The Official Dieworkwear Appreciation Thread

[JohnMRobie]

I’m going to surmise that, despite the antagonism he’s met by some people who just seem to make it their mission to antagonize, he probably has had a greater impact on Twitter than on SF. Here, you’re preaching to a choir - we’re all already interested in style and investing time and/or money into it. On his blog, even more so.

His audience on Twitter is a mass audience as a result of this weird Portnoy spat and resulting algorithm shift. He probably opens more eyes, dispenses more of that basic info we already know, and eventually sensitize a larger number of people to some of the topics he cares about.

Admittedly this is a small sample size but at least in my circle of friends this is absolutely the case.

I had a friend who pretty much exclusively wears decade old tailoring from J Crew and Red Wings send a message this weekend saying DWWs threads are really making him want to get a bespoke suit and asking about tailors in DC.

I’ve had another handful of friends who aren’t interested in fashion in the slightest reach out about his posts. A friends wife saw the blog about enthusiasts saving shoemakers and asked about how she’d go about getting him a pair. Another friend asked about how he could go about dressing better and avoiding the midtown uniform.

A lot of what he’s saying obviously isn’t particularly groundbreaking to any of us but he’s demystifying a lot of this stuff to the general public and letting people in in his own way. At least in my small circle of friends he’s normalizing talking about it. Hell. He’s even breaking down barriers to normies knowing SF exists.

Obviously there are still going to be plenty of people who don’t care, think it’s frivolous, attack and lash out. There are still going to be the weirdo ret*rn tools who think wearing tailoring makes them better than someone or the racists. It’s not a perfect solution but there’s at least *some* progress being made, at least in my network.

 

[rjc149]

I've had many disagreements with Derek, but I'm a fan of his. Though, admittedly, I also quite appreciate snark.

Derek is actually hilarious. His swipes and potshots at me often made me crack up.

Clearly, he enjoyed a certain celebrity status on this forum, with the fans and haters that celebrity brings. I always detected a little 'imposter syndrome' coming from him -- that perhaps celebrity was never something he was seeking. I imagine there's a reason he remains physically anonymous.

A lot of what he’s saying obviously isn’t particularly groundbreaking to any of us but he’s demystifying a lot of this stuff to the general public and letting people in in his own way. At least in my small circle of friends he’s normalizing talking about it. Hell. He’s even breaking down barriers to normies knowing SF exists.

A lot of his advice and viewpoints here on SF and his blog have actually helped my own personal style evolve and mature from Youtube "fashion influencers" to an appreciation for tailoring and dressing timelessly well, so I can definitely vouch for this.

 

[scurvyfreedman]

As someone with a smaller reach on Twitter, but during the baseball lockout, got a ton of retweets and interactions with national baseball writers for my explanations of labor law and collective bargaining, I found that about 1/3 of my interactions at that time were thank yous, 1/3 were requests for clarification, and 1/3 were just trolls and the brainwashed telling me that the players were greedy and should just be happy they get to play a kids' game.

 

[symphvaria]

Outreach or not, surely I must not be the only one who is mildly annoyed that following a menswear journalism account to learn more about men's clothing also lands me a subscription to unsolicited political opinions.

 

[gdl203]

You’re not following an “account”, you’re following a human being who uses Twitter to post thoughts and opinions on every topic or theme. This person writes on menswear in various publications and when he does that, sticks to the topic at hand. But following Derek on Twitter isn’t a menswear content subscription. If you don’t want to see the memes, jokes, political opinions or any OT content, you shouldn’t follow him on Twitter, but instead subscribe to his blog and to Put this On.

 

[symphvaria]

You’re not following an “account”, you’re following a human being who uses Twitter to post thoughts and opinions on every topic or theme. This person writes on menswear in various publications and when he does that, sticks to the topic at hand. But following Derek on Twitter isn’t a menswear content subscription. If you don’t want to see the memes, jokes, political opinions or any OT content, you shouldn’t follow him on Twitter, but instead subscribe to his blog and to Put this On.

I would argue that I am in fact following an account under the handle of the Die Workwear blog, and that the person running the account would probably be more congenial and less divisive if his personal opinions or really anything unrelated to clothing were divulged elsewhere.

Note that this wouldn’t be an issue if the division of content were between his blog (ie. if I want to know who Derek’s favorite shirtmakers are, I don’t have to put up with his politics) and his Twitter. The fundamental point is really that he’s created no separation between professional content (whether or not it’s presented casually) and personal content, which is honestly the easiest thing in the world to fix. Though of course, knowing Derek, he’d take a comment like this as an excuse to triple down on it.

