Page 9 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - Nov 16, 2022

My introduction to the rules of fash- ion came in junior high, when someone or other declared that wearing green on Thursdays was related to a guy’s masculinity. (Appar- ently you could wear a frilly pink tutu seven days a week and still be considered every bit as macho as John Wayne.)
PATERNITY WARD D. L. Stewart
My Fashion Style Is Right On The Button
skinny jeans or just pull an old pair of Levi’s out of my closet and do my own splat- tering?
involving issues more com- plicated than figuring out how Verizon calculates my monthly bill.)
It merely noted, “whichev- er number of fasteners you choose to undo, you are mak- ing a style declaration. Are you an all-buttoned-up mini- malist or a louche chest-flash- er?” I can’t answer that ques- tion because I have no idea if my chest is louche and what to do if it isn’t.
Now I’ m faced with an- other decision: How many of my shirt buttons should I leave undone? If any.
According to the story’s headline, the number of shirt buttons men should undo is “A Hot-Button Issue.”
Now I’m faced with another decision: how many of my shirt buttons should I leave undone? If any.
NOVEMBER 16, 2022 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK 9
Since then, what to wear, how to wear it and what not to wear has posed an unend- ing series of questions for me. Black socks, white socks or no socks? Bell bottoms or tapered legs? Shirt tucked in or hanging out? Should I buy $1,090 Amiri paint splatter
This is a serious question. I know it’s serious because I inadvertently came across it recently in a story in The Wall Street Journal, which is a very serious publica- tion. (I’ m not a frequent WSJ reader, because I don’t un- derstand anything about Wall Street, the stock market, the International Monetary Fund or any other financial topic
“Shirt buttons are linked to sexuality,” explained an adjunct assistant professor who teaches menswear his- tory at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. I’ ll have to take her word for that, because my links to sexuality rusted out quite a while ago.
whom were actors, includ- ing Rami Malek buttoned all the way up to his Adam’s apple; Hugh Jackman with two left undone; and Burt Reynolds with his shirt open wide enough to reveal what appears to be a black shag carpet.
popular during his adminis- trations. Not to be outdone, Donald Trump sought to also set a fashion trend by wear- ing ties that hung halfway down to his knees, but that one hasn’t seemed to have caught on yet.
Not that it matters. My style declaration is whatever my wife tells me it should be.
The story included photos of four famous men, three of
The fourth example was Barack Obama, whose single undone top button became
Unfortunately, the story offered no definitive advice about how low men should go in the button question.
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