Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 4 - Fashion
106 Plays1 year ago
Ross and Gregg talk about fashion, what is it, how we know what it is, and why might we care. In this amusing diary entry, they look at fashion from all angles and hope the listener gets a bit more perspective on how we see fashion in the world.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
00:00:06
Speaker
You're listening to Unmotivated and Unprepared, a podcast where we take a break from the everyday hustle and bustle to muse about life, liberty, and the pursuit of randomness. Now here's Greg and Ross.
Fashion Discussion Introduction
00:00:30
Speaker
Howdy, everyone. It's Ross. And as always, it's Greg.
00:00:34
Speaker
And welcome to another episode of Unmotivated and Unprepared. And Greg, today we're going to talk about something that's, what's the opposite of near and dear? Far and away from my heart, which is fashion.
Savile Row Experience
00:00:52
Speaker
And it's not that I don't appreciate it.
00:00:54
Speaker
It's probably just that I didn't really, uh, ever take the time to focus on it. But I know you and I, part of this came from when we were in London and you're like, Hey, we gotta go to, uh, uh, Savile row. Is that how you say it? Yeah. Savile row. Yeah. You gotta go to Savile row. And I'm like, what's that? You're like, Oh, these are like the best tailors in the world. And you showed me this window of, you know, all these famous, uh, royalty that that's had their, uh,
00:01:23
Speaker
garments, you know, custom tailored. And I was like, Oh, that got me interested in just fashion in general. And I know for you, we've talked about this, it's something that when you dress up, it's almost like a, it's like a costume, not like, not like a hammy like tacky costume, but it's, it's you put it on, you know, a costume to show. So I wanted to talk about fashion today.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's absolutely it is dress up in a form and function.
Clothing as Expression
00:01:51
Speaker
I don't think people think about it much that way. But when you buy an outfit or you buy a shirt, buy a pair of pants, you are sending a message whatever that message is you are sending some sort of message. I don't know what the women in the in the airport that are wearing their pajamas.
00:02:05
Speaker
hanging out the size of a clothes are sending. I don't know what message that is. Maybe it's that I'm just extremely comfortable not caring. I guess I don't I don't know. But yeah, more power to them, right? Like, it's like, it's like, okay, I'm here to travel and that is it function. But it's a message. It's a message regardless, right? Yeah. So speaking of that, like, what is like, what's the first thing you notice
00:02:28
Speaker
on someone's ensemble, their clothing ensemble when you see them. Like, is there one thing for you? It's like, oh, it's a hat or it's the glasses or it's like their shoes or like, what is the first thing that pops out for you that you notice?
00:02:42
Speaker
Well, I mean, there's different types of clothes, so it's hard to answer that. But I'll go as an example with my boss. He doesn't wear ties. And he decided to wear a tie this past week, grew up in New York for work. And he wore a tie and he did an overhand knot, which, you know, a foreign hand is the cheapest knot. It's the schoolboy knot where you just wrap it around the side and pull it through. And it just kind of looks like a little fist, right, basically.
00:03:04
Speaker
And it's such an ugly knot. It's a terrible ugly knot. It's only really good for really thin skinny ties, because you really can't get any other kind of knot with with a skinny tie, but he had a regular tie on and no offense to it or whatever. At least he's wearing a tie but it was one of those things where right away I'm like that accessory you're wearing.
00:03:22
Speaker
could be so much different, right? And it's about
Cohesion in Outfits
00:03:26
Speaker
pride. He could have taken a little bit more time, tied a much better knot, like a double Windsor or even a half Windsor, and it would have looked a much more put together from that perspective. Same with little things like collars. If we're running a spread collar, what type of knot you wear. All those things matter because it completes the look. I think anytime something's out of place,
00:03:49
Speaker
it catches my eye. If something doesn't doesn't fit right, it catches my eye. I don't think it's necessarily it's a bad thing. It's just not all put together. You kind of see the same thing like if somebody wears
00:04:03
Speaker
wear shoes that don't necessarily look like the same quality as the rest of the outfit they're wearing. Like if they're wearing a very plastics looking suit and by plastic, I mean off the rack, cheap, K&G, changey suit. And again, that sounds very pretentious of me to say K&G is plastic, but they're mass produced, mass marketed suits. They're off the rack, they're not real cut real well, the fabric's really cheap. They're designed to be, I mean, they're gonna be five suits for $100, you're not really getting a quality
00:04:29
Speaker
outfit, right? And then you're wearing if you're wearing plastic shoes like a pair of Stacey Adams with them, then I wouldn't necessarily care. But if you're wearing a really nice fashionable suit, I saw this in Germany a lot. They were really expensive clothes because Germans tend to spend a lot on their outfits because they don't buy that many. But then you're wearing a pair of shoes that are look like they're from Payless, you kind of go, that doesn't fit. What was the decision making there? Like what? What was the choices that you're making? It's not a financial one. It's a
00:04:57
Speaker
it's a fully put together outfit. Yeah. So that, so that jumps out to you now.
