I know what boys like.
Derek Guy, Japanese magazines, and podcast hosts.
This letter is being sent from the backseat of a cab in London, love. Apologies for any typos. It’s also free because I woke up with a generous aura.
A few weeks ago, I was texting a friend (man in his thirties who runs a media company) about the state of menswear, and how it’s covered in the media. He was commenting on the fact that there’s no new-age GQ. I suggested
, and ’s coverage at , and Derek Guy’s Twitter, but I also knew what he meant.There are so many women’s fashion-focused newsletters that have gotten a great handle on instruction, observation, digging into the archives, and inviting conversation among readers. I haven’t really seen the same thing in menswear! It’s a lot of talking at me. There is no clear outlet that a young man could visit in hope’s to learn how to tie a tie, or discuss wedding dress codes.
Two weeks ago, I put out a call on social media asking my male readers who and what is actually influencing their purchases. I got a few dozen responses, and the majority of them were frustrated with the current state of menswear (as a product category and as subculture). Below are some of the things I read from them (I gave most of them made up titles to protect their anonymity) but I invite you to continue the conversation in the comment section. Maybe some of you will get together and start the next GQ.
Get off your feed and get onto the streets.
The line to get through JFK security this morning was only 20 minutes, and although it was 5am, I spent it deeply engaged in a DM conversation with
. He sent me a theory about the next Vanity Fair editor, I told him some of my predictions, and one thing led to another and he told me his hot takes on the state of menswear: men are spending too much money and time building a algorithm-influenced closets, and merch can play a part in building a personal uniform.from : “There is a misunderstanding that men don't dress for men, but they do. Masculinity is as much of a cult as the next thing, and men, intentionally or not, signal their worldview through what they wear. As tacky as a Patagonia vest is, it tells me a lot about the guy who is wearing it and the streets he finds himself on. I can probably tell you where he eats and the cocktail he orders if he pairs it with a boat shoe.
Streetwear, a categorization that Noah founder Brendon Babenzien defensively eschewed in conversation with Recho Omondi on her Cutting Room Floor podcast earlier this year, is not a reductive term. To think of it as such might signal something else. In 2025, the menswear brands I gravitate to are the ones who distinctly create clothes for the streets their men find themselves on and build a design language around it.
I don't think it's a surprise that the best dressers of men are women: Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner, and Emily Bode. Their garments fuse the cultural context of where their consumers will be wearing their clothes with historical inspirations. This past weekend, at the Wales Bonner Togetherness concert at the Guggenheim, the men, affixed in tailored tracksuits, bloated trousers, and beaded tanks, stole the show. I wore Wales Bonner Shadow Denim trousers and paired them with a vintage Adidas button-up for some German soccer team. If you are a man in need of style inspiration, get off your feed and get onto ‘the streets.’ Personal style is an offshoot of personal taste, and by going to places of curation – be it a museum or a concert series in the park, or a farmers market – you’re likely to find styling that suits your individual sensibilities.
I personally believe that Eckhaus Latta is making the most interesting choices in denim right now. Their jeans are wearable yet structured and always have a discernible print that lets the world know, including other men, that what I’m wearing was a choice. I have both their Bend and Baggy jeans. I also love buying second-hand from a selection of trusted sellers. There are a few sellers at these ‘racks,’ as I call them, in Brooklyn, just outside of my farmers market by a long basketball court fence, who keep a rotating selection of vintage shirts and button-ups that feels refreshing and effortless. Most of the stuff I grab there isn’t a brand name. If it fits weird, just take it to a tailor and you’re set. Or sometimes, the weird is the point. Finally, going back to my streetwear thing, I am a fan of merch when done correctly. As alluded to, fashion is worn in the streets, and I love signalling where I’ve been from the tees I’ve collected — a t-shirt from a now defunct wine and crystals shop in Joshua Tree, a Blood Orange concert tee with the set list on the back, a worn-out shirt with a wildcat on it my high school gym class. These choices become a part of a personal uniform, a style language that speaks directly to whoever I come across, but mostly to other men.”
