How did you become knowledgeable about clothes?

[Costi]

Education may start at home, but not necessarily. You may learn a lot about clothes by reading a few good books. When you frequent tailors, there is also the so-called "customer's apprenticeship", because you need to develop common language and notions. This part is pretty easy: anyone can learn about brushes and types of paint and canvas.
Learning to dress is somewhat different: you start to paint. You may copy one artist or another, go through "periods", develop techniques, mix them up, try new things. The basics can be taught (rules etc.) but, like Oscar Wilde put it, nothing worth learning can be taught.
Developing style (and integrating dress with your personality and other aspects of your life) is becoming (or being) an artist. Little can be taught, but much can be learned intuitively by the power of example. Some have pure talent, others have good inspiration but need to work a little harder to find a good expression, others remain opaque.
A genius can upset this order completely.

[Cufflink79]

Learning how to dress well was usually done by fathers and granfathers. Unfortatnly, many young men who are fathers nowadays don't know and don't care how to dress or be a decent gentleman, and their sons view this as acceptable.

Even if a young man doesn't have the proper education at home, he can still learn about clothing by looking over books and old films.

With the Internet and many different blogs and forum groups now, there is a wealth of information out there now.

I myself learned a great deal about dressing well from a combonation of sources they include father, grandfather, my good friend Tom Hudson, many many (and did I say many) books, catalogs, old movies, and later in my life the Internet.

One thing a young man should do is learn the basics and work from there.

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

[JCH]

I do not think I am knowledgeable, nevertheless, and at the risk of sounding too sentimental, for me it began at home with my sainted mother, RIP. Father passed when I was quite young, and my mother took it to give me some rudiments. Raised as she was with English manners, she tried to teach me such, to dress well, and to learn to dance. That would impress the ladies, she always said. She was right of course, even if I did not learn the lessons. Beyond beginnings at home, books and sources like the LL may take you far.

[Luca]

I thought I might resurrect this interesting topic (well, at least interesting to me).
I grew up in Italy, but in the 1970s, which was a time of really grinding pessimism and retrenchment, there. I always marvel at the quasi-mythical status that Milanese style enjoys among foreigners; I think that up to the late 1980s it was a fairly dour place with, at the other extreme, an excessive penchant for slavish trend-chasing. That said, I remember my maternal grandfather as someone who put a good deal of care into a very conservative wardrobe. He never appeared fastidious and, by the time I was old enough to notice, he had shed any dandyish streaks he may have possessed as a youth. His was my first style influence outside of mass-mediatic memes (films, etc.).
In the 1980s I was in the US, when the preppy renaissance was in full swing. I feel that taught me how to appreciate colours, casual elegance and it introduced me to the concept of sharply differentiated levels of formality, which were much less pronounced, in Italy. Balancing a European aesthetic sensibility (insofar as a teenager can be said to have one) with American collegiate enthusiasm was my second style influence.
From the In the 1990s, I’ve been in London which taken as a whole remains, in my view, the most visually elegantly environment anywhere. Again, conjugating Italo-American concepts to British traditionalism, formalism and decorative instincts was a major style influence.
But for all that, I have found, on this website, especially, just how little I knew and still know. Influence n. 5.

[robert_n]

@ Luca:
Didn't gli anni di piombo put a kybosh on refined dressing in the seventies? Personal security driving an aristocracy into casual attire?

[robert_n]

In respect of the post's question: Hobos all over town gladly wore my mistakes during the earlier, steeper part of the learning curve. The pocketbook was a stern tutor. Whilst I now avoid gross errors, the best outfit is always the next.

[Luca]

@ Luca:
Didn't gli anni di piombo put a kybosh on refined dressing in the seventies? Personal security driving an aristocracy into casual attire?

Yes, they did. There was a mixture of aping late 1960s/early 1970s overseas alternative fashions, political and criminal violence rising, the economy performign poorly, etc. I remember the 1970s in Italy as grim, angry, depressing.

[Frederic Leighton]

I am very grateful to my second piano student of yesterday who didn't practice at all during the week and helped my mind unusually wander during the time of the lesson. Somehow inspired by wrong notes, imprecise rhythms, sudden stops and frequent silences, I suddenly realised the sedative effect of the 'fashion' blogs I've been reading on my mind; effect accompanied by an, also unusual to me, general feeling of inappropriateness of my certainly unusual choices. If the best starting point of any learning process is the awareness of knowing that we know nothing, three years later I can certainly tell myself that spending time reading empty paragraphs all too similar to these ones has been a real waste of time. After a wonderful Sunday among like-minded people dressed no one like the other, it's time for me to unbookmark all fashion blogs. Twenty years ago my dad told me how to chose my socks, how to tie my tie and to keep my coat on no matter what; that's probably all I needed to know and I'd better remember it while I play with all the rest and follow my nature.

[davidhuh]

Twenty years ago my dad told me how to chose my socks, how to tie my tie and to keep my coat on no matter what; that's probably all I needed to know and I'd better remember it while I play with all the rest and follow my nature.

Amen, dear Federico

Cheers, David

[Dr T]

a great book to read if you can find it is " A gentlemans wardrobe" by Paul Keers. Full of great advice and correct detailing - perfect for the aspiring English gentleman. isbn 0-297-79191-5

[theoldesouth]

And this one.

Thanks for the ISB number, too.

[pur_sang]

I don't have a romantic story to tell about this. I am the only one in my family who is 'interested' in clothing. I guess it's down to my ambition, and hence always wanting to know what is the best of everything in the world, bespoke clothing just happened to be one of them, along with good food, fast cars, big boats etc...

[Dr T]

pur_sang you have most of the important ones : good clothes - fast cars and I think another very important value is good manners. A nice set.

[Dr T]

In respect of the post's question: Hobos all over town gladly wore my mistakes during the earlier, steeper part of the learning curve. The pocketbook was a stern tutor. Whilst I now avoid gross errors, the best outfit is always the next.

Robert how very true - I could write a book on this topic.

[rodes]

For me it was Manton's book of 2006, "The Suit", more than any one particular. My wife, knowing my long interest, gave it to me as a Christmas present when I was 54. I had been an unfulfilled patron of Brooks Brother's tailors since my late 30's but this book taught me what I should have been seeking all along. Of course, this led me to the "London Lounge", a "Suitable Wardrobe" and perhaps most of all, a different mindset on dress. Presently, my wardrobe is the only area of my life in which I am no longer seeking substantial improvement. The rest of it needs a lot more work.