How did your style evolve?

[Faust]

I was curious about how your styles have evolved into what they are today? How did you start out? How did you progress?

I started paying attention to how I look when I was about fourteen. I am not sure if it was because of my first girlfriend or that I became aware enough to notice things like that. My first encounter with high fashion occured through a friend of my brothers, who is a designer. He introduced to me to a lot of fashion. I started wearing things like Moschino, Versace, D&G - cheap shit that I could buy in discount stores with my modest income. As I mastered enough courage to walk into high-end stores, I realized that I wear total trash, lol. I have never seen clothes like I saw in Barneys, the late Bagutta, Helmut Lang boutique, and IF. I started researching the names that I saw on the labels, and that's how I came to know Comme des Garcons, Raf Simon, Yohji Yamamoto, and then Ann Demeulemeester. I got to read what's behind their aesthetic, and it instantly appealed to me. Since then my knowledge kind of snowballed through checking things out in stores, occassional magazine browsing, and the forums in the past years. While Ann has remained my muse, I've gotten to know about many labels like Carpe Diem, and Poell through tFS, mostly through runner - I have seen these labels myself, but was not aware about how much goes into production. But, my favorite part always remains just going to stores and looking at clothes.

I am also curious if you remember the mental price barriers that you've experienced? I distinctly remember buying my first $100 item, when I was 19 or 20 (my parents are poor, and I've worked since I was 15) - it was a fine black cordouroy Versace (!) shirt with those silver medusa buttons. My next "take a deep breath" purchase was a $100 Prada belt (which I still wear actually). My first big shopping spree was at a Costume National boutique in Los Angeles where I bought a leather jacket and a coat, at half off, but I still spent $1k - that was around 7 years ago. I still wear the leather jacket, and I wore the coat until it recently got destroyed by an accidental bleach spilage.

[wild_whiskey]

Re: How did your style evolve?



When I turned 13 or 14 I started wearing black dickies, black chucks and black punk-rock band t-shirts every day until I was about 19 or so, at which point I got student loan money and started buying nicer stuff. My style goes through small changes every couple of months or so, recently I've been leaning back towards neutral colors and tighter fits. It's always bad news though... ever since I started buyin clothes I've been in financial trouble, yet I can't seem to solve the problem.

[sbw4224]

Re: How did your style evolve?



I started to notice the way I dressed when I was about 16. I never really took much interest probably until I started actually working in retail my freshman year of college (3 years ago). I just wasn't interested in what I was selling (which to many is considered higher-end merchandise). I knew there had to be something else out there. I think I just started searching the internet and came across Superfuture. Even then, I still thought anything from a runway was definitely something I would NEVER be interested in. Probably my biggest push into really being interested in fashion was my 4 month stay in London last winter/spring. Being in a city like that allowed me to visit stores and see things that I previously only read about. It really got me out of the "high-fashion is bad" mindset. While I still think prices are inflated, I've come to really enjoy fashion, especially Belgian and Japanese lines (Comme, Yohji, Raf, Ann).

My first price barrier was probably $100 dollars for anything other than a coat. I think I broke that last year. My second price barrier was $300, and I don't think I've personally broken that yet (but I have come with the purchase of a pair of Samurai 5000vx's). However, this winter I'm definitely going for some sort of coat, and I know that'll bring me somewhere between 400-550. I know this is low in comparison to pretty much everyone's barrier's on here, but I simply can't afford most things I like while still being in college. I've gotten pretty lucky with sales in the past, so that's what I really rely on.

Honestly, I'm fairly content with the things I have right now. Of course I have a wishlist, but, like Faust, I really just enjoy reading about clothing and personally looking at them in stores. I probably visited 10 stores every two weeks in London. I probably only purchased one thing, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[casem]

Re: How did your style evolve?

Good post Faust. One thing I notice throughout my fashion evolution is that I've always been a bit alternative to the mainstream, but it took me a little while to find a place like that in higher end fashion and this forum definitely helps.

