This is a recap (and photo reference dump) of the latest episode of Style & Direction, the podcast I do with Spencer and MJ. Since the blog has pivoted to be more casual (less big essays on philosophical topics), I’e decided to write out some of the discussions primarily for those who don’t really listen to the pod (you fuckers). You should still listen to the episode above!
- Intro/Fire Talk – 9:32
- Tiktok Escapade – 26:10
- Ins and Outs – 39:01
- Wrap-up – 1:17:00
Tiktok Hates Us
I’ve found it really interesting to notice how the zeitgeist has come around to a lot of the menswear that I’ve enjoyed for years: high waisted wide leg pants, white socks (and loafers), pleats, bigger shoulders, wider lapels, sport shirts, big shorts— the list goes on. A cursory glance on tiktok and you’ll find people posting fit pics (regular people, not dedicated fashion content creators) wearing outfits with those or similar details. Hell, you can find big pants and loafers at your local mall through Uniqlo and J. Crew. Perhaps all of this means that my style idiosyncrasies are no longer alienating, that I’m finally normal! Or dare I say, I look good… in the eyes of the uninitiated.
Even if I never fully believed that (I am a dandy after all), I was recently given an incredibly humbling experience through a post on tiktok. Well it wasn’t just me, but a few of my friends as well. Let me explain.
A few weeks ago, I was at my favorite bar with some friends; MFAD pals Auden and Digs (who I saw in NYC in October) were in town and I wanted to show them my beloved Capri Club. As per usual, we were all quite fitted in very interesting ways: Auden had a Kate Bush merch tee and a baggy vintage suit, Digs gave Spencer a run for his Americana Simoleons with a tiger stripe jacket and a USN chambray, Myles had a minimal workwear look with Brycelands/Buck Mason, Chris had vintage cashmere worn on overalls, and Spencer and I were doing our own approaches to Bob Dylan (a few of us were set to see A Complete Unknown, more on that later). I felt like we looked cool as fuck. Naturally I was photographing the hang but I decided to take it a step further by doing a fit check for Tiktok.
As you can see in the video, it’s a very silly and wholesome time: I’m tipsily going from person to person, hyping up my friends as they struggle with quickly running down through the outfit. These videos seldom do numbers (nor do any of my other tiktoks) but I like making them anyway. They’re cute!
Unfortunately Tiktok didn’t think so. I am not sure what happened but it got on the wrong side of the algorithm, leaving us with incredibly mean and negative comments. I don’t expect people to fully enjoy my attire, but Lord they hated us. “These outfits are buns” was a common phrase from viewers, where buns is meant as an absurd replacement for “ass”. We were also accused of being gentrifiers from out of state, which I’ve honestly never gotten before.
We all found the copious amounts of hate quite hilarious and honestly humbling; it was proof that we are still dummies for liking menswear in the end. Though I will say that it was a bit disappointing to see some hate from archive fashion bros. I usually find so much camaraderie with such guys through our mutual appreciation of niche details! Oh well.
Packing For The Eaton Fire
As I mentioned in the Palm Springs blog, I did have to evacuate for a bit due to the Eaton Fire coming quite near the place where my dad and I live. Long story short, everything turned out okay; I ended up staying with friends for a few days before going to my grandma’s house for a week as my place did not have internet. It all could have been so much worse and I’m very blessed that I came out unscathed!
On a funny but dark note, I did have to do the real life version of the classic thought experiment “what would you take in a fire”. As someone who has a lot of things (not just clothes), people are always interested in hearing what my answers would be. Well, now I know! The list may surprise you! It’s not as wild or bold as I thought; I even felt bad that I left behind some truly special items. It was probably because I approached the evacuation as “I need to sleep on someone’s couch for a week” instead of “here’s what I want to take with me in case everything else burns down”.
It also didn’t help that I left in a hurry when in all honesty, I probably had quite a bit of time to really consider what I wanted to bring. I probably would have brought a lot more clothes with me! But of course everything was fine and I still have all of my stuff. I only had to live out of a suitcase for a little under a week. Again, big shout out to James for letting me stay with him!
