What Your Dad Wore | Nelly | HowTo: Fashion

I have been thinking about my father's closet. Not because it was remarkable, but because what he had was coherence: everything in his closet made sense together and made sense with him. His generation dressed with a clarity that got lost somewhere in the conversation about personal style. They wore what the occasion required, maintained what they owned, bought things that lasted, and did not agonize over whether something was on-trend. The result was a man who looked right — put-together, appropriate, the kind of dressed that doesn't call attention to itself. Here is what that generation understood. Fit is the whole conversation: clothes that fit your body right now, today, are most of what people mean when they say someone looks well-dressed. The occasion is real information: dressing for the occasion is not compliance, it is respect for the event, the people, and your own presence in the room. Quality over quantity was just how he bought things: fewer things that lasted longer, a wardrobe with no visual noise. And he dressed like himself: he knew who he was and dressed accordingly, an ease no amount of trend-following produces. Father's Day is a good moment to look at your own wardrobe with his eyes. Does this fit? Does this suit the occasion? Does this actually go with the rest of what I own? Does this look like me, or like someone I was hoping to be? The answers will tell you more than any guide I could write.