 

[gdl203]

Have you ever been on Twitter. I wonder? What you’re describing is exactly what Twitter is, especially for journalists and writers. It’s typically not a marketing extension of the publication, but rather an avenue for professionals to voice all sorts of personal takes and opinions outside of their day job.

it’s rather the norm.

Derek putting great value on his privacy, just never uses his real name, so maybe that’s where your confusion stems from. If so, I get that. But surely, by now, you must have understood that this is what he uses Twitter for. Just like he uses IG almost exclusively for memes. It would be odd to be peeved about it. Rather, it would make sense to follow the content you’re looking for only, and not the content that annoys you (whether Twitter or IG)

 

[symphvaria]

Have you ever been on Twitter. I wonder? What you’re describing is exactly what Twitter is, especially for journalists and writers. It’s typically not a marketing extension of the publication, but rather an avenue for professionals to bid all sorts of personal takes and opinions outside of their day job.

it’s rather the norm.

Derek putting great value on his privacy, just never used his real name, so maybe that’s where your confusion stems from

Have you ever been on Twitter? Topical and informational social media has been a thing for over a decade, trying to claim that it’s nothing more than a personal blog is like trying to claim that Instagram can only be used for individuals to post pretty pictures and not businesses.

There is no “norm” here, Derek could well choose to create an official Die Workwear Twitter and a separate Derek personal Twitter if he so wished to. The more likely explanation is that he sees his politics and approach to clothing as intertwined and therefore inseparable. Not something you can necessarily fault him for, but also not something that is illegal to express minor exasperation with. Nothing and nobody is perfect, after all.

 

[gdl203]

The more likely explanation is that he sees his politics and approach to clothing as intertwined and therefore inseparable. Not something you can necessarily fault him for, but also not something that is illegal to express minor exasperation with. Nothing and nobody is perfect, after all.

While this could be a valid explanation, the thousands of pages of content he’s published on PTO and DWW (with rarely any political commentary, although often a good amount of sociological analysis) would point to the other theory: that he compartmentalizes his online contributions and uses different platforms for different content. Blogs for menswear writing, IG for memes, Twitter for personal takes on everything.

This approach is not novel. It is the norm for journalists and writers.

Avoiding those compartments is as easy as choosing which content to follow

 

[symphvaria]

While this could be a valid explanation, the thousands of pages of content he’s published on PTO and DWW would point to the other theories: that he compartmentalizes his online contributions and uses different platforms for different content. Blogs for menswear writing, IG for memes, Twitter for personal takes on everything.

This approach is not novel. It is the norm for journalists and writers.

Avoiding those compartments is as easy as choosing which content to follow

The compartmentalization theory is fine and dandy until you realize that it’s precisely the lack of compartmentalization that leads to this problem. Derek has written many, many guides on the basics of clothing on his Twitter; I mentioned favorite shirtmakers, but he’s also talked about his favorite bespoke tailors, how to identify well or poorly fitting trousers and jackets, and, just recently, his recommendations for bags with tailored clothing. Content that, while topically more in line with DWW or PTO, is too informal to simply be presented on either site as is; and therefore content that is exclusive to Twitter and therefore necessitates tolerating his politics one and the same.

The approach isn’t novel, but that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to disagree with it all the same. I think it would be that much more agreeable if he had an outlet for this kind of informal clothing related content that didn’t involve his politics, or vice versa. Either way, it’s readily apparent that such a move is something Derek has no interest in, so I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for it.

 

[gdl203]

I get it. I'm sure Elon's future AI tools or some new subscription service will eventually allow you to filter content and only see what you think these accounts should post, or maybe only takes the AI knows you'll agree with. Maybe a higher subscription tier will even have the political content re-written to espouse your opinions - as dystopian as it sounds, I don't think we're that far off.

 

[symphvaria]

I get it. I'm sure Elon's future AI tools or some new subscription service will eventually allow you to filter content and only see what you think these account should post, or maybe only takes the AI knows you'll agree with.

That sounds like too useful a feature to be implemented on Twitter. I wouldn’t count on it, but it would be pleasantly surprising if it does actually become a thing.

 

[gdl203]

That sounds like too useful a feature to be implemented on Twitter. I wouldn’t count on it, but it would be pleasantly surprising if it does actually become a thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if you could already do that. Prompt ChatGPT or other AI to deliver you content from a Twitter account and omit political posts.

edit: I just tried 😁 and no dice. ChatGPT does not have access to Twitter's content. I should have expected that given Elon's strategy to fence off Twitter content.

 

[JohnMRobie]

Outreach or not, surely I must not be the only one who is mildly annoyed that following a menswear journalism account to learn more about men's clothing also lands me a subscription to unsolicited political opinions.

 

[Remy Fool]

The answer revealed!

Btw he also mentioned an editor earlier this week in a funny tweet, so fingers crossed regarding that book.