ils menswear and men's clothing part 2: 2023 until we all need stillsuits

just checking in to say i haven't reached the turtleneck phase yet but we can circle back to this post in 10 years

i guess i'm ok with the turtleneck as like a 'settling into type' of some kind? way out of my lane though.

i got a corny email from filson after i bought my trucker hat from them, like "how do you like your provisions?" below a huge image of some dude on horseback, and i wimpered in shame because i loved it lol.

one of the funniest all time garments is the mock turt

https://i.imgur.com/SSUTVq7.png

mock turts can be hot but only if you're a professional football player

athlete driving a jeep is the prototypical mock turt wearer, you could even have a team turt with the logo on the collar, but then somehow steve job in a high fashion mock turt is its most famous wearer

it's sad imo, fuck steve jobs

make mock turts great again

i respect that he sought out an expensive japanese mock turt and wore one every day, true lunatic behavior

sleeveless mock turts in a jeep or gtfo

amen brother, & the mock turt maker better send me an email saying "happy trails" after it's delivered to me.

It's the only type of shirt that is also a type of soup

As far as I know

Red wing and Nintendo have teamed up to bring Super Mario’s Shoes To Life (2023) pic.twitter.com/0yqFdXnpqf

— Outlander Magazine (@StreetFashion01) March 10, 2023

lmao

cant wait to stomp on all my enemies

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/09/australia/australia-william-leslie-arnold-cold-case-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

wow chambray double needle workshirt, such authentic, is it selvedge, where can i cop?

‘Well, he was an orphan. He didn’t lie about that, but he killed his parents, that’s why he was an orphan.’

👌

who's looking snazzy for summer

https://img.staticdj.com/0db3f52ccc134a79e32104a267bc5f39_1080x.jpeg

for real though i got this filson mechanic shirt and i can't wait to cosplay rough trade at the club

https://filson-canto.imgix.net/3qrso6g9vh57785bqmdpdcil37/gs6KD7w7k41qERPg97FERgdWi3Y/original?h=2000&w=2000&bg=ffffff&q=80&auto=format,compress&fit=fillmax

stussy has done many iterations on this workwear classic

besides the fact that i've never quite been able to pull off hickory stripe, i also have a morbid fear of catching my chest hair when adjusting the zip

i could not make it work personally but it's a cool style of shirt

my summer look is “aging crustpunk” or “hippie preppy”

The one with the half zip is odd but it is at least comprehensible as clothing for a male adult human in the western hemisphere.

I don't really understand the blue shirt above it with what I guess is a keyhole neckline?

Not my personal thing, but if that is something you wish to wear, go ahead; rock on with your bad selves.

I do not know what crust is so I'm prolly gonna keep dressing like my father, my stepfather, and almost every male person I ever knew who has a PhD in the humanities and a drinking problem. Our collective aesthetic is "louche English professor" and mostly it is working out for us.

We wear tweed nine months out of the year and linen for three months, and we do okay.

god bless

i'm also on the lookout for the douchiest sport sunglasses imaginable, i think it might have to be these oakleys

https://assets2.oakley.com/cdn-record-files-pi/c6ca0fe9-4ff1-43c5-8fa3-aefd00ef8cc0/77a5f4ac-6e0d-4929-bd9d-aefd00f83d56/0OO9271__927153__P21__shad__qt.png?impolicy=OO_ratio&width=2000

for the record, the blue shirt was a joke

i used to sling secondhand & vintage clothing as a side hustle and have the kind of eclectic wardrobe that goes with the territory.

my favorite stuff has tended to be postwar era- not too military, not too rockabilly, more outdoor and phys ed apparel. it's blockish and severe and looks good with my buzz cut.

i've gained a lot of weight in the last few years, though. i resisted buying any new clothes, instead i've tried to squeeze into anything i had that was oversized or less fitted. but it's got to the point where that's no longer an option.

