Every man who wants to pride himself in being a gentleman must know what I would call “the basic rules of elegance”. They are unwritten, ancient rules, taught in family, through books or by simply spending time with other elegant gentlemen. These, with some opportune changes, can be applied also nowadays. First of all, we need to specify that “elegance” is an attitude, that can be expressed also with clothes, but it is made up of many aspects such as the demeanour, the way of moving, speaking, writing and so on. It is a sort of modus vivendi, that needs to characterize the daily deeds of the aspiring gentleman. Rather than claiming to be complete, we will try bi-weekly to share on this virtual space tips and rules of well dressing, overheard somewhere, written down on the notepad and jealously guarded. Eugenio Marinella used to say: “Never a white shirt during the day and never a light blue shirt at night”. Back then it was 1914, but rules like this one, with some updates, can still be applicable for the contemporary gentleman. As for the shoes, for instance, frequently some men choose the brown colour for a smart happening at night, rather that preferring the black. Whatch out, we could report tens of rules like this one, later discovering that they are contrasting. They are a lot, too many, and if we should follow them all, perhaps we would not leave home anymore. As said above, it is about an unwritten code and the lack (luckily, editor’s note) of a certified interpretation in this industry, has fostered the bloom of mutually conflicting schools of thought. According to some, in fact, the black tie is absolutely banned both at formal and informal happenings, being allowed only at funerals. On the other hand, some believe that for formal events it is more advisable to wear a solid tie, rather than a patterned one, no matter the colour. Another “don’t” of the male dress code regards, finally, the unmatched suit: never wear trousers that are darker than the jacket and never wear white trousers at night. On this matter we could write a treaty, and someone has already done it, but as for now we will just introduce another concept, the so-called “style”. Well, perhaps “style” means knowing all these rules and revolutionize them. But with taste. Fabio Attanasio – Author of the blog thebespokedudes.com
The unwritten code of elegance