Formal Dressing Style
00:05:03
Speaker
Is that, do you feel like, is that just because you have an eye for that or you focus on that a lot? Because like to me, you mentioned Ty, I immediately got like a sense of like,
00:05:16
Speaker
insecurity on like, Oh, man, I've been tying my ties incorrectly all my life. Like I would never I know there's different types of like wearing a tie, but I never thought about like, the certain type of tie and how it looks. Do you feel like that's just because just like anyone else in a hobby that they have or something specific, they're going to notice small things in that. I thought about that. And yes, do I have an already an eye for kind of because I
00:05:45
Speaker
I don't like I stand out everywhere I go because I was just having this conversation this weekend. I don't dress casual. This is as casual as I get and I'm wearing a button up shirt and a pair of jeans for the podcast. Yeah, right. Like I just it's very hard for me to go out of the house in a t shirt just not gonna happen. I feel so uncomfortable. I'll be messing with my neck all day wishing there was a collar right there.
00:06:06
Speaker
Same with shorts, I don't wear shorts, right? So I stand out already. I go to places dressed in a suit. I went to a nightclub two weeks ago, dressed in a full on suit cuz I came from a place where I was wearing a suit. So I was gonna rock a suit. And it's just, there's a video of me two weeks ago where I was dancing in the middle of an alley, a bunch of seedy dive bars, dressed up to the nines in a full on suit cuz I was at a engagement party earlier that day. I will always be more dressed up than other people and I will always stand out because of it positively or negatively.
00:06:36
Speaker
But I think that that's true of a lot of pieces. If something doesn't fit right, it doesn't look like it belongs. It's it's off. I think people do have much more of an eye for it than they let themselves be known. For instance, when someone comes to us, I love the way you're dressed. You're usually is because it all flows together. It feels put together, either the colors are loud, even the colors are different. Or you're wearing a color like I was wearing a blue shirt and a mint green jacket and some chocolate brown pants on Thursday for a party.
00:07:05
Speaker
because I told the guy I was gonna go in mint chocolate chip and it was straight up mint chocolate
Custom Clothing
00:07:08
Speaker
chip. I looked like a scoop of mint chocolate chip. But that was the look I was going for and it was classy. It wasn't like it was un-classy, but it's just different. It's not muted. It's not a navy blue suit, so.
00:07:18
Speaker
But you made a good point when you say it's well put together. It doesn't necessarily have to be super extraordinarily expensive if it's put together well and it complements everything, even to the, I'll use me, even to the layman or woman who, like myself, isn't necessarily
00:07:41
Speaker
super into fashion, but likes to look nice. Occasionally. Meanwhile, I'm podcasting with a with an Irish rugby jersey on. It's St. Patty's Day. It's it's it is it is. But like, even even in that sense, there's something you can look at someone and go you don't even know how much their outfit costs. But if it's put together, well, there's something you notice you're like, oh, that looks nice. Like that looks slick or whatever, you know, whatever the term is.
00:08:09
Speaker
But you could tell. I mean, so that's the thing about fashion. It's really interesting to me is you can tell not only because of patterns and colors, which you can tell whether or not someone does custom clothing or not, you can tell because the color choices that they pick, right? There's a there's a look to that's not an off the rack. That's not an off the rack. Look, the average American, the average person isn't going to pick that as their set of colors. So that's going to give you a custom feel. The other part about fashion is interesting is you can usually tell
00:08:40
Speaker
quality. It's kind of the difference between a knockoff versus a regular like you can go get Gucci and everybody knows what the Gucci look looks like, right? But you can tell the difference between now not not far away, but up close, you usually could tell the difference between a really cheap knockoff and the real thing. Now there are there are obviously
00:09:00
Speaker
knockoff bags like a Louie's like a $3,000 bag and you can get you can get knockoffs for a thousand bucks you save $2,000 and it's got thousand dollar quality to it. That's like it's like really well done. It's still an expensive bag. But it's not the same. It's not the same, right? It's not the same one. And I don't know why I would do that. That doesn't that doesn't make sense from an investment perspective. Plus, I don't necessarily care about what
00:09:25
Speaker
what brands are, I'm not looking for labels, that's not my style. You're more a quality person, like how it fits, quality of it, or to your point, the look, right? If you find a fabric that you like, and it's like, oh, the lining of my suit would be really cool with this, or I like this part of it, or this, this feel, that's what's worth the money for you, not necessarily the status of the brand.
Value of Quality Clothing
00:09:51
Speaker
Right, I like going out and knowing no one looks like, no one's dressed like me.
00:09:56
Speaker
They might have pieces that might be similar, but they can't look like me. And it's a plus or minus. Sometimes it's great. And sometimes it's like, okay, you're really odd for this event, man. Like you're really dressed up a little different for this. I mean, there's not much you can do with a black tuxedo, right? So I bought a pair of red shoes, red patent leather shoes because I like or they're like pinkish. So I can go with my pink tie and my pink studs and but a black tuxedo is a black tuxedo. It's not gonna look that different.
