The kind of style I love and connect most readily with is the style of everyday wear. I know a lot of guys would not define the way I dress as being everyday wear. I know this is the perception among many guys in 2021. In reality though, it is everyday wear. It isn't formal wear, it isn't black tie. It is everyday, workday clothing for a man.
I never connect with the clothes-as-a-museum-piece idea-approach. I respect museum curators. I think museums are important and I like that people keep museum pieces in pristine condition but I don't want to live in a museum. I never connect with the sort of approach to dressing yourself which feels a bit museum like and almost performative. It isn't natural. I think for most guys who end up in this place, they know it doesn't feel natural either. This sometimes also can happen when your clothes are too expensive. If your clothes are too expensive for your budget then you will be so hyper-obsessed and worried about ever damaging them that you will live your life like a doll still wrapped in plastic. That is no way to live.
This is part of the reason why vintage is such a good way to go. If something happens to it, you aren't out some massive amount of money. If you want to live an active life, an actual life, vintage is a great way to go. Of course, some vintage pieces are very unique and you may hate to have something happen to it. This can also lead to extreme over-protection. It is a balance. You have to find the right balance.
I am not suggesting to go buy cheap garbage. No. I am saying that you want to live your life in your clothes. When you see old films and photographs and you see men dressed well and you think to yourself - "Man they look so cool. Why do they look cooler than guys today?" it is because they are living naturally. They aren't doing a performance and they aren't stilted, they aren't afraid to death of damaging something they own because they don't think about it too much and it didn't cost too much. They were also simply more comfortable wearing the clothes as more of their life was spent wearing them. Most men are not sartorial geniuses. This is true today, and it was true in 1958. Simply, many decades ago the whole society just tracked you into the generally right place in terms of what to wear so you looked generally decent without really thinking. These days often you will have the guy who cares about his clothes, knows a lot about his clothes, spends a ton of money on his clothes and it all comes together to form an attitude that feels very stilted and unnatural. It's a product of overthinking.
I am not cutting on this guy. We all are this guy at one point in time. We all go through this. In a way you have to go through this point, you can't get to the point of comfortability and naturalness while dressing with dignity without going through a period of this. You just have to work through it, and wait it out a bit and eventually get past it and then arrive at the place of natural being. You have to get past the overthinking and to the just being. Of course you will always think about what you put together, you think about what you wear, but you are not overthinking. Your thought and over-protection is not always there, dripping off you. In a very real way you want to appear as though you don't care. It's hard to explain because you obviously do care, but you don't want it to appear as if you do. You want to arrive at the place of naturalness. I can always tell a guy who has this natural feeling. It is hard to get when you are young, but some can. You can always tell the guys who are living naturally rather than always overthinking themselves and conceiving and living as if they are a somewhat less put-together mannequin.
You want to look good. You want to dress well. You want dress with dignity and appear as a man, an adult man. You want to live naturally, you want to appear as if you are natural, true and comfortable in what you wear. You don't want to be a doll or a dusty museum mannequin. You don't want to be stilted. You want to live and be in your clothes carefree and natural, a man with self respect, dignity and a sense-spirit of life, living, being and doing.