In highschool I didn't think about fashion at all. I was really into grunge so I wore mostly baggy jeans, band t-shirts and the occasional flannel, I also had really long hair for as long as I can remember.Which I guess looking back is pretty cool because I have pics of myself as young as 5th and 6th grade wearing Nirvana and Guns and Roses shirts haha.

In college a lot of things changed, I had lost weight in my last years of highschool, I came out, and I cut my hair, that's when I really started to play around with fashion and try to find my own style. I started out with mall stores like Gap, Express and PacSun (because I liked skater style). My first "designer" type purchase was a pair of Diesel chords for $100 which I thought was insane. I had my first boutique experience at D&G where I realized things go on sale and couldn't believe how cheap some things were. I my defence, I still think some of the D&G stuff back then was really cool, around Hip Hop C'est chic, things were darker with lots of straps and details which I loved. But I hardly wear anything I bought from that period, partly because I've lost more weight still and most of it is too big.

My first "real" designer love was Helmut Lang. Unfortunately I only went to the greene st. store once, and I was too intimidated to buy anything, which is too bad becuase it was the "cowboy" season (cut out tanks, metallic biker jackets) and there's some stuff I would love to have now from then. I mostly got my Helmut Lang from yoox or outlet stores then. At the same time I loved Dior from what I had read in magazines, but thought it was out of my league, again this is too bad because it was luster/strip/votc during this time.

A went through a short Prada period because I thought it was the height of fashion, but I quickly realized it was either too boring, too formal, or too quirky (in a bad way) for my liking. I still have a few pieces I like and wear from Prada though. I also got into Jil Sander and continue to pick up a few things here and there every season that are timeless. Jil bursted my price bubble last winter, I just graduated from college and got an overly generous amount of money from my parents for it, I bought a suit (it's the most gorgeous thing i own still) for $1400 and a sweater for $450 at Jil Sander (both on sale!!!)

Then Helmut Lang left, and I really started to discover Dior. I got a few things from the glam F/W 06 collection (velvet pants, jeans, the end, belt, sweater) and they quickly got more wear than anything else I owned. So i kind of decided it was worth it since I felt so comfortable and cool in the clothes and wore them ALL the time, especially the jeans. I bought even more Dior over this summer because I was in new york during sales and the F/W 06 stuff was coming in. I also got into cloak as my dorm was down the street from greene and I walked by it everyday, so I picked up some great pieces from last summer's collection (on sale).

In the last 6 month or so I've been looking at more obscure designers (this forum has helped). I really like what Ann D. does, the shapes she creates and the mood of her clothes. I'm not so sure about Cdiem, Julius etc. seems a bit dark and leathery for me (i'm a vegetarian so I try to avoid leather). I don't own any Ann. D yet but I'm salivating over some things from S/S 07, and hoping to move to NYC in January, so I should be able to actually get my hands on some things.

Since I've been into fashion for a relatively short period of time I still have some gaps in my wardrobe. Mainly big items like tailored clothes, jackets, sweater, and boots. Other than that, I'm happy with the combination of things I've accrued over the last few years and I'm still not above adding some cheap basics here and there from H&M, j. crew or express (but only if I can shrink it in the wash).

[djrajio]

Re: How did your style evolve?



I first got interested in fashion during my first year in highschool. Growing up in LA I was heavily influenced by the streetwear, surfer wear, and skateswear asthetic, especially the graphic design t-shirt wave by companies like QuickSilver,Stussy, Billabong, and Mossimo, back when these companies were still run my local guys and weren't huge million-dollar conglomerate companies.I remember going to the localsurfer shopnear my house and just going crazy over the graphic designs done by these streetwear brands at the time. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. So for me, in the end, all fashion, really comes from the street and I still believe that. These companies really influenced fashion in the late nighties with the whole big-logoed t-shirt/branding wave.

