Trends: how important are they?

A gentleman can fall into one of two categories when it comes to following trends. He can be the type of man to change his look every season depending on which trend is ‘in’ or he can have the opposite approach and stick to what he knows and likes.

The truth is that style is there to be personalised, and there’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to how important it is to follow trends. However, a gentleman needs to know his taste and the best way to decipher that taste is to experiment; trends aren’t born out of thin air, after all.

The speed of the internet is only making fashion faster and more accessible, and the sheer amount of advice around can make it difficult for a gentleman to understand how he’s ‘meant’ to dress. There is no denying that a lot of the trends that come around on a season-to-season basis can be very difficult to wear and a lot of them aren’t always fit for a gentleman (here’s looking at you ripped, knee-length T-shirts). What we suggest, therefore, is that snippets of each trend should be experimented with, rather than the whole look. The most important advice we can give is to not get carried away and start shifting what you wear just because you’ve seen a public figure embracing a full head-to-toe trend. Just because they’re wearing it, doesn’t mean you need to, too.

Take denim, for example: if you’re a gentleman who likes to stick to what he knows, you might have been wearing the same style of jean for the past decade. On the contrary, you might be a different kind of gentleman who has noticed that in that decade, fashion has seen the resurgence and/or advent of the skinny jean, the coloured jean, the low-slung jean and the ripped jean – to name just a few. If this rings a bell, then you have probably tried out all of these trends and are excited about the latest.

You may be the type of gentleman who falls somewhere in the middle, who wants to experiment and to try out new trends, but who doesn’t want to sacrifice his sartorially perfect wardrobe to make way for 20 new pairs of jeans. And this is the type of gentleman who, if you’re unaware of what bracket you fall into, we suggest you become. While we don’t like to sound controlling, we don’t think that any sartorially conscious man should be closed to new trends and to trying out new pieces. We also don’t think that covering a plethora of trends in one outfit automatically makes you fashionable. After all, with one small step comes one giant leap and if you experiment and you don’t like what you see, you can go back to where you were before.

So yes, trends are important to follow. But a stylish gentleman is a subtle one and a full trend – or a series of trends – do not need to be showcased in one outfit. Experiment, find what works for you and – most importantly – do not try and replicate another gentleman’s style.