From the start of my style journey I was strongly drawn to menswear. The classic tailoring, structured pieces, the fabrics. I followed the aesthetics, admired the references, and felt an almost immediate sense of “rightness” when looking at it. 

I used to think this meant I preferred masculine style. But I never actually wore it. Now I see I wasn’t responding to gendered clothing. I was responding to what menswear often represents somatically.

Traditional menswear tends to emphasize:

• heavier fabrics
• matte, dense surfaces
• structure and shape
• longer lines
• stability over delicacy
• less ornament

When I looked at those qualities, my body registered:

• grounded
• contained
• substantial
• calm

It was not about expressing gender for me. It was about sensing environmental stability.

Even so, menswear spaces still operate within style language.

There’s a lot of talk about fit, drape, and proportion, which is closer to the body and materials language. But often discussions take a sharp turn. You get the fit right, and then the “real” work begins: refining your aesthetic, building a point of view, signaling taste, participating in a culture. This is where I would lose interest.

For me, fit and feel are the work. 

Menswear functioned like a visual shorthand for weight, structure, and surface density . All those variables reduce visual and bodily noise for me. My attraction wasn’t to the identity behind the clothes, but the sense of ease they seemed to offer.