A Taste of Possession Obsession
Crossing Threads 1
I firmly believe that every man could markedly improve their life essentially overnight by purchasing one (1) quality white t-shirt. The logic is pretty straightforward —higher quality is noticeable in the construction of any other article of clothing one might splurge on, and judging by the amount of men who swear by lululemon, they are doing so.
(Thankfully, vuori vs lululemon discussions have not penetrated the mainstream discourse like the age old Amex Platinum vs Chase Sapphire Reserve “argument” — truly WWE for millenials — which somehow seems to have resolved in the Platinum’s favor in the latest arc solely due to a greater historical association with status and the ability to complain on one’s Instagram story about 40-minute waits to get a half-assed cocktail and some premium mediocre cafeteria food. Who said power structures of yore have been disrupted?)
But, because of the inherently barren design and an unfortunate association with the makers of the most insufferable song ever written,
the upscale plain white tee is concurrently overlooked and derided. Does anyone remember the kerfuffle surrounding Kanye West’s $120 white t-shirt from over a decade ago that was relentlessly mocked?
Take a look at this thread from 2013. It’s full of the kind of pseudo-intellectual smugness that permanently turned me off of reviews and comments written by random strangers:
These are the bearable ones. I was not above this myself at the time, logically concluding that there was no real difference between a Kanye shirt and a Kirkland shirt, and assumed the difference was mostly branding. At the time, I also couldn’t fathom spending $120 ($160 in today’s dollars — whoof) on a single shirt, though that’s obviously changed (see The Ven Commandments):
Appearance contains two elements — what you do for yourself, and what others will see when they look at you. Signaling theory itself is a pet theory of a friend, but it derives from basic biology: you are what you represent to society. Similar to how true arrogance is expecting people to flock to your Substack due to its sheer quality rather than advertising it and encouraging people to read it, laconic indication that you are aware of your image and project how you want to be perceived goes a long way, as opposed to the narcissism that someone should figure out who you are through their own effort. Put simply, wearing a watch is the inverse of “if you can’t handle me at my worst, you don’t deserve me at my best” — a horrible misunderstanding of how people actually work. There are billions of people in existence — why should someone care about you?
This changed after I had my mind blown when I bought tailored shirts and suits for the first time after a particularly boozy brunch — you really can’t go back to ready-to-wear, bespoke clothing is more comfortable than sweats (which, as it so happens, I had never worn up until 2020 lockdowns.) As such, I’ve essentially turned into Barney Stinson whenever dress clothing comes up, and have sent many people to my tailor:
This is not to say that you have to wear expensive clothes, but that an obsession with quality pays extreme dividends when you find the right ones to wear regardless of price. After all, one of my favorite pairs of pants is a pair of Wrancher dress jeans I acquired for $35 on sale.
It sounds patently unAmerican to say this, but I refused to wear jeans for the first ~quarter century of my life. It was self-derived from signaling theory: there are good ways to stick out, and bad ones. You don’t want to go to a fancy cocktail bar and order a beer, just like you don’t want to ask for a wine list at a sports bar while the game is on. As Andre Agassi would say, “Image is Everything”.
Dressing to signal is a bit like method acting. We’ve all seen the carbuncle caricature dressed in loud designer clothing as they board their basic economy flight or standing in line outside the Supreme SoHo store waiting to grab a sweater, but this doesn’t necessarily mean one has to be subtle. For example, in a university setting, the best-dressed people are usually the professors. Being a cut above the t-shirt and jeans lemmings (don’t even start me on the crowd that goes out in public wearing a**leisure) evokes the implication that you should be taken more seriously than everyone else, until you open your mouth and remove all doubt, of course. Dressing well each morning is a bit militaristic, in the same way one is expected to maintain their hair and shave each morning in the actual military. You tend to want to make something out of your day when you spend time getting ready for it as opposed to rolling out of bed with messy hair and hopping on a voice-only Zoom call, where the only thought is going back to bed.
That being said, I realized I was being more than a bit obstinate throughout my entire life. (I also refused to wear sneakers outside of the gym until I happened to put on a pair of Yeezy’s that I intended to flip and consequently realized how comfortable they were.) A pointed refusal to wear jeans was definitely some type of signal, but then again, I had accumulated a bunch of clothing that cost multiples more than the Kanye shirt that I got to wear less than a handful of times a year. While musing over this one day, I ended up ordering a “nice” plain white Vivienne Westwood t-shirt, and was blown away by the level of comfort. I can’t go back to Kirkland t-shirts in the same way I can’t go back to off-the-rack suits and pants. The extra $80 was 100% worth it.
There’s no more natural pairing with the white tee than a pair of jeans, after all — it’s like the association between $1.50 and a Costco hot dog. I wandered into a Levi’s store (can’t unsee all the Brett Favre ads from my youth, unfortunately) and grabbed a pair of 501’s. Nowadays, of course, I’ve branched out into Japanese denim, jackets, and more, but the t-shirt and jeans look is the Hall & Oates of the closet — no matter what combination you use, classic or vintage, American or Japanese, it’s universally going to be good. (Find me a bad Hall & Oates track — you can’t do it. They were the Taylor Swift hit machine of the 70s-80s but Actually Good™.)
In a sense, this is what conditioned me to mellow out a bit — I don’t have to be on all the time, so I learned to just put on the white shirt and wear the jeans. But, of course, I’m going to do it well.
As a result, I’ve developed a new school of thought. Much like an uncle or family friend gifts you an Hermès tie that you’ll never wear or a grandparent gifts socks whose utility you won’t realize until you’re a bit older, I gift people quality white t-shirts. It’s universally appreciated, and you can’t go wrong — while beauty is in the eye of the beholder, comfort is for the body of the wearer.
Some white t-shirts I like:
As mentioned prior, I have some more general stuff I’ve wanted to put out. Ostensibly you could call it “lifestyle” content, but it essentially just amounts to threads of thought that fit more in a weekend section, hence “crossing threads” — rather than going from the bid to the ask, I’m going to a place that nobody explicitly asked for.
Prices should range from ~$50-100. Of course, I am not an affiliate of these brands in any way — you can probably find a good deal with a bit of effort.