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*Ryan Gosling as Ken. (C) Warner Bros. [img](https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/9-minute-core-workout-ryan-141539704.html)*</center>

I'm actually pinching the title of this post from John Osborne's autobiography, "A Better Class of Person", since I thought it was a very interesting turn of phrase, and not exclusive to Osborne's own time (40s-50s, in this case). It brought to mind a conversation I witnessed in my extended family. It wasn't related to color, exactly, but to this act of self-expression through fashion. My (male) cousin was wondering, rather self-consciously, if he could wear a fish pendant he'd found around his neck. To which my aunt, his mother, derisively replied, "sure, to go along with your skirt".

Sat beside him and by this point quite inflamed, I told him it was nonsense. He should wear anything he likes. I think the very essence of a fashion sense is one's ability to personalize and express one's self. My cousin, however, had already been beaten down, and dismissed my attempts out of hand.

Pendants did not fit with my family's outdated image of masculinity.

I come from a fairly conservative (extended) family, people for whom upholding "the old values" is a point of pride. I understand. I don't think young men these days dress particularly well, either. Though I'd put that down to having zero understanding of style, more than anything else. You see these walking rainbows, draped in every shade of pastel out there, and you just shudder inside. Not because you're offended that men should wear such colorful things (or at least, I hope not), but because most of the time, they're poorly matched. If they were outfits put together with an ounce of taste, they would blow your mind.

I was recently introduced to the Ken-core trend (essentially colorful, bombastic outfits inspired by Ryan Gosling in the Barbie movie). Looking through Google results for this trend, you find a lot of badly put together outfits whose sole concept seems to be everything loud and bright all at once. Which isn't the best. Take a look at Ryan Gosling's outfits while promoting the film, however, and you've got quite a different picture. It's a great example that bold and colorful can work wonders for a man, if carried with some gusto.
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*Still Ryan Gosling. Still (C) Warner Bros. Or whoever owns Ryan Gosling. [img](https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2023/07/342ff-16899281025603-1920.jpg)*</center>

It's interesting, I think, because you see this sort of haphazard mishmash in women's fashion, also, albeit to a lesser extent. And I see a lot of young girls trying to pull off orange pants with a green top and a brown coat and pink shoes and a red cap, and it's just a *mess*. But hey, us women have been slaves to absurd trends for centuries. Millennia, even. And we *still* can't pull it off half the time.

Now, try being a man for whom, as Osborne aptly puts it, drabness and monochrome have been *the* epitome of masculinity for a long time. Not *that* long, though. Take a look at the outfits of the Renaissance, the French royal court, the Georgian eras, and you've got these hella flamboyant, colorful outfits on men. Then came Dandyism, which sort of dressed the man down. Gave him some much needed style, while still retaining some openness. If you look at the traditional Dandy garb, you'll find that although it's a lot simpler and toned down, it's also quite open, with a lot of white and beige in it. I wouldn't say it's drab. Then you've got some centuries of industrialism, of hardship, of this intensified concept of "masculinity". Pair that with the rising social issue of the "queer folk" (another Osborne-ism), and suddenly, you've got these ostensibly straight, butch men who must dress in gray and black and brown. Nothing happy. Nothing colorful. Else they be considered gay. To this day, a man in pink shoes or whatever might be considered a bit much in parts of the world. Certainly in my own native Eastern Europe.

Now, I'll admit, when I came across old pictures of my grandfather and his father, both dressed in these perfect suits back in the late 40s, I was quite taken. I kept thinking if only men still dressed so dapper and sexy. It's a meme I've seen online a fair amount, with women bemoaning the way men dress now, all casual, dressed-down, and haphazard.

**However, I don't think it's the suits themselves we need to get back. I think men in suits looked good because there's a certain order, an air of "put together"-ness to a suit. Which is, if we think about it, the true essence of elegance. I'd argue you can be quite elegant in jeans and T-shirt of any color you like. What we need back isn't the drabness, but the coordination. Obviously a suit looks great - the shirt goes with the pants, and the blazer with the tie. But take a moment to figure out which colorful oversized hoodie goes with which pastel pants, and you've got a great, sexy, put together outfit as well.**

**Returning to Mr. Osborne, I don't think drabness is a synonym for masculinity. Assertiveness, a sense of control (at least of one's own wardrobe) might be, however.**


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