Around the end of highschool I had the opportunity to study in Japan for three months. I didn't know any Japanese and didn't know the slightest thing about Japanese fashion. I went and had complete culture shock. It was a complete 180 from what I was used to, especially for an 17 year old. I had the opportunity to go Harajuku and found out about brands like A Bathing Ape, Neighborhood, Bounty X Hunter, all these amazing home-grown street domestic brands that had their own culture, design aesthetic, etc. Ironically, the Harajuku-kei style was a interpretation of the skater/surfer culture of LA/NY and I could relate to it and fell in love with it. Coming back to the states, I decided to start learning Japanese in college just so I could read the Japanese fashion mags and be on top of the latest street styles. I tried to get internships in Tokyo just so I spend my weekends in Harajuku and Shibuya to take in all the dynamic styles and walking around all the crazy back-alley shops.

Back in 2001, very few foreigners would frequent the area and little knew about these labels, so it was always a shock for a foreigner to pop in and speak Japanese asking when the latest item would get in. Now, I think the media and trend-mags have pretty much despensed all these "secret areas"and now I usually see a ton of foreigners touring around theHarajuku, Daikanyamaand its not usual to see guerilla-style ads by corporate companies trying to be cool and hip with their ads all around and big corporate labels now with back alley stores as well to give it that street cred. It definitely doesn't feel the same.

It was only last year that my style has really evolved into a more formal/elegant/minimal stlye which I currently am in love with. I think cloak was a huge inspiration for this especially when I had the opportunity to see the boutique the week it opened last summer when working in NY and attend the spring/summer fashion show. Starting to work in Tokyo again from last fall, I really started to get into the styles by Julius, etc. I think going forward I want to incorporate more quirky elements and siluoettes since I think the entire skinny, Dior-Homme, dark/gothic look is getting really tired. I've been really inspired by Junya Wanatabe, Comme des Garcons, and Frapbois as of recently and am really inspired by a more wooly/earthy/natural/organic look, something more comfortable and approachable but with an elegant and minimal aesthetic.

[Servo2000]

Re: How did your style evolve?

I still consider my style evolving, as I am currently in the "I started to care about clothes when I was 17" stage, except that it was 16, and that was last year (I'm 17 now). I think what really started it for me was when I ran across the WAYWT thread in Superfuture, and started really looking at "fashion." I've always been a relatively creative person and hope to one day go into either the fine arts or become a designer / store manager, whatever, and I've also had an attraction to things with historical contexts.

The denim obsession was absolutely fascinating to me as it had a root that went back decades. It opened up a whole new way of thinking about clothing. It allowed me to start to look past clothes as merely clothes, and that doing what was "cool" wasn't necessarily as important as the feel, the context, the history, the details, and the quality of the garment. As I began to look into japanese denim, I began looking at japanese-styled magazines and websites and webshops, etc... The way people wore their clothes was completely out of the realm of anything I had even imagined before.

Once more, it opened another door. Designers changing clothes completely, making things that, at the time, appeared unwearable. As I explored, I saw more and more people on these sites wearing and recommending "western" designers who I had shunned, thinking they were too high-designery, etc... such as Dior and Ann D. Through this, I found my way to both japanese and western designers who were pushing boundaries in both mens and womens wear.

At about the same time, I discovered the infamous "Sartorialist" blog, which at the same time, introduced me to more "classic menswear," and much like the denim obsession, caused me to become fascinated with the textiles, the cuts, the details of suits and classic american wear. The inherent minimalism and creativity within boundaries that are the nature of suits fascinated me as much as any of the completely outlandish design I'd seen elsewhere.

As I've absorbed more and more information and brands and clothes, my style is still evolving, and my wardrobe slowly building. It's hard, as the most I could resonably spend on clothes is not enough to buy things from the extremely expensive designers, so I am extremely minimal in my clothing, as the bulk of my money still goes towards my yearly jeans purchase. I would love to be able to start playing around with silhouettes and brands, mixing classic tailoring with high-minded design, classic american menswear with dark japanese pieces, but that will have to wait.