What I Brought:
- Ring Jacket Balloon Navy DB Blazer
- Ring Jacket WSL Brown Houndstooth
- WWII Chinos (khaki and M-43)
- 3Sixteen Wide Leg Indigo Jeans
- 2 x OCBD (blue uni and blue reverse stripe)
- Chambray workshirt
- Bryceland’s black sport shirt
- LVC denim sawtooth shirt
- Navy crew neck sweater
- 60s sweatshirts (grey crewneck and white quarter zip)
- My favorite ties (red/blue block stripe, blue foulard, TYT black jacquard tie, red foulard)
- Wakouwa deck shoes
- Alden tassel loafers in Color #8
- Western belts (black and brown)
- Various socks, underwear, and undershirts
- Merch tees (Miniature Tigers, John Williams)
- Wellema Fedora
- Stetson Stratoliner
- Berets (AWMS, mom’s old one)
- Cohérence trench coat
- My favorite blanket
- Box of keepsakes (letters, my watches, pins, tickets)
- My camera and all my lenses
- All my laptops (work, personal PC, old composing macbook)
Looking back, I do think it’s very weird that I didn’t bring my senior pants. I hope they don’t hate me!
If you can, I encourage you to donate directly to affected families on Go Fund Me, Altadena Girls Fire Recovery, as well as the ones for Wellema and Tom, the owner of my beloved Book Alley, who lost their shop and home respectively.
The 2025 In/Out List
Lastly, I have a new, New Years Tradition to share with you all: the In/Out List. Granted, if you’ve been in the SaD Patreon Discord, you’re aware that this isn’t new at al. Started by my friend John Greenacre during the pandemic, the In/Out List is a way for us to share our perspectives on what we like and don’t like for the upcoming year. Ever since John shared his spicy takes, it’s been a fun exercise for subscribers to give their own take, with varying degrees of heat.
To be clear, the list isn’t meant to serve as a predictor but rather just a fun medium to share what energy we want to bring into the new year and what we want to leave behind. In other words, it’s less about trends and more about what we’re excited about as well as what no longer holds our interest. In that way, the list could even be called a Blessed vs Cursed list. And boy were the ones for 2025 good! The ones shared in our Discord weren’t even all specifically about menswear; some went into how we participate in fashion/culture, social media practices, hobbies, or just abstract things.
A Sample, assembled from various Patreon subscribers:
- In
- Avant-garde styling
- Spicy cocktails
- Rye whiskey
- 3-piece suits
- Patterned OCBDs
- Big ass hats
- The Cursed Earth
- Putting That Shit On
- Social networks occupied only by people you know IRL
- Italian and French Vinted servers
- Northern Italian vintage tailoring
- Carrying a child around
- Armani color palate (with or without Armani clothes)
- Global GORP
- “Drinking one really expensive really good cocktail and then bailing”-style nights out
- Boiler Suits
- Bespoke Bow Ties
- Herring
- goofy derbies or loafers
- draping
- maximalism
- repairing clothes
- Out
- Avant-garde clothes
- Creative black tie
- The 90’s
- LA
- Barn coats
- Air ties
- Passive and Conspicuous consumption
- sOcIaL mEdIa
- Being a lying little shit
- Personal style, color analysis and body type cinematic universe
- 90s and 2000s style cheaply made clothes
- Chore coats
- Avoidant behavior
- Streaming service original content
- Lagers of all kinds (darker is worse)
- Haddock
- oversized graphic tees
- buying more statement pieces
- double 4 in hand knots
- askokey
- elon musk
I’m not usually one to make these kinds of lists because I don’t like to record what’s “good” or not…at least in list format. I also didn’t think I could participate in the same way as my Discord members, by which I mean that I typically like what I like and don’t like what I don’t like for a very long time; it doesn’t really change from year to year. You might even consider my “In List” to be synonymous with Ethan Style. But if I really think about it, taste can shift and evolve. Expression can change. We canonize new things into our repertoire all the time! And hell, it wouldn’t hurt to be a little conceited and share some blatant hot takes for once!
And so in the most recent pod, Spencer, MJ, and I took the time to make our own In/Out (or Blessed/Cursed) lists for 2025. As expected, theirs are more personal and meant to be what they’re bringing into the new year and what they’re leaving behind. Mine was as spicy as I wanted it to be.
I’ve included our lists below, but you’ll have to listen to the full episode for context on these decisions!
