COSPLAY: Defining Identity in Clothing
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 พ.ค. 2024
- How should you dress? And why should you dress this way? I offer some food for thought on this and try to spark some healthy discussion...Is costumey clothing ok? YES! Just know what you're getting into.
Cosplay dressing hit its wacky zenith back in the 80s. Urban Cowboy. The whole punk/New Wave scenes. Rise of the Ralph Lauren empire. All of this right on the heels of disco.
The movie Everybody Wants Some has a funny sequence where these 80s college guys go from a disco to a country bar to a punk club, going back home to change clothes each time. One of the characters says something along the lines of 'it's almost like we don't even know who we are.'
beautiful words about the open casket clothing, nice vid
Man, your videos have taken a HUGE jump up in depth and quality recently, and they were already quite good. Watching this video, I felt like I was "thinking aloud" along with you.
Roofing off your last idea, my two cents is that clothing should be a genuine form of expression for who you are. I think people recognize authenticity, and will instinctively recognize if an outfit is a real extension of yourself. Of course for some people that may be double denim, loafers and an ocbd, t-shirt and board shorts, etc.
Anyway, keep up the great videos!
I had the exact same sentiment. Good stuff! Kindred spirits.
So glad you dig the videos, as always. Thank you so much for the encouragement in the more philosophical content! And your input on this stuff is highly valued. I consistently and deeply enjoy your style philosophizing on your IG posts, and that is true here for what you said about clothing needing to be a true representation of who a person is. That's such a refreshing approach. It both focuses a person's style but also frees them to pursue the things they truly feel an affinity with, even if that's not "in fashion".
Good Video, I dress like its the 1940s sometimes, Selvedge denim jeans, chambray shirt, with one of my nicks boots and a newsboy cap. You definitely get head turns, always received compliments on the way I dress. Its unique but not completely out of fashion. Fashion is a good way to express oneself. Love the videos as always
Well done, David. It has taken me decades to dress with confidence. I think we are conditioned to blend in and go with the status quo. I like your observations that we are all born naked and really die naked. In between, we have the choice to dress as we like. Some people have to wear a uniform for their profession, but most of us can choose. It really is liberating to try something different.
Dude! I grew up in San Jose. Spent all day on my skateboard, enjoying the general lack of humidity. Grew up out there and now residing in Houston Texas. Great video, as usual. I think our approach to how we dress changes as we age. It wasn’t until my 30s but I started to develop a desire to dress better. It all started with hunting down a blue Oxford shirt with a decent collar roll. That was the start of it. Lace up boots came after that, and then denim, etc., etc. as time went by, my tastes were changing and being refined. I’ve bought and sold so much and pared down my clothing to essentials for the most part. It’s a learning process. Learning about yourself and what you like. I still have my old ratty blue Oxford. God bless!
First, San Jose! Cool talking to a fellow California native!.....And your point about age is fantastic. I agree that people feel an urge to evolve in style as they age. It happens at different ages for different people, and in different ways, but I think we have all felt it at some point. At some point, we have that experience where we no longer feel congruent with our clothes, and we shed them to assume something that connects with ourselves. Very well said - thank you!
Im 67. Lifetime resident of Alabama, where is hot and humid most of the year and trends are over just about they time they arrive. Casual wear almost by neccesity is shorts, Ts, polos, and camp shirts at least 1/2 the year.
I think my casual wear isn't that different from what I wore in high school and college really. I still wear denim,(minus the bell bottoms lol) flannel, T shirts, and tennis shoes or boots much of the time, supplemented with items from the office casual "uniform" I had to wear to work most of my life like chinos, collared shirts, etc. I tried slim jeans and didnt like em. Give me some plain old standard Levis or Wranglers.
Ive always liked a classic mens hat as a casual statement piece to stand out from the crowd. Ive loved felt fedoras, Panamas, and flat caps since I was a teen. That wasnt fashionable back then but I wore em anyway. I think it started when I inherited my Grandfathers old Stetson fedora. Loved that hat. I wore it for years and still have it although its slap worn out from abuse.
Now as an older gent Im comfortable with a fedora or Panama topping off a suit, something Id never do when I was younger because you know, a bit over the top trending towards pre1960s cosplay. But for an old guy it works. My opinion anyway. But it seems like the old time ways are trending lately, at least on the internet.
The only thing cringy/regrettable about my past fashion choices is that terrible polyester that permeated the 70s. Some old Easter Sunday and prom pics from my teen years really make me cringe. But the older I got the more I trended toward the classics, you learn with age.
This is all so great! Thank you for sharing so many cool things about your style journey. I like the perspective it gives, that life is fluid. Also, you talked about climate - that plays a HUGE part in whatever style a person chooses. All very well said, sir, thank you
Great video. Not wanting to feel like I’m wearing a costume (along with the price for a nice pair) is exactly why I haven’t tried Engineer boots.