In the meantime, I try to keep my look as clean and as fitted as possible, avoiding graphics when possible and mixing imitation-dior style with whatever else I feel like ( i.e. oversized jackets a la Raf, fashion-statement accessories with clean white, all one-color outfits, etc... ) I can manage to pick up on a pretty extreme budget.

Anyway.

[goethe]

Re: How did your style evolve?

my interest in fashion began when my dad got re-married. my stepmom was a model in the 80s and had all of these clothes. i would remember going into her closet and seeing all of her stuff. i thought they were so ugly at the time ( alot of the boxy shoulder stuff). its only been in the past 3, 4 years that i began to appreciate the craftsmanship of these garments, mainly the alaia pieces and all of the thierry mugler!!! he was the first designer i really became obsessed with. she also introduced my to ann and the belgians in high school. i do remember getting in trouble for wearing combat boots to class, because i went to an all girls catholic school with uniforms (it didnt help either that everyone wore juicy and carried prada nylon bags outside of school). i didn't start to appreciate their work until i came to parsons, because it was so different than everything they stressed there (quality material and interesting concepts rather than money-making sportswear). i left the fashion program at parsons because i decided it wasn't for me. i kept getting in trouble for only doing neutrals/blacks, not incorporating enough print/pattern and for making my croquis "too artsy". also, this blog has been cool and introduced me to more obscure stuff like julius, which i was never familiar with. i guess my style has been the same since high school, except that my look is a bit cleaner and less grungy now. my dress has always been pretty non-feminine. my favorite memory though is when i got my first pair of black doc martin lace ups when i was 7. i would wear them with dresses my mom put me in!

[xcoldricex]

Re: How did your style evolve?

man having stylish parents would be great!

[Servo2000]

Re: How did your style evolve?

Seriously. My dads an artist and even he doesn't get why I find fashion intriguing, or would pay more than $40 for a pair of pants.

[Chinorlz]

Re: How did your style evolve?



Oooh I like this thread!

My first foray into the fashion world began during my junior year of high school (age 17) when I was at a science camp. I met a guy who has become a good friend of mine and he would wear these shirts with "giorgio armani" silkscreened down the left side of them. I know I know, disgusting as all hell but we all started somewhere!

So I started looking into these brands like Prada, Gucci, Emporio Armani (I was soooo psyched to actually visit one when I went to San Francisco with my family), Moschino, and Versace. I scoured online, went to Saks in Orlando, went to outlets looking specifically for these brands. I remember this long sleeved prada stretchy fabric tee with a back corner pocket that I drove from Daytona to Orlando to buy just because I really wanted it, and it was 50% off. God that thing was hideous and probably not flattering on me at all. What can I say, I was enamored with that little red stripe. I even had a pair of Prada track pants (hey, they were damn comfortable) that I bought for $150 or something like that. It seemed like all the money in the world.

Once I got to college, I read more both online and in magazines and discovered Dior Homme around Follow Me. I searched high and low but couldn't find a place to get that griffon screened long sleeved tee. I wanted it BAD! Eventually I discovered Yoox and bought a good amount of DH from early collections on there (Follow Me lamb leather cuff and waistband jacket for $550!). Then between junior and senior year I was here in Boston and traveled to NYC for a day trip to shop and got some sweeet Follow Me items at Barneys at deep discount. Come Luster era, I was hooked although my money was tight. Ebay became one of my best friends. By Strip, I was able to buy a little bit more and when I graduated and moved back to Boston, I was able to buy lots more.

Post s/s 2005 I pretty much lost faith in Dior and truly began looking elsewhere. Although I had already bought a couple items from various brands, I really started to focus on those designers that I had read so much about... Ann Demeulemeester, Rick Owens, Carpe Diem and Carol Christian Poell.