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, you're not gonna, you're not gonna, that's not when you're gonna stand out for sure. So then from a, so from a quality perspective, then, cause you mentioned that like, is there, is there a cap? Is there a point to where it's like, look, spending 750 bucks on this versus spending 10,000 on this, like you're going to get 90% there, you're going to get 95% there. It's not really worth spending more money or even for that matter, $75 versus $750.
00:10:54
Speaker
type of thing. It depends on the item, really. I think that's more it than anything else. A great example is, I love this story about, and I don't know if we ever talked about in the podcast, I used to be in cybersecurity. So I worked with a lot of very cybersecurity people that are, they're quite an eclectic IT brand, right? So in the spectrum of like really oddly nerdy, cybersecurity is on the far right side of that, right? Yeah.
00:11:22
Speaker
So I took one of the guys to Bloomingdale's in San Francisco. We were there for a conference because that's where all cyber goes. And we're there for a conference. And they asked me a question about fashion. They said, what is it about clothes, Greg, that you like so much? I said, I'll show you. Welcome to Bloomingdale's. And we go to the shoe department. And I had the guy try on a pair of $550 at the time. This is 10 years ago. They're probably $700 now. A pair of Italian leather shoes. And I said, try these on. I said, try these on.
00:11:52
Speaker
and tell me what you feel. And we found a same pair of a $250, $300 pair that looked very similar to these Italian leather shoes. Now, he didn't know the price of either one. I just want to know what they felt. So I got the shoe guy giving me two shoes in the same category, same look, same whatever. Number one or number two. Right. And I asked the guys, I said, watch how he walks when he wears which pair of shoes. And so he tries on one pair of shoes and tries on the other pair of shoes. And instantly it was like as if he was cushioned
00:12:22
Speaker
by the hand of like an angel the way he walked in a pair of $700 Italian leather shoes. Now, I wouldn't buy those on a regular basis because those are very expensive and the quality is great, but you're gonna run that sole down because it's a very, it's a fine leather sole. You're gonna have to get into a repair situation. You're going to have to get them repaired about every year. They're probably not an everyday wear. They're probably something you wear once in a while when you want to dress up and look pretty sexy. Special occasion, yeah.
00:12:49
Speaker
But the way he walked in his shoes, and then I told him at the end how much those were, and he goes, I would never pay that for shoes. Yeah. But the way you just felt right there, and the way you were walking, it depends on if you want that feeling. Yeah, you looked like it, right? Like you looked like you, it felt expensive, it looked expensive.
00:13:05
Speaker
Right, exactly. But I don't know how much the higher limit is. Does buying a pair of Prada shoes that are $1,000, is it gonna actually up the game even more? If you're gonna buy a pair of $3,000 shoes, is it gonna up the game? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. I think you have to be a shoe collector at that point to see the value of that. I think that's a lot of things though. I think Scotch is the same way. I think a lot of things have a certain diminishing return.
00:13:33
Speaker
Uh, my clothes cost a lot of money, but that's because they're custom. Uh, and I get them custom tailored for what I want with cloth that I want. And so it tends to be, I have to pay a premium for that kind of custom out.
00:13:48
Speaker
aspect. Is that is that something it's still fashion related. So I'll go there. Is that a difficult like if you find a tailor and you get your measurements, is it as simple as like, what do you do you like wholesale like look for fabrics that you like and then just send it to them and then just make a shirt for you like how to like walk me through that because it sounds it sounds appealing for someone who like if you have certain dimensions or you want to like you want to feel comfortable a certain way.
00:14:17
Speaker
But you also want your own fabric and want to stand out. Yeah, so I think but one, you have to get a bolt of cloth that's the right size for a jacket. So someone's going to tell you how much cloth you need to make a jacket. If you want to make a suit, you need more cloth for that. The cloth is neither here nor there. You can get all different kinds of blends and wools and you can go online. And there are people who are really into this. They have a specific tailor that they have.
00:14:43
Speaker
I go with a clothier, so a little different. It basically gets shipped off to some factory somewhere, they make it, they send it to me. It's custom, but it's a cross between custom and not custom, right?
00:14:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's a little it's a hybrid, if you will. Right. And you're paying mostly for the fabric and the labor. If you go to I have a tailor here in Myers Park, which while he does really amazing work, and it's not crazy expensive, it's really not stupid expensive. But it's Yeah, I mean, you buy the cloth, the cloth costs XYZ, depending on how, how fashionable you want to become. Some of the cloth companies that I use are in, you know,
00:15:22
Speaker
A bolt of cloth is probably $400, $500. So then you get a bolt of cloth and you get the tailor to do it and that's usually $500, $600. So you're looking at $1,000 for a jacket to get custom with nice cloth and nice material, but it hangs differently, right? I saw a guy, I was at the cigar bar on Thursday and all the guys that I hang out with, they're all dressed, they're all fancy people, they all dress up nice and the one guy who's
00:15:49
Speaker
who's working the, and obviously he's working at the cigar place. He's got a full on pinstripe suit on, but it looked like a Halloween costume. And while I think it was a custom made jacket, it was a custom made jacket from Polly Esther. Like it wasn't, it's kind of what happened to me when I first got custom clothes in Hong Kong. I went to go get custom clothes in Hong Kong and he was just, I look at it that, I mean granted that was 20 years ago, 15 years ago, a long time ago, maybe not 15, maybe 10.
