Look at Me

I was mildly surprised to open Sunday's Boston Globe and find myself not included among the "25 Most Stylish Bostonians of 2011" compiled in the bonus magazine section. After all, I certainly approach life with the intent of displaying a distinctive style. But after I'd flipped through and gotten a look at what the editors consider stylish (at least regarding the men included on the list), I was relieved not to be among them.

Perhaps a better title would have been "the 25 biggest attention whores of 2011." Too many people forget that style and fashion are two different things. I think these fancy dressers are meant to provide inspiration to us regular folk, but the approach to dressing on display among the majority of the men included on the list seems to be: dress to get attention, and wear as many layers and items of clothing as possible. That's great if you're young and out to leave your mark on the word, but most men are not comfortable dressing in a way that would attract so much attention to themselves, but that doesn't mean we can't be stylish.

What I'd really like to see the Globe do is compile a list of the 25 most stylish average Bostonians, the ordinary people with ordinary jobs who enjoy dressing well but who are not attention seekers by nature. Esquire has run a contest called the "Best Dressed Real Man in America," and that seems like an excellent template. Maybe 25 men and 25 women?

Also: can we just stop it with the untucked shirts? Especially under jackets. You guys are supposed to be grown-ups, right? Stylish ones, at that. There's a place for the untucked look: Saturday morning at the farmers' market.

Side note: women are still reluctant to reveal their ages. I had no idea this was an area of concern anymore.