I need new clothes but every time I go out 95% of what I see on offer is so bog-standard male. Solid earth tones, baggy one-size-fits-all, muted colors, work-wear adjacent, etc.
It’s so hard to find stuff that’s more, I dunno, “playful?” I’d like to have some clothes are that more of an expression of my personality but almost never do I see more unusual, expressive, colorful stuff in the brick-and-mortar stores.
To compound this, I’d also like it to:
- not cost me an arm and a leg
- be interesting but not clownish/overly ironic/jokey
This has mostly led me to buying floral shirts but a man cannot live on floral shirts alone! Does anyone know of retailers that might fit the bill?
We have the Great Male Renunciation to blame for the bleak state of masculine apparel today. At some point towards the end of the 18th century, some well-to-do European gent said “fellas, is it gay to wear colours?”, and here we are
Wow, never heard of this. Crazy shit.
Over the past several years I’ve just popped into Ross or TJ Maxx every now and then and selected colorful or interestingly fitted shirts and sweaters. My wardrobe is now a rainbow with splashes of paisley.
I’m here to also suggest that. I have a teen who’s very fashion conscious and he’s good at finding interesting clothes online.
However he also regularly pops into TJ Maxx to see if there’s anything interesting. If you’re not familiar with them, you can’t expect regular inventory. They have discounted clothes for whatever overstock or out of season wear comes in, so it’s always different and sometimes interesting
Another place he likes are comic book or record stores. Sure it’s usually a tshirt and may be expensive but you can get different bands or characters
Having never heard the term “bog-standard” myself, I imagine it has to look something like this:
It’s mostly British.
https://www.grammar-monster.com/sayings_proverbs/bog_standard.htm
Might very well look like that.
I wish there were more fun clothes for guys too. Every so often some sub-culture tries to adopt something, but it never works. Like, you could wear a fancy hat, suspenders, a kilt, or a bow tie, but sadly most people are just going to parse that as “here comes that exhausting dude”.
A couple years ago I bought one of these: https://www.overland.com/products/nomad-wool-felt-outback-hat-72619?cl=olmx
It’s not like a cowboy hat that lots of people wear, but something different. It’s really sharp looking, and unique, but somehow not “eccentric”. It treads a nice balance. I get frequent compliments, not in a sarcastic way either. I have a collection of enamel pins I swap out, which let’s in a bit more personality, but muted enough
Shop the women’s section. They don’t check if you have a vagina.
Women get some really cool ski and backpack designs, too. One time they had skis with cactuses and coyotes on them but said they were for women. The men’s version was like…flat black or some bullshit like that.
At this point, I’m starting to just say fuck it, I’m buying the cooler design unless there’s some actual reason why there’s a gendered difference (such as boob space or muscle layout differences).
Yea, but women typically have breasts which mean shirts are basically never gonna fit a man properly.
Meh, in America many of us have breast shaped chests too.
Sweaters are ok though. The boob fabric helps with the wider shoulders.
Trump administration will be sure to look into this.
Women’s clothes are also just cooler :3
Oh man, I feel you’re your pain. I saved some money to get some new nice clothes this year, and men’s fashion this year was not up my alley. I checked out some places that often have nice shirts and sweaters (like The Gap), but they were all insipid pastel colors. I really resent the prevalent mainstream colour options of dark blue, gray, or black. I’m a man, not in fucking mourning.
Have you tried “National Standards”? I’m not too familiar with them, but I’ve found some good stuff through them before.
I don’t know what to call the styles currently on offer but the last time I checked out Target, Express, Old Navy I noticed a lot more muted color, dated thrift-shoppy aesthetic that I thought looked pretty wack. I’ll leave that to the younger dudes with their mullets and mustaches (which I also do not understand)
Thrift shops
You can find some great stuff on eBay. I also like Yiume.com . If you like crazy Hawaiian style shirts, owlohh.com is fun. There are even more outlandish online shops for sure. However I find most of them are Asian sized or skinny European sized. Not much for spare tire carrying typical Americans. theblackstore.com is ok. I wasn’t as impressed with their quality though. Heydude.com has a lot of fun and very comfortable shoes.
Now we’re talking. Yiume is definitely in the vein of what I want to see (owlohh was the complete opposite lol). I’m a rolled-up long-sleeve shirt kind of guy but I’m really digging these patterns. Love this cat print one https://www.yiume.com/products/mens-hawaiian-shirt-the-cat-that-kicked-cuju-cotton-camp-collar-short-sleeve-aloha-shirt
edit: Having scrolled through all their shirts, I’m glad they’re doing that cat collection because almost everything else I was not vibing nearly as much as it much more standard “obnoxiously loud hawaiian shirt”–though much nicer designs than I usually see. Maybe what I need to look more for is artist collabs as they tend to have a little more soul than “here’s another kitschy pattern of the same thing you’ve seen a dozen times before.”
On ebay try “Robert Graham” or “Visconti Black” as keywords. You can often find $300 shirts for $30.
I have 5 or 6 yiume shirts. They are all well made and regularly get comments when I wear them. They seem to run true to size unlike some other vendors I’ve tried.
Love the patterns! Haha I can’t help but think of this skit (sorry for TikTok link) ITYSL - Dan Flashes
Someone else mentioned thrift stores, I’d amend that to vintage clothing stores. Similar, but a thrift store will have all kinds of stuff and it won’t be as vetted for style as a vintage shop. Also look at maker’s marts/farmer’s markets/art fairs/etc, if you live somewhere with those kinds of things. There are a lot of people who collect vintage clothes or even salvage vintage materials and make their own clothes out of them.
I’ve been buying a lot of interesting goth/punk/fetishy clothes lately. Even there, lots of repetitiveness.
But there’s some cool stuff out there, same cuts of cloth but interesting patterns. I comment this frequently, wish there was variety for dudes like there is for ladies.
I know this doesn’t answer your question, sorry, but where are you trying to shop (or what country is this in)?
I’m having the opposite problem (in the UK).
For example, for the last couple of years, I’ve been looking for a dull nondescript standard jacket, in olive, black, grey, brown - but nowhere is selling them. I can only buy brightly coloured or shiny “inflatable” type coats, looking like a woodlouse made from a binbag, or things with words written all over them.
There are lots of great underwear for guys out there. I have some that have cool colors stitched in, or patterns that look like refracted wavy pool water as seen from underwater.
Gay and queer underwear companies make some awesome looking underwear, too (and it’s not like anyone is going to really see your underwear anyways).
There’s stuff out there, but it is harder to find. It’s going to be especially hard to find right now. If you want more colorful clothes look again when the Spring and Summer looks come out. The Winter styles are going to be more muted and less colorful.
I like Bonobos and Todd Snyder for when I want something more interesting. Although Todd Snyder is definitely caught in the muted colors for winter thing.
Go to the Latino or black neighborhoods and shop there :)