I started buying Ann in larger quantities first at Alan Bilzerian here in Boston. A couple Rick Drkshdw tees there as well. Then I finally went to Atelier and things went uphill/downhill (depending on how you look at it) from there. My first CCP purchase were the last pair of diagonal zip black boots they had there. Lovely.

These days I don't buy anymore Dior for myself and I've actually sold off 85% of my collection as well. A year ago, I posted photos of my collection and it was MASSIVE. We're talking 60-70 items at any given time. My focus now is quality over quantity and wearability over collectability. What the hell is the purpose of spending hundreds on a leather corsage? Nothing.

So, now I only look at a few specific designers and scour all my various sources for them. Good, gothy Ann items, reasonably priced Rick items and of course Carpe and CCP. The final two have fast become my favorites and I need to make a list of the key items from both designers that I need to get. Get the staples and build off of there!

Even so, for formal wear, I still keep a lot of Dior around. Today I'm wearing a semi-skinny red tie, small collar dress shirt with bee, wide VotC belt, black dress pants and combat boots all by Dior. The Prince of Monaco visited today so the group has to look sharp haha!

-A

[Jorge Hache]

Re: How did your style evolve?



I've just read all the stories, pretty interesting stuff

I live in Guadalajara, Mexico, the second largest and important city of the country.

Mexico is full of contrast one of them is the economy, you can find a guy in the forbes richest list or you can find one living in a cave.

Since young i was atracted to different things, love design, love cinema and love music. Became an architect was an easy choice. I´ve been dj, had a radio program, work drawing cartoons, involve in local cinema projects, won a couple of local architectural awards (one even international), i design furniture, and teach inan university. As you could see i'm not the ordinary type of guy who conforms with trendy stuff or fashion trends, so since highschool i start to look for something different to wear, even if i use banana republic or gap stuff i try to made diffent combinations (olive green cargos with a red checked shirt for example)or use it in a diffent way as the others.

InMexico it´s almost imposible to find interesting stuff, it's all very trendy and tacky, in the "upscale" malls you'll find zegna, boss, vuitton, gucci, versace etc...also zara isvery very popular here (there's 5 stores just in Guadalajara). I'm not gonna say that i never boughtor wear this clothes, infact had a lot of zara, boss or dutti basics in my closet. Like 6 or 7 years agoi start to love gucci and bought a lot of clothes from them (interesting enough that i sell almost everything in ebay and sometimes at more money that i paid for retail), but suddenly became boring and staring to look for something more interesting. Ifound margiela and diorin details magazine (urrrggghh) and became fascinated, thenwas raf and ann dem, neil barrett (my favorite leather jacket is a barrett one, and i bough it 5 years ago)and helmut lang. A couple of years ago serching forfollow medior stufftrough ebay found a label that intrigued me a lot (ccp), was a beautiful sweater and i bought it for 60 bucks, the i started to investigate this guy and found tfs. Later came Cloak, Hardnen, C-Diem, etc...

Now i have some very interesting pieces in my wardrobe, bought almost on line (my family had a house in LA so sometimes i order from yoox and aloharag), i try to travel at least once a year to another countries to bought my clothes and always try to find sales because i'm not that rich to buy $2000 c-diem shirts or $1000 ccp twisted jeans, (in fact i work hard to do my shopping).

And that's all folks

[xcoldricex]

Re: How did your style evolve?

[quote user="gutpocho"]

Now i have some very interesting pieces in my wardrobe, bought almost on line (my family had a house in LA so sometimes i order from yoox and aloharag), i try to travel at least once a year to another countries to bought my clothes and always try to find sales because i'm not that rich to buy $2000 c-diem shirts or $1000 ccp twisted jeans, (in fact i work hard to do my shopping).

[/quote]

i don't think you realize that most of us on this board can't afford those prices either, most of us buy things deeply discounted. i'll do my story in a bit.

