PERSONAL STYLE PART DEUX

Like many of my fashionisto peers I keep a very large folder on my laptop containing thousands upon thousands of fashion-related images. I have accumulated my own hyper-space-heaven where I draw my inspiration from. In fact I made the folder my screensaver so that it refreshes each image for me. What I like about style is that it can change and refresh too. I went through a hair phase this year where it changed five or six times.











But it was my fashion-style that changed once I left Diesel for a smarter-dressed British label. Now, Cape Town is no suit-culture I assure you, so in the heat of summer we were wearing soft shirts and raw denims to work, while our wardrobes started to swell from the fantastic staff perks! Again I was in need of a list of basics to complete my new wardrobe.

- Slim fit raw denims (from the company of course)
- Smart brown leather belt
- Gorgeous brown leather loafers (not the awful suade square ones)
- Black leather shoes
- Smart Black belt
- Slim-fit shirts in various fun colours
- Slim blue suit

Once acquired and teamed up with my already existing wardrobe it was easy to dress well for work. Shirt + V Neck sweater + Brown belt + Raw Denims + Brown Brogue shoes or perhaps... White shirt + Blue Blazer, Black leather shoes to MATCH Black leather Belt and Raw denims. Easy as pie. If you replace existing pieces of your wardrobe for quality pieces, you will find a big difference in your style. It takes a long time for some of us but it's worth it in the end.

I love to see someone dressing out of the box. I tried a lot of looks when I was working for Diesel because I had the platform for it but since moving to my current employment I had to refine my style and ditch the jeans look altogether. But those out-of-the-boxers inspire me greatly, it's something fun and different and often I slap my head and wonder how I didn't think of that myself. Here are a few of my favorite looks of personal style:











Photo's are from the Sartorialist and pulled from various Street style websites.

The birth of the Metrosexual

The Cavemen were naked, Tarzan wore a loin cloth and through the ages man became more civilized and learned to dress more appropriately. His attire would define automatically what class he belonged to, be it a man of wealth or of war.
But somewhere along the way (we call it the 90's) man lost desire or need to be smartly dressed all the time. Society branched out into several directions to the point that you can't really point out our generation and say, "That look is so 2000 such and such". I can't be sure if that's a good or a bad thing, but self expression has been a long battle that we seem to have finally settled.

The slogan on our t-shirts read easily today: Be Yourself. It's that simple. Honour yourself, be it your heritage, your skin colour or your sexuality. So once that begun there really was no set look in the 90's. Except maybe that all the clothes from that day were just ill fitting. Or tie-dye.

For generations woman of all shapes and colours have been concious of their attire, the fit on the waist, the length and width of the leg. Generally there has been a strong thought process behind this because no matter the label of your new jeans, if they don't fit your shape what's the use?

Male models and movie stars have always been well dressed for the most part, it's in their best interest to look good. Then the Pop stars followed, as did the rappers and their bling and brand concious images. Ordinary men started to admire these stars, and shows like Queer Eye for the straight guy opened up ordinary men to the possibility of looking their best. They loved it! They loved the feeling! No longer were the bright coloured shirts and fitted jeans reserved for Gay men-- society was accepting a well dressed straight man!

Recently GQ branched out and created my favourite magazine GQ STYLE which is like Vogue but obviously for men. Vogue even branched out a quarterly edition called VOGUE MEN.

I guess it's no surprise I'm here then. I'm the product of such a change in the awakening of man. I want to look good, it's that simple.