Fashion 5-0: One For the Books

With the Bookworm's Literary Festival in full swing, we give the the lowdown on geek chic.

Geek chic first appeared in either the year 1876 or more likely in the mid-1990s. That’s when the Internet became popularized and suddenly all those dudes with glasses and wedgies had become rich, successful and able to help you log on to AOL. History lesson over. Geeks are the new nerds.

Leather trousers are kind of the opposite of bookish cool. Then you see them worn with a facial expression only ever seen on milk carton ads for missing children or posters tacked onto lampposts looking for a lost dog. This look could be called well-thumbed. Thumbs up.

To style yourself as “wise” has to be foolish. That is, unless you manage to look like a man who has just climbed Everest the old-fashioned way. That’s a proper mountaineer’s beard. Kudos.

Non-identical twin A: ”Highlights and stubble.”
Non-identical twin B: “Check.“
Non-identical twin A: “Maroon shirt.“
Non-identical twin B: “Check.“
Non-identical twin A: “Trenchcoat and scarf.“
Non-identical twin B: “Check, check, check.“
Non-identical twin A: “Look out, world - here we come.“

What do you see? A slight military twist, a scarf with words on it, one of those haircuts that all the kids have. This is what your girlfriend wants you to look like, except you don’t have a girlfriend because all the trendy guys have them.

This shouldn’t work. At all. It does and the reason lies somewhere between corduroy headwear, fingered-and-hinged mittens and some good old-fashioned bar-brawler sideburns.

Accessories, according to those skilled in the art of seduction, should be able to spark conversation. An example would be you carrying a Thomas the Tank Engine Thermos so that someone will talk to you and you have your “in.” Browsing magazines and pretending you don’t know you’re being looked at it is how the shy kids are spinning it.

And this is what the laptop-in-public people look like to those who aren’t out looking for free Wi-Fi and their java fix:

1) a genius who uses his Notebook as handy pocket-sized personal stereo

2) confused like a small child forcibly dressed for some manner of family photo

3) smug like original EU member states.

Resist the urge. Keep those laptops closed.