Do you like to match a pair of tartan shorts with a Hawaiian shirt? No, you’re not a fashion disaster, you’re fluidly adept with sartorial quirks. You epitomise carefree chaos, or it could simply be you’re a dedicated follower of nonfashion.
A long pleated skirt with sensible shoes, sagging tights and a jumper your mother knitted? Geek chic!
Gardening pants, a football shirt and fluffy slippers? Uncoordinated clothing choices…the epitome of cool. Or possibly an eccentric synthesis.
A grey business suit with a white shirt? Normcore with flair.
Kaftans and gold brocade vests? A progressive and full-strength wardrobe.
Do you wear glasses? Statement spectacle wearing is shorthand for thoughtful intensity. And above all, glasses pull your outfit together.
Thanks to Terry Newman’s book Legendary Authors And The Clothes They Wore for these useful phrases.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96240041@N05/36366028910
Can I respectfully add some tribal styles more of my own coining, with their implicit messages?
1. Birthday suit: nonconformist attire
2. Tattooed face: don’t read my lips, read my cheeks, my forehead, my neck . . .
3. Goth costume and make-up: don’t read my lips, in fact don’t talk to me at all
4. Leather elbow patches: I’m a time-travelling teacher
Actually, I must revisit, even finish, Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus (which I began in the 80s and have yet to penetrate beyond the first chapter) as I’m sure there must be excellent fashions in here that I’ve yet to consider.
Birthday suit could also be courageous individuality.
You are one of the few people I can imagine being able to read all the way through Sartor Resartus. I feel tired as soon as I open it.
I think the fellow pictured above is an Elvis impersonator. Can you imagine walking around in that get up?
Leslie
Come on now, Peter would look great in that outfit!
chuckle …. he looks good in anything…