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!

Geek Chic at Magfest Pt. 2 - Purses/Bags

Welcome back to week 2 of the 5 week Magfest fashion break down. This will be briefest entry in the series.

I realize this week is called "Purses/Bags," and last week was "Hats," but I assure you that purses and bags are not all I intend to discuss. The week by week topics are just convenient ways for me to group the interview subjects. But I discuss much more than the topic of the week with each person. So, let's get down to business with a subject I know almost nothing about...

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3. Pixel Jane

I actually know Pixel Jane personally. She works for Studio Nasu, which you should check out even if you only have a passing interest in video games and comics. I have heard rumblings that she may start writing for DC Geeks soon, doing her own regular fashion piece. If you are enjoying these segments, I strongly suggest you sound off in the comments section and peer pressure her into writing for us.

Pixel Jane is among the most fashion forward geeks you will ever meet. Much like Ashley from last week, she seamlessly weaves her geek identity with more mainstream fashion. But unlike Ashley's look, Pixel Jane goes for a much more understated look. She is a mother of two, so she tries to keep her look PTA appropriate, but she also likes her fashion to say something about her personality.

In this photo she is wearing dark wash blue-jeans with a flared leg, a black shirt, and a white shawl. If you examine the shawl closely, you’ll see it has that the pattern on it is Asian dragons twisting and turning their way across the garment. She and her husband are anime fanatics and video-game enthusiasts. The shawl is a nice nod to that.

Now let's talk about the that bag. Pixel Jane says she grew up in a rock & roll household. She loves punk rock and expresses that interest in her bag. The bag is designed by Iron Fist, and she picked the bag up for $40 at Punk.com. Punk.com carries the whole Iron Fist line including purses, wallets, check books, shoes, belts, etc. The best thing about this bag is that, standing alone, it is overtly Goth, and yet she pulls it off in such a way it almost looks Orange County main stream. It must coordinating colors in her shawl.

Pixel Jane also put me onto a number of other geek and punk themed fashion websites (listed at the end of this article), including Loungefly. Pixel Jane then stopped me mid conversation to direct my attention to….

4: Camille Trejo

Camille, who was up from Richmond, Virginia, is conveniently sporting a bag by Loungefly. Camille told me the bag is normally $55, but that she bought as a Chirstmas present for herself on cyber-Monday and got it 20% off. That’s right. She buys Christmas presents for herself. Feel free to judge her.

The leather jacket, the punk bag, the animal print skirt, it screams Bronx tough girl, but she softens the image with the flower in her hair. Ordinarily it might not work, but it has such a latin flavor, matched in the Dia de Muertes bag that she pulls it off. Often it’s the small touches that really bring an ensemble together.

When I asked Camille why she bothered to put as much thought as she did into an outfit she was just wearing to a con, she told me she dresses like this everyday. She also said “I think self presentation is really important, and as an artist I like to express myself through my appearance.”

According to Camille, Loungefly was a vendor at last year’s Dragon*Con. If you are going to Dragon*Con this year, keep an eye out for them.

Next week, vests!

EDIT - Whoops! Forgot to include those links. Here you go, readers:

http://www.punk.com/

http://www.loungefly.com/

http://www.shopplasticland.com/

http://www.sourpussclothing.com/index.asp

http://www.toofastonline.com/

http://www.folterclothing.com/

http://www.shop-steady.com/

http://www.teemagnet.com/

http://www.thwipster.com/

http://www.pinupgirlclothing.com/

http://shop.kitschnkouture.com/

Geek Chic at Magfest Pt. 1 - Hats

Hello there DC Geek readership. Jeff here. That guy who wrote that non-sequitur of an article, “Why Occupy DC Matters to You.” You probably thought you’d never hear from me again. At least, I thought so.

I have a confession to make. When I wrote that Occupy article it was about something I was really interested in, but I slacked off so much that instead of putting together a well thought out piece, I just slapped something together out of guilt to fulfill a promise to a friend. Perhaps you noticed the typos and lack of structure? My writing, when not properly laid out ahead of time, has been described “like reading jazz.” I apologize. But I honestly thought that would be my one only contribution to DC Geeks. And then they showed me the number of hits my article got in two days, and suddenly I was hooked. I knew I had to make this a (semi) regular thing.

And just how many people did it take to make me feel like I had a fan base that would hang on my every word? What is the exact number of readers it takes to really ramp my ego up to something truly unbearable?

62.

Okay, so I’m easy.