00:16:19
Speaker
10, 12 years ago. And I didn't know much about clothes at that time. I just knew I wanted to get custom made stuff. Now I look at it next to my other stuff. And I'm like, these are not one is not like the other. It's obvious. It's obvious to you now. Right? Right. The difference where it might not have been in the past, but now you're like, Oh, wow, like that's a huge difference.
00:16:41
Speaker
And also is where your lifestyle is, right? So I think the unfortunate thing about about clothes in general, I know there's all the stories about the millionaires who don't care who wear jeans and a t shirt and a jacket.
Clothing as an Investment
00:16:53
Speaker
Okay, I got you, dude. I see you. You spend your money on yachts or cars or whatever, whatever it is, you're gonna spend your money on that you want to be showy with. But for the average person who's hanging out a lot clothes are the way in which your brand is associated.
00:17:07
Speaker
And so it's not about necessarily money. I think that's the other part about status is it's like.
00:17:13
Speaker
There's a certain expectation that if you make a certain amount of money and you're hanging out in certain places, you need to dress up a bit. You do, you have to dress up a bit. And as you go up in life, you should be spending a little bit more money on your clothes. Not a lot, it's not, look, you don't have to spend money like I do. I just happen to like clothes. That's not something that other people like cars, other people like houses. And again, it's a wealth thing. Clothes are not an investment. They're not going to make you money.
00:17:42
Speaker
But their investment in yourself and how you feel and how you show up in the world. Yeah, and how they make me feel. But I think a lot of people would close, they instead of thinking about what they want to send out in the world and what the world to see them as. Because fashion is that right? Fashion is essentially telling the world what you look like and what you are. I think how you dress says a lot about who you are. And not in a bad way. It's not a judgment thing. It's just how you dress tells you who you are.
00:18:11
Speaker
Yeah. Do you feel like you've ever, because I think that's interesting, right? Because you establish this brand over time with what you wear. And then it's almost like any other perception, like busting that perception. Like if you did wear a t-shirt and jeans, people would like,
00:18:30
Speaker
it would almost be like impossible for them to pay attention to you. And it's almost like it's hard to bust that perception of changing that. Have you ever been in a situation where like, what was the most like, I feel so overdressed or out, you know, outside of what the norm is here that it actually distracted from things. Have you ever run into that situation or do people always know your brand and they're just like, eh, that's Greg.
00:18:59
Speaker
I think when I under dress people notice like yeah, if I don't if I don't wear on travel if I'm not wearing a suit jacket when I go to for work or whatever people kind of look at me and go what's up? What's wrong? What's happening?
00:19:10
Speaker
That's so wild. I wore a t-shirt one day for work on Zoom. And I work on Teams, right? So I wore a t-shirt because I just didn't care that day. I was having a whole thing. And people knew I didn't care because I'm wearing a t-shirt. And they're like, what is this? This isn't you. This isn't who you are. Yeah, you're not. Greg, we're going to need you to pay attention to the meeting. I am. Well, clearly you're not because you're wearing a t-shirt, Greg. Right. So I think that happens more. That happens way more than overdressed. And I'm overdressed. I do know that I get
00:19:40
Speaker
especially from, I mean, dating, right in dating, a lot of women have issues with the fact that I don't dress down. They they always feel like everywhere we go, they have to dress up as much as I do because I'm dressed up. Because you're because you're like setting a bar that needs to be met or exceeded by them. Right? I could I could see that for for women, they're supposed to be the dressier one of the two.
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah, I could see some self consciousness there. I mean, I mean, I think it's, I mean, I guess you could argue if, as a guy, if you went out on a date, you were wearing a ball cap and jeans and a, you know, a t-shirt and the person you went on the date with was like dressed to the nines, right? Like, I think even, even gender wise, I think you could flip that around and it would be,
00:20:28
Speaker
it could be a challenge. But then I guess once somebody gets to know you and they know that like, Oh, you're going to go, you're going to go through the drive through looking like that too on the way home from work to pick something up. It's not, this is not me trying to one up you, you know, this is just, this is just, this is my brand. This is what I've established. Yeah, I think it is. It it's the reason I like to dress up mostly when I leave the house is because I'm, I can always go anywhere.
00:20:58
Speaker
You can always take a jacket off and just have a dress shirt on. Anywhere you go, dressing up is never, you can't get more clothes. If you leave the house dressed down, you can't get more clothes. Yeah, you can't just, let me stop by here and grab something that fits me. It's not that simple, it's not that easy. Well, what about you? I think, Ross, how do you see fashion?