[Faust]

bump. looking for some good contributions.

[Vikeid]

i begun to appreciate clothes/fashion only like a year back. all of my family have been into clothes a long time and they almost had to force me to buy _me_ clothes, yes, i didnt have to pay a single cent. but i just wasnt interested. nowadays i think i spend more on clothes than everyone together in my family.

anyway, one day i just bought a lot of stuff. had been working for quite some time, had much money, didnt have anything to spend them on so why the hell not buy some clothes? think i got some raf jeans, raf tee, d&g knit the first time i was really spending some big money. well, now i dont think thats a lot to spend on clothes ^^ but then it was. this was maybe a year ago. i then bought some more. now i dont use much of that stuff, if any. but i dont regret getting it. it made me interested in fashion and im very thankful that i found sz so early before i got out of hand. now i know whats good shit and what to avoid ^^

first time i bought some real stuff must've been on my paris trip. i visited leclaireur' and got some rick and ann stuff. after that ive just continued buying, mostly from the classifieds section. you can save a lot of money there. now i know what i need and what to get, i buy mostly from ann but i love other designers too. its a ashame most of these brands is hard to come by for us here but eventually something you want becomes available. you can always count on the internet.

i still have much to explore. havnt really got to know carpe, ccp, ma+ and stuff like that but it'll come in time!

[beardown]

I had touched upon this a little in my intro thread but I'll gladly share my descent into the madness.
Like some others on here, never thought much about what I was wearing until I started skating when I was 13. It was the early 80s so the uniform was part of being in the gang: Punk rock, DIY t-shirts, the occasional 'official' Black Flag or DK or Circle Jerks t-shirt, chuck taylors, Vans shoes, baggy shorts, that kind of thing.
So I discovered more than anything the aesthetic of how clothing goes together and how it can be a way to define yourself as you're growing up.

Stayed with skateboarding through it's evolution into baggy pants (influenced by Girbaud jeans at the time with Plan B, Blind and all the other companies...) This all gave way to the 90s with chukka boots, flannel, grunge, Dinosaur Jr. and that whole thing...which in turn gave way to some goth and Detroit industrial Wax Trax bands.

I was listening to a lot of Cure, Bauhaus, NIN, Ministry and rediscovered wearing clothes that actually fit my body and my personal shape as opposed to just buying the largest sizes I could find.
I was always inspired by Trent Reznors style without going too far over the top....and started looking at textures and of course everything was dark gray or black. Of course that's when I picked up my first pair of Doc Martens...I think it was summer of 1991.
During college, I barely had money for food, let alone clothing so I frequented the thrift stores and (as a design student) figured out I could alter clothing to make it fit better or more to my tastes.

I took my first trip to NYC as a junior in college and that opened my mind a bit to other clothing and styles.
It was a pretty slow progression from there mostly because I was working a lot of shitty paying jobs and paying back student loans.
I indulged in some Diesel way back when and remember paying like $150 for a pair of jeans....that kind of opened the flood gates.
After I made some financial progress, my first expensive purchase was a pair of the Prada World Cup sneakers...low tops in dark green. I loved the toe shape on those things and the material used. And the Prada identity was pretty minimalistic at the time compared with most designers. Those were about $365 USD at the time and it made me nervous to actually buy them but I overcame that when they arrived.

So mostly my 'progression' has been more about learning about how clothing fits my body, how clothes are sewn together to create a specific shape and the quality of materials used more than specific brands....probably because I never had enough money to look into high-end designers much of the time.
A couple of seasons ago, I stumbled onto some Chronicles of Never stuff and really liked the feel of the line and the drapey stuff, which I'd never really been exposed to much and one designers led to another which led me here.

Overall, my base style hasn't changed a whole lot since college...it's now more refined, probably a little more mature and distinct with a higher quality of craftsmanship and better materials and a lot less graphics and logos.