Geek Chic at Magfest Pt. 3 - See My Vest

Welcome back. The hit list indicates people keep reading these articles, but not a single person comments. What gives? It's getting a little creepy.

Anyway, time for a personal passion of mine: Vests!

Justin Mishima and hat!

5. Justin Mishima

Justin here is another great example of the power of color coordination. Justin’s Panda hat is, well, cute. The rest of his outfit is not. The rest of his outfit is highly fashionable and somewhat dressy. 

So how does he make dressy and informal work together? For one, color coordination. The two-tone look carried throughout the entire outfit pulls it together visually. 

Every piece looks intentional and belongs. Second, he’s got a transition from formal to informal going. See how his sleeves are rolled up, his collar undone? The hat would seem more absurd, more out of place if his collar were buttoned up, if he were wearing a tie and his sleeves were unrolled. 

But by wearing his shirt in a more casual manner, the hat goes from absurd to a casual “I don’t care what anyone thinks” cool.

Chris' awesome Gentleman's
Emporium vest.

6. Chris Frederickson

Poor Chris here is the victim of my negligence. For several of the images in this story, I forgot that I had disabled the auto-focus on my camera. Chris is the first of several well dressed but sadly blurry people.

I was hesitant to approach Chris. I was worried he was in some costume I didn’t recognize. Turns out I was both right and wrong. The vest he is wearing he purchased for a Steampunk costume he wore on Friday of MAGFest. However he was such a fan of it he incorporated it into his everyday wear. 

What is truly fantastic about this vest, and is tragically obscured by my camera’s lack of focus, is that this vest has lapels. Most vests this days don’t have lapels. It’s a vintage look, though it is making its way back into fashion in high-end three-piece suits. 

The beauty of the lapel in the vest is that it replicates the effect of suit jacket even when you aren’t wearing one. It’s also a great look for men because the lapels broaden the v-shape of the vest and thereby broaden your chest and shoulders. The effect is to enhance the ideal male features, to make you look more masculine.

Chris got this vest at Gentleman's Emporium, a great site for men or women looking to put together a vintage Victorian era look. Visit the site, look around. If you don't bookmark it within five minutes, there is something wrong with you.

To put it another way, think of Superman as illustrated by Alex Ross, with his enormous S-symbol, and Superman in the Superman Returns movie with the diminutive S on his chest. Brandon Routh was ripped for that movie, but his Superman looked small and weak, because the Small S shrunk his chest. Alex Ross’s Superman looks like he has been mainlining horse steroids because the broad S broadens the chest and makes him look more powerful. Also because largely because Alex Ross paints his veins as enormous, engorged vines. It's disturbing.

Darrin and his fantastic
pink shirt.

7. Darrin
By now it’s probably become painfully clear that I like vests. I like them a lot. But it wasn’t Darrin’s vest that stopped me. It was the whole ensemble. Darrin here is a rarity at a geek con. He looks like he stepped out of a men’s magazine ad. 

He’s rocking a hi-end hipster aesthetic. Sort of the GQ/Esquire corruption of the hipster movement. And really, what movement is more deserving of corporate corruption?

Pink is a great color on men, but while it has been a staple of men’s fashion magazines for a decade now, it still is having a hard time making the jump to mainstream culture. I suppose men are too afraid it makes them look effeminate, which really works out well for those of us who have the balls to wear pink. 


It looks great, the ladies love it, and it’s rarity makes it a symbol of confidence. So keep on being afraid of pink, gentlemen. Darrin and I will keep on wearing it and laughing all the way to the lady bank. (No, there is no such thing as a lady bank.)

If you can’t see them, Darrin’s shoes are a bright green which goes great with his pink shirt, but since we are nominally discussing vests, let’s talk about the vest. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the vest is a glen check pattern. Glen check, or Glen Plaid as it is sometimes called, is one of my favorite patterns in wool. Essentially, it is small check boxes within larger check boxes. The larger check boxes are usually done in a more subtle color and it creates a very striking and sophisticated look.


Now take a look at his buttons.There is a lot of confusion about buttons on vests. What I’m about to say also applies to suit jackets as well, so even if you never wear a vest, listen up. King Edward VII of England was, to put it kindly, extremely rotund. Being so heavy, he was unable to button the bottom button of his vest. Being the King, he was by default always in fashion. 


Not surprisingly soon all of his subjects began leaving their bottom button unbuttoned. Suit and vest makers took their cue and began designing the bottom button on vests and jackets to be decorative, and not to be buttoned. This is why you never, ever, button the bottom button on your suit jacket. The same rule does not apply to vests, however.

King Edward VII
(public domain image via Wikimedia)

Vests historically had six buttons, and the sixth button, in deference to King Edward, was always left unbuttoned. If you have a six-button vest you will notice the sixth button and buttonhole are spaced more widely than the other buttons, so that it can more easily be seen that they are not buttoned. Many modern vests only have five buttons. The fifth button does not have the wide spacing of a sixth button, and so in five-button vests the intention is that all five buttons be buttoned.

These button rules do not necessarily apply to women’s fashion. When it comes to button’s and women’s fashion, it is a no man’s lands of pure anarchy and I cannot be your fashion sherpa. Sorry.

I asked Darrin about why he was dressed as nicely as he was. He said he’d actually dressed down since the morning when he was in a suit. He says that MAGFest is a big event for him and his company, and so it is important to him to put his best face forward and to make a good first impression. 


When comparing himself to the MAGFest attendees wandering the con shoeless and in pajama pants Darrin said that being fashion forward means “I can stand out against all that. People will be a little more willing to come up to me and I will be a little more memorable.” Well said, Darrin.

In case you were wondering, Darrin does marketing consulting for X-Strike Studios.

Next we will be focusing on personal style and getting away from the more mainstream looks we have featured so far. We'll be highlighting punk and goth looks. Be sure to come back and check it out!