Anyway, being a blogger means I have the freedom to write about anything. I owe nothing to no one. But with that power comes responsibility and so I shall aim for blog posts that are outside the norm. Or if I do blog on something you can find on another geek website, I'll try and find an original spin. Please comment and tell me how I'm doing.

Though I am sure this will not come as a big shock to any of you, the Geek crowd is notorious for being poorly dressed. When it comes to cons, it sometimes seems as if half the attendants don't even bother to bathe. The way most attendees dress, It is a surprise they are allowed to operate automobiles or open checking accounts. It’s shameful. Man landed on the moon in a spaceship with a computer no more powerful than a Commodore 64. That means my smart phone could run a manned mission to Mars and wage global thermonuclear war as background apps while I furiously try and beat my Angry Birds score. Not a year goes by without three comic book movies gracing the silver screen. The entire US economy, such as it is, limps along on blood infusions we give it. NO longer outcasts, Geeks are defining what rest of this country considers cool. It's the age of the geek. It's about time we begin to act and dress like it.

I don’t mean to be critical. The fact of the matter is, I didn’t always dress well either. I spent a substantial portion of my life awkward, shy, rocking a Beatles bowl but and high-water pants. No one is born knowing how to dress themselves. It is a cultural thing and it has to be learned. You would think that a sub-culture dedicated to cos-play and memorizing the tiny bits of minutia in their entertainment could casually extract this valuable knowledge from the air like a whale eating krill, but it just does not work that way. Maybe it is because we are too socially ostracized to ever learn, maybe we disdainfully reject that knowledge as part of a culture that put us down right up until the moment it realized it needed us, I don’t know. But what I do know is that there is no reason any reader of this blog can’t feel great and look great with just a little time, money, and attention.

With that in mind, I decided to do a blog entry on fashion at MAGfest, but I set some rules for myself.

(1) This is a best of; not a worst of. Geeks put up with people putting them down all the time, they don’t need it at their conventions or in their entertainment blogs. So no highlighting bad fashion choices.

(2) No Cosplay or LARP costumes – First, blogs on these are done to death at every convention and frankly, I’m tired of them. Second, this is about personal fashion, not putting on someone else’s fashion. So costumes are out. Which is a real shame because 9 out of 10 well dressed geek gentlemen at MAGfest were in Dr. Who costumes.

(3) For the love of god, try not use this article as a great excuse to meet cute gamer girls (FYI, it totally is).

(4) Names – People should be called whatever they like, so I asked everyone only to give me the name they want to go by in this article.

So, with that in mind, I’m going to go ahead and break one of the rules once and only once. Why? Because I ran into a girl in a bunny outfit and fish nets and I am not made of stone, people!

To the right here is Carrie Wink. Carrie was a vendor at MAGfest where she was selling geek-themed hats she makes herself. Which means she has graduated from amateur cospalyer to artisan. The name of her business is Athena’s Wink.

Now some of you are probably recognizing her as Bunny Samus. And if you do, I hate you. In my day, Reagan was President, we were selling weapons to Iran, and everyone thought Samus was a dude until the very end of Metroid—which was actually hard in those days; we played video games up-hill in the snow both ways—she removed her suit and our minds were blown. A girl? And a bad ass! It was a huge deal! And a one-piece swimsuit?! Scandalous!

Anyway, Carrie would probably be upset if I didn’t mention that her outfit is OC, which apparently is cosplay lingo for original outfit, meaning she made it herself. Yeah. She did that. What have you done recently? Also, it’s vinyl. Stretch vinyl. And, what is this here? Why, it is photo of Carrie and her husband looking freakin’ adorable. Sorry folks. She's taken.

And now, the REAL article!

We’re going to begin with hats. Hats used to be an enormous part of men’s fashion. It was said that a man was never fully dressed unless he was wearing his lid. The fashion didn’t begin to die until John F. Kennedy. JFK was young and sexy and every young person in America wanted to be a Kennedy. And that man had one luxurious head of hair which he refused to let lie obscured beneath a hat. And then they went and elected that man President. To try and grasp what the fashion revolution was like, try and imagine that Barrack Obama gets elected President, and three months later, after establishing that he and Michelle are the height of both cool and elegant, Obama decides his rippling Presidential chest should not be contained by shirts. Shirts would be done for. You’d never wear another shirt.

Curiously, the show Mad Men has brought back every other men’s fashion trope of the period, but hats have yet to make a strong comeback. They have been relegated to a fashion accessory of the somewhat eccentric. But that’s okay. Geeks are basically the embodiment of somewhat eccentric, and we’re bringing hats back, baby.

