Image via Complex Original
Stop a well-dressed guy on the street and ask him where he gets his style inspiration from. You'll probably hear his spiel about Ernest Hemingway's get-ups when the author was chillin' in Cuba, or how they start like Kanye West and then add their own twist. The most common answer you might hear is that their style is unique, and takes inspiration from no one. Yeah, right.
We're here to uncover the actual things and places that inspire stylish guys to try something new, something outrageous, or something tried and true. Because not all inspiration comes from Tumblr and street style blogs, here are The OG Inspirations of Current Menswear Trends.
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Ancient Greek Philosophers
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 $1,300 Louis Vuitton blanket furiously smoking a cigarette who really hopes he gets his picture taken and then put on the Internet.
NASCAR
Inspiration: Jeff Gordon and his fellow men and women who drive 3,400 pound cars at 190 mph and are sponsored by some of the world's biggest corporations, the logos of which cover their safety suits, cars, and team members.
Who They Inspire: Malnourished polytheistic devil worshippers who wear their beliefs on their sleeves.
Lumberjacks
Inspiration: The men who partook in one of the most dangerous industries in American history. Early lumberjacks cleared woodlands for farms, cities, and provided the lumber necessary for America to thrive in the Industrial Revolution and later become a global superpower. Sometimes they chopped down trees alongside their amazing wolf-hounds.
Who They Inspire: Guys who will send back a macchiato if the milk leaf isn't created correctly.
The Scottish
Inspiration: Scotsmen with cold legs who drink whiskey like water and toss tree trunks as sport.
Who They Inspire: Guys who want to re-position fashion's normative narratives of gender/wish they were in the A$AP Mob.
Old Japanese Men
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.
The Civil War
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.
Death
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.
The Navajo Nation
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.
Gardening Enthusiasts
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.
Furniture
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.