00:21:23
Speaker
I mean, because you know that from a fashion perspective, we can go deep and talk about all different outfits and different clothes. But but I think how is it that you see fashion in your regular daylife? See, it's interesting you say that I see it. So one,
00:21:38
Speaker
I'm very interested in the generational fashion, like the generations like Zoomers now, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers. I see this circle of fashion. So for me, I see fashion very much as it is attached to your personality.
00:21:57
Speaker
And I almost see fashion as a way, kind of like you to establish your brand, but I don't really see any particular styles anymore. Like used to, like I always, I always thought of it like, oh, you know, there's millennials wearing skinny jeans and now skinny jeans are out because zoomers do that. But then I'm starting to see slowly, like with the options that are out there and people using like
00:22:21
Speaker
on the internet looking at different things. I mean you don't just go to your standard department store anymore where people just you look at a mannequin and say I want that. I mean you can go online and look at anything. So I think fashion is very much becoming just another and I was trying to think of something I was thinking of this an analogy for it's just
00:22:42
Speaker
It's like your taste buds. It's like your taste in food. No particular person has the same exact like, I like only these types of food, and there's a group of people that only likes this type of food. I might not like ginger, but I might like a bunch of different other things. I see fashion as such a unique palette of things that it's hard to section someone off. Because I will go from wearing shorts and a t-shirt to work one day
00:23:11
Speaker
to wearing a button down like khaki pants and nice shoes the next day and nobody like nobody bats an eye you know because it's just like to me it's like whatever my mood is for the day which is interesting because for you you're very like you want to feel this certain way when you put the clothes on for me it all just depends on how I'm feeling that day
00:23:36
Speaker
Well, I think it's still, I think it's still some of that too, Ross. I mean, I kind of know what I'm going to go do to that day, what I have going on, those kinds of things. Yeah, true, true. But to answer that, I think there is, it's hard to know what fashion is when you're looking at Instagram and looking at TikTok or whatever, what is fashion, right?
Fashion Trends and Culture
00:23:59
Speaker
But it's obviously something because it's blown up on the internet about how guys shouldn't wear sweatpants because it shows too much.
00:24:06
Speaker
Which arguably, which arguably I've gone over in my head going, I've gone in more bars in Charlotte where girls are just wearing a bra. Like, just a bra. Like, I swear, they don't have a shirt on. They might call it a shirt, but it's not. It's a straight up bra.
00:24:21
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't know this guy sweat pant thing, man, I need to change before I go out later today. It's great. It's gray sweatpants. Apparently, it's gray. It's not gray pants, just sweat pants. So that's a no no. Okay, because it shows too much of the, you know, the male anatomy, I guess. Yeah, yeah, sure. Sure. But but arguably, I think it's funny that
00:24:46
Speaker
that that's the attitude, right? Because I went to the Kevin Gates concert and I swear there were girls, I was just like, you should stick that, stick those back inside your underwear. Like just, they'd hung out the sides of their underwear. So like,
00:24:59
Speaker
There's a bit of it that I go, is it a double standard? Is it because you can't tell women anymore? Cuz we're on this whole movement where men can't really say anything about whatever. And I'm not by no means a misogynist. I'm not saying I wanna tell these girls not to go let their freak flag fly. But at the same time, I'm not sure we should tell men not to wear gray sweatpants. I don't wear sweatpants. I don't like sweatpants. I don't like shorts. But arguably, I wear some tight dress pants that,
00:25:28
Speaker
Yeah, maybe, you know, you're standing right next to the dude with the gray sweatpants and somebody's like, neither of you should be wearing either of those things, right? But I think fashion, I think there is fashion, it's just more subtle in context.
00:25:44
Speaker
right? Yeah, it's like women definitely you can tell fashion, right? I mom jeans are kind of going out. Thank goodness that they're out on the way out the door because those things were horrible. Right? Oh, yeah, I've tried on multiple pairs just does not flatter me at all. No, I don't really understand. It's like a backlash against big butts. It was like, well, okay, big butts were in for a while now big butts are out. We want to hide that with mom jeans, then butts are back in again. I don't know what to do with this, right? Yeah, fashion. It's
00:26:13
Speaker
it's whatever people can sell. But at the same time, the other part is fashion moves so fast now. Yes. And that's probably and that's probably what was in my head that I couldn't articulate is that before fashion would go the way of like,
00:26:30
Speaker
Influencing of where you see it on tv on large like motion pictures in stores and like new york city popular is on you know i think a lot of music influence like musical styles influence fashion in the eighties and nineties.
