In Defense of California Leisure Style
The Golden State's most effortlessly sartorial would like to have a word.
Los Angeles has a bad reputation when it comes to style. I’ve been to LA more times than I can count; I understand. The amount of men in their busted-down Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watches, wearing head-to-toe designer labels, driving a Rolls Royce is as gauche as it gets. There are plenty of people in Southern California who don’t dress like this; however. The fact is that all major cities have a fashion scene, and to call one better than the other is trite. Walking the streets of New York, it’s clear that people care about the way they look, especially because so many of them have to walk everywhere, so being seen at your best is important. In Los Angeles, a most people drive, so fashion takes a bit of a backseat - no pun intended.
Of course, California fashion goes beyond Los Angeles, but as the cultural epicenter of the state (at least according to the majority of the country [# SFBetter]), the style that I’ll write about has a twinge of LA bias - Go Lakers.
Like LA, San Francisco’s sartorial reputation doesn’t quite match its reality. People assume the city is a sea of black Patagonia down jackets, Lululemon ABC pants, and Allbird sneakers. It’s believed that many men dress in a minimal tech uniform in the footsteps of giants like Zuck and Elon. First of all, there’s nothing wrong with a little Patagucci - gorp is cool; the great outdoors is cool. Secondly, that’s not how all San Franciscans dress. I’ve worked for three major fashion companies birthed in the Bay Area, and I found creativity, authenticity, and individuality that I encountered daily.
So you may ask, who are these cool guys in California and how are they dressing? The truth is simple and complicated at the same time. The truth is that clothing is secondary to a lot of California’s most stylish men. California natives dress in a way that is influenced by everything around us. We don’t wear specific clothes and brands for the sake of wearing them or because everyone else is. We instead dress in accordance with the music we listen to, the activities we partake in, and the art we align with. We have a rich history of punk rock, surfing, skateboarding, and hip-hop, all of which inform the way that we dress. Whether it be wide-legged denim, Stussy, or a trucker jacket, the clothing has always been a reflection of our overarching culture.
The new wave of stylish California men is embracing new brands and new styles. To help me get to the bottom of this, I tapped in with Lisa Rosen (@lisarosentv on TikTok and IG) to gather her expertise. The social media star knows a thing or two about men’s (and women’s) fashion as it relates to Los Angeles. She dubbed the term “LA Cool Guy” to describe a way of describing the most stylish guys she sees running around the streets of Silverlake. While her content leans towards fashion, she also ventures into general lifestyle content- what products to use, the wine to drink, interests, etc. Long before she was making “LA Cool Guy” content, she was one of the originators of “LA Cool Girl” content.” I’ve been watching her TikToks for over a year now, and she’s quickly become one of my favorite follows. Her slowed-down style of talking through her videos, aesthetic use of photos, and paparazzi fit-pics on the backdrop of soulful music will keep you scrolling on her feed until the end. Lately, she’s transitioned her TikTok fame into a concierge service called La Cool Girl where she offers club memberships, style guides, and consulting on men seeking to freshen up their taste and online presence. Lisa is an entrepreneur in every sense of the word and I asked her what exactly makes good California style.
“The style is always a mix of high/low, like pairing a plain Abercrombie t-shirt with a $250 hoodie,” Rosen says. I arrived at this style independently in 2016 when I was wearing John Elliott Villain hoodies with Levi’s jeans and Vans sneakers. None of these clothes are necessarily flashy, but they are rich in detail. The aim is to be “casual and understated with some edge” according to Lisa, whose TikTok showcases not only the clothing that the most stylish men on the West Coast wear, but also their attitudes, and behavior patterns. No matter what subculture we come from - skating, music, fashion, athletics - the most stylish people in California believe in quiet confidence. We talk slowly. We like what we like and don’t let the trends and moodboards of Instagram affect our style For us the perfect outfit is the one that can go from the beach to the natural wine bar to the concert and the club.
We love jeans, whether they’re from Wrangler or Levi’s, sturdy boots and classic shoes, or vintage t-shirts. Vintage culture has been massive in the Bay Area, long before Goodwill was the store of choice for Gen-Z and 2nd Street was the Mecca of TikTokers. We love our individuality, opting for brands that are under the radar. “He’s very into niche local brands that you can’t find in stores like Drake’s California and Apathetic State Vintage. Another fan favorite brand is Elwood,” Lisa tells me via her Instagram where she has 36,000 followers. While I agree that we love ourselves as an under-the-radar brand, I’ll go as far as to say we love all California-based brands. Vans, Converse, Stussy, and Levi’s are all famous examples of clothing brands that call the Golden State home.
There are several subsets of stylish California men: The surfer/skater, the California Cowboy, the formal sleaze, and the indie guy. Let’s break down each one:
The Surfer/Skater
You’d think there’s a big difference between a skater and a surfer in California, but there isn’t. Need proof? Look no further than Shawn Stussy, who started his namesake brand in the early 1980s. The brand was originally a surfboard manufacturer in Laguna Beach before printing shirts and caps and creating the streetwear behemoth we all love today. By 1988, they had opened a flagship store in Soho, becoming a favorite of surfers and skaters alike. Today, the brand ubiquity goes without saying. Its name rings out to several communities - skate, streetwear, skaters, the avant-grade fashion set, etc. The surfer/skater aesthetic is the most laid-back. We slip on our checkerboard Vans with a big pair of pants - sometimes Dickies - with a slightly oversized t-shirt. We love a shoulder bag to carry our lighter & cigarettes, our phones, and a bus pass that we certainly do not use. Skate gear is a must. Not that we’re trying hard to look like something that we’re not, we just all have a homie or two that works at a shop. Sometimes they lob us merch, sometimes we want to cop a piece from the latest drop. We usually throw a hat on. Beanies are year-round here even though the sun loves to shine and the temperatures are warm. Our long, unkept hair looks great under the beanie’s warmth. Popular brands in this genre are Stussy, Vans, Noon Goons, Undefeated, For The City, and Huf.
