We have a confession: We love menswear blogs. Seriously, sometimes we love them even more than we love fashion blogs about clothes that we actually wear. There are a lot of reasons, and you may be surprised to know that the most important one is not that they contain a lot of photos of good looking men in well-fitting clothes. That’s nice for sure, but what really gets us with great menswear blogs is the writing and the angle of the content. Guys tend to have a less self-indulgent, more pragmatic perspective on dressing – their posts analyze, dissect and laud the craftsmanship, detailing and heritage of their favorite designers and brands.
Women’s Wear Daily just reported that the men’s retail market is out-performing the women’s in all categories, so it’s no surprise that menswear blogs are flourishing and gaining more exposure than ever. They’re calling it a renaissance, and it shows no sign of slowing any time soon. With Pitti Uomo (men’s fashion week in Florence) looming, here are our favorite menswear blogs of the moment:
- A Continuous Lean: A lover of all things heritage and Americana-influenced, Michael Williams’ blog is full of menswear reviews and events, culture, travel and design
- A Suitable Wardrobe: This menswear blog talks shop from a personal perspective, with minimal design but plenty of content
- Alex Grant: Once you get past the orange-and-blue text, this blog’s mix of cool products and vintage photos is seriously addicting
- All Plaidout: Max Wastler’s blog covering menswear news, lifestyle and personal anecdotes
- Die, Workwear!: Heavy on (well-written) text, this blog focuses on luxury menswear topics
- GiltManual: The editorial side of men’s flash sale haven, GiltMan
- How To Talk To Girls At Parties: The content here runs the gammut from hip-hop style, menswear lookbook images, question-and-answer posts, to humorous tid-bits and editorial photos
- Hypebeast: Culture, art, music and entertainment pieces – plus the latest for all those sneaker-heads
- Ivy Style: Dedicated to the aesthetic developed on elite college campuses in the 1910s, this blog is all about traditional style with an East Coast lean.
- Kempt: Run by Urban Daddy, this site boasts more a magazine-like feel, with fashion, grooming and lifestyle pieces abound
- Men In This Town: A men’s street style journal, shot by Giuseppe Santamaria
- Men Of Habit: A robust site full of lookbooks, shopping and lifestyle articles (Their Tumblr is also excellent.)
- Mister Mort: Mortechai Rubinstein photographs interesting and unusual street style; it’s mostly menswear
- Put This On: Their tagline is “A web series about dressing like a grown up,” and it’s pretty accurate; with sale info, question and answer posts and video content
- The GQ Eye: GQ magazine’s blog devoted to all things men’s style
- Selectism: In the same family with High Snobiety and High Snobette, this magazine-like site is sleek and full of original features
- Street Etiquette: Run by Joshua Kissi and Travis Gumbs; a men’s style blog that approaches personal style from an urban perspective
- StyleGirlfriend: menswear musings, from a woman’s perspective
- Unabashedly Prep: Fred Castleberry’s blog is mostly menswear and all prepped-out
- Valet: More of an online magazine than a blog, but always full of accessible shopping and trend pieces.
[Image credits: Unabashedly Prep, How To Talk To Girls At Parties, Men of Habit]
I appreciate the effort put into this, but I have a problem with the fact that a similar list composed of female bloggers is actually about personal style bloggers and not these magazine-esque sites covering street style published by thirty-somethings who write professionally. There’s also a lack of diverse perspectives here – it’s a lot of men with the same viewpoint, blogging about similar things (though I’m enamored of Street Etiquette). I think there are a lot of young and passionate male bloggers out there with unique personal style that could have been shared here!
Some of my favorites (Google ‘em!):
Shiggers on Street
Joey Ma
The Dandy Project
Anastasia and Duck
Kate Loves Me (how could you leave out someone as singular as Pelayo!?)
Fashion Bits and Bobs
I understand the list is what it is, I just think it’s a bit of a missed opportunity. I mean, saying “go to Hypebeast” is the same as featuring Who/What/Wear or Fashionista as one of your favorite women’s fashion blogs!