I think if you're not feeling it, then refraining is the right choice. Well said...That said, if you really really wanted to try engineers but were hindered solely because you were nervous about how they look, I might say try them out. If the rest of your clothes are "normal" you could probably pull engineers off without things getting too "weird" haha
Hey David. Bay area native here, too. SF to be exact. Great video and even more awesome subject to expound upon. I've gone through several iterations of fashion throughout my life and its because of these experiences that I have been able to discover the beauty of vintage and heritage wear. I'm in my late 50's and like you, I appreciate a good raw denim or two. This subject is so interesting because I have Japanese heritage and in Japan cosplay is fashion. And just like the Japanese love Americana, they dress the part in all its accuracy with their own ideas sprinkled in between. I think thats what makes japanese fashion a standard in most countries in the world. In a nutshell. Yeah. I think dressing cosplay is great. It makes us appreciate the beauty of fashion in all its time elements and its artistic glory. I'm always down for anyone expressing their own individuality through fashion. Cosplay or not 😂❤❤
Your comments are so great! And I'm stoked to be talking to someone else in the same geographical/cultural context! What you're saying is spot on - if we enjoy cosplay, we have the support of 125 million Japanese style enthusiasts hahaha
@@thevintagefuture6567 No doubt. The one thing I ask people who visit Japan all the time be it friends and acquaintances about their first few impressions of what they think about Japan is how well the average Japanese person dresses. LOL> Tokyo is wild, and I never feel uncomfortable dressing to the 9's there or anywhere in Japan. Awesome country and people.
@@CreepyShinigami That's so cool haha! I can't wait to visit some day.
Well said.
I think about fashion as a form of communication or social language, but being so limited it is hard and messy and vague. Demographics dress the same just the same way they speak the same. Trends come and go just like vocabulary emerges and dies out. People have polite ways of dressing (suit and tie) and vulgar ways (socks and flip flops). But fashion is difficult to interpret, things can have multiple meanings, self conflicting meanings or no meaning, and a single outfit or even full wardrobe can not represent the depth of thought possible in a person.
Unless you wear a uniform to work, fashion represents intentional choices we make and are obviously an expression of something about us, just not everything. But that is also true about a buisness card, a facebook page or a youtube channel.
I love how much you recognize and articulate the complexity of style meaning.
I enjoyed this video, thank you. I bet you’re a great pastor… you had me listening at least.
Well, thank you so much for those very kind words. I try to encourage as much as possible, and if any of that comes through, I am grateful.
I wouldn’t agree that style is subjective in the exact same way you did, but I think I’d come to a similar conclusion. I personally agree with Aquinas in thinking that beauty is objective, but that we can have preferences for different styles that are all beautiful. I also think it’s difficult because a large part of style is divorced from a pure aesthetic pursuit because of its linkages to function and culture.
Really, I'm just trying to tell the world to stop thinking we're weird for our grizzly jackets and Black Sign waist overalls hahahaha
Naw, well said brother! Yeah, that connection to function/culture/social revolution etc is a huge confounding variable....And I see what you mean about the objective side of things. There are indeed concrete reasons against a cautionless "anything goes" approach. As they say, there's a method to the madness. There's a right way to do the wrong thing, per se; we can't just think breaking style rules is cool in and of itself...I do believe there is objective beauty in the universe; I just don't think our clothing choices are always as intrinsic to that objective beauty as we like to believe, especially considering that two people wearing the exact same outfit can have wildly differing character or motive, one impeccable and the other detestable, one exemplary and the other nefarious...
I guess I just wanted myopic people (which, you are not that - you are a well balanced person) to zoom the lens way out and realize that if we look at style across centuries and continents and cultures and subcultures and classes etc, one would be VERY hard pressed to offer some sort of absolute objective verdict for or against most styles. I have seen people on Instagram make just about everything I thought of as "objectively ugly" look good, when done right. I think in any field of art, simplistic people form codes and rules and standards of beauty and adamantly defend that box they created, and then true masters of style come and break all those rules and show that they can make just about anything look good (albeit after some failed experimentation). I'm not suggesting the rules are bad, but they're certainly not as objective as we feel sometimes (in the case of people dogmatically ranting about xyz style topic on the internet). The advent of the modern formal men's suit and the daily use of construction workers' blue jeans expose the mirage and fallacy of "objectively tasteful style".
Am I completely missing the point of what you're saying though? LOL - admittedly, I am not very familiar with Aquinas's stance on this. I'm sure he (and possibly you for that matter) have thought about this in more critical terms than I. I'd really hate for this to come across as a rebuttal; I'm really just trying to agree with you while adding some clarity to what I said in the video:) These tiny videos fall short when trying to explain topics which deserve a 4 hour monologue/dialogue hahaha
@@thevintagefuture6567 I appreciate the thoughtful response. I do agree that it can be difficult to balance the point of making claims about what looks good while trying to stay open minded. As someone who is very pro-cosplay style I think it’s silly to try to say a person has to or can’t dress a certain way based on their job or position. Just because you’re a pastor or I’m a day laborer doesn’t mean we both can’t have fun looking like 1920s railroad workers😂.my friend often say I look like an old time train conductor. Plus what even is a pastor supposed to look like for example? In many non denom churches they look like forever 21 or Zara models in skinny jeans and graphic tees but many pastors choose to dress up for church im suits for exaple. I do agree that I think it’s silly to box people into specific style niches for what are ultimately arbitrary reasons.
dude LOL so many great points...Us repro people are like 20,000 strong....we just don't all live in the same geographical location hahaha....When waist overalls come back into style, the joke is on all of them
This is like guys who feel like they have to wear selvedge denim after getting into the boot world because everyone else is
So I'm safe! I'm a guy who got into boots after getting into selvedge because everyone else did.
@@Basboy lol sadly me being a bodybuilder prevents me from getting into selvage since i need stretchy jeans so my wallet thanks me
@@MrStreetninja007pretty sure they had bodybuilders before the advent of stretchy denim.
@@georgeleorgebeorge2354 yep and lived in loose bottoms
@@MrStreetninja007your wallet definitely doesn’t thank you for being a bodybuilder. Money spent on groceries and ‘supplements’ costs way more per month than a pair of selvedge jeans.
dont forget to get your harley after wear iron heart.
I have no style. This video is very though provoking man.