so the first thing i noticed is that used clothes cost as much as new clothes now. not just coveted vintage pieces, i mean absolutely everything. wtf?? i guess i'm glad more people are buying secondhand shit but this is crazy.

i'm not going to buy fast fashion bullshit that falls apart in 3 months and ends up in a landfill. i'm not going invest in heirloom pieces because of my fluctuating weight (i was S/P and could fit into youth sizes, now i'm a true M/L) and also i'm living with uncertainties about my health. and i'm def not paying what ridiculous vintage repro brands charge for basics, holy shit.

digging around the online secondhand market a bit, it's really hard to find anything that justifies the price. Billy Reid stuff is about the best value, with a lot of pieces made in Italy under $30. i'm also seeing some deals for Steven Alan, though the quality and price point is much more variable there. this kind of stuff is a little more "normal guy" than what i usually go for, but i like it well enough i guess. the guys i see on the subway who dress like that always look like they have their ducks in a row. the problem is that as it's sort of blandish no individual piece inspires me to pull the trigger.

i'm through with buying clothes, forever. fashion is the biggest racket going, better drop those pounds fast i guess.

Not my personal thing, but if that is something you wish to wear, go ahead; rock on with your bad selves.

fixed

gah

Not my personal thing, but if that is something you wish to wear, go ahead; rock on with your bad selves.

:D

i doubt this is up your alley because it's very military but i need to evangelize about soffe silkies (or "ranger panties") for a second. if there was a god in heaven more men with nice legs would wear them. they're incredibly short. they're also incredibly comfortable. i wear them to the gym every day, whaddup.

https://cdn10.bigcommerce.com/s-19fkae7/products/361/images/1548/M020_ranger-olive__50494.1563829773.1280.1280.jpg?c=2

i once sold a pair of champion running man herringbone gym shorts in military olive color with a < 3" inseam for like $150.

i have 1940s basketball shorts somewhere that are shorter. alas, my legs have seen better days.

ftr i am pro gym shorts. on guys with nice legs it's not even a question.

YMP, “crust punk” is wearing cut-off tees with hardcore bands or cop-fighting anime characters or trains on them with booty shorts . it gets hot in Philly.

“hippie preppy” is wearing nicer clothes but they’re a little too bright and strange and it might seem like i’m on drugs. LL Bean but make it drug-running

preppie gone druggy is classic story

i like ll bean too, but it's a good example of the secondhand market insanity with items that used to reliably fetch $10-15 starting around $50. guess i'm done with ll bean.

Seth from Dufus is the ultimate crust punk. he doesn't wear a ton of black but i saw him on the G train c. 2001 with huge mounds of actual garbage glued to his shoes.

whats a good bargain on the second hand market these days

Wow I literally have no idea what you folks are talking about but okay

I only shop LL Bean at discount shops or at the outlets in Maine— I save a couple hundred just for clothes on my annual Maine trip.

(or at least I try)

i find ll bean made in usa pieces on ebay for $10-15 regularly. usually when sellers don't put it in the title and you gotta scroll the pics to see the tags. 90s era denim/chambray shirts in partic.

not usa but ll bean camp collar shirts are plentiful, affordable, and good for summer. i have two in a pleasingly colonialist batik print that look great with the sleeves rolled way way up for flexing purposes (the default unrolled silhouette is very tommy bahama).

levis 550s (the relaxed fit) are very cheap on ebay and comfortable year round in nyc imo.

my man!

am i not as patient and resourceful as i used to be or are we looking at different pieces?

not seeing a big price difference between made in usa and imported tbh. i have seen the camp shirts real cheap! i don't want em because tommy bahama silhouette is otm

also i like camp shirts a lot but why does every fucking short sleeve shirt have a camp collar now?

annual Maine trip.

ppl who have figured out how to live

As much as I like the patterns on a lot of camp collar shirts, I am very much sticking with butch collars; they just sit better on me. I’m currently scouting around for colourful print shirts, but with long sleeves. I never actually wear them long; instead I roll them up high above the elbow, as the shape nicely masks my skinny upper arms.

camp collar is code for “i’m available”, can’t believe you guys didn’t know this

deflatormouse, one of my oldest friends comes from some money, her family has a spot on an island off of Maine— dreamy place, but i certainly couldn’t afford such a trip if i were paying for anything besides gas, tolls, and gifts

I'm happy that this forest-green Land's End barn jacket, with a corduroy collar -- it was my late dads, from the 80s/90s -- is now suddenly in style.

like a Barbour jacket?