00:26:49
Speaker
And now it's like, to your point, you could have, you know, TikTok influencer with millions of followers start wearing some wristband thing. And all of a sudden, everybody has wrist accessories now. That's a big deal. So it's so rapid. But it's but but there are areas that close don't change that much. I mean, take
00:27:10
Speaker
I think work is a great example. Work clothes have stayed relatively the same clothes forever, right? Men's shirts look the way men's shirts do. The collars have gotten bigger, smaller, bigger, smaller, but for the most part, the collars have stayed relatively similar. I mean, there's types of collars like spread collars,
00:27:29
Speaker
wide collars, right? Yeah, but for the most part, but for the most part, you're not making a, you're not making a statement. You're not going to rock the boat when it comes to menswear, business wear.
00:27:42
Speaker
men's pants used to go all the way over the belly button. Now they're at the waist right below. That's true. They're below the belly button. Now that's where men wear them. Who knows they might go back up to right underneath the belly button, which is where your actual waist is. Who knows what what's gonna happen with men's fashion. But again, we're not talking about that much. I mean, adding one button, making a double breasted jacket or three buttons or two buttons. It's not that much difference about the way the jacket really looks fundamentally is the same.
00:28:08
Speaker
No, it's not. Like I think- Suspenders were in, suspenders are out. Suspenders are in, suspenders are out. Are they back in? No, they're still out. So they didn't hold up well? I like them. That's funny. I like them. I love suspenders, but they're never going to be, they're not an accessory that they, again, a lot of fashion too is for ease. So if you look at, because we've gotten into comfortable culture, and that's probably a good way to say where fashion is right now, it's very much comfortable culture. So
00:28:37
Speaker
everything's about being comfortable. And suspenders are by their nature for a lot of people uncomfortable. Yeah, I think they're great. But speaking of comfortable, I, you know, you can't find a pair. Well, I'll inform you of this, Greg, because you don't wear a lot of jeans. Like blue jeans, you can't find like even men's pairs, you can't find a lot of like true denim, like they all have like,
00:29:02
Speaker
Like some sort of elastic material in them now. Yeah, and then I started reading about like, you know the stand like the old school like Levi's like like denim and how like a lot of people still there's like the subculture of like what our grandparents did of the whole like soaking your jeans in the tub and then wearing them while they dry to where they like shrink to fit to you and everything yeah, and I was reading an article and somebody was just like
00:29:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean if you want to try to get that like unique because because to your point it's almost like tailoring your denim because it fits to you and then it wears to how you like it. But is it worth it for something like jeans that are just supposed to be comfortable?
00:29:47
Speaker
You know, but but that's almost becomes like our previous episode that almost becomes like some sort of hobby or collection of like, like clothing that you've like put time and investment into that you that you wear. But but what they're doing, and I think this is what you what the way that you people need to look at fashion in general.
00:30:12
Speaker
What they're doing is fitting into their culture, their counterculture, their whatever culture they are. They're probably rockability people mostly, right? They're probably doing that for the most part, right? They've got to be, right? But people dress to the culture they want to be part of, right? There's a whole look. We joke about junior leaguers. There's a look that junior leaguers look like, right?
00:30:35
Speaker
Yeah, they've looked the same. They haven't changed in 50 years. They look the same. They always have their hair done. Yeah, it's like a uniform and overall uniform look. Yeah. And I think that's I think that's more the way to approach fashion when you look at what. So what's happened with Z culture a lot have millennials and definitely I'm with Z culture is you had the rise of the urban look. We had the urban look in the 90s with millennials. Right. And then you really see the urban look really kind of
00:31:04
Speaker
get involved much more towards the end of the millennial period. But that urban look was a weird one. It was like urban it was like sagging skinny jeans. I wasn't really sure I understood that when it was happening. Yeah, because you're wearing tight jeans, but then you sag them, which is like, okay, so but but that hasn't gone away. That's still a fashion thing. You still see guys still all wear their pants below their butt. Like, yeah, still. Yeah, I don't understand. I don't. It's never comfortable.
00:31:29
Speaker
No, no, it's like God of a horse. Like you're just like, gotta like have your legs all spread to hold your pants up. Yeah, but it's, it's a statement, right? It goes, and that's, it's, it's the interesting thing. You wonder, like I always wonder, like what is, what is Lil Wayne wear at home when he's just relaxing? Probably a hoodie.
00:31:52
Speaker
He's probably wearing a hoodie. Cause I'm like, he's wearing a hoodie, but he's wearing his like jean sagging, you know, skinny jeans with the, what the, what does he say? Fresh pair of vans, right? Like, like, you know, like, but you wonder. He probably wears, he probably wears basketball shorts and slides. Let's be honest. He probably wears a hoodie, basketball shorts and slides. That's probably what he's wearing. And somehow completes the look, which, you know, baffles me, but completes the look.
