Dress Like a Journalist
Contrary to popular belief, journalists take couture very seriously. In journalism school,* young journalistos and journalistas are educated on appropriate fashion choices—garments they can move and be comfortable in, in case they have to run from a cop, attend a lengthy court hearing, or sit and blog for nine hours.**
One can see evidence of this fashion sense in behind-the-scenes shots of Spotlight, which stars Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo as hardened journos who uncover a pedophile scandal in the Massachusetts Catholic Church.
Check out McAdams and Ruffalo on the streets of Boston like they stepped off the plane, fresh and cool from Paris Fashion Week:
McAdams has chosen to drape herself in the finest of cerulean polyester. This is a fabulous color for journalism. It says: I can detect a blue not found in nature. The shapelessness of her top, and her refusal to tuck it in, is a rejection of bodycon styles that have ruled runways for the past few seasons. And to pair a pleated trouser with that is very avant garde. The high-heeled loafer tells the world: I am a woman in a man's shoe-world. The hay-colored hair says: I once wrote a story on a horse.
ruffalo dressed exactly like a real journalist pic.twitter.com/hbRcPVxrHR
— max read (@max_read) September 29, 2014
Considering Ruffalo's sartorial voice, he must have been to New York City once or twice—how else would he know that all-black is a slimming, if not intimidating, look? His bangs have been cut to a monk-like length, in step with Comme des Garcons FRTW 2008. A leather coat is not just a coat, but armor—against the weather, and the world. Doc Martens, those punk bulwarks, help a man navigate the mean streets of Beantown. If he falls down, fine. If his black jeans rip, all the better.
What we have here are two truth-seekers dressed in fabrics that enable truth seeking: cheap cottons, musty leathers, and big-ass oxford shirts. This, America, is what enrobes our Fourth Estate.
*I dropped out.
**It should be noted that, until the rise of the personal brand®, journalists were discouraged from wearing too much "personal flair" (bowties disincluded). A journalist, the thinking went, should blend into the crowd, so should try to be white and male.