A lot like this one (I guess Lands' End is still making them!).

Oh, and here's the jacket itself on Ebay, though mine is less faded.

that sounds amazing table, my last comment was without irony or judgement, i'm glad you get to experience that place! i've only been to maine once, with a guy i was dating who grew up in the portland area. we went for a visit and hit boothbay, it was insanely beautiful.

as midcentury leisure shirts go i'm into the early 60's italian collar and have one in my rotation currently
https://www.themoviescene.co.uk/reviews/_img/8384-3.jpg

those barn jackets never went out of style.

i have one, it makes me look hopelessly awful

my enormous 80s bean barn jacket--with a waxed poacher's pocket and webbing for shotgun shells--is one of my prize ebay scores. it is best with the collar flipped up

I've been thinking about what I could contribute to this thread. I bought this pair of shoes a couple of months ago, they're the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn:

Allbirds Men's Tree Dasher Relay

I have one of those Wax jackets and had roughly the same experience with it as woof. I like the idea of it more than I like wearing it

hose Wax overshirts were not for me.

I got very very interested (maybe through the shacket thread?) but once I got one I realised it just wasn't in my space. It could never look like a shirt - too stiff, too boxy, buttons too big - but would never function like a jacket primarily because of the lack of any hip pockets. Looked a bit weird worn over a shirt & I just felt a bit stranded wearing it over a T or sweatshirt. I gave it to my step-daughter's boyfriend (younger millenial, had a wardrobe that suited it better) and just recommitted to heavy flannel and denim shirts after the experiment (with jacket on top for hip pockets ofc).

(Also I chose a blue-white pattern that kept making me think it looked a bit like the top half of the kind of two piece suits that nuns wear when they're not in their habit.)

These are all obviously me issues - I felt like I learned a lot about my taste and clothing logic after giving it a run and I think they def work for other people.

― woof, Friday, January 2, 2026 6:38 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, this is exactly what I feared it would be like, and I v much do not have the kind of stick-like frame that seems to work with square/boxy overshirts. TY for saving me a wasted purchase

I'd love to find shirts with similar patterns/fabrics but actually designed to fit me

llbean and landsend are RIGHT THERE

or even j crew for crying out loud

(those wax things do seem to have some fun patterns but yes, built to fit chonky honkers like me)

maybe something like Filson? even Dickies Hertitage?

I've had my eye on those overshirts for a while, and, despite the wise warnings on here, pulled the trigger on a nice looking one that is on sale. We'll see how it goes!

I got an overshirt I liked a lot recently from Finisterre, it just isn't a very warm overshirt and I could use a warmer one.

I have one shacket, which I love, it's very lumberjack-coded and I usually wear it when I'm doing whatever passes for "rugged" in my life eg walking in the woods, grilling. Most of those high-end overshirts though feel like a sort of dress sneaker eg "what if chore coat except bouclé" or "what if mackinaw except silk and linen" and I recoil from it. I think at this point I'm #menswear pilled enough that if I wanted something to wear over a shirt I'd probably be looking for a sport coat or a cardigan.

I find the boxy ones can be a good fit even if you're not very thin, tho I don't wear the more wooly ones as they aren't really warm enough for winter and don't work in the more transitional times of year.

I find a slightly lighter overshirt is nice for holidays in summer, like linen or similar. Can look a little smarter without dressing up too much and easy to take off or carry unlike a blazer or whatever. I only ever wear basic crew neck tees under overshirts/shackets.

