How Georgia Graham thinks about menswear in the fall
A great read on how woman can repurpose menswear
A quick introduction
Today, I’m happy to link y’all with my recent friend, Georgia Graham, who works on the editorial team at Selfridges, and runs two fantastic content channels on the side called Threads of Conversation (links below).
Georgia has a unique eye for styling, understands style shifts and trends in a way few others do, and I wanted to share her ideas on wearing menswear pieces as a woman. Hope you enjoy these back-to-school-esque anecdotes from a Brit’s view.
How to think about styling menswear on a woman
Hello, dear Sprezza readers. Maybe you didn’t expect to find a Fall Girl in your inbox this morning.
Breathe easy, my friends.
There will be no caramel knits, crunching leaves, stock photo grins, or pumpkin-spiced lattes in sight.
Instead, I want to share some of my favourite menswear staples, styled in a way that’s pretty easy to emulate — and hopefully quite genderless.
It’s also secondhand September, so I’ve chosen primarily from secondhand pieces that you can find at your local thrift shop or on Vinted, Depop, eBay etc.
Couple notes—
Big thanks to Clayton for inviting me to share my angle on menswear.
And if you’re interested, I’d love for you to subscribe to my newsletter, Threads of Conversation, and follow along with my podcast too!
Last, cheers to the lovely Lucy Swan for these photos.
An easy blazer
Wearing a blazer doesn’t have to be a Patrick Bateman-style affair. Nor does it have to be as non-committal as the reigning smart/casual champion: the soft-shouldered cotton blazer.
The former is giving aggressive 80s psychopath; the latter is always a bit too crinkled around the elbows for my liking.
Enter: the easy blazer. Mine is a secondhand Acne Studios piece I picked up in a consignment store for 40 pounds.
An easy blazer looks like a suit, but something in the mix adds a bit of softness. For me, it’s the smudgy charcoal colourway. As you can see from the pictures, it also works best when worn with a non-suit ensemble.
Van Patten could never.
Smart long shorts
Remember when “boyfriend jeans” hit a fever pitch in the 2010s?
These days, I borrow my boyfriend’s Issey Miyake Homme Plissé shorts instead. I wear these a lot in between seasons because they’re comfy and great for layering. You could easily swap the IMHP style for a pair of wide Bermudas or experiment with long basketball shorts.
I’m loath to regurgitate this massively overused piece of style advice, but it’s true what they say: playing with textures and contrasting elements (ie. hard & soft, shiny vs. matte) is the secret to good style.
Not saying I have it! Just passing on what I’ve learned.
This look inches closer to the winter end of fall. Wearing these with a thick, oversized sweater and a sturdy pair of boots makes for an original take on the all-black outfit..
I feel like the shorts are quite chic, so it’s also fun to wear them with some scruffier, vintage items. To show you what this outfit looks like in action, I decided to post a letter. To show you what this outfit looks like in action, I decided to post a letter.
I hope you’re getting inspired by this quintessentially London mise-en-scène.
A great denim jacket
They say a cat has nine lives, but I bet you a denim jacket has more.
I like mine vintage and slightly oversized, so you can fit a big chunky knit under there when it gets colder without looking like the Michelin man. I religiously stick to Levi’s, but that’s not to say there aren’t other good brands out there (Lee and Wrangler are a close second).
You want a slightly soft and lived-in piece but not so lived-in that it doesn’t hold its shape. The distress level is a personal choice, depending on your aesthetic. I like a few loose threads, but no holes or stains — or at least none that I didn’t make myself.
A football jersey
And not the American kind.
Any synthetic sports top works, really. I’ve gone through phases where I used to wear huge oversized ice hockey jerseys, then I was really into the tight, long-sleeved cycling tops, now I’m obsessed with football shirts.
Note: I’ve also recently written about the intersection of fashion and football here).
I love taking performancewear out of context, and it’s so easy to find in vintage shops. I’m still thinking about a shiny ruby red one I didn’t buy in Lisbon a few weeks ago.
I’ll have to add it to that most painful of lists:
“Vintage grails that got away”
Loafers!
Last but not least, you might have spotted these in a few of the ensembles above. My trusty GH Bass Weejuns go with so many things.
They make exposed ankles look elegant and add a cute, preppy finish to any outfit. My boyfriend got some recently as emergency wedding shoes, and sometimes I wear mine with leather pants.
Versatile, no?
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