IN RESPONSE TO GQ ] How to peruse the magazine's '10 best looks of the season' in Manila

The Plaid Weekender (top left). If you’re as fair-skinned as Matthew Goode (the guy in photos), go on ahead. But, as our style correspondent J.Lee Cu-unjieng told us many posts ago (The Style Advisory, September 12, 2009) when we heard about the resurgence of plaids, those checkered things usually look drab and harsh on brown skin on the Manila streets, especially when said skin is pimply and secretes oil like the Saudi Aramco. If you really have to, go for bright—but soft—happy colors. And no plaid flannels or Kurt Cobain will haunt you in your sleep—and he gon’ bring Courtney with him.

A Cooler Baseball Jacket. There is rarely an occasion to wear any sort of jacket during summer in Manila, unless you’re inside a really cold office building. Our group art director in the office looks good in a slim motorcycle jacket and doesn’t at all look contrived even when he goes out in the humid street of Pioneer. I guess the trick is slim, slim, slim: meaning for the wearer, the fabric and the silhouette.

The White Straight Leg jeans. Go! White looks so fresh and right in the summer. And for the love of Moses please give the skinny jeans a rest. Grown up men don’t wear skinny. But what about Iggy Pop or Mick Jagger, you say? First, you’re neither Iggy or Mick. Two: those are not grown up men.

The Grown Man's Sweatshirt. In this case, lose the undershirt. Layering it this way always looks affected in this weather.

The Multi-talented Denim Shirt (top right). We won’t go on a discussion about wearing denim on denim, how the fabric feels and why it looks hot (meaning mainit) and what your facial skin looks like against denim (there is a reason why they usually make bottoms with it). Let’s keep it to one word: No. Although the faux denim might work with light colored shorts.

A Bolder V-neck. It’s so gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. And to pair it with another bold colored shirt! That’s uber gay. Still nothing wrong with that. But a word about the now ubiquitous V-neck: it should be a little roomy on the torso. It should skim the body and not strangle it—because that would be very gay, and in this case we do take offense.

The Fitted Cotton Sports Jacket. We dig.

Upturned Cuffs. Just to make sure it looks unaffected, totally unaffected, maybe have a two-year old fold it for you.

Grey Sneaks. Why, is grey the new black? Fine but you could also wear white, indigo, orange, red, beige. And don’t let the GQ editors fool you: this is not dressy nor could it aspire to be.

The High Tech Storm Chaser. For grown men, this is really less a fashion choice than a practical must-have. Especially in these days when the weather is as unpredictable as next year's 'new black.'


Photographs are, of course, from GQ.com. (Whatever happened to men.style.com? Honestly, I quite prefer that one.)