The Sartorialist

So, I’ve been trying to develop a better sense of fashion. Not to dress myself, because as far as I’m concerned, I’m satisfied with my hobo look, and I can’t afford another financial sink. I’d rather put some new shoes on my car than myself anyway (see below and give me your opinion). That, and I’m not particularly photogenic to start with. But at some point, I realized that I have no idea/appreciation of fashion at all, nor do I know how to obtain it.

Why bother? I don’t really know. At the risk of my manhood, I guess I just want to better appreciate the efforts well-dressed people put into dressing themselves (you know, beyond just putting on a shirt with a slogan on it). Hell, they seem to put so much time into it, particularly women. It’s a sphere that most men don’t approach (except for the metros). Besides, I already have a general interest in design (product, architecture), and this is just another piece in the design mosaic.

So I figured I’d approach it like how I approached cars. In high school, I couldn’t distinguish a Mercedes from a Nissan. I simply didn’t care. But after inundating myself with car-related media, I learned. I was always baffled why girls would spend time flipping through magazines that held no more content than images of people wearing clothes. BORING! But I suppose they were really just doing what I was doing with cars, except I had the benefit/curse of living in SoCal, where I didn’t need magazines to see a plethora of car design. And clothing is so much more mutable than car design.

Anyway, I still find flipping through fashion magazines boring as hell (just a bit more than skate/snow/surf magazines, god what a waste of paper), but thanks to the internet, I can take a gander for a few minutes every few weeks, and move on. The Sartorialist is perfect for this. It’s basically a site run by some men (and only men at the moment surprisingly enough) that wander metropolitans, taking photos of interestingly dressed people [Wait I was wrong, there are women, too]. Sartoria is Italian for tailor shop, I think, if you were wondering.

So while I won’t be able to rapid fire ID shit like some of the more capable womenfolk, perhaps I’ll be able to respond beyond just a grunt, and give a somewhat reasoned response. Just the other day I saw a beautiful and very well dressed woman at Rooster Cafe. I’m not capable of describing her outfit. See? I am unedumacated. But she could’ve fit right in at the Sartorialist. I would’ve taken a picture, but that would have been uber creepy. I think she was Chris of Splitend‘s sister. Chris is a very well rounded dude. He knows his haircuts, he designs and codes his own sites, he knows his cars, and how to drive them.

Speaking of shoes for the S…which looks better? They both look great to me. I’ve been fiending for white GC-07′s (AHA, betcha didn’t know what those were!) for a long time, but those gunmetal RZ’s look hot as hell.