Instagram ads are working.
Multiple men who emailed me admitted that Instagram ads are influential in how they shop and style themselves. J.Crew’s ad styling came up a few times, both from people who copy it and people who say they have tried to but failed because they don’t look like the models.
The Bookmarker: “It’s not influencers, it’s ads. I rarely buy stuff from ads because I’m super picky about fit and have had too many bad experiences with online purchases being slightly off from what I expect. But I definitely see stuff, even bookmark it, then seek out stuff like that IRL.”
The Marketing Department’s Teacher’s Pet: “I’m a sucker for overt marketing. When I find a store that sells things I like, I willfully sign up for marketing emails and sometimes copy their fits directly. I also do the same for brands. Notable examples include Rivet & Hide, Clutch Cafe, Redcast Heritage, Son of a Stag”
The 25-year-old living in Boston who called his city’s style pretty horrendous for both genders: “Main ones are Blackbird Spyplane, swaggy old people I see on the subway, pictures of old directors from the Instagram page directorfits and J. Crew Instagram ads.”
Podcast hosts and writers are highly influential.
, How Long Gone, and came up often, but not shopping links. More for context, critique, and news about different corners of menswear. Podcasts and newsletters are used as tools to think about fashion more than places to shop directly from.Specific Substack mentions:
“ seems like a sweet enough guy but I think his shit is deeply boring and uninspired. seems to be doing some good shit with but I haven't been influenced to buy anything from there. Everybody's dressing ‘well’ in New York these days but all the ‘good’ dressers look the same to me.”
“ def makes $$$ off of my boyfriend through his Substack. He also loves Chris Black.”
“Seeing people do something IRL will be what actually causes me to pull the trigger myself. from is simply not powerful enough on his own.”
“I'd say when I can afford the things they say they like. The team, too.”
“There is not enough good writing about men’s fashion. I read GQ but don’t love all of it. I’m a big fan of and on Substack. is good but everything they talk about is too expensive.”
“I work in a fairly conservative business that likes office casual. I’m influenced by , minus the hat.”
“I like keeping up with things from the guys, it's not really my style but I like hearing about what's coming out.”
Chris Black (who is not on Substack) also came up repeatedly:
“Chris Black sometimes, I like his monthly-ish Strategist roundups.”
“I listen to How Long Gone and try to make sure I do the opposite of whatever Chris Black says is cool, and only about 1 out of every 10 suggestions from DJ Them Jeans.”
“That Chris Black elevated prep look.”
Some men are jealous of womenswear.
Several men said they borrow color palettes, silhouettes, and styling methods from womenswear. Some mentioned specific writers (Rachel Tashjian, Lizzy Hadfield, Avery Trufelman), and one person who identifies as a male diva said, “I look to other younger men and lesbians on the street for style cues.”
The Soho resident who gets influenced by the people in his neighborhood: “Often times I think womenswear is more inspiring — they’ve had flowing silhouettes, dainty shoes, slouchy outwear, great layering for a long time now — and I found myself wanting to replicate those looks for myself, influencing purchases for things that I felt are missing and fit within my personal style.”
Menswear influencers who are not celebrities.
A common theme with ordering clothes online or from “as seen on” shopping roundups is that most people ordering the clothes don’t look like the model or celebrity wearing the clothing. It was refreshing to see a younger respondent point out that it’s hard to dress like Devin Booker when you don’t have his body (or wallet).
The youngest respondent to reply to this survey: “I don't know if I would call myself a ‘man’ yet—I'm 22 and about to graduate from college—but I’ve been shifting my wardrobe from streetwear to something more business casual as I prepare for the corporate world. Some of my favorites are Frugal Aesthetic/Christian Villanueva, Andrew Sirna, Wesley Breed, and Popeye Magazine.
