The 1960s (spit), Men's Style and History

I left this as a comment on a post which suggested you, as a man, allow your girl to dress you:

It's been since the 60s or thereabouts when the full swing of the Peacock Revolution was in its heyday that men stopped caring about what they wore. This led to the horrendous 70s and everything's been downhill from there.

60s men who grew up then rejected not only their 30s and 40s fathers' political ideologies, but also their conservative (read: traditional) fashion style. The basics of what a Western man looks good in, unlike women's, really doesn't change and hasn't ever since Beau Brummell decided to set his own pace.

The problem is that 80% of men and boys today didn't learn from their fathers about fashion, the classic kind worn by such men as the Duke of Windsor, Cary Grant, Larry Niven and any of the movie stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I don't blame them because their fathers never did either.

This has caused something of a problem for the modern man: unless one takes a markedly dogged position on the issue and LEARNS what makes a man look good and gets it (thus obviating the need for any woman to think him badly dressed), they let their women do the picking.
Men didn't use to be fashion accessories for women, they dressed themselves (as would be expected of any adult).

It's only been quite recently that women have taken yet another position not traditionally theirs and started outfitting their dummies, er men. To be sure, I don't blame the women either. Just as it is necessary to provide a locus of manhood as she does of womanhood, when men relinquish this locus, the ladettes only too readily--but unhappily--take over the vacuum.

No, I suggest every man simply learns about classic, timeless male fashion (one of the better books on the subject are any by Alan Flusser; Russell Smith's Men's Style; askandyaboutclothes.com; The Suit by Antongiovanni though it is rather a pill).

Imagine my horror to find I'd (once again) mistaken Larry Niven with David Niven. Larry's a SciFi writer of some not—weird, I don't read SciFi, but I can't get his freaking name out of my head. David is, of course, the ever so sharply dressed movie star.