Why I Enjoy Derek Guy’s Twitter Feed

the price of oil surging means you can burn your shein clothes, extract the oil, and make more money than you paid

— derek guy (@dieworkwear) March 7, 2026

I'm surprised anyone disagrees with this. The growth of my social media account and root of my legitimacy is purely in the fact that I know how the ruling classes in Britain, Italy, and the United States dressed during the 20th century.

When Vivek Ramