ICON INDEX: WEST WILSON
West Wilson might be capturing our (at least my) hearts this season on Bravo's Summer House. But even if he's not your favorite, no one can deny this man has STYLE.
Coming at you live with the first edition of the ICON INDEX, where I’ll dissect the looks of various celebrities and Bravo-lebrities and offer alternatives for your closet. I noticed West Wilson’s style in his first season on Summer House, and he’s continued to impress even as my opinions on his behavior have oscillated.
Let’s run through some of his best looks and what made each of them so good.
During West’s first season of Summer House, he was coming into his own style-wise. This choice at the reunion showed he knows how to do suiting for summer. I like that the tan suit feels airy, and the white tank underneath really chills back the formality of the suit and dress shoes. The brown western belt keeps the color scheme going, but the black shoes keep it from looking too matchy-matchy. This is a great outfit formula for a spring or summer event. But this formula is an early hint of West’s ability to mix formal and casual elements of menswear to create looks that are cool and laidback but also fairly dressy.
The outfit above highlights this impact well. West is wearing a tie (ahem… see my previous post), a very traditional signal of formality, with what looks like a blazer, topped with a much more casual Carhartt bomber jacket and a baseball cap. His loafers are treaded (that’s the rubber at the bottom of the shoe), which is a subtle signal of a shoe that’s slightly more casual - a little more streetwear-esque, drawing connections to the outerwear and hat and tying the look together in a way that blends the formal and casual quite eloquently.
Here’s another great example of this impact. I like that he’s also got a fairly consistent color scheme. Even when the outfit might be more “out there,” he sticks to softer blues, grays, browns, and beige. That’s why the above outfit, which, if done messily, might look way too busy with all the patterns he’s got going on (I count three), manages to look thoughtful and put together. My one criticism, though, is the socks. I think that orange is too orange for me - sorry!
So…how do you incorporate this into your own style? Here’s my take on West Wilson’s style, distilled down into a few key pieces. If you’d like to shop the pieces in this image, you can click here.
West is very funny, playful, and lighthearted, and I appreciate that he takes risks and dresses accordingly. Take this most recent look from the Tonight Show below - when so many men have been sticking to the plain black suit on red carpets, I love that he went for the mint green - and I like that the blazer is shorter than typical to suit his frame too. Way to keep it interesting! Keep it up Westy.
Thanks for tuning in! Let me know who else you’d like to see next.
xo Eva
