TRY THIS ONE ON
Much like TV show characters, bubblegum flavours and the Spice Girls, there is one out there designed to fit you best. If you can excuse the double metaphor, that’s how I feel about fashion. Besides just clever marketing, this happens because we all identify with fashion and entertainment differently. We are naturally narcissistic and gravitate towards that which mirrors us best, or we go in the other direction and choose something that we want to be. So it means that yes, I can be a Carrie and Bear Grylls at the same time. The fashion world works in much the same way, or perhaps it should. You have designers from various parts of the world who grew up entirely different to each other, attended different fashion or art schools taught by different teachers and all of this influences the outcome of their designs. We as consumers, or those who are for now merely emulating their favourite fashion, seek out the elements that best suit our personalities. While I am all for self-expression, it has been my belief over the dawn of the hipster age that some of these folks are trying too hard. Cramming as many slices of fashion pie into a look as you can is not making a statement in its truer sense; it’s just making a really loud noise so people look at you.
The way I see it, your personal style should be like an expensive pair of Italian boots. You immediately want them but your credit card is looking at you like, ‘do you know how much you get paid?’ You get them anyway of course, they’re classic and modern at the same time, made from gen’yin leather and unless you start buying quality items now you’re never going to get the adult wardrobe you’ve always wanted! No, I say personal style because the boots themselves are made to age, to soften, even mold to fit your foot perfectly, plus they go with just about everything you own. Aligning yourself with that metaphor is how I view fashion, and for the most part how I will approach my tenure here at Gaschette. I represent the style-conscious man who is conscious enough to know he needs to stay away from tucking his jeans into his boots. I am the classicist, that reliable stick of spearmint gum in your blazer pocket and your friend in fashion (whoops, wrong website).
I decided to join this fine online establishment for a few reasons, yes these editors are indeed my good friends and it’s always open-bar here, but like all good clubs there is a greater purpose. Gaschette promotes creative partnering, the freedom of expression, safe housing for outcast fashion children looking a place in this world and all without judgment. This is a new era and I have a feeling that these kids are just the guides you need.
In the words of Barney Stintson, gentlemen, it’s time to suit up. You coming?
Marco Riekstins is the man behind the popular menswear website Man of the Cloth and the Gaschette Magazine Menswear Editor.
gaschette 