Casual queer classics scholar

This look loves dusty tomes, but is also hella queer about it

Hey my brave lil adventurer. Thanks for checking out my site and this post! I don't know precisely how to categorize this look, but luckily you don't need to categorize all your looks. You just gotta feel good in them.

I love dapper, especially the elegance, creativity, and power of the dapper queer community. But I don't do full dapper most of the time. Usually, I dress pretty casual, or I'll sometimes shoot for a mix of semi-dapper. That's one of the fun things about dapper to me!

Dapper is a section of your closet that's often associated with "formal" or "professional" or "special event." And when you fully suit up outside of those contexts, you might worry you'll come off as overdressed. (Although, buddy, I'm not here to stop you. If you want to dress to the nines on your way to buy cat litter, I fully endorse that.) But since those dapper elements of your wardrobe have their own special classy vibe, that makes it easy to liven up an outfit by mixing these pieces with more casual elements.

Something I like is a patterned blazer used in a casual look, as I did here. With a solid thermal top and olive khakis, I could have kept with the laidback tone and thrown a bomber or a denim jacket over this. On a whim, I instead reached for this blazer I had recently thrifted (a $3 fella I couldn't help but take home.) Blazers look good over more than just button ups, and it's perfectly okay to forgo a tie. Your dapper pieces don't need to sit lonesome in your closet, awaiting your next wedding or company party. Let them be free. Let 'em mingle with their non-dapper brethren and breathe that sweet outside air.

This blazer was interesting to me, and not just because it was a sweet deal. The woolish texture feels very fall, and also gives off academic and scholarly notes to me. I also loved the colors at play - dark blue base with red ochre, green, and pink in the plaid. This ended up being the base for this outfit's palette, since I luckily had enough pieces already that echoed those colors. The blazer's style is potentially a lot of look for a full two piece suit (which I didn't have anyway) or heavy pattern mixing. I love pattern mixing, but decided to pair some nice chill solids with this blazer, letting him be the loudest piece in the look.

I decided to keep it casual, my thought being that a more colorful plaid blazer or suit + a button up and tie can potentially read "car salesman" or "40's talkshow host," which I wasn't feeling that day. Sometimes when I'm styling a blazer casually, I like to roll the cuffs back if there's some contrast lining, like the pinstripes here. If you're sporting a long sleeved top underneath you can have those sleeves peek through for interest (pretty sure purists may toss cookies at this, but you can decide for yourself how you feel about it), or if it's warm weather and you've got a tee on you can just show off them nice bare wrists. Throw a bracelet or two on there.

Speaking of accessories, this look has some. It's a well-known style rule of thumb to match the color of your leather (or faux-leather) shoes, belt, and sometimes wristwatch strap to each other. Sometimes I do this because I like the effect. Sometimes I don't, because I also like the look of not sticking to that rule, or because I simply don't have three pieces in the right color and I really want to wear a certain watch and I'm a free person not getting paid to follow whatever rules. In this case, my shoes, watch band, and the leather of my belt are all a nice light, slightly reddish shade of brown. I did like the look of that, and I felt this brown matched the look's professor vibes. The shoes are by Tomboy Toes, who are great to know if you don't already, especially if you're a smaller-footed friend who hungers for dapper footwear like brogues and boots.

My favorite sources for accessories, whether dressing up or down, are independent artists and vintage finds. You often can get more unique stuff - surprising or unexpected, inspiring, reasonably priced, and with personality. And in the case of artist work, it directly supports a creator who really feels the impact of your dollars.

Clothing is flexible; you can get different looks and feels out of anything. Honestly, I was feeling the olive color of these khakis, but they're one of my more casual, less fitted pairs. Plus, they were a bit smooshed and wrinkly at the time. I decided to roll with that though, embrace the baggy feel but taper the end by rolling and pegging the cuffs. It resulted in a sort of disheveled look in keeping with those light scholarly vibes, like a prof who's a big nerd and likes to look cool, but doesn't have it all together and was too busy scrunched in the depths of the library stacks to do laundry. Me if I were a prof, basically.

I was surprised how much I ended up liking this last-minute thrown together outfit for a boba run. What do y'all think of this look? How would you style this blazer for yourself? Take care lil adventurer.

Elements of this outfit:

Thrifted plaid blazer ($3!)

Dusty rose thermal shirt

Olive Gap khakis

Patterned socks

Tomboy Toes roguish brogues

Fire and bone deer skull pendant

Vintage sword lapel pin

Skull shield pin by Pam Wishbow

Claddagh earrings from Mom

Fossil watch

Tommy Hilfiger belt