The Modern Day Man: A Style Report By Jack McGann

Coco Chanel once said, “Fashion fades, only style remains the same.” This quote applies to nothing I’m about to say, but it felt right to begin with.

Today, as most other days, I found myself hyperanalyzing style on the street. As I walked into starbucks I was flabergasted by the sight before my eyes. It’s worth noting that starbucks is quite possibly the worst place to look for anything pertaining to style.

I shouldn’t say that.

I love what the baristas at my nearby starbucks wear, because you can only be so creative with a uniform. What I meant was, more often than not the people that inhabit starbucks are unimagninative when it comes to putting together an outfit. This can’t be the case for every starbucks, or they’d go out of business, but the one I frequent…well, it’s in need of work.

You’re probably thinking to yourself, “but jack if the people at this starbucks don’t have style, wouldn’t that mean you don’t have style?”

Let’s move on.

I walk into starbucks this morning in the best of spirits. The seasons changing and the clocks have struck back an hour. My optimism was quickly stripped as I approached the underwhelming line, where two guys stood waiting to order.

The image presented here is what awaited me at starbucks. Not one pair, but two. The two gentleman in front of me had an ever so unconventional style. White Common Projects, black skinny jeans and black north face puffer jackets. I was flabergasted. Naturally I had to get more infortmation before I made my final judgement. Are they twins? because twins often times dress the same. Are their socks at least green? Blue? Red?

Does anything about this getup make me look twice? Unfortunately no. They were not twins, they did not have interesting socks on and I was left with more questions than I had originally planned.

Prior to this monstrosity I only contemplated if I should get a tall coffee or a grande. I got more than I bargained for. This tangent and more importantly this sighting sparked a creative endeavor for me. Let me write about the modern day man (generally speaking).

This has been brewing in my mind for sometime now. Just what is the modern day man wearing? What is his style? Does he give thought to the clothes he’s presenting to the world? These are only a few things I’ve conjured up to discuss in this piece.

Let’s begin with what I consider to be the modern day man. Although this man might seem unimaginative on the outside, by displaying shoes like common projects, or skinny jeans and a puffer jacket. I’m willing to bet there’s more to the modern man, it just hasn’t come out yet.

Maybe they’ve been chewed out one too many times by their family, as their off to a date. Maybe one of their boys has harped on them about their audacious sense of socks. Situations like this can destroy the modern mans sense of self, but more importanly, the modern mans sense of style.

I truly believe with every fibre of my being, that every man in this day and age possesses style. The way the modern day man dresses is unimaginative and dull. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth. For those of us who follow style/fashion, you want nothing more than to ask them, “why’d you do that?” But I put it to you, hold back. Have empathy.

There was a point in time, where we all dressed like shit. Pardon my frankness, but it’s true. I remember in sixth grade I wore nothing but the same pair of jeans and copious layers for shirts. The most horrific thing about this look was that I had to match everything. If I was wearing a green long sleeve, I’d throw a green short sleeve on top. Who was that man? Where was the imagination? You see I have no problem giving myself smoke, so don’t hold back in the comment section.

The modern man, as vanilla and reserved as the clothes on his back may seem, is simply waiting on a situation, a circumstance, that makes him look at himself in the mirror and simply say, “I don’t give a fuck.”

Gentleman we all possess it. We all have style and we all have imagination. I’m not picking on you if you wear white sneakers every day, or skinny jeans with a puffer jacket. Style is forever changing. It is a living breathing thing that’s constantly evolving.

To the modern men I saw in Starbucks this morning, I can’t wait for your situation to come about.