I’ve tried optimizing and making “my personal” wardrobe and so on, but found that I ended up with one or two favorites pieces and disliked the rest. It’s like a MLB slugger who hits a homer once a week and strikes out the rest of the time. I’ve had more success with just finding a “style tribe” I like and dressing like that. It’s more of an MLB “singles and doubles”, a consistently good-enough approach. I think people who wear streetwear look cool, and I like hanging out with them so don’t mind strangers associating me with them. Now I wear mild variations of typical streetwear and find it much easier and more effective. Mild variations because I’m in my 30′s and am wearing young people clothes, so have to display a sort of “grey beard” attitude about it. It’s easier, because I can just look at r/streetwear’s wiki for ideas. And it’s more effective. As far as walking around, it seems like people prefer the principle of minimum surprise. People can now look at me, easily slot me into “he’s wearing streetwear”, and they can then judge me positively, according to how well I’m being creative within that tribe. It’s easier to say, “ah, he’s doing the Lindy Hop and he’s doing it well” than to say, “he’s doing… Something… And I can’t tell whether he’s doing it well or not.” There’s also a satisfying coherence about it. My entire wardrobe is now singing the same song, no matter what I choose to wear that day. I could perhaps have found this coherence through my own idiosyncratic style, but it wasn’t worth the effort.
I’ve tried optimizing and making “my personal” wardrobe and so on, but found that I ended up with one or two favorites pieces and disliked the rest. It’s like a MLB slugger who hits a homer once a week and strikes out the rest of the time. I’ve had more success with just finding a “style tribe” I like and dressing like that. It’s more of an MLB “singles and doubles”, a consistently good-enough approach. I think people who wear streetwear look cool, and I like hanging out with them so don’t mind strangers associating me with them. Now I wear mild variations of typical streetwear and find it much easier and more effective. Mild variations because I’m in my 30′s and am wearing young people clothes, so have to display a sort of “grey beard” attitude about it. It’s easier, because I can just look at r/streetwear’s wiki for ideas. And it’s more effective. As far as walking around, it seems like people prefer the principle of minimum surprise. People can now look at me, easily slot me into “he’s wearing streetwear”, and they can then judge me positively, according to how well I’m being creative within that tribe. It’s easier to say, “ah, he’s doing the Lindy Hop and he’s doing it well” than to say, “he’s doing… Something… And I can’t tell whether he’s doing it well or not.” There’s also a satisfying coherence about it. My entire wardrobe is now singing the same song, no matter what I choose to wear that day. I could perhaps have found this coherence through my own idiosyncratic style, but it wasn’t worth the effort.