In general tho overshirts/shackets seem hugely overrepresented in men's fashion and that means finding nice ones is incredibly difficult.

My favourite one is about ten years old, very light black linen, one breast pocket. It's some NYC brand that's now defunct. It's pretty faded and prob needs the bin but I can't for the life of me find one to replace it. I do have others I like but that was my ultimate favourite.

There are sadly a lot of really ugly overshirts out there.

Most of those high-end overshirts though feel like a sort of dress sneaker eg "what if chore coat except bouclé" or "what if mackinaw except silk and linen" and I recoil from it. I think at this point I'm #menswear pilled enough that if I wanted something to wear over a shirt I'd probably be looking for a sport coat or a cardigan.

I agree with the facts you’re stating

I have one chore coat (advertised as a chore coat) I’ve worn like three times in as many years

The dress sneaker analogy is good - that's sort of how I feel about the Todd Snyder stuff I tried last year and wound up returning, including a shacket.

This is why I'm drawn to the Wax Kondon ones, I live in a warm climate, but I need not-too-heavy long sleeve shirts for the occasional cool weather, and I want to look like a fancy lad.

I think the shacket and chore coat are not for me. I briefly tried the latter and my round shoulders and stoop... all looks very droopy, very sad. I want a stiff seam and fabric up there.

80-90% of my year in the English climate is heavy flannel/heavy denim over t-shirt (plain navy/charcoal/black/white for work rather than band/graphic, & I usually stay buttoned anyway). One very very heavy proper aran(*) for exceptionally cold periods, or the heavy hoodie if I don't mind looking slack.

Sometimes I look at something like a very heavy CPO shirt and think 'hmm practical, that could work' but in the end I think if I'm going out I just throw a jacket on. I'm just not comfortable in the shacket and overshirt hinterlands.

* A thing I've learned about myself is that I am dreadful at looking after wool unless it is absolutely critical to look after that bit of wool. I know what to do but I just get forgetful and unless it is a precious item of clothing my attention slips as winter fades and so holes appear. The moths win. I am currently waiting for what is effectively my second jumper, a gansey that I ordered in whitby last summer. Like the aran I will defend it with my life - money is one thing of course but it would also be disrespectful to the people who knitted them.

i need a good wool protection strategy. i do have moths. ive tried traps and they do get tons of the fucking things but i want to get to a place where there just aren't any moths. maybe that's impossible. i live in a terraced house. i don't know. i have considered a "bomb" but i don't like the idea of those chemicals and i read you have to open all your drawers and wardrobes because the moths have to actually get touched by the mist to die. bags? with... something... (not mothballs) inside?

Can you get predatory wasps there? They absolutely worked for me—I first read about them in a NYT article; let me see if I can link it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/magazine/moths-clothes-trichogramma-wasps.html

i picked up a shacket - military olive and with a little shape at the waist at Kestin, which is a really nice clothes shop in Edinburgh. also picked up a lovely brushed wool flannel shirt and a mustard cardie in honour of this look

https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2019/10/24/consider-the-spy/

(i misremembered the cardie part but the colour is apt)

the mustard cardie doesn’t get a lot of public service because, well because it’s mustard, but it does go well with a roll neck for a sort of cocktail party murderer look. i may recreate the george smiley look itself for work tomorrow actually now i think of it.

wool is a colossal pita as everyone say. well wool isn’t as such, though remembering to wash after a couple of wears and regularly-ish after that doesn’t always happen, but yeah the moths. i managed to get two years out of my william lockie jumpers by shoving them in the freezer at the end of winter but i’m going to need to get the darning needle out again come spring.

my navy drawstring wool trousers some gigantic moth or bunch of them ate a massive hole in the crotch and they’re done for which is a huge shame as they were great for winter and when your dietary control wasn’t what it should be…

kestin btw

https://www.kestin.co/

I have the moth problem, think it might be inevitable in London. I've followed all the eradication advice and reduced numbers but can't get rid of them. Get a load of Ziploc plastic bags and put all your nice stuff in those through moth season. This is the only solution I've found and have lost some nice stuff along the way.

