Style Over Substance

In its weekend edition, the Wall Street Journal had this article about the resurgence of the traditional, outdoorsy look in men's clothing, and how high-fashion designers are either collaborating with brands like Woolrich and Barbour, or creating clothing inspired by these brands and styles.

I find this amusing for a couple of reasons. First, the Journal article makes this sound like a recent development, but it's at least a couple of years late in the trend-spotting department. Second, I have a hard time buying the conceit that men will embrace designers' versions of classic rugged clothing.

Or maybe it's more accurate to say that I find it difficult to envision much overlap between the pools of potential customers. The kind of stuff we're talking about is, and has always been, the antithesis of high fashion. People who care about the authenticity of a Filson coat or a pair of Red Wing boots are unlikely to be interested in a designer's fussy, overdone interpretations of classic American workwear. I mean, did you see the runway shots accompanying that article? Those are clothes for posers.

I may know who Daiki Suzuki is (he''s the outgoing designer of the Woolrich Woolen Mills collection, and one of the driving forces behind this re-imagining movement), but I only know because I read a lot of style coverage, and while I can appreciate his talent as a designer, I have no interest in anything from WWM precisely because it's too fashiony, esoteric, and outrageously expensive. It's American style filtered through a Japanese designer's point of view, making it much too far removed from anything I'd care about.

I suppose there's likely to be some overlap among the denizens of hipsterdom, but you already know my thoughts on that subject.