Why is it Not Okay to Collect Some Cool Stuff For Your Wardrobe?

We can all agree that men love their toys. From grills to Ski saws (okay, those aren’t toys, but some guys take their tool collection a little too far… blasphemy? Okay, sorry. Moving on.), to the perfect pair of binoculars, lots of guys have it in them to be big-time collectors. A man might forget that one girlfriend, but never that one car. That first riding mower is only surpassed by that second riding mower… and then the third one that was really good and massaged your back while you mowed and had a cup holder… and going back to grills, some men would love to have a grill collection with every imaginable model using every imaginable fuel.

And don’t even get us started on electronics. Best Buy, for instance, is guy territory par excellence. There, men can gaze for hours at flat screens, plasma screens, and monitors big enough to kill someone if they toppled over. Laptops of every shape and size, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC games, phones, iPhone apps, digital cameras and camcorders, and all the little accessories – CD’s, DVD’s, jump-drives, cordless mice, cordless keyboards, cordless controllers, cases for pretty much everything, and the list goes on.

Is there anything wrong with all of this? Of course not (barring addiction, but we’re assuming that you can take it or leave it alone).

Then why is it not okay to collect some cool stuff for your wardrobe?

There seems to be this unspoken consensus that men have to stick to some kind of rationing system when it comes to clothing and accessories– a few casual shirts and pairs of pants, some jeans and shorts, work clothes, and that’s it. Most guys only own three or four pairs of shoes at the most, plus a couple of belts and a few ties. All of it needs to be pretty plain and low-key. While this is all to the good organization-wise, isn’t it a little boring? Where’s the pizazz?

The subtle notion that a well-put-together, interesting wardrobe is somehow un-manly is actually kind of ridiculous. Looking back as far as the Elizabethan era, it’s plain that some of the manliest men that ever lived wore some pretty intense clothes. Enormous, stiffly-starched ruffs, lace cuffs, velvet doublets, silk hose and heeled, buckled shoes, for Pete’s sake, were worn with aristocratic confidence by the same men who were rugged enough to explore the untamed wildernesses of the New World. Not saying that they wouldn’t have been more comfortable in some modern hiking gear, but you get the point.

The time has come again for guys to do something different with their wardrobes. Our suggestion? Enormous, stiffly starched ruffs. Ha! Just kidding. Our real suggestion? Start a cufflink collection. Men’s cufflinks are made in an endless variety of designs from quirky to refined. Doctors will be amused to find that stethoscope cufflinks are available. For gambling aficionados, there are cards and dice. Black-tie events call for elegant monogrammed styles, or silver cufflinks deftly fashioned into the appropriate initials. There are also silk-knot cufflinks (first made popular by Charvet, the French shirt-making house that is still top-of-the-line in luxury menswear today), enameled designs from Celtic to Art Deco, and functional cufflinks with watch-faces, levels, compasses and more. All are appropriate for business as well as pleasure, and all are easy-to-wear, which definitely beats ruffs, hands-down. Whatever your occupation, interest, or hobby, a variety of well-made, stylish cufflinks is out there to match your lifestyle perfectly. So add some interest, and have some fun.

Write by phanmemgoc