Different to what most people are doing, but I’ve been thinking about dressing more European. So many popular casual clothes come from the US: bomber jackets, duck chore jackets, baseball caps, most sneakers, jeans. The last two alone are permanent parts of “default dude uniform”.
So I now e.g. have:
a harrington jacket (ironically the name comes from an American show, made in China from UK brand) - it’s an English golfing jacket by origin
a Shetland sweater (made in Shetland)
a tartan wool scarf (made in Scotland)
some corduroy and moleskin pants for the winter (Made in Bangladesh, UK company)
wool balmacaan-style overcoat from Italian tweed made in Portugal
chukka boots (Made in England).
Also eyeing a French chore coat.
You’d think doing this would be really easy given how the US came to be. Say, a suit is European, but wearing one every day is not as common as before. The overall theme in the west is that democratization is cool, while tradition is not. But when I think Europe, I think tradition. Hence the suit is European, but it’s not “cool”.
Corduroy and shetland sweaters are pretty “grandpa” as well. But I guess this is the arduous process of re-learning an identity after being fed American culture all the time while growing up. You just don’t know what’s yours.
As you can see by the items it’s all clothes that come from the UK. Again, it was easiest to pick the UK because it was the purveyor of European style, back before, you know.
A good “gateway drug” is buying second hand. It lets you get acknowledged with a brand and let you decide if you’d like to drop the retail or sale price on an item from them in the future. They don’t necessarily even need to be made in EU, just they need to come from a higher price bracket.
Here are my Vinted filters for mostly EU brands (only some are made in EU), they link to the Polish Vinted so maybe change the .pl to your region:
Portugal, mayby most famously, as well as poland have very talented cobblers who make great quality shoes while not being nearly as expensive as some of the bigger brands (looking at you, doc martens). Unfortunately the best way to find out about them currently is etsy. But I‘d reckon there are other platforms where they are active. Maybe it‘s even possible to contact them for sales circumventing Etsy.
Different to what most people are doing, but I’ve been thinking about dressing more European. So many popular casual clothes come from the US: bomber jackets, duck chore jackets, baseball caps, most sneakers, jeans. The last two alone are permanent parts of “default dude uniform”.
So I now e.g. have:
Also eyeing a French chore coat.
You’d think doing this would be really easy given how the US came to be. Say, a suit is European, but wearing one every day is not as common as before. The overall theme in the west is that democratization is cool, while tradition is not. But when I think Europe, I think tradition. Hence the suit is European, but it’s not “cool”.
Corduroy and shetland sweaters are pretty “grandpa” as well. But I guess this is the arduous process of re-learning an identity after being fed American culture all the time while growing up. You just don’t know what’s yours.
As you can see by the items it’s all clothes that come from the UK. Again, it was easiest to pick the UK because it was the purveyor of European style, back before, you know.
Man dressing made in EU is soooo expensive though.
What items do you have in mind?
A good “gateway drug” is buying second hand. It lets you get acknowledged with a brand and let you decide if you’d like to drop the retail or sale price on an item from them in the future. They don’t necessarily even need to be made in EU, just they need to come from a higher price bracket.
Here are my Vinted filters for mostly EU brands (only some are made in EU), they link to the Polish Vinted so maybe change the .pl to your region:
Poland has the most connected regions on Vinted so your results may vary.
I found a few sales on avocadostore. With the sale prices they were the same as other slavemade brands on normal price.
Yes, but most of the time more durable, fair working conditions etc
For Shoes:
Portugal, mayby most famously, as well as poland have very talented cobblers who make great quality shoes while not being nearly as expensive as some of the bigger brands (looking at you, doc martens). Unfortunately the best way to find out about them currently is etsy. But I‘d reckon there are other platforms where they are active. Maybe it‘s even possible to contact them for sales circumventing Etsy.