Dispatch No. 12: Story time!

And what's coming up the week of 4/12

Good morning, everyone!

You’ll forgive me for missing my usual Sunday deadline. We had a full morning of shooting and I was involved with an online panel discussion in the afternoon, so the day quickly got away from me.

The panel wasn’t HSS-related. It was a presentation that some members from the Army Field Band gave to a national organization of concert bands. (I know, and you thought men’s style was a niche thing!) We were invited to share some tips and lessons learned on how to best present music online as we’ve done over 370 separate products since the beginning of Covid. Production, copyright, delivery, and so on.

My role was to speak from the strategic communications standpoint. In other words, how to get people to listen to you. So, of course, I told this group of diehard concert band people the one thing they didn’t want to hear—that nobody cares about concert band music.

[GASP!]

Anyone who cares deeply about something and who is also extremely knowledgable about a given subject often suffers from the same malady. Being so immersed in something impairs one’s ability to see the bigger picture, like how to introduce others to a world that you know to be meaningful and get them to see what you see, or hear what you hear, and experience something powerful that you yourself understand.

A trained and scholarly musician might point out the gory details of how a piece of music is composed—this or that neat “trick” the composer employs—or the significant cultural or historical context that spawned a particular piece of music.

How fascinating…

Nobody cares about that though.

The question then becomes: how do you get them to care?

Since this is something we’ve figured out to some degree, I used the example of one of our flute players who would perform a concerto by the early-twentieth century French composer Jacques Ibert. Has a regular person from middle America ever heard of Jacques Ibert? No. But before our soloist even plays a note, our audience has completely fallen in love with her and can’t wait to meet her. And they love the music she plays and give her a standing ovation with a curtain call and swarm her after the concert.

How did that happen?

Well, before she walks on stage, the audience sees a 90-second video of her. And in that video she talks about how her parents left China and gave up everything in their lives when she was a little girl to move to the United States in order to give her the opportunity to pursue her passion of playing music. She expresses a profound gratitude for their sacrifices and support in helping her get to this very moment in her life.

It’s a powerful story that people can connect with.

She could have played Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star at that point and still have gotten the same reaction. But, instead, she played a fiendishly difficult and extremely impressive flute concerto. And people are mesmerized and, as a result, introduced to a piece of music that she loves. Maybe they’ll want to hear more music like that some day. Maybe they won’t. But it really doesn’t matter because they’ve experienced something pretty awesome just then.

I bring this up because I think people who are into menswear can fall into a similar trap. I don’t know why, but over the weekend I started spinning around an idea for a Short about “the things menswear snobs say.” I came up with a short list of things—please add yours in the comments!—and most of them focus on the idea of exclusivity. Like, we’re in this secret club and if you don’t know this stuff, you’re beneath me.

I’ve always been about inclusivity and spreading the message of the power of clothing to have a transformative effect on people. You’re not going to spread that message if you adopt an arrogant and exclusive tone.

Just some food for thought.

What’s on tap this week?

WEDNESDAY: 3 Simple Khaki Blazer Combinations for Spring

It’s been a while since we’ve done a good old-fashioned outfit video. And this is the first where we’ll be trying out the shorter format—three outfits instead of the usual five.

Spring is definitely here and a khaki blazer is one of my favorite spring pieces. It’s casual. It’s sporty. And it’s really easy to style with jeans.

As I was putting the outfits together for this video, I noted that I was gravitating towards more casual(ish) looks. Perhaps it is reflective of the environment we’ve been living in for over a year, but as I’ve mentioned previously, I think one of the biggest trends we’re seeing in menswear is a move towards a more casual approach to tailoring. It’s simple. It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s stylish.

And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Thoughts on new watches?

Have you been following any of the new watch releases this year?

Green seems to be the thing.

And the Rolex Explorer now back in a 36mm case.

Thoughts?

Coco’s still drooling over this one…

Hope you have a great week! And thanks, as always, for your continued support.

Stylishly Yours,

Brian