00:32:22
Speaker
Well, it's also little Wayne. Who's going to question little Wayne's fashion choices? Hey, not me. I'll question his life choices, but his fashion choices, that's what you want to concentrate on. No, no. I just, I just, I just want to know, like, when he gets up, it's be like, I'm going to dress down today. Like, what is it? Like, what do you, what do you wear, Wayne? Like, what do you, what do you wear in there, Carter? He wears a wife beater and a pair of Dickies. Like, that's, that's, that's,
00:32:49
Speaker
Oh man. Yeah. They were popular. They were popular. Dickies. Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, shoot. I like car heart jackets are a big deal. And like, I remember my brother having a car heart, like to actually work in because they're sturdy, like, like nice, like nice jackets and stuff like work jackets, but like they, it just, it's, that's what's so interesting. Maybe the,
00:33:16
Speaker
It's probably all my stuff that I did for like marketing and brand and stuff in school. It's like this cross section of fashion and people wanting to look a certain way combined with the actual branding aspect of it all. And where does one like supersede the other from? It's just about the brand or it makes me feel good. So fashion is interesting for me because I don't really dress to fit in much.
00:33:45
Speaker
like because the dress clothes that I wear even though like I wear a suit jacket and dress pants and always look like I could fit in somewhere looking sharp I usually wear dark I always wear bright colors things that not everybody is willing to wear still fashionable still nice it's just not the look that's going to be I'm easily gonna stand out in a group of people
Fashion as Cultural Identity
00:34:02
Speaker
I think most people want to fit in and fashion for them is fitting in. I mean, there's a reason why you can go to Google right now and type on ironic white girl hat and you get the hat that Lady Gaga always has had in the videos and those things. It's a thing, it's called the ironic white girl hat because it's not ironic and it's just a white girl hat.
00:34:23
Speaker
But it's, but I went to a winery the other day and it was like a bunch of women all had that hat on. Like different colors, but it was that same wide brim fedora. And they all had the Stanley cups. Like why did that get popular? It's a freaking Yeti. Like, and those were popular for a while. Now it's not Yeti, now it's Stanley cups. Now everybody wants this. I didn't know Stanley cups were supposed to be $30.
00:34:43
Speaker
like I didn't I didn't either I first heard about a Stanley Cup and and like everyone else I was like what like the hockey trophy I honestly didn't know like I know not Lord Stanley's Cup like the Stanley Cup and yeah but but yeah it's it's it's definitely a
00:35:01
Speaker
It's a thing now. Everybody wants them. And that's a fashion thing. That's a fashion
Role of Accessories
00:35:05
Speaker
thing. Yeah, it's an accessory. Oh, we could we could go on for days about it. Do you consider? Do you consider a hat a fashion accessory or? Absolutely. Critical to I mean, I guess it could be critical. It could make or break a look, right? I mean, you're a you're a you're a good break. I don't think I don't think hats really make a look. I don't think okay. Like,
00:35:27
Speaker
I get it right. It can enhance it can enhance a look at it can ever make it but it can always break in Texas, a guy like in Texas, right a guy to pair of cowboy boots, a pair of boot cut jeans, blue jeans and a button up shirt and a trucker hat is a look the guy could take the trucker hat off and still have the same look as anybody in Texas, maybe even a t shirt, maybe a t shirt, a faded t shirt because it can't be allowed teachers got to be a faded t shirt.
00:35:51
Speaker
Blue jeans, cowboy boots. And then if you put, you can either put a trucker hat on or take a trucker hat off, but it has to be a trucker hat. You can't rock like a, you can't rock a major sports team like that. You look weird. You look like your truck. Like you go into redneck territory with that, right? So it's like, it has to be a trucker hat. It has to be that look.
00:36:10
Speaker
or a faded broken down fat like a fabric hat, right? It has to be like, like some sort of Yeah, like that landscape. Yeah, like that worn look. Yeah, yeah, right. Like cowboy cowboy hats are absolutely a fashion accessory, but they have such a limited range of where you can wear a cowboy hat and be cool. Like it's a very small range, like it's either singing in a tahano band, or like go into a
00:36:35
Speaker
you know, a cowboy in Western club got, you know, country Western club. Yeah, some two step and even that you do two step dancing in Texas. Most of the guys have on a trucker hat. Yes, t shirt t shirt and blue jeans and cowboy boots. That's just the look right cowboy hats have really gone by the way unless you're at the rodeo. Yeah. And even then most of the guys wearing them at the rodeo people who have a cowboy hat and their closet never get a chance to wear it and then go to the rodeo and wear it. Yeah. Or the ones who are like actual cowboys. But that's, you know, that's a career choice.
00:37:05
Speaker
That's a whole different lifestyle. That's Western living. I bet you find more cowboy hats in Wyoming than you do in Texas.
00:37:10
Speaker
100% because at that point there is an actual usability and usefulness to a cowboy hat. There's a point of the large brim and everything else. Yeah, it takes the sun off your face. It's also designed to repel water because it's waterproof, so yeah. Yeah, there's a use for it. But again, just ending on accessories, I think to answer the question, accessories can only help to
00:37:40
Speaker
add or strengthen an outfit. They they don't they can't make an outfit and they can definitely break one. Yeah, they can definitely break one. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Well, this is good. I you know, I feel enlightened. I don't feel like I'm going to go buy a
00:37:58
Speaker
a big five yards of fabric anytime soon and get something custom tailored. Yeah, I don't see you doing that, Ross. I just don't. I do. I am fortunate that my, I'm blessed that my dimensions do work pretty well for a standard sport coat. They do. That I can just throw on, and I don't need a lot of custom tailoring.
