Nickname Pepper Salt, WANG Yangkai is a very seasoned menswear enthusiast in China. I am a big fan of him.
I often look at his pictures of wearing a suit, so I want to ask him as a guide to tell you what it’s like to wear a suit.
I’ve interviewed many practitioners, but it’s the first time that I’ve interviewed consumers purely.
Give us a brief introduction about yourself. What do you do? Do you have any hobbies other than gentry clothes?
Hello, everyone, I’m pepper salt. I have done a lot of things before, and now I am doing some brand and visual related work in a game company.
Apart from classic men’s wear, hobbies can basically be summarized by popular culture ~ games, comics, animations, novels, movies, TV series, variety shows, talk shows, idols, swords, exercise … Generally speaking, they should belong to the second dimension? Ha ha.
When did you come into contact with gentry?
After graduating from college, I made a so-called “customized suit” in a brand in a shopping mall, but the reason why I chose to customize it at that time had nothing to do with my preferences, purely because I was a fat man weighing more than 300 kilograms at that time, and I couldn’t be more special. It was a dark gray single-row suit, and a purple shirt was made with it. Now it seems that a big fat man of 300 Jin is wearing such clothes. If he were in Japan, he might be questioned by the police as ヤクザ.
Later, by coincidence, I lost weight, and I also bought some suits in the conventional brands of shopping malls. With the growing interest, I finally started from suit6, to some predecessors in Weibo, to SF and some overseas platforms, such a domestic conventional into the pit road.
Even the first custom suit was handed over to W.W.CHAN Shanghai, which may be the same choice as many pits.
Who are the menswear mentors do you recognize?
Too many! Although I have a clear preference when I make my own clothes, it is really a wide range of defense from the perspective of appreciation.
In the industry, I like George of BRIO, Mark of Armoury, Sergio Loro Piana and so on.
Fans don’t talk about overseas, such as the seven brothers, doctors, Zhu Wang, Retman, Yang Zong, Liu Zong, JK, etc., who are purely enthusiastic about classic men’s wear, and their choices and attitudes towards clothing and life are also a great charm of this small circle in my opinion.
There are three others, which I would like to recommend a little more emphatically, because they will be more valuable for ordinary wearers.
The first one is Peter Zottolo, and the Instagram ID is urbancomposition.
His collocation and selection in the range of classic men’s wear is interesting, but what is more exciting is his equally relaxed grasp of other fields such as casual wear and tooling style, and the interesting effect produced by combining some of these elements with classic men’s wear.
The second person I believe many people know, Gustaf, Instagram ID Gusvs9.
If Peter’s charm comes from diversity, Gustaf belongs to a purer kind. His style is simply summed up in one sentence, “high-quality products, simple collocation.” He belongs to the kind of lover who is in a strict dressing environment, and his suit is his daily work clothes, so his collocation will basically not be out of the scope of classic men’s wear. However, in this range, he completed impeccable output with high-quality single products. Two lessons can be learned from him: First, when every item in your wardrobe has high quality, it is hard to go wrong even if you wear it casually with your eyes closed; Second, it is often better to find a tailor who suits you and then fight with him than to punch in one or two orders everywhere.
To tell the truth, I am not familiar with the third person, except that his name is Tom Chen, Instagram ID tomstation.
Different from the previous two daily sharing, Tom’s classic men’s wear collocation only accounts for a small part of his sharing, and more is travel, scenery, food and dogs. But from his few photos, what we can feel is his excellent color ability. In fact, there are many brave men who dare to wear bright colors in the circle of classic men’s wear lovers, and it is not uncommon for pink suits and purple coats. But different from the “Sao” pursued by many people who love to wear bright colors, Tom’s color matching is more harmonious and has a sense of life in my opinion. Compared with SAO, this tone is more to my taste. By the way, there is another thing I can learn from him, that is, it is better to take pictures or smile ~
What are your preferences and recommendations for brands and customized stores?
Generally speaking, my preference is still relatively modern. Compared with the complicated sports style or the rigorous classical style, it is comfortable and relaxed, and it is neat and stylish; A simple and casual blouse that can be worn with jeans or khaki pants is more in line with my current needs. So from this point of view, my choices are quite rich.
As for which one to recommend, I can only recommend the ones I have tried so far: MD Wu, WWCHAN and Gordon Yao.
As for Stile Renaissance and Zhang Xiao who haven’t got them yet, let’s wait until then.
How to define your style?
Emmm… I haven’t thought about it myself … I know a lot of lovers, who all start with classic men’s wear, deeply understand the characteristics of the times and cultural attributes behind many clothes, and reflect these deep-seated things on their wear. Some are retro gentlemen, some are old country money, and some are love rat from South Italy … But I don’t really want to wear a certain style label, so I rarely make a whole set of clothes belong to the same style.
