Sprezzatura vs trying too hard.

[Tiki Tom]

Whatever you may think of it, the 91st edition of Florence's international menswear trade fair Pitti Uomo opened on Tuesday.
Personally, I get voyeuristic pleasure from gawking at some of the (to me) over-the-top combinations.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/lif...nce_8b305e82-f4ce-4472-baf7-c13fd83b9e55.html

http://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/news/g3198/pitti-uomo-street-style-day-1/

 

[BlueTrain]

From what I read, it is quite possible that Dagenham is more visible from space than the Great Wall of China. I do know that the pyramids of Egypt are very difficult to pick out from an overhead shot because from overhead, they are simple square shapes. Some places I have been interesting in seeing from aerial or bird's-eye views have been spoiled by clouds but I could spend hours looking at such photos. The resolution in the views of some locations is so good that I can distinguish my own car on the ground and because photos were taken at different times, it appears in two places, home and at work.

 

[FedOregon]

Lots of good info here!

 

[paxonus]

The primary element of being well-dressed is not what you are wearing, but how well it fits. Sprezzatura works because what you are wearing fits properly regardless of whether you are in jeans or trousers. The fit is what makes it look effortless. An inexpensive slouchy jacket, if it has been tailored, will look better than a Brioni suit which hasn't. The former will look natural and give the appearance of just having been pulled on as you went out the door. The latter will just look sloppy and pretentious and draw attention to you, and not in a good way.

 

[BlueTrain]

Maybe we're all trying too hard. English country gentlemen generally set the standards when it comes to men's clothing and not the Italians. Just ask any Englishman! Yet one such English country squire supposedly said that when it traveled, it didn't matter what he wore because no one knew him. But when he was on home territory, he would say that it didn't matter what he wore because everyone knew him.

Most of my relatives wore work clothes all the time, seven days a week. Those were the matching shirt and pants of grey, green, tan or blue that came from Sears, Penney's or Ward's. And they were men who actually worked for a living. They weren't office workers. They would have died before being seen in short pants. They didn't even wear short-sleeved shirts. But they were conscious of what they wore, if only in a negative way. My uncle refused to wear overalls that had splotches on them from spilt bleach, for instance. His entire wardrobe consisted of about three sets of work clothes, plus a suit for appropriate occasions like funerals. In a way, it's an envious way to live.

 

[scotrace]

The Sartorialist on Instagram seems to catch people who have the knack of looking fantastic, yet unstudied.

 

[BlueTrain]

If looks could kill, most of us would be harmless.

 

[Tiki Tom]

The Sartorialist on Instagram seems to catch people who have the knack of looking fantastic, yet unstudied.

Like this? (Hey! Is that Tom Selleck?)

 

[LuvMyMan]

If looks could kill, most of us would be harmless.

Ahh but then some folks are dressed to kill!

 

[LuvMyMan]

Like this? (Hey! Is that Tom Selleck?)

That actually almost works...but the yellow with the blue is just too much an opposite...a white jacket...yes indeed! However it is not a total wash!

 

[scottyrocks]

I'm sorry. I can find nothing positive in any of that. Except maybe the shirt.

 

[Fading Fast]

The excessively short cut of the double breasted sport coat almost prevents me from even seeing anything else. A DB has a full visual front by definition and needs the length to aesthetically balance its proportions. His is so off, it looks like the ba***rd offspring of a DB and and Ike jacket . And he's a broad guy, which only further calls for a longer sport coat to balance his natural proportions.

If I did get past all that, while the yellow in the trousers is a bit too electric for my taste, if that was a toned-down yellow, it would work okay. The giant flower and popped collar are too "look at me" for my tastes. But the tie, shirt and shoes, if combined with a better-proportioned sport coat and toned-down yellow pants, could work in a eclectic way.

 

[scottyrocks]

Other than all that, it 's fine.

 

[BlueTrain]

The blue jacket looks too much like an old-fashioned working man's jacket that might have been work a hundred years ago by, say, a locomotive engineer or a truck driver. But in Europe, of course.

The funny thing is, when looking at the other photos in the link, how some edgy looks somehow look okay and even natural and the wearer (at least in the photos) easily pulls it off. But others, well, either look like a bizarre fashion runway concoction or just plain bizarre. It's easy enough to do without wearing anything odd anyway. Imagine pants that are too short or that pretentious and affected style of pushing up the sleeves of a sports jacket or suit coat. But you name it and it's been done, I imagine. I remember vividly when so-called pegged pants were in style for teenage boys and young men. The style was to wear the legs very narrow, which just happens to be a style right now. Or at least it was yesterday. When you stood up, you had to stomp your feet to make the pants legs (usually jeans) fall back down.

Then there were bell bottoms, hip huggers, and so on. Blue jeans had to be altered if you wanted peg legs before they started being made that way. And mothers would do that for their sons, too. I don't remember girls wearing them that way.

 

[Windsock8e]

Here is a Sprezzatura element to be avoided. Looks like a creature is reaching out of his pocket to grab him by the throat. (In the second example, I get the feeling the creature is coming after me!)

I just choked on my coffee, thank you for starting my day with a smile. The second photo looks like a plea for help from a man drowning in the other guys jacket. Or maybe he's just waving "hello"? [emoji23]

By the way, isn't wearing a hat well, so that it casually blends in with ones overall attire, whatever it may be, a form of spezzatura?

 

[Tiki Tom]

Ugh. Really? And he's the Prime Minister.
To each his own, I guess.

 

[shadowrider]

It's the sartorial equivalent of a mullet: Business on top, party down below!

 

[Vic_H]

I'd ask you guys to look up one 'ethan wong'. He mixes vintage and sprezzatura very well - He's got a blog about it, called street x sprezza. Here's a link to a thing he did a while back on vintage fashion trends from the 20s-60s.
https://streetxsprezza.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/a-very-general-guide-to-vintage-sartorial-style/

 

[Tiki Tom]

I'd ask you guys to look up one 'ethan wong'. He mixes vintage and sprezzatura very well - He's got a blog about it, called street x sprezza. Here's a link to a thing he did a while back on vintage fashion trends from the 20s-60s.
https://streetxsprezza.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/a-very-general-guide-to-vintage-sartorial-style/

Welcome, Vic. Thanks for the tip re: street x sprezza. I just spent about an hour looking at various pages on that site. Enjoyed it very much and I suspect that other Loungers will find it interesting too.

 

[BlueTrain]

I wonder where guys in the 1920s got their inspiration on how to dress?