Sartorial Sunday #2

This week's Sartorial Sunday post is all about my love for Modern Amusement clothing. Specifically, all the awesome little details they put into their garments. I can't quite remember where or when I discovered Modern Amusement - probably at some overpriced boutique in the Castro - but I loved their clothes right away. I did not, however, love their price tags. Don't get me wrong, they create some quality garments and I don't think their prices are uber-outlandish. They're just not all that feasible for my usual budget. The first piece of Modern Amusement clothing I owned was this awesome blue jacket that my then-boyfriend bought for me. It's a soft corduroy and has a very simple, almost Mod look to it with all sorts of cute details featuring their ubiquitous bird logo:







I loved and still love the jacket as an entire garment, but all the little details are what won my heart. From this moment on I was pretty hooked on the M.A. clothing but, again, budget issues prevented me from gorging myself on all of their clothes with abandon. Thankfully, we live in a world full of bargain shops and used clothing stores! I have seen a ton of Modern Amusement stuff at affordable prices either new at places like Nordstrom Rack, Burlington Coat Factory (yes you read that right) or used at other shops like Crossroads, Buffalo Exchange and online at eBay. I personally love buying used clothing from these kinds of places because it's almost always in good shape and it's a nice way to shop without always triggering a demand for new goods. And I've totally scored some really good finds at these places. Whether it was a stripey polo shirt with a cool hook-and-eylet closure instead of normal buttons:



A brown polo shirt with wood finish buttons and metallic silver thread for piping on the sleeves and collar:




Or a black and white plaid dress shirt with French cuffs and little knotted cord cufflinks:



The cool thing about their clothes is that, aside from some of their tees and real casual stuff, they're not super trendy. You can buy something used or "last season" at a bargain store and not have it be so Horrible Trend of the Moment that you look really dated and pathetic for still wearing it. You know, kind of like the queens we all see still sporting those diagonal stripe dress shirts that haven't been in since 2003 and yet you can still buy them somewhere horrible and tacky *cough* "Injeanious" in the Castro *cough*. Anyways, I totes appreciate the folks at Modern Amusement for making some classic pieces with a little extra kick to keep them from getting boring and generic. About a year or so ago I decided I needed a bit of a makeover because I was stuck in this jeans, tees and hoodies rut that made me look like I was trying to pass for 25 all the time. M.A. are one of those clothing companies that makes shit that allows me to show some more style without looking stuffy and conservative. So, hearts to them! And if anyone who works there sees this post and wants to thank me with a gift of free clothing, please don't hesitate to contact me. Hey, a boy can dream!

Okay, so, on to Sartorial Sunday's fashion dislike for this week. I thought about picking another hipster item like last time but I reconsidered as there has been something that is sticking in my craw a lot lately: ill-fitting men's jeans. I swear that I see more dudes walking around in some frumpy, dumpy jeans that totally make them look like they have Poopy Diaper Butt. This is not good! It is, in fact, very, very bad. Possibly the devil's work. One of the main culprits in this case is Levi's 501 jeans:



Ack! NARY! I feel like they tried to really spruce these up on the Levi's Store site and make them look all cool and stuff but let's be honest, they look like ass! And I am not trying to say jeans need to be all skintight but why do they need to be so saggy and frumped-out that you can fit another pair of pants under them?! At least they aren't in a shittacular, super-light wash that automatically makes all men look like they live in the suburbs and own a riding lawn mower. But! Then! We have the even more hateful RELAXED FIT JEAN:



Dude ain't even fronting about these jeans staying on by themselves. They're a baggy, shapeless mess and he's letting us all know this by holding on to the waistband for dear life in the vain attempt to give himself some semblance of an ass. But lest you think I am 100% hating on Levi's, I say nary! All the jeans I currently own are from Levi's. They have a few styles I currently dig which are totally flattering and allow one to possess an ass and not look either too painfully trendy or too painfully dated: Slim Boot 507 (get the darkest wash - you can see it in the pop-up window for different views of the jean - it's sexier and the "slim" refers mainly to the upper leg not being so balloon-y that you look like you're wearing denim M.C. Hammer pants), Slim Straight 514 (I gave a couple pairs of 514s that are too big for me to my roommate and they're 100x more flattering than his other jeans and he wore them tonight and, not coincidentally, may have gotten laid for the first time in months) and "Skinny" 511 (I say "Skinny" because they're far less hideous and exaggerated than most skinny jeans - which I loathe - and just look more fitted than anything. I like the dark wash they seem to only carry in stores).

See? It's totally possible to own some cute jeans and not have to spend a squillion dollars on some super-trendy, overly-adorned back pocket-having, crappo jeans that will fall apart in three washes and become uber dated 5 minutes after you put them on. Tune in next week when I will talk about some more clothing-related things I love and probably go back to hating on hipsters because, let's be honest, they're a never ending wellspring of awful clothing choices. Valencia Street in the Mission is starting to look like they're holding a casting audition for an all-white version of A Different World and everyone, guys and gals, want to play the Lisa Bonet role. Tragedy!