1.Blaze

For a long time, the only hat that any Geeks ever wore, and a lot of us wore them, was fedoras. And hey, I get it, Indiana Jones wore a Fedora. Fedoras. Are. Cool. But for some reason, Fedoras have fallen out of fashion and been replaced by the Top-Hat. And don’t get me wrong, I love the Top-Hat, but it is the Tuxedo of hats, it makes a bold statement, it should not be worn with some screen print t-shirt and ratty cargo pants! That is not a good look!

Anyway, Blaze here is up from Mississippi, and he may be one of the best dressed people of MAGfest. He was stylin’ in brown boat shoes, khaki slacks, a brown sweater with a single argyle pattern stripe down the left side, and this brown trilby hat. Blaze has a larger frame, but in selecting clothes that fit him in muted earth tones with a conservative style and clean lines, his outward appearance projects a casual cool and confidence that few larger men feel comfortable enough in their skins to project.

The ensemble projected cool, reserved confidence.

Anyway, it was his hat that drew me in first. The difference between a fedora and a trilby is that the trilby has a smaller brim. The hat is historically associated with British aristocracy and British horse racing. The trilby is the fedora of the upper class,

In choosing to wear a hat, Blaze said something about his personality. He identified himself as somewhat eccentric, and probably geek. But in selecting a trilby that matched his ensemble he also identified himself as a man of taste and refinement. And in eschewing the more popular top-hat, he is more trend setter than follower. I don’t know Blaze personally, I don’t want to say he is someone to aspire to be. For all I know, he kills kittens in his basement. But if you lean towards a fashion aesthetic that says relaxed and confident, but you aren’t comfortable with too much flash, trying to adopt Blaze’s style is a great place to start.

If you are looking to get a hat like Blaze’s, he purchased it while at MAGfest from Hats in the Belfry. Blaze reports he paid $80 for that hat, but Hats in the Belfry has their current semi-annual 60% off sale going on right now, and are also offering 25 hats for $25 or less, so now would be a great time to stop in and up-convert your wardrobe.

2. Ashley

Ashley represents the opposite end of the fashionable hat wearing spectrum. Her outfit was designed to garner attention. She wore black knee high boots, faded blue denim jeans, a bright red zip-up halter top that was designed to evoke the image of a corset, and a black suede hat with peacock feathers. Even her accessories are masterfully chosen. She paired her ensemble with an antiqued necklace and peacock feather hand fan, perfectly blending anachronistic elements with modern ones. The outfit is has just the right amount of steam-punk aesthetic to communicate Ashley, her tastes, and her personality, without being so garishly obvious about it as to become crass (like Football fans in over-sized Football jerseys).

I was so taken with how quickly she took to posing, the look of her outfit and how welcome it would seem on the streets of fashion Meccas like New York, and her overall comfort with the interview that I had to ask if she modeled. She does, but I can't make out from the audio recording of our interview what her modeling stage name is. Dragon Façade? The fan-boy in me really wishes it was Dragon Desaad. Anyway, those are you’re clues for tracking her modeling work down. And if you internet fan-boys and girls find her work, please share in the comments!

But back to the hat. I am not going to lie to you. I am in love with this hat. But I could never wear this hat. It just has too much flash. I like incorporating a little flash into my wardrobe, but to wear a piece this bold and pull it off you have to be supremely confident in your own sexiness. I imagine Ashley is. I mean, just look at her, and try and tell me you don’t melt.

Ashley got the hat at the Baltimore Comic-Con, but it is sold by The Blonde Swan. Most of their hats run $150-$190, but they are hand made from real leather, and totally worth the price.

As I mentioned before, the hat is suede, which for those of you unfamiliar with the fabric is leather the surface of which has been roughed, or napped, to give it a velvety soft feel. And stunning as the hat is (it really is), what makes it truly great is how it works with the rest of her outfit. She pairs it with a vinyl halter-top. Historically, fashion has generally deemed that your outfit be composed on entirely similar textures. Put another way, every item should be hard smooth textured fabrics, or soft textured fabrics. Smooth clean lines were more Spring/Summer, softer fabrics, like flannel, were Autumn/Winter. But certain fashion forward people, and why am I not surprised Ashley is one of them, are pushing boundaries by blending smooth fabrics with soft fabrics. The visual effect of soft lines against hard lines is striking and particularly effective in men's fashion.

Next time: Purses and handbags!

Wait! Next time? What do you mean next time?! Chill people. This thing was 30 pages in Word. It NEEDS to be broken up. But hey, regular content from me! If you knew me, that would shock you.

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