Or there are lots of other boxes or bags that will do the trick.

Also don't forget any items, I cannot stress this enough

yes. always one jumper that you leave behind that sits in your hands reproachfully when you dig it out as autumn comes round.

i make do with cotton bags folded over which seem to work but again, you need to actually use them, and not eg take the garment out of the bag and forget to put it back in.

Shackets don’t work on me at all, so I rely on cheapo cashmere (see above) which is just the most extraordinary fabric; how can anything so light be so warm. I’m also big into wool; thankfully we don’t have moths, and I use a Lakeland bobble buster to shave the furriest one.

The little shits got the corner of a patch pocket on one of my j keydge slack jackets last year. I can style it out but it still pissed me off. Takes ebay grinding to get them nowadays.

Oh man, I used to be huge on shirt jackets — though in retrospect that was probably because I was less huge on getting clothes to the laundromat, and it seemed helpful to just keep throwing the same shirt jackets over things. These days I do have one I love, but unfortunately it's not made anymore — Outerknown, which does the chunky flannel Blanket Shirt, briefly had a jacket version of it with a square hem and side pockets. Wish they'd do that again, but I haven't seen it since 2020 or so. Flannel-wise the shirt's solid, really ropy and substantial in a way that breaks in nicely, though the last time I got one something had changed about the cut and sizing that pretty much ruined it on me!

Also re: Lands' End they sometimes have an extra-chunky "rugged flannel" that, when it's not being made in the absolute ugliest plaids imaginable — like plaids that resemble a hardcore gamer's computer in 2003 — I have considered maybe weirdly superior to that Blanket Shirt for like a third of the price? They do have some real occasional scores on the shirt front! A few years ago my wife and I were walking down a street in Cincinnati and this older guy ahead of us was wearing the most beautiful shirt — an ordinary plaid-ish patterned shirt but just looking flawlessly soft and casual and fitting and hanging ideally — and after I spent a whole block talking about how weirdly perfect this guy's shirt looked, she jogged up and asked him where it was from, and he was like (takes off shirt to look at tag) oh, it's Lands' End. I used to spend way too much time trying to find items where normal or cheap brands ended up producing something better than upscale equivalents, and somehow there's like .01% of Lands' End shirt designs that seems to fall in that bucket.

lol my favorite plaids from LE all look like somebody took a picture of a malfunctioning computer screen and hit invert in photoshop, it is true

i like Land's End henleys fwiw

Pendleton is good for flannels and wools. Full price is kinda steep, but they have sales often. I live near their factory store, luckily, and have found some good deals there. (And maybe I was the last to learn that The Beach Boys originally called themselves The Pendletones because of their matching flannel board shirts.)

Who is wearing all the neon plaid from LE, I wonder? Only plausible answer I can imagine is working guys trying to match their hi-vis vests.

BTW if anyone was in suspense I’m pleased to
say my foot went back to normal, though I’m still spending a lot of days in Oboz Bridger boots. I think the trick with modern hikers as everyday wear is actually to avoid any of the ones that make you think “oh nice, that mostly looks like a normal boot,” because those will indeed seem like you’re wearing normal boots you have really bad taste in. You want something that is confidently up-front with technical details like toe kicks or speed lacing or different materials — everything that says “hello yes I am 100% a hiking boot” apart from garish sneakerish colors. Also helps to get them scuffed and dirty as quickly as possible; half of what can make them awkward is looking unnaturally fresh

(PS Pendleton sometimes has a really good pearl-snap western shirt, both in trad poly-cotton and wool, with top-notch color schemes.)

Also helps to get them scuffed and dirty as quickly as possible

so relatable, also one of those things that makes me feel that i'm a grown man who has not progressed past the mentality of my nine-year-old self

re wool, we have these vacuum storage bags that work wonders.

