

Fashion for Geeks: Why bother? - dag
http://www.urbanmonarch.com/fashion-for-geeks-why-bother/

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doubleplus
It's true! When I'm with the ladies I can go on for hours about a random
content generator I'm working on for fun, I can forward tons of /. links with
explanations about what makes them interesting, I can call with a frequency
and average message length just past the line of "creepy," I can be visibly
nervous and embarrassingly insecure, and I can show up for teh love having
skipped a shower and on 3 hours of sleep. But as long as I throw on a $75
hoodie, some prefaded jeans, and a pair of Pumas, my shit is tight!

~~~
technoguyrob
You must hang out with the wrong girls...my girlfriend would get
unconditionally aroused solely due to the moment I said half a sentence about
random content generators.

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simianstyle
Well with proper fashion, the enemy's gate is always down.

I just pay $12/year and subscribe to "Nylon for guys" magazine
(<http://guys.nylonmag.com/>) - it really does do all the work involved with
"staying current" so you don't have to look like this guy:
<http://yogan.meinungsverstaerker.de/fun/80s1337ness.jpg>

Also, I wouldn't consider the last photo of you to be "haute couture": you're
just copying Steve Jobs with a little bit of hair gel.

~~~
rms
I'd love to stay fashionably dressed. As it is though, I just can't afford it.
Or, I'd rather spend my money on something else. How much do you spend to buy
the current season's clothing? And what's the best way to get it? I'd love to
have a website where I input my basic style preferences or rate different
fashions of the current season and get output of links to buy in style
clothes/outfits I would like in my price range.

~~~
simianstyle
This is true, it is quite expensive to stay in touch with fashion. However,
it's not so hard to find things that look good on the cheap. I typically try
and bargain hunt at stores such as H&M, tjmax, and the sale section of large
department stores. If something is a season or two old - it's good enough to
wear around without anybody chastising you for it. It's really not WHAT you
wear, but HOW you wear it.

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Electro
I have a simple solution: get a girlfriend. I now wear nice shirts that
apparently compliment my skin tone (who knew?), I wear layers (apparently very
sexy) and I now have $300 shoes. I've never owned $300 shoes in my life.

Once you have a girlfriend, dressing fashionably is rather easy and mainly
because I'm no longer allowed to choose except between Brown Shirt #1 and #2.

~~~
ojbyrne
Your simple solution has a chicken and egg problem. Or at least according to
the article linked to. The whole point of dressing fashionably is to get a
girlfriend.

~~~
bct
It's sort of a bootstrapping process. You build yourself the most basic
girlfriend possible, and use her to compile one that's more complete.

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scott_s
Potentially the worst article I've seen on HN. It spends several paragraphs
stereotyping women, damning them for caring about looks, and then promoting
the author's superiority for basically being smarter than them. (He
understands the social hierarchy thing, they don't.) Then, without irony, he
appeals to Natalie Portman, who is someone that is - wait for it - attractive.

Girls like guys who look nice for the same reason guys like girls who look
nice: it's more attractive.

~~~
dag
It doesn't matter if it's stereotypical, only if it's accurate. I would like
to hear an argument against the accuracy, and would love if citations were
included.

It's another set of rules to play with, another system to hack. Learn the game
and have some fun, that's what I did.

~~~
scott_s
When I say something is stereotypical, I imply its inaccurate by being too
general. Some women will do this, some won't. More importantly, some people
will do this, and some won't. All people are involved in social hierarchies,
and make judgments based on them. You're participating in one right now.

------
pkaler
Hmm, I don't like the stereotype. Most of my friends that are programmers are
fairly fashion forward.

I live in Vancouver, so maybe that is different from the valley.

Some of my friends are the Yaletown game developer nerds. This probably
describes me. I like my Pumas and Lacoste shoes. When Douglas Coupland
described the "Nikumas" in his book jPod, I almost fell over from laughing
because he described the situation perfectly. The rest of the attire fits the
shoes. Think Kanye West's outfit.

I know the Gastown web developer nerds too. They wear their Skechers and other
hipster-nerd shoes. The rest of the attire matches.

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ldambra
Fashion != being well dressed. You can buy the most fashionable pant and still
looks like a clown because it is too large or too short. But you can dress
well without any clue in fashion. Just be careful about the size (that's the
point when buying new clothes) and colors. Most people would go from a bad
look to a decent one just by resizing their clothes to suit them correctly.
And never forget : the white shirt is the best ally of men since forever.

------
menloparkbum
The article would be more convincing if the "well dressed" examples were well
dressed. Well, and also if it was well written. There has been no era in which
a cheap white blazer over an olive drab t-shirt looked good.

Unfortunately, reading fashion magazines doesn't really improve a person's
style unless you already look like a fashion model. San Francisco is filled
with programmers who wear expensive, trendy gear and they don't look much
better than the hacker slobs because it doesn't really suit their body shape
or personality. In fact, they look like posers who spent $50 on a too-small
t-shirt and $200 on sneakers that look like aerobic trainers from a B-movie
about the future.

Simple, clean clothes that suit your body shape are a better bet. Most guys
would be doing themselves a favor by donating their wardrobe to goodwill and
spending a few hundred dollars buying some fresh basics.

------
edw519
Never before on hacker news have more words been said about less.

Launch and get funded. Then no one will care what you're wearing.

~~~
kingkongrevenge
> no one will care what you're wearing.

This is never true. The impact of dress on perception is well studied and it
is large. If you're not dressing well, you are foolishly giving up an easy
edge.

A somewhat overlooked subject is coworker dress as a workplace quality issue.
A lot of geeks don't notice dress, but most other people are sensitive to the
aesthetic presentation of the people they have to spend many hours a day with.
Going to work with very well presented people is a job perk, and having to
interact with slobs is undesirable. Realize that even if you don't care about
dress, other very competent people you may work with will care. Tacky clothing
and pasty physiques can be like second hand smoke.

~~~
yummyfajitas
>Tacky clothing and pasty physiques can be like second hand smoke.

But without the cancer risk.

~~~
Hexstream
If you have a pasty physique it means you're not taking enough sun and
probably not exercising, and I'd adventure a guess that that makes you a good
candidate for cancer.

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graywh
Who says the geeks on HN need fashion help, anyway?

~~~
brlewis
I needed fashion help:

<http://ourdoings.com/2008-02-12>

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jcromartie
I have that t-shirt...

