We recently received this email from a reader:
My husband will begin graduate school for physics in the fall. Do you have any suggestions for appropriate graduate school attire for males in science fields? Alternatively, could you recommend any blogs covering sensible male fashion?
Good news! Harvard, of all places, just launched a new men’s clothing line!
Just kidding. Actually, her question left us a bit stumped, since we do not follow any male style blogs. Do you, our readers, have any good suggestions?
There is, in fact, a dearth of relevant responses upon googling search terms such as “male academic style blog,” and this absence prompted some renewed reflection between the three of us on the different expectations and judgments men and women in academia face regarding self-presentation, particularly through clothing. While most academics, regardless of gender, may feel, as feminist literary critic Elaine Showalter once described, that “bodies are just carts for hauling around brains,” we would argue that female academics are charged with performing a unique balancing act of mind, matter, and a great colored shoe. The sharp ladies over at threadbared recently had an insightful post on academia’s fraught relationship with fashion that is definitely worth reading for anyone interested in such questions. We welcome your thoughts on the matter as well!
I’ve only recently come across your blog, but I absolutely love it. :)
I work at the department of computer science at a German university, which is a true fashion free zone. We used to joke that being too stylish as a computer scientist would ruin one’s street credibility when meeting up with external partners. ;)
Anyways, I think it would be great if some of the guys cared a little more about themselves and if it wouldn’t be such a big deal to be female, into fashion AND into science. Over here, bodys are indeed used for carrying around brains, and spending time on outfits is often regarded as a waste of brain activity. ;)
I actually do have a suggestion. Omiru has both men and women fashion suggestions but they look comfortable enough for a young professional, but also neat and clean and relatively fashion-forward. Well, as fashion forward as can be without runway-ing it. Somehow I don’t think the average guy wants to walk down the street in jean tube tops a la Jean Paul Gautier. http://www.omiru.com (I believe). Not hipster-y either.
Now that I reread my comment, I do apologize for mutilating the English language several times.
He could try looking through some of the Satorialist looks and adapting them for real life or at least using them for inspiration.
This is related to another fraught style issue, in academia and out: the style, politics, and personal wishes related to engagement rings. On the one hand, this is something I personally should be all over: I love jewelry, and I love significant jewelry even more, and what better statement to make than that you’re committed to someone and announcing that fact with pride to your community? But on the other, so much of the marketing for engagement rings depicts them as a status symbol for women that says “somebody bought me, and I was *expensive*;” men don’t wear them, showing that it’s important to signify that a woman is taken but doesn’t matter for a man, and, in academia, an engagement or wedding ring can be interpreted on the job market as marking you as someone who will be less productive because she might, horror of horrors, have a personal life and want to start a family (yes, I do!). It obviously shouldn’t be this way, but I think the fact that every woman I know in my department has debated this issue and several men I talked to said it hadn’t even occurred to them makes this very much a gendered question as well. This is also kind of a moot point for me right now, since my girlfriend and I can’t get married in most of the US, but when we can, I have a feeling I will want to declare that right, sartorially, too! I know that this is a pretty personal topic, but I’d love to hear what any of the three of you or the commentors on this blog have to say about it–it’s something that I’ve thought a/b a lot.
Seconding Omiru! Really great site.
I also recommend Omiru. There’s also cardiganempire.com. It’s NOT devoted just to men, but if you scroll down to her tag list on the right you will see 11 posts on mens fashion. She discusses the different male body shapes and how to best dress them.
i’m in grad school for physics and the men in my department mostly wear tshirts and jeans or khakis with some polos and button ups thrown in. i think physics is a relaxed field, but the physics professors don’t get really dressed up either. i think the department website would be a good place to start and see what the professors are wearing in their official photos and look for any group shots to get a feel for the department.
http://www.ivy-style.com/ would be my advice.
Honestly, I think the best idea is to become friends with a salesperson at a local men’s store. They are harder to find than they used to be, sadly, but my PhD-seeking husband finally succumbed to going to the great, really old and established, men’s store in our town that he thought would be way too fancy, and found his own personal style consultant (he calls him “Will,” from Will and Grace). A couple of times a year, “Will” calls my husband about great deals on stuff he knows will look good on his hard-to-fit frame, and keeps him looking really stylish on the cheap, all while helping him find clothes that fit his criteria: not too expensive, made in the USA or non-sweatshop (I know!), fit well, and make him look stylish but not metrosexual (he’s a real man’s man kind of guy) and are above all, comfortable.
He gets great jeans, sweaters, shirts, and shoes, all for great prices and they fit him impeccably and suit him well. And my husband is NOT a fashion guy–he just lets someone else who knows what he’s doing help him along. “Will” also knows what is in his wardrobe and can put outfits together with him, totally fine that we can only afford the deep clearance items.
I so wish that there were still stores where I would have a salesperson devoted to helping me look good, stay within my budget, and identify the pieces that will age well, not to mention tailor pieces just for me. No fair.
What I think would be great would be for you folks to recruit a few more posters to add to the diversity of the site. For example, one or two men, a plus-size woman (or at least size 12 or 14), a more mature woman… It would help a lot of us out who look very different from the three of you.
Omiru is one of the best you can get.I would have preferred this one.
I know this is kinda behind the times, but my dude is working on his PhD in physics at CU-Boulder and wears sturdy work shoes/low boots (important for foot safety in the lab and machine shop), which can be found cheaply at DSW, slouchy jeans (I talked him down from the old, faded, relaxed fit, tapered ones when we first met), and polo shirts. Most of the guys in his lab dress similarly, or wear concert tour shirts and jeans that look like they got pulled from the bottom of the hamper.
The reason my guy doesn’t sport the dressed out of the hamper look (other than my interventions): his freakishly long torso doesn’t fit in concert tees! Almost all of his shirts are tall sized and ordered from sale catalogs (LL Bean, Lands End, Eddie Bauer, etc.). Those sale catalogs are a godsend to men’s wear. He HATES to shop.
If this woman’s husband is going into the physical sciences, I advise her not to spend too much on his clothes. They’ll come home stained, ripped, and otherwise destroyed about once a month and it’s much less distressing to know you’ve bought said rag on sale rather than paid good money for it.
[...] frequently receive emails and comments asking us to recommend style sites for men. Well, we decided what better way to showcase male academichicism then to ask one of our favorite [...]
[...] our post on male academic style reader H. left a thought provoking comment about the gendered concerns of wearing an engagement [...]
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