MJ
- IN
- Long socks
- Long underwear
- Distinct hairstyles
- Coordinating (not matching) with your partner
- More experimenting, crossovers with different geners
- OUT
- “I could NEVER wear that.”
- Resellers/scalpers/hoarders
- Sparing normies of our opinions!
Spencer
- IN
- Being “sleek and cool”
- Levis Sta-prest Pants
- Books and Records
- 70s movie star looks
- AmericanaForever
- Vintage tees and Sweatshirts (especially Snoopy sweatshirts)
- Corduroy
- My New Car
- Flares
- OUT
- Super Distressed pants
- Looking like a roving and rambling tramp
- Bright socks
- My Old Car (RIP)
Ethan
- BLESSED
- Flapped pockets and not tucking in the flaps. Embrace them!
- Slide belts and by extension, thin belts of all kinds
- Western Bow Ties and Continental Bowties
- More bold ties and less geometrics
- Two Button Peak Lapels (instead of one button)
- Bonus: A houndstooth jacket with peak lapels
- Composing music outside (complete with a keyboard)
- Fit pics at home rather than in a busy area or dedicated location
- Dressing up for coffee
- Wearing a point collar shirt with a DB
- Point collar shirts in general honestly.
- Full button up shirts with suits
- Cuban heels
- Cat eye sunglasses
- Sunglasses indoors and at night. Fuck it!
- Proper fedoras (brown, black, grey) and tyrolean hats
- Over-the-calf socks.
- Feminine looks
- Cosplaying the art you are consuming or attending. In other words, dress in service of the things you enjoy!
- Dress like Bob Dylan to see A Complete Unknown, wear a beret to the museum, wear workwear or vintage sweatshirts to pick at the flea.
- Leaning into holiday attire
- Going to more things like conventions, concerts, listening parties
- Leaning into full trad or corporate looks
- Just wear a damn tie!
- Black jeans (especially flares)
- Gabardine jackets
- Getting two jackets when ordering a suit (DB and SB)
- A little bit of break
- Art classes
- Book and record hauls, especially if they’re second hand
- Getting to know your bookshop keepers and baristas
- Indie art (prints, zines, comics)
- No pocket square or wearing a white PS with everything
- 3PC suits, even as a DBs
- Having a consistent hair style
- Artists in suits as inspo
- More City Boy inspo
- A cohesive or holistic look with a defined theme or POV
- CURSED
- High Gorges
- Overly ornate western belts
- Thick Belts
- One button peak lapels
- Overly formal peak lapels jackets (velvet, silk, etc)
- Fit pics in busy areas
- DBs with button down collars and OCBDs
- Sneakers with suits
- Tee shirts with suits
- Chelsea boots and dress boots (balmoral)
- Macclesfields and other small scale foulards/geomtetrics
- P3 sunglasses (not bad but I’m tired of it)
- Uniqlo socks
- Western fedoras and cowboy hats
- OCBDs with the collar points undone
- Related: roll necks with an OCBD points sticking out. Ew.
- OCBDs in general (just wear a point collar)
- Overly masculine/workwear looks
- Dressing safe or agnostic
- Denim jackets
- Harrington jackets (standing collars suck)
- Wearing Ralph (just wear vintage)
- Cropped pants (even ones that are rolled)
- Concealed Carry as part of the outfit
- Celebrity Stylists
- Influencer hauls and recommendations
- Tiktok Trends and tiktok style content in social media
- Stitches
- GRWM
- Archive clothing
- Suits with bare chests or ribbed tanks
- Patterned pocket squares
- Changing your hair style too regularly
- Changing your overall style too regularly
- Also cursed: the idea that style needs to constantly evolve in a noticeable way instead of be honed or aim for consistency
- Chore coats (just wear a sport coat)
- Star Wars
- Steve McQueen and stereotypical casual style inspo (we need more suits and ties)
- Americana/workwear tbh
- Subversive looks that just aim to pair incongruent things
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Thanks for listening and reading along! Don’t forget to support us on Patreon to get some extra content and access to our exclusive Discord.
The Podcast is produced by MJ.
Always a pleasure,
Ethan M. Wong (follow me on IG)
Big thank you to our top tier Patrons (the SaDCast Fanatics), Philip, Shane, Henrik, Alexander, Mason, and Alec.