Aww, I don't consider it juvenile or superficial to say some things look awkward when new! Daily-wear hiking boots actually hit all three of the main categories I can see for such stuff: things meant to be broken in and molded (leather, raw denim, waxed canvas), things where part of the aesthetic goal is to feel like you're casually throwing on an old practical favorite (trucker jackets, certain flannels, old-school puffers), and things built for a purpose specific enough that it looks actively odd if they've clearly never been used for that purpose (outdoor gear). But I dunno, I guess I may be too much of a fan of the old WASPy "wearing nice stuff that's been absolutely beat to hell" thing ... not to a cracked-shoes Adlai Stevenson level, but my favorite sweaters definitely feature some 20-year-old holes

Those cherry Merrell 1trl's posted above are beautiful. Picking up a pair today.

My daily wear Tasmanian Laincot pants have acquired a purple hue from sunbleaching. Mixes well with a vintage Australian made flannel (still plenty of beauties to find in this nations rural op shops) + my cherry Salomons. Summer is set. No desire to wear anything else

xp me neither but to me there's something quite mature about being able to lean into it, "yup, i know looks a bit off but it's brand new and that comes with the territory, they'll develop wear soon enough but in the mean time i'm wearing them anyway" yknow rather than scuffing them up shamefully in a corner

Washing machines and dryers on no-heat / air fluff mode are astounding at making your good new things look beat up fwiw

I find it hilarious that my friends and colleagues consider me a stylish person despite the fact that I thrash hard against all the orthodoxies espoused in this thread. It has to be because I live where I live, where the ability to match colors and wear outfits that aren’t just brown and navy blue or gray and black is like some flagrant expression of individuality people can barely get their head around

getting called a hidebound traditionalist from the guy who only wears one type of shoes ever, designed in the 1920s smh

ouch, well zung

My mother is a violinist; a while back she bought a new violin case to replace the one she got in like 1953.

Apparently she thought the new one looked incongruous and possibly dorky (like the other violinists were gonna give her shit about it and call her teh noob).

Anyway she had me take it outside and kick it around in the driveway for 10 minutes

Hahahaha, sorry that tickled me

Are there any orthodoxies in this thread? I can't remember any.

Not really. I do feel like the tendency here seems to be somewhat conservative? I’m still grumpy that nabisco suggested that some of my favorite flannels look like alienware laptops.

I've always been a little on the conservative side myself. I grew up with a dad who wore suits to my little league games. We have a photo of him as a young child in a suit on the beach. His dad made suits.

I also work in a field that tends to be more conservative, although my office is casual now. I still feel a little weird when I wear jeans to work even when they're "nice" jeans. I had an argument with my family about how I don't think there's such a thing as "nice sweatpants."

Most of my dressing is either for the office or just weekend bumming around. I'm a suburban dad and have no reason to not dress like one. I like wearing my patagonia jacket (actually the inside of a 3-in-1 coat) everywhere not so much because I love the way it looks, although I like it, but because it says "I'm here to pick up my kids." No one will ever doubt that I'm there to pick up my kids when I'm wearing my patagonia jacket.

There are pairs of sweatpants that cost as much as 2-3 pairs of decent jeans, and they’re better constructed than those jeans, too.

in my world, jeans and suit pants and pretty much all other forms of long pants other than sweatpants are simply not even part of the thought process. this world sucks, why do i need to be uncomfortable in it just so i can fit into some bourgeois ideas of propriety?

It's prob a life's work to define our own personal relationship to menswear or streetwear or both, lol

I would completely agree with that

yeah, agreed. i only came around to sweats a few years ago, now i wear them most of the time in the colder months and actively resent when i have to put proper jeans on. i even bring an extra pair of sweats with me so if i have to run errands after teaching, i don’t have be uncomfortable.

I received my overshirt, and I'm very happy with it. I'll probably wear it as a shirt rather than a jacket for the most part. Very lucky to nab one at a steep discount that is an actually nice, non-garish color combination.