers know that a matching Yankee hat and hoodie equipped with oversized jeans is already bad enough.  The bright yellow Lugz (which I tend to find is highly repped by the overweight late 20’s white guy) showing just compounds the “terribleness”

3.  White Socks

The importance of white socks in sartorial terms is entirely underrated.  The time to wear white socks is, well, never.  Simply put, unless one is heading to the gym (even though I don’t even wear white socks there), white socks should never be worn.  Often time’s I have seen attempts by young gentleman to attempt to excel in their approach to dressing themselves, yet fail miserably with the white socks saga.  Here is a great example I have seen multiple times.  A young fellow decides he wants to visit a club and decides that a black shirt over dark jeans is appropriate.  He closes the outfit with his choice of shoes (hopefully it’s not some black sqauretoe’s).  He looks adequately crisp.  Quickly, he reaches down to adjust his pants and all of the sudden his ankle reveals white ankle length socks.  His attempt to look fresh is done…over. 

The rules of socks are ambiguous, but here are a few quick fail-safe suggestions; opt to not wear socks a majority of the time, especially in the summer.  If you are someone who could care less about socks, (insert any number of my close friends here) buy some cheap colored socks at the GAP or wherever and use them appropriately.  I honestly feel that a failed attempt to match socks with the rest of the attire looks substantially better than white socks.  As one’s cash flow increases, one should choose to stock their closet with a substantial supply of high-end socks.  I once read that Thom Brown wears the same thing (grey suit) just about every day, yet is an advocate of eclectic sock choices.   He is a great example of a man who alters his style only slightly (socks and ties) and yet maintains a great look. 

 Ya, Jake and Elwood Blues were proponents of White Socks

Just think about it

I mentioned in my “about” section that I love style/fashion – whatever you choose to call it.  I have good taste, as do my parents, and I love to comment on any current trends as well as what I think is tight.  Thus, keep an eye out for future posts concerning these topics.

In addition, I, for some reason, like girl’s style as much as guys.  A girl having good taste and dressing well is extremely important to me (obviously more of a luxury than a necessity).  “ClassicSexy” with a bit of eclectic flair I guess is how I would describe my desire for my woman’s taste – similar to Sarah Jessica Parker’s except substantially less extreme.  Lots of high heels, dresses, etc… not really a big fan of women wearing UGGS (how did these even become popular?), hoodies, Chuck Taylors, or “scrunchies” to name a few.  Do some creative thinking and you get my point I think…

As I mentioned, I like girls to look sexy.  Thus, I want to comment on my particular preference for eyeliner on a woman (ya, this blog is about everything).  Simply put, I like a lot.  When I tell girls my personal preference I usually almost always receive an immediate response sounding something like “O that’s trashy,” or some other reference to the fact that they think they are somehow better than girls who wear eyeliner “in that way” (we all know what I am talking about here).  Well, I hate to break it to you, but if anyone is calling you any kind of derogatory name, it’s not because of your eyeliner.  It is, and I know this is a shock, probably caused by your actions and/or your character…

I am going to give a couple examples of what I like in eyeliner preferences and see what you think…

With blondes, I like when girls use black to contrast their hair (and a lot of times their lighter colored eyes).  That being said, take a look at Marissa Miller here.

Ya… clearly… she’s beautiful… no question.  In my opinion, probably the second best looking out there behind my girl Heidi (but she trounces Gisele).  Anyways, just spotlight her eyes in this particular picture.  Now, look at her in this one

Clearly, this may be a sexier picture for obvious reasons.  But after the initial response, I immediately noticed her eyes.  Good Lord.  She looks exponentially sexier with the heavy black on.

With Brunettes, I continue to like the contrasting look.  Don’t get me wrong, I still like the heavy black, but sometimes when Brunettes accent the black with a pastel eye shadow its looks sooooooooooo dope (see Rihanna).  Even though I don’t think Megan Fox is as incredible as everyone else, she undoubtedly has the concept of “sex appeal” down.  She doesn’t really need to do much with black hair and blue eyes, but here is a good shot of her “cat eye” style.  Just another way to apply it

Lastly, here is a good one of Rihanna using something besides black

I know this is all preference, but considering my audience is a lot of guys, maybe this will help provide a better understanding of what I am talking about. 

Lastly, I will close commenting on two things.  The first is that, especially to girls, I know the concept of wearing eyeliner to increase sex appeal is not in any way a novel concept.  The Ancient Egyptians, both women and men, were using Kohl powder (same thing) thousands of years ago.  However, I think it’s important to clarify (at least from my perspective) that it does not equate to a negative.  With me, it’s a positive… so start lathering it on.  Secondly, I realize that some guys either never notice it or simply don’t like this type of dress/style.  I have had to hear my dad talk for years about how he likes what he calls “the Montana look” – basically, no makeup, hair in a braided pony tail, and wranglers.  I couldn’t disagree more (unless it’s appropriate for something of course …. Like if I somehow decide to take my girl on a ruck march… you know me), but… 

To each his (or her) own I guess