GQ USA - 08.2019

(Brent) #1

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR


FOR YEARS I DRESSED in all black. Black Levi’s


511s, a black Gildan T-shirt, and a black trucker


jacket. The occasional black suit. The formula


never failed me, and that was the point: When


you wear a uniform, you never make mistakes.


another expression of what’s really
going on inside each of us. The
answer to that question will probably
be instructive, even if it doesn’t mean
pulling up to your next date night
wearing OshKosh B’gosh.
For me the summer of dressing like
an overgrown kid has given rise to
a new mantra, and I plan to remember
it even as my style inevitably evolves
from here: Getting older is awesome.
But I’ll never grow up.

Flea Market Nike Air VaporMax,
which just straight-up look like they
were made in a kindergarten art
class using pipe cleaners and Silly
Putty. (Just for the record: My inner
child thinks I look cool in my suits,
too—but the fit has to be loose
and easy, and he doesn’t usually give
the okay until I’m adorned with
lots of cool shiny jewelry, and maybe
a purple tie.)
So my question to you this month
is simple: What does your inner child
think of the way you dress? I’m not
saying you have to follow my lead and
let him or her dress you. But I think
personal style is just a metaphor—

But in recent years, as men’s
fashion became more dynamic, more
expressive, more fun, I started to feel
left out. So I started allowing myself
to buy colorful clothes again. I started
tie-dyeing again. I started wearing
pink again. First on weekends, to the
co≠ee shop or the bodega. Then
everywhere, even to the o∞ce of GQ ,
where every day is like a fit-battle
death match. It felt good to get back
in the scrum.
Before too long I regained my
confidence. And while I know most
people who love clothes look forward
to fall and all its glorious layers,
the new, more expressively arrayed
me has come to believe summer
is far and away the most fun season
for getting dressed. The heat and
humidity make everyone relax.
Nobody has the energy to enforce
what few rules and codes still
exist. We are living in an anything-
goes era of style, and summer is
when we can all get buck wild.
So this summer I set a di≠erent
intention for my morning ritual
at my closet. Instead of dressing for
the day’s meetings, or dressing to
not make mistakes, or dressing for
the job I want (hey, I already have
it), I started dressing to please and
thrill my inner child. The new rule
is simple: I’m not ready to walk out
the door each morning until five-
year-old me—the one who still loves
shin-length Jams shorts, Michael
Jackson Bad T-shirts, and twisting
the laces of his Sebagos around a
pencil until they turn into cool little
squiggly pigtails—signs o≠ on the fit.
Luckily there’s a ton of gear out
there right now that gets Little Will
super stoked: tie-dyed Online
Ceramics T-shirts depicting skeletons
gardening with LSD. (Big thumbs-up.)
Baggy white RTH jeans that look like
they were designed for an o≠-duty
clown brigade. (We’ll take three pairs,
please.) And the new Cactus Plant


Will Welch
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

16 GQ.COM AUGUST 2019


PHOTO COLLAGE: MATTEO MOBILIO AND SIMON ABRANOWICZ

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