When I was a young man in the late ’70s, my counterparts and I in our rural/small-town Iowa community had certain requirements where clothing was concerned. Some of those requirements were practical; like blue jeans and boots, ropers and steel-toed engineer’s boots being the usual. Some were required to look “cool,” like black T-shirts and aviator sunglasses. But all in all, practicality won out over all other considerations. For me, at least, that still holds today. Overalls and a flannel shirt, rubber boots, and a good broad-brimmed hat to keep rain and snow off the noggin are just the ticket for choring in our rural Alaska compound. Spray everything with Sno-Seal and it’s good for all weather.
So it is with some bemusement that I consider the concept of men’s “fashion.” In my day we never had fashion. We just had clothes. But sure as I’m standing here, “men’s fashion” is a thing, and it has a distinctly urban tinge.
There’s a lot more to men’s fall fashion than throwing on a shacket and some dark denim, though that’s certainly a good start. For a proper fall fashion reset, you’ll want to consider your entire wardrobe — all the way down to your socks. But don’t be intimidated.
We spoke to men’s style experts to come up with a comprehensive guide to what stylist and founder of Pivot Image Consulting Patrick Kenger calls “menswear’s favorite season.”
Wait, what? What’s a “shacket?” Is that like a jacket, only somehow different? And why “dark denim?” How is that better than regular old denim, which is the stuff of which my jeans and overalls are made?
More to the point, for the luvva Pete, who is intimidated by clothing? Are these really men we are talking about here?
Let’s see what these “men’s style” experts have to say.
The key to men’s fall fashion? Layers and versatility.
“Fall gives you the opportunity to style more outfits by simply layering different pieces together,” says men’s stylist and content creator Najm Loyd. “This is the season to experiment with new outfits and color combinations and [to] stay cozy while doing so.” Kenger also thinks of fall as an opportunity, describing it as the “Goldilocks season of clothing.”
Presumably, another key to “fall fashion” involves breaking out whatever a “shacket” is. To me, that sounds distinctly unfashionable – like a jacket one might wear in a shack. Now that cooler fall weather is here, I do on occasion throw on a jacket for choring, and that jacket is, again, blue denim, in essence identical (except for size) to one I wore at age 18.
As far as experimenting with new colors, I settled on black, blue, and gray many years ago – except when I’m wearing camouflage.
But reading on in these “recommendations,” I think I see the root cause of my bemusement.
Building a balanced wardrobe is important too, which brings us to our second point: versatility. Dan Gilligan, vice president of men’s design at Abercrombie & Fitch, calls this the “key to a winning wardrobe.”
“From the endless summer of September to the temperature fluctuations right up to the holidays, you need a smart combination of pieces that can adapt,” he says. Jian DeLeon, the men’s fashion director at Nordstrom, agrees.
Ah. There it is. Abercrombie & Fitch and Nordstrom aren’t the usual purveyors of clothes meant for the rural lifestyle, or indeed for any activities that are part of a strenuous lifestyle.
Of course, not all men’s clothing is meant for outdoor work and choring – and I’m using “men” in its strictest sense here, not in the manner in which people who write about “men’s fashion.” For many years I was in the jacket-and-tie brigades, and just as I do now, I chose quality over all other considerations. But men’s business clothing changes very little over time; a jacket, trousers, and tie that I may have worn to a client’s office in 2005 wouldn’t be too far out of place in an office in 1950. So we can’t really call that “fashion,” as it doesn’t seem so subject to the changing whims of the indecisive.
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Still. As my grandfather said, and I’m fond of quoting, every cat its own rat. I suppose plenty of… male people are concerned with the latest trends in hip fashion statements. That’s fine. They are welcome to do as they please, and that’s the great thing about a free market economy; given sufficient demand, someone will arise to fulfill every desire. I suppose that’s what is happening here.
I’ll stick with practicality.
As far as fall clothing goes, I just did a quick inventory of what I’m wearing at the moment, and except for my socks, it all came from Duluth Trading. Now there is a company that sells good, solid, practical clothing for men and women both, “fashion” considerations notwithstanding.
Plus, they have the best commercials.
