Boots, Calvin Klein 205W39NYC, s/s 2018.

An unusual black and white for a designer that made the color (and colored stripes, even only for details) his distinguishing feature; a b/w that represents that line called, in the early Nineties, “Suit”: formal, tailored, but with that touch of extravagance emphasized by the pose and the point of view.

Degrees of separation. Rod Stewart’s shoes in this picture of 1965 with Long John Baldry (singer and guitarist of The British Blues) correspond with the short white socks of Marlon Brando in a portrait that has made history, with him crouched on a chair at Actors Studio. Yes, because if the “error” (or “horror”) comes from a remote past, and besides made by a celebrity, is cool; if it’s made by you, you are a chav. But fashion designers try to surprise us in many ways, with eccentric ideas on the borderline of good taste, so why does a guy today deserve to be called a person of bad taste? White socks are in fashion, for example. We must ask ourselves which is (and if there is) a degree of separation from good and bad. There are different kinds of fashion: conventional doesn’t admit mistakes, while fashion created on purpose, following our personality without worries and obligations, does. The history of Miuccia Prada menswear collections teaches us that oversights and imperfections are (or can be) a sign of personality that makes the difference. My advice: follow your instinct and, if you’re sure you can dare, do it. And if you dare, do it completely.

The beginning of the new millennium: it was an era of experimentation and fusion, even in menswear, that is subjected to the establishing of new codes. Look Vivienne Westwood Man photographed by Jason McGlade.