The Origins of Style

Recently while having lunch with some fellow creatives in Atlanta, a very interesting question arose. Where does style come from? No one seemed to have any similarities in their answer, which made me think much more about the question being posed.

Style itself, much like art, is relative. There is no defined code of ethics that dictates style or fashion as a whole. But there are some guidelines. While art is more of a no holds bar, outside of the runway, practicality when it comes to dress is important. The likelihood of coming across someone at the supermarket wearing a skinny sheer dress and a pac man helmet is slim. The things people wear are often times expression, expression worn instead of being spoken.

But that still doesn’t explain where it comes from. Some people will venture through their entire lives not taking two glances at what they put on. For them, style is nearly non-existent. Clothing, is to these people, something to be put on and worn, with no real deep thinking involved with how it makes them look. But there are others, who have discovered that by the things they put on, they can tell a story, a tale of who they are as an individual, and how they see themselves.

Style itself, in my opinion, is a collaboration of everything a person has seen, experienced, and learned in their lifetime, and represented in their taste for clothing, or how they wear that clothing. It’s not just a jacket. It’s what that jacket means to you, how you feel when you wear it, and how you feel that jacket represents you and your individualism to others. The same goes with any other garment, man or woman, we are all at the base, influenced by those 3 things when it comes to style.

But the amazing thing, is how clothing can become an attachment, how a brand can actually come to be loved and endeared by its customers and those who wear it. Even people who enjoy solitude, are aware that there are others like them in the world. And whether or not they think deeply about that point, they are no doubt aware of it. Well the same goes with style. No matter the brand, if there is a following, there is a common perspective that the brand reaches that it’s followers appreciate enough to feel apart of it.

There is most definitely, a lot more to putting on a new pair of shoes, or tying a tie, than what most will lead on to acknowledge. But when you stop to think of the varying styles throughout the world, rest assured that there is one out there that fits your taste. And if there is not, look for it. If you cannot find it, make it. And if your reading this blog, the odds are that you enjoy the things you see on this site, which means that The Elegant Scoundrel, will be bringing you something to be proud of very soon.