styleternity asked: I've always found the use of the term "dressed by the internet" relatively ambiguous. To be truthful I don't know how we came to so quickly associate with a resounding lack of style, if we're being honest without the internet I'd still be messing round in square toed hush puppies and aggressively asexual polyester sweater vests. I'm interested to hear how you characterize the negative side of being "dressed by the net". Also, why all the Trunzo hate? Keep up the good work!

Thank you kindly, had a look at your blog - some insightful stuff there, really funny too. Great Meermin review - got them in the rapello suede and love them - the release of their balmoral boots is going to give me a seizure.

No Trunzo hate here whatsoever, I just enjoy being sarcastic, this is as much a personal exercise in humour as it is a genuine spilling of opinions - I’m really impressed by the guy what with his opening Carson Street and his general air of suavity.  Considering the amount of shit he’s dished out over the last few years I like to think if he read it he’d be able to take it; I’ll make the tenuous assumption that he has a fairly flexible sense of humour.

I mean it all in an affectionately ironic way, I’m gushingly fond of menswear and it’s ‘icons’ so I wanted to start this as a lovingly sarcastic dig at how amusingly over-serious things can get from time to time. I like that over-seriousness though, that collective focus of lots of people sharing something they’re really interested in… *I’d like to thank the academy*

I’ve thought exactly that too, it gets thrown around but what does it actually mean or portray? I also had absolutely no clue what the hell was going on until I discovered (read: developed a schizophrenic obsession with) #menswear blogs etc, I think of some things I wore years ago and shudder at my pitiful inadequacy.

I suppose it is an ambiguous term but what is really meant by it (or at least by me) is the total adoption of #menswear’s ‘anti-trends’ if you see what I mean; the discovering of this whole movement in how to look and how to dress but not yet being able to distill it down to what really suits and works for you. Perhaps it manifests itself in purely making you look like you were dressed by somebody else, not that that’s necessarily a dreadful concept, you just look like you haven’t got your own personal style which, ironically, is what this whole thing is all about. DBTI is not essentially a ‘resounding lack of style’, perhaps more a resounding presence of somebody else’s. Though I will say a huge indicator of style is quite how comfortable somebody acts in what they’re wearing which, naturally, cannot be judged by street style pictures so perhaps they’re perfectly confident in how they look and who the hell am I to judge? (though I reserve the right to make a scathingly sarcastic comment for the sheer schadenfreude of it). For me, the most obvious way to look like you were DBTI is to throw classics to the wind and wear only the items that are endorsed by bloggers who’re endorsed by the companies themselves.

Looking back at how I became interested in clothing I definitely did go through a phase where I hadn’t yet quite developed an eye for what worked and what didn’t so sort of just ‘took [blogger’s] word for it’ and ran but over time I was able to see the strengths and weaknesses of how I looked in various outfits. Perhaps it’s not negative, more a crucial phase in discovering what clothing you feel particularly at home in. Having now discarded that phase I feel really comfortable in how I dress so I suppose the negative side of being DBTI personally was not feeling particularly relaxed or confident in how I looked for quite some time. But as I said, maybe it’s inherently just part of ‘practicing’ while you learn what enhances your aesthetic pros and hides your cons.

Of course, it’s not DBTI at all if you’re in the privileged position of being someone who ‘Dresses The Internet’. 

Hope this was moderately useful - feel free anybody to drop me questions whenever you please.