In my line of work I spend a lot of time in the company of creatives from around the world, and one of the things I have noticed is their sense of dress. From 50’s Americano through to modern city slickers with every possible connotation in between. Few people seem to be able to wear things in the same way that creatives can, and even fewer are able to pull it off. They seem to have this deep seated confidence that means that in the vast majority of cases, whatever they wear, works, primarily because they believe that it works and have the confidence to carry it off. This, in turn, made me consider four words that are used whenever clothing is discussed or commented on.

Fashion, Fashionable, Style and Stylish.

Four words that may have a set meaning if you look them up in the dictionary, but have been imbued with a unique take that each person seems to change. So how do we look at these and what do they mean to us these days? Fashion and fashionable are reasonably easy to define. Fashion is what is currently viewed as being cutting edge or popular, and to be fashionable is to be in tune with this and to embrace it, whether we are talking about clothing, furnishings, food or even architecture. Style and stylish are the slightly more complex ones. Style can be used to describe a pattern of clothing or behavior. Someone can dress in a particular style but that style can be classed as either good or bad. Grunge was a style, but whether that was good or not is down to individual perception. Stylish has taken on the form of being a positive attainment. If you describe someone as being stylish it is almost always viewed in a positive, almost jealous, way. To be told that one is stylish is possibly the highest accolade.

So What Do We Class As Being Stylish?

So what do we class as being stylish? Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be a standard formula. Think of James Bond. Immaculately dressed always, but somehow Sean Connery was stylish, whereas Roger Moore was fashionable. It’s taking classic clothing and making it your own.  Look to fashion but don’t go extreme. Embrace things that don’t shout a date at you.

And whereas fashion can date, and one can be fashionable one moment and not the other, and where anyone can dress in a particular style, people who are classed as stylish never date, never grow old. Think of icons like Bryan Ferry, Jonny Depp and David Gandy.

These men are stylish. It is more than fashion. It will never age. For all of us, surely our goal in the world of dress and couture is not to be seen as fashionable, but to evolve, rise up, and be the pinnacle, be stylish.

The following images are MenStyleFashion Followers