Style vs Fashion

There is a great rift running through the world of men’s fashion blogging, and both sides are spoiling for a fight.

In the blue corner; the sartorial, impeccably groomed banker in his well-cut navy suit and Paul Smith brogues. In the red corner; the young art student in double-denim, a Smiths t-shirt and scuffed desert boots.

One worships at the altar of timeless style, the other prays at the pulpit of constantly progressive fashion.

This schism represents much more than a debate between formality and informality; this is a war between function and flamboyance, past and present. It’s also a peculiar feature of menswear, where for decades the emphasis has been on clearly defined boundaries and rules, in contrast to the relatively liberal approach to style that women enjoy. But does black and brown really “make a frown?”

Okay, now that I’ve got that bombastic and intentionally hyperbolic introduction out of the way, I’ll elaborate a bit more on where I stand on this debate.

Our suited banker and shameless hipster would probably both argue that the differences between these two camps are irreconcilable. However, I’m less interested in the differences between fashion and style than the way that they inform each other.

The first observation we should make is that so called ‘timeless’ style is not nearly as set in stone as our banker would like us to believe. It changes. What we might see as the epitome of classicism in menswear now will look very different in fifty years’ time, even if it’s just in the width of a lapel or the break of a trouser leg.

Secondly, fashion is not the maverick beast that our hipster thinks it is, moving independently and outside the world of style. Fashion will always be informed by style.

After all, there’s only so much you can play with the original formula; shirts will always be shirts, jeans will always be jeans, no matter what monstrosities Yves Saint Laurent might throw at us from the catwalk.

We can find a middle ground, therefore, in this conflict. Rules are there for a reason, but they’re also meant to be broken. Menswear should be informed by the past, but we should also look to the future. In fact, it is only through taking influence from both our inner banker and hipster that we can discover and develop our personal style.

Just how can you do this? Look no further than these articles.