Some thoughts on clothing

I ordered Nicholas Antongiavanni's The Suit a while back and apparently it arrived today. Too bad I was leaving Helsinki in the morning and when I checked the emails on the train, it was already too late to pick the book up from Sanomatalo. I should be reading Organizational Behaviour for the Work Psychology & Leadership exam right now, but instead I've been reading Antongiavanni's articles online. And I must say that I have fairly high expectations for the book right now.

It's obvious that I don't agree with everything he writes, but that's not an issue. I actually prefer when instead of being all politically correct people actually offer something provocative to bite into. Especially when the person has demonstrated a fair bit of knowledge on the subject. And in this case I would think that the aforementioned author is quite knowledgable in said field.

Anyway, some things I don't agree with him are, for instance, that men shouldn't wear black suits. His argument ran along the lines of black being such a dominant color that it eats up all other colors. I personally, however, like black suits for the crispiness and contrast. And besides, formal wear is something that is worn less often these days, so I don't really feel that tuxedos and tailcoats own the exclusive right for black any more (ok, dark blue might, according to some sources, be an even more preferrable color for a tux than black...).

Then there's the issue of stripes and tapered suits. The issue with pinstripes or chalkstripes is understandable in the context of tall men. I won't argue with that. But I happen to like stripes and because I don't need to please anyone except myself, I'm fairly content in wearing stripes. The second issue was with slim suits. I've already given my views on slim suits before and I don't really like this ultra-slimness. But Antongiavanni suggests in one article that tall men should prefer more cloth over less cloth. I would prefer to take the route of doing some exercising and trying to develop a somewhat, shall we say, bulkier physique to compensate for the tallness. And I would also offer the point that if a slim and tall man wears suits with more cloth and which don't bring out the physique of the wearer, there may be a problem that the man is lost inside this big pile of cloth. And that's not a pretty sight.

Granted, I'm sure that Antongiavanni has mastered the art of clothing and that his suggestions are very good and knowledgable. However, I personally prefer some things over others and my personal preference overrides other things, where possible, and I feel that instead of trying to hide the slim and tall body, effort should be spent into developing the body itself and then embracing the good features, not trying to hide the slimness with various trickery. And as said, I like pinstripes...