The majority of your wardrobe is going to be basics. Plain t-shirts, undergarments, socks, jeans and shoes. That’s it. This is what you wear to the store, to the gym, to pick up the kids and when you’re home and comfortable. Basics will always be “in style” and the white t-shirt and blue jeans will be our perennial “go-to” outfit.

Gap does it the right way making brilliant marketing campaigns around their khakis and jeans. Express for Men is another retail outlet that made the basic poplin shirt their “go-to” item. And we come to American Apparel, the much loved and extremely “hip” clothing label that is popular in the Williamsburg and Silver Lake set. They have gone out of their way to create a basics line that tops the aforementioned brands.

From t-shirts, to underwear, to jackets and even hats, American Apparel has made basics a priority in their marketing campaigns. They market, merchandise basic t-shirts in an exemplary way: They carry many styles from V-neck to crewneck to ringer; Many colors: from earth tones to pastels. Overall there are many choices of styles and colors to choose from. Honestly, they can make a fortune on the sale of basic to the general public.

On the other hand, the have their printed, patterned styles  that straddles the line between “fashion” and foolishness. There are some outfits like painted gold hot pants, zebra patterned oxford shirts and pastel jungle patterned painters’ cap that look like they belong to an elderly tourist from Florida. American Apparel does their best to target the young, urban “hipster” crowd. But you have to question a fashion company’s motive the moment they start creating items for individuals to wear “ironically”.

Fashion is always interpretive, subjective and in the “eye of the beholder” but there’s a point when purchasing an item because it looks bad, tacky and unfashionable is counterproductive to the intrinsic idea of style. Architects like Frank Lloyd Wright always struggled and worked through the argument of function over form and vice versa. Fashion is the same way: it can be art, it can be interpretive and it can be ironic. But if you are on a crowded subway going into Midtown, all of that doesn’t matter. Comfort and function does.

Leave the art and irony for the catwalk and the pretentious art openings. Always keep in mind basics and subtlety is what we wear for the sake of functionality. It should be that way with fashion and companies, like American Apparel should keep that good balance between basics and pushing fashion limits. But don’t push it too far when it starts to look silly for the sake of looking silly.

Image credit: istolethetv on Flickr