“Sometimes you just want to feel that electricity of like, I’m gonna go outside today and I’m going to get away with this”.
Practically speaking, at some point in our lives we all felt the desire to look like others. This could mean many things depending on your age, gender and where you live geologically. It could be that hyped up sneaker at the moment, or the supreme logo t-shirt everybody seemed to own at the summer of 2016. To say we should all dress different from everybody we see would simply be fighting against our instincts, as there is something tribal about the way people dress and it probably will not change without a species evolution.
But what is the fun in fashion if we dress for the sake of others? There has always been a fine line between how we feel a about a piece of clothing ourselves, and how others might have different interpretations. American singer, songwriter and Grammy award winner John Mayer seemed to have this fine balance all figured out.
John Mayer’s style could feel a little bit all over the place at first glance, tie-dye, jorts, bum bags, robes, blankets… His sense of fashion can be described as experimental to say the least. Having a close friendship with Japanese streetstyle label Visvim, John Mayer has been an active wearer of many Japanese style robes by the designer and founder of the brand, Hioki Nakamura. At the age of monochromatic sweatsuit taking over the world, we really should ask ourselves are we dressed to look like the Instagram post we just saw, or we are doing it for our own enjoyment. Items like robes are far from the spectrum of Modern North American street style fashion, yet they gave John Mayer’s style a unique touch or a sense of personality which many celebrities would lack in comparison. And if you ask me, I think they look great.
The point of this blog is not trying to tell you how to look just like John Mayer, nor to discuss how great sense of style he has. As the former would be antithetical, and the latter is subjective and up to interpretations. Instead, his experimentalism in fashion is something we could all feel inspired by. The feeling of putting on something different and go out with it (not too realistic in the age of Covid), and not only get away with it but also standout in a nice way is quite addicting. This is when you know you are having fun with fashion.
-Malcom Mei