I gravitate toward influencers around my age and size. Sometimes I look at celebrities and athletes for inspiration (Devin Booker, SGA, Anthony Bourdain, and ASAP Rocky) but then I think, Are these guys considered fashionable or are they just insanely attractive and look good in damn near anything?”
Trust fund kids who have never seen a trail are wearing hiking boots.
The Hater: “I wanted to take a moment and let you know that not a single influencer has an iota of impact on anything I wear. Men's fashion, as it currently exists in the ever-changing shit soup of social media, is almost entirely heinous. I try not to let it bother me because it's wildly superficial, but in some ways, despite my best efforts, I am a hater. I cut my teeth in the harsh universe of teenage skateboarding, where to be called a ‘poser’ was reason enough to hop off your board and use it as a weapon against the offending party.
Blame my conditioning sister, blame the lack of nurture, but I have hate in my heart. And everywhere I look among these social media fucks, I see posers. I see people rocking high-tech running sneakers who don't jog a step. I see Brooklyn trust funders wearing $40 hiking boots that have never seen a trail. I see grunged out social-media marketers rocking motorcycle jackets on CitiBikes. Fuck heads in distressed Carhartt jackets who have never done a minute of manual labor in their life.
These people are mining subcultures that have intrinsic character and robbing those subcultures of their aesthetic while abandoning the elements that actually make the subculture cool—the activity around which the clothing was born, the utility that birthed its existence.
Fashion influencers do nothing but ruin everything. Thrifting is now impossible because these clowns will blow through a Salvation Army and buy anything remotely cool, only to resell it for ten times the price at the vintage shop their dad finances.
I don't need some rich kid filming himself in the middle of a crowded LES sidewalk to tell me how to dress, and in fact, I can't think of anything less cool than letting such a person inform anything about my views.”
Derek Guy’s reign continues.
Derek Guy’s Twitter, @dieworkwear, was repeatedly mentioned as a consistent, trustworthy voice in menswear. I like Derek because his Tweets go further than just saying an outfit goes hard, or roasting a new collection from a brand. He often goes deeper to explain why our clothes look like they do, and why the industry operates the way that it does.
It’s probably also worth noting that Derek is actually an academic, and some of his work focuses on the history and political economy of the types of tailoring businesses and manual trades that he’s most interested in. When people can talk about these aspects of the industry, even a little, instead of just using terms like “quiet luxury,” they sound smarter. Quote Derek directly, I don’t care.
The former Tumblr guy: “I hate to say it but as a former menswear Tumblr guy, Derek Guy is someone I've always appreciated for his insight. I think I've gotten to a point where I stick to the same classics I wore growing up/in college (Sid Mashburn opened his store my freshman year of college and it felt like a pilgrimage visiting when I was in Atlanta) and love finding Japanese magazines that talk about Ivy/Americana classics. Sometimes in an issue of Apartmento I find a guy I'd never heard of and see he has an interesting style and will be influenced by that.”
The more diverse your media sources and varied your friends are, the better.
The man who consumes a balanced diet: “A fan of your content, thanks for the consumptive material. I consume a fair amount of fashion media, mostly through podcasts, Twitter, magazines.
Outside of specific podcasts, I try to listen to episodes of podcasts where they speak to my fashion icons, namely Tom Ford, Dries Van Noten, Allesandro Sartori, and Raf Simons. These are more of my high brow fashion idols.
For Twitter, I love RF Kenmore, David Lane Design, Outlander Magazine, and Urban Composition.
Magazines, I enjoy GQ but it's more of a mindless read than a thoughtful consideration of their recommendations. I love flipping through lookbooks of my favorite brands: Norse Projects, Sunflower, A Kind Of Guise, Jil Sander, Drakes, Anglo Italian, Dries, Zegna, Raf, Outlier, Engineered Garments, Ring Jacket, The Armoury.
I use Grailed, Ebay and The Real Real, and just seeing the sort of listing available gives me some inspiration and influence what I purchase as well.
