LITTLE ROCK — Everyone likes to see someone look effortlessly stylish. They agree on “style,” but not the definition.
The only consensus: No one wants to see a slob.
When we asked random people on the street to tell us what they liked about the way the opposite sex dresses, the answers were overwhelmingly sigh-inducing: jeans, Tshirt, knee-length skirts, heels. No one asked for more color; no one asked for more short skirts or bold jewelry.
Most found it really hard to articulate what they found noteworthy at all. But as they all looked off into the middle distance and pictured that perfectly dressed man or woman, the person they pictured looked dramatically typical.
“I’m not saying that people aren’t telling the truth, but I do think maybe they didn’t want to seem too critical,”said St. Louis style maven Jill Manoff, who is currently styling a national ad campaign for Bakers Shoes. “Most of the women I talk to complain that they can’t get their guy out of a T-shirt and jeans, so I’m surprised that that’s what the women said that they wanted.”
Tom Julian, author of Nordstrom Guide to Men’s Style and a later guide to “everyday style,” said the women were probably being truthful, but they weren’t picturing the typical male. “The T-shirt is not just a [plain, boxy] white T-shirt and the jeans might have a distinct dark or lightwashed effect with special stitching and grommets,” he said. The people we surveyed most likely pictured someone with inherent style, Juliansaid.
Either way, both said that the most well-dressed people don’t blend into a crowd. Style that tends to attract attention has to spark some interest. Ifeveryone is in light blue faded jeans and sneakers, your eye drifts toward the guy in dark blue denim with leather shoes.
If all the women are in sleeveless floral dresses, your eye drifts toward the one in a solid turquoise frock with cap sleeves.
“A little black dress and a man in a suit are iconic images of good taste and social acceptability,” Julian said, yet he added, “People tend to gravitate toward others that typically don’t look ordinary.”
Manoff said we shouldn’t forget sex appeal.
“What you think looks nice and what you think looks sexy are kinda different,” Manoff said. She said that the best way to get the best of both worlds is with proper fitting clothes, even if you have to go up a size. She said there’s nothing worsethan the guy wearing the same size jeans he wore in college because he refuses to admit he is bigger now or the woman of a certain age wearing a dress that looks painfully tight on a Saturday night.
The moral is that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to dress well. But if you’re blending into the crowd then you probably aren’t there yet.
High Profile, Pages 49 on 07/25/2010