The Original Inspirations for 10 Current Style Trends

Image via Complex Original

Inspiration: Plato and his blanketed disciple contemplating the epistemological methodologies of humanity's knowledge and laying the foundation for current day Western philosophy

Who They Inspire: A man wearing a $1,300 Louis Vuitton blanket furiously smoking a cigarette who really hopes he gets his picture taken and then put on the Internet. 

Inspiration: Jeff Gordon and his fellow men and women who drive 3,400 pound cars at 190 mph and are sponsored by some of the world's biggest corporations, the logos of which cover their safety suits, cars, and team members.

Who They Inspire: Malnourished polytheistic devil worshippers who wear their beliefs on their sleeves.

Inspiration: The men who partook in one of the most dangerous industries in American history. Early lumberjacks cleared woodlands for farms, cities, and provided the lumber necessary for America to thrive in the Industrial Revolution and later become a global superpower. Sometimes they chopped down trees alongside their amazing wolf-hounds.

Who They Inspire: Guys who will send back a macchiato if the milk leaf isn't created correctly. 

Inspiration: Scotsmen with cold legs who drink whiskey like water and toss tree trunks as sport.

Who They Inspire: Guys who want to re-position fashion's normative narratives of gender/wish they were in the A$AP Mob.

Inspiration: Old Japanese farmers and laborers.

Who They Inspire: Guys who are mad that the modern Japanese do heritage American workwear so well, they've resorted to borrowing garment ideas from traditional Japanese workwear. 

Inspiration: Ulysses S. Grant and his army of Union soldiers from the 1860s who fought under Abraham Lincoln against the dissolution of the U.S.A. and for the freedom of 4 million slaves.

Who They Inspire: Guys who like lots of buttons, and are waiting for Lincoln to be on Netflix so they can see what the hype's about.

Inspiration: The Grim Reaper and any other demonic harbingers of death.

Who He Inspires: Morbid guys with facial tats; dudes jumping in the "street goth" trend; grown-up emo kids.

Inspiration: Anglo-America's detached and largely imagined collective history of the Navajo Nation, as well as other Native American tribes and cultures. 

Who They Inspire: Hipsters who want to brighten up their own culture by appropriating (sans guilt) the cultures of others.

Inspiration: Gardeners of all ages who want to minimize facial exposure to the sun while growing decorative plants and edible crops.

Who They Inspire: Bros at Pitti Uomo.

Inspiration: Your grandmother's couch; a dusty chair at a secondhand store; a provincial French interior.

Who It Inspires: Guys who aren't afraid to show their softer side; botanists.