From the highest level I have a sort of top down view of my own influencers starting with the avant garde fashion designers and influencers and work that all the way through to mainstream material like GQ or a J. Crew catalogue. Throughout that process I'm looping in all the other media sources, my own personal tastes, what's available secondhand and what's out in the newest season.
Forgot to mention I've got a group of friends all with different styles (streetwear, trad, punk, high fashion etc) and I chat with them a fair amount about what they're wearing, reading, how x garment should fit, who is making the best stuff.”
Miscellaneous sources of inspiration.
The man who follows his idols: “I would say those that I follow and admire - from rappers (A$AP Rocky, Lil Yachty, Action Bronson, Ye, Drake) and singers (Post Malone, John Mayers) to actors (Brad Pitt), artists (Matt McCormick) and athletes (Odell Beckham, Lebron, Shail Gilgeous) - influence what is currently in trend or what is about to be in trend, which then drives me to dress or shop a certain way. An aesthetic foundation is thus formulated in my head.”
The man who sees beauty in Nathan Fielder’s practical fashion: “90s skate and music videos, guys I see at LA State Historic Park (Chinatown), Altadena dads, Steven Yeun, Nathan Fielder, 2010s NYC indie guys (not indie sleeze - indie elegance).”
The man who is sick of your martini order: “I avoid celebrity influencers, particularly anything connected to James Bond. The last thing I want is to look like I’m in cosplay?”
The Francophile: “I've worked in menswear on the retail/marketing side and now write about it for a living so I'm a little more tapped in, but as I've gotten older I've really learned to be able to appreciate clothes and not need to own them. I can appreciate things and still know it's not for me and that's fine. Growth! This all said, there are a few guys on IG that spark ideas, but the real mind-expander for me was discovering the French menswear magazine L'etiquette 4 or 5 years ago. It’s super French — obviously — but also way more interesting than the usual ALD lookbook cosplay clogging up your feed. They use models but also have a focus on showing real men of all shapes, sizes, and styles, which is refreshing. (I suppose it's a parallel to how brands are using more real people in their lookbooks and campaigns these days.) They often mix iconic or rare vintage with high-end luxury in a way that actually feels lived-in. Think French workwear and/or American vintage paired with expensive shoes and tailoring from Hermes. The result is you end up looking at stuff and thinking damn, I want to dress like that, but also realizing you can’t just mindlessly Add to Cart. You actually have to dig, think about what you like, and (sometimes) spend real money.”
New York Magazine’s latest cover story is about West Village girls. The word “spritz” is mentioned seven times.
Met Gala weekend is good for New York businesses:
Kendall Jenner went to Caffe Panna
Addison Rae went to Brooklyn’s High Valley Books.
And someone texted the Feed Me tip line that Barack Obama ate at ZZ’s, Carbone’s members’ club in New York, on Friday.
This WSJ story about how to know when you’re in a rich person’s house was an excellent ecom exercise.
I can’t stop looking at the new rhode logo. Good job, Chandelier.
I bumped into one of my SoHo real estate sources on the street yesterday. Small town! He told me that Parcelle’s Greenwich Village location is expanding onto Houston Street so they can have more space, Dante is opening another West Village location on Bank and West 4th, and Stephen Starr is formally taking over Babbo and Lupe (this was announced in January but all appears to be moving forward).
I’m playing it cool with one of my anonymous Hamptons plugs. Every tip they’ve sent me so far has come to fruition, and I want to ask who they are, but I’ll wait it out. This week, they told me that the new location of Mary Lou’s in Montauk will have a $4k annual membership fee (I’ve seen the deck), and that Sag Harbor is getting its own location of Doubles, Madewell (random), and New York Pilates.
I don’t know why but I find it so endearing that ads work on boys 😭
Derek Guy absolutely destroyed a bunch of my brother’s teammates on twitter for their pregame suits and apparently the whole locker room went to a tailor afterwards. Hilarious.