California Cowboy
Another subculture that is sacred to California is The Great American West. At one point in this country, thousands, if not millions of families, packed all their belongings in a wagon and made their way to the coast, where our western wind blows and dreams of riches reign supreme. The Gold Rush, the dot com boom, web2.0. We’ve always been a boom-or-bust town. Western style has always appealed to us Californians. Having a beautiful pair of welded cowboy boots to wear with our Levi’s jeans and a western jacket is the perfect outfit for us. Look at Cherry LA - one of the best new brands in the game. All of the motifs are about horses, old American cars, and cacti. One of These Days is another brand popular in California that romanticizes the American West.
Instead of going full cowboy, we will stick with the boots, jeans, and jacket, but instead of wearing a flannel shirt underneath, we opt for a tank top or white t-shirt. If we must wear a Western shirt, we skip the jacket. The trick is not to overcommit and look like John Wayne in The Searchers.
We love the California Cowboy look. If we could, we’d dress up like an Ed Ruscha painting. In due time, my friends.
The Formal Sleaze
Even when we want to look more put together, we can’t be bothered to throw on tight, fitted clothing. It’s too damn hot out here; we need to be relaxed. Enter Fear of God, the brainchild of founder and creative director Jerry Lorenzo. Fear of God was founded in 2013 offering a timeless classic with an oversized, more relaxed twist. The brand sports the finest fabrics, which results in a higher price point. After collaborating with PacSun, Lorenzo founded Essentials, an affordable tier of Fear of God clothing that has been wildly successful. While Essentials leans more towards streetwear, the mainline is full of effortless elegance. Lorenzo has shifted the mainline to include big coats, tailoring, and shirting in all colors. The garments are flowy, designed to drape the body elegantly in the California sun.
When the temperature dips, we will need a sweater, so grab an oversized cashmere knit from The Elder Statesman. There are beautiful, tie-dye sweaters that, even though they retail at over $1,500, you can find great deals in the off-season. We’re the home of the hippie movement, tie-dye doesn’t simply trend here; it’s a part of our culture: The Haight-Ashbury, the Summer of Love, Kerouac and Ginsburg - all engrained in the fabric of San Francisco.
The formal sleaze needs clothing that isn’t Fear of God tailoring and $1,500 sweaters, so when we need to do it down, we’re rocking John Elliott that we got at the flagship store on Melrose. Another young brand that we love, John used to make skinny jeans and the Villain hoodie, which had a great run in 2015-2017. These days, he makes chill oversized hoodies in a variety of bright colors - yellows, baby blues, and light pink. John Elliot’s big t-shirts and high-quality denim make for the perfect outfit when we want to look like we don’t give a shit while wearing beautiful, high-quality crafted jawnz.
The Indie/Vintage Guy
The indie guy is all about vintage. We know that the best finds are those in thrift shops or the depths of the triple-digit pages on eBay. No one will have those clothes on the street. We will be unique; we will be us. Before vintage t-shirts were all over the Instagram explore page, before Kanye was wearing vintage band tees, we were wearing the oldest t-shirts from punk rockers that we could find. The Cure, Velvet Underground, Jawbreaker, Bowie, Talking Heads, etc.. With California being the entertainment capital of the world, music and movies are part of our DNA, so the more t-shirts we have that showcase old movies and bands, the better. We wear them under old, beat-up denim jackets from Levi’s or Wrangler. We love an old trucker jacket to layer our vintage tees. Oh, did I mention that freakin jeans were invented here? Double denim can be the move, or we can wear our baggy skate pants. When we go denim, vintage is better. Since jeans came from California, there’s no shortage of old jeans in every thrift store in the state. It’s not uncommon to find jeans just lying on the street - not that we’d wear those, but there is an infinite supply of denim. We throw on a trucker hat from a random gas station that we stopped at on a drive through the desert and our best boots and leave the house. Nothing is more chill than looking like we don’t care, even if it took us three months to find the jeans and T-shirt we’re wearing. Bonus points if we have a mustache.
When people talk bad about California style, they’re mostly talking about the outfits that you see courtside at a Lakers game. Loud Gucci and Balenciaga logos. If you look beyond the logomania that is still ever-present here, you’ll find a lot of tasteful style. Whether it be surfer style, cowboy, high-class sleaze or just a guy in vintage clothing, the most stylish people here can hold their own versus the most stylish people anywhere. There are too many culturally significant moments from California history to pull from, too many subcultures. On top of it all, we have a special nonchalance about us, a quiet confidence. We talk slowly, we walk slowly. Sure, dressing is important, but we must act the part as well. I love our leisure style. In a world dominated by New York City, I no longer think that chasing the NYC style seen on social media is cool. Being a lifelong resident of the Golden State, this is me, yo, right here. I’m leaning in.
Peace and Love