Published on : 27 August 20193 min reading time
If you’re here, it’s because you want to dress better. Good. But we must warn you: as with any kind of artistic teaching, it will take you time to mature. And, unless you have an extraordinary aesthetic sensitivity, the only valid strategy when you start is to buy basics. There are indeed, to simplify, three ways of looking at things:
- Our clothes keep us from being naked. In short, it is a purely utilitarian and functional vision of clothing. It’s like this: not everyone is destined to be interested in fashion, just as not everyone is destined to be interested in reading, painting… (Certainly, fashion is not an art like any other, but it will be the subject of another article).
- Another possible objective is to have versatile clothes, at our size and that do not require us to think for an hour when we wake up. In short: to have good clothes, which fit more or less into our context (our personality, our life, our culture, our surroundings) without having to invest all our energy in this effort. After all, it is good to know how to save for what we are really passionate about.
There is also a more “advanced” vision, which seeks to go further. Few people have the necessary motivation, and even fewer have the ability to do so (just look at the horrors of lookbook.nu to see for yourself)… This does not make this process any less exciting, on the contrary! It is not a “simple” search for beauty: it is also a way to recreate your silhouette. It is even a way to discover, dismantle and redefine your personality (remember the first time you wore a suit: you felt different. Well, it’s the same here)
Of course, the second and third vision does not exclude the importance of comfort and practicality of the garment.
And of course, it is possible to be halfway between two of these visions. You can, for example, be in the first category without pushing the vice to the point of wearing your old Eagle parka either. Another example is to have a “basic” vision while spicing things up a little, playing with one or two “codes” or adding accessories.
Obviously, there is no hierarchy of values here. There is not even any aesthetic judgment: a person who wears good basics can very well be better dressed than someone who is looking for more advanced clothes.
To summarize, first know in which direction you want to go. This may surprise you, but many people on the forum do not know if they want to go in the second or third direction. Often, they seek to skip the necessary step of the basics and underestimate the length (this is counted in years) and difficulty (as well as the money lost) of the third step.
One last thing: we did not mention budgets. This is not an oversight: you can have a “basic luxury” vision just as you can have an advanced vision by creating your own clothes.