For example, when matching a suit, I may wear more Oxford Cloth Button Down or denim shirts than a white shirt with a stiff collar;
If I had worn a tweed jacket, I probably wouldn’t have added items such as Fairisland sweater and newsboy hat to further strengthen the rural attributes.
The result of this may be that many people will think it is a bit out of place or even neither fish nor fowl, but I think it is more like myself. So if I have to define it, I should belong to passers-by ~
What advice do you have for beginners?
I can’t make suggestions, but share my own feelings after stepping on the pit: the quality of the things I buy can be given priority over collocation. At present, the basic direction of my clothing is to gradually replace the clothes I bought for styles and patterns with similar new clothes. The colors, styles and even materials of many clothes are still what I like and need, but the fitting degree and workmanship details are really a bit miserable … These clothes always make me feel very embarrassed when I want to wear them, because it is difficult to save the serious injuries in quality by so-called matching.
Buying less and buying better may be the most economical way.
What do you think of the gentry’s clothing circle in China at present?
Whether it’s a store or a consumer, I think there are two kinds of people. I think one kind of people can be called classic men’s wear lovers, and the other is people in the “gentry” circle. The first kind of people, as buyers or sellers, have pure enthusiasm and love for classic men’s wear. It has nothing to do with whether his goods are expensive or cheap, whether he likes English, Italian or other styles. Of course, there are differences and contempt chains among consumers in the first group, but on the whole, they can still communicate well and seek common ground while reserving differences; In the first category of stores, some styles may not be my favorite, and some prices make me unattainable, but as long as I can feel that he is passionate and pursuing the industry itself, that is a good store that should exist.
But there are also some “gentry clothes” sellers and buyers who attach too many messy ideas and purposes to the suit … As consumers, what they like is not clothes, but the imaginary gentleman life. It’s not impossible, but there’s nothing to communicate; And those stores that don’t like this industry have basically not seen them make qualified clothes.
I can’t tell who has more and less of these two types of people in China at present, but I hope there will be more of the first type and less of the second type, otherwise there will be nothing to play with.
Apart from suits, what items do you care about most?
First of all, I apologize to FU Pei, it’s not the shoes. Haha ~ I’m too lazy. My appreciation of lace-up shoes and my enthusiasm for maintaining and waxing have basically given in to all kinds of suede.
At present, what I buy most and am most interested in is probably ties and hats. There is nothing to say about a tie, just buying the texture and pattern you like; Unlike many fans, I wear a hat almost every day. First, because I don’t want to use all kinds of styling products to destroy my already bleak hair, it is necessary to wear a hat to cover the messy natural curls; Secondly, I like to use hats, especially baseball caps, to ruin the whole shape.
Do you have any friends in your circle?
Through this hobby, I really made many new friends. Mr. Jia from Beijing, my wardrobe construction can not be separated from his help; At the invitation of Dr. Justice, a socialite in Shanghai, I met my friends with the same hobbies offline for the first time; In my heart, every tailor and shopkeeper who has worked together can also be regarded as friends; There are also many group friends who have never met before, but they are very friendly … among all my personal hobbies, classic men’s wear is one that makes me make the most friends.
What do you think are the biggest advantages and disadvantages of wearing gentry clothes?
Besides helping to make friends, I think the biggest advantage of wearing a suit is convenience. Before into the pit, I was also a person who was enthusiastic about clothes, and I tried different kinds of clothes. At that time, I spent no less energy on matching and selecting products than now, or even more, but at that time, few people praised my clothes. And there was an experience at that time, that is, you spent a lot of time matching it, and suddenly you had to go somewhere to meet someone, and you found that your dress seemed a little out of place and quite embarrassing.
The advantage of classic men’s wear is that you can casually wear a tailored suit, even a single coat, and you will often be praised by people around you for being handsome. Probably, this kind of clothing itself still conforms to many people’s unconscious demands for male images.
Besides, if you wear a suit, as long as you don’t stack the buff too full yourself, whether you are meeting in business or having a drink in a bar with friends after work, you will basically not be out of place with the environment. Versatile and effective, it’s really a masculine costume, isn’t it?
As for the disadvantages, many people say it seems to be forced, like a sales clerk. Maybe the people around me are tolerant, or maybe I’m really slow. In short, I don’t have any practical experience in this field. So for me, the biggest disadvantage of into the pit classic men’s wear is that it makes the wallet that is not rich, which is even more difficult, hahaha.
