Abstract Inspiration
Over the years, there have been many wonderful books on style, thousands of illustrations and photographs of carefully crafted outfits, and luckily more than a handful of truly elegant men who have come before us. These things all serve as inspiration, and allow us to look at something, put our own twist on it (or not in some cases), and then emulate the effect which it impressed us with in the first place. While I certainly do this all the time and find it beneficial, there are also more abstract sources for similar inspiration, which may perhaps cultivate a more well rounded sense of elegance.
Now inspiration can come from anything and for anything. Colors from nature, shapes from architecture, patterns from other art, and everything else we interact with both in our daily lives and on special occasions. This first one, color from nature, I find particularly enticing and useful, not to mention accessible. The combinations and contrasts of colors in a sunset, including blues, purples, reds, oranges, and yellows, often all at once, force us to reconsider what things “go together.” Not that I would want to dress like a sunset, with a pink jacket, yellow shirt, purple trousers, and red shoes, but the combination of a pastel yellow or intense orange and a deep, rich blue or purple seems perfectly appropriate and quite beautiful to behold.
Additionally, the simple reduction of flowers to “roses are red, violets are blue” falls away quite quickly after looking at any real flowers. The variations and splashes of colors provided by many flowers offer a wonderful variety of ways to accent with small flourishes such as belts, pocket squares, bracelets, etc. Neutral colors highlighted by vibrant accents are quite popular in men’s dress, and here again we see it embodied in a context other than that of clothing.
While colors is an important factor in dressing, tailoring and men’s clothing in general places a great emphasis on shape as well. This is where architecture comes in – understanding lines and how they direct the eye, create forms out of space and space out of forms, and the ways in which geometry informs out emotional reactions are all critical. The proper mix of curves and straight lines, informing a sense of pattern and cut as far as clothing goes, creates balance in a look, helping to create a sense of scale, structure, and movement that would otherwise be lacking. Something like the Guggenheim Museum, while quite unusual, has an organic sense of movement to it that puts the viewer/visitor at ease.
It would be foolish to even attempt to touch on all of the various sources of inspiration one can find outside of products intended to inspire, so these are only examples I find useful. What sorts of things inspire you when you get dressed? What sorts of things inspire the other aesthetic pursuits in your life?