00:38:22
Speaker
I will say I think maybe once or twice I've had something tailored or hemmed or something that it does make a huge difference and sometimes if you find the right place and a good person it's not that expensive but it actually works and it makes something look elevated so I would say that's a good thing.
00:38:42
Speaker
As as with the tradition now you said the other night you dressed up like mint chocolate chip Well, it's a joke. It was chocolate brown pants It was a mint green jacket with some blacks with some black check with a black check on it and a blue and I've had a blue shirt So yeah, so yeah, so that's that's that's good So then I guess keeping with the tradition that I started last time because you know me I like to keep traditions today's episode is sponsored by
00:39:10
Speaker
mint chocolate chip Oreos. So we only have 80, 84, 84 other flavors of Oreos to go through. Thought it was relevant. Once again, no sponsorship by Baskin Robbins, but there is a mint chocolate chip Oreo out there.
00:39:24
Speaker
It's brought to you. At some point, the people from Nabisco are going to hear this and be like, we did not authorize them to talk about our Oreos. We're going to take that down. Okay. It's not brought to you by, I might try some mint chocolate chip Oreos. Where are you getting them from, Ross? Where are you getting them from?
00:39:43
Speaker
There's there was a whole list. So first I started to just go into our local grocery store and go down the 16 they had. And so I took pictures of them. But then there's a list of what like the top 86 Oreo flavors that are out there. And there's some ordered. Can you order them?
00:39:59
Speaker
Yeah, most, most of them, some of them were special, like special edition that you can't get anymore. I'm sure there's some, you know, some crazy person out there who has like stocks of like stale Oreos just because they wanted to keep every flavor. But but yeah, they're, they're all out there, Greg. So I'm just pushing one day, we'll have a website where you get a website just to order an Instagram or something just so people can like comment and tell us stuff.
00:40:27
Speaker
Oh, gosh, I don't even want to know what people would have to say. Oof. Can you imagine? We need to get we need to get a presence now for us. We need to have we need to have a presence for this. But do we, though? I mean, I like being made fun of by my spouse by saying I only have six listeners. It's coming. We had 28. We had 28 people listen to the last podcast. 28. OK, 28. OK, I stand. That's not bad. 28 people.
00:40:51
Speaker
I don't know who they are. I don't know who the 28 people are. We're not going to get to 200 unless we get a presence at this point, Ross. Unmotivated, unprepared.
00:41:08
Speaker
By definition, she'd probably not have a website or an Instagram because it is supposed to be unprepared and unmotivated. Exactly, exactly. Well, maybe we could work on a social presence and see if that bumps our numbers. I think people just find us because the title. Because who doesn't want to listen to two guys talking about things that are random about unmotivated, unprepared?
00:41:28
Speaker
Yeah, by definition, I think what we talk about ends up being a lot of motivation and a lot of preparation. It's just not for the podcast. Sure. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's me thinking about it. It's like, well, let's just one take this bad boy to see what happens.
00:41:46
Speaker
I don't know. Well, Greg, I've got some travel coming up soon, so I'll be in and out of the house. But we'll chat again. We'll chat again soon. We might have to make people wait a little longer for the next episode drop, but we'll let people...
00:42:05
Speaker
Get excited about Eurovision's coming soon. So we're going to have to talk. Eurovision, May 11th. May 11th. I want to party, Ross. You want to come to Charlotte? Want to come to Charlotte? Want to come to Charlotte? I really should. May 11th. May 11th. May 11th. You heard it here, folks. May 11th, Eurovision party.
00:42:21
Speaker
See, if we had a real podcast, it'd be like a live podcast and everybody would come watch us and laugh and cheer us along. But doesn't mean we can't do a live podcast of the Eurovision.
Eurovision Excitement and Closing
00:42:31
Speaker
Doesn't mean we can't. That's true. I'll have to check with the Appropriations Committee to see if we can afford to afford to come to Charlotte in May. So after after I am throwing a party, though. Oh, I have no doubt. I have no doubt you're throwing a place to club. I'm going to go the whole thing. I'm going to have a whole big party. It's going to be great.
00:42:50
Speaker
He's not kidding, folks. Eurovision is the greatest day of Greg's year by far. It is. It's the highlight. It's Eurovision and maybe his birthday, but primarily Eurovision. No, it's not my birthday. The birthday doesn't matter. Eurovision Song Contest is the best day of the year. Eurovision Song Contest, the campy celebration. All right, Greg. Well, we will talk soon and have a wonderful rest of your day, man. You too.
00:43:20
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Unmotivated and Unprepared. Join us again next time as we continue to meander through random topics at a pace defined by our mood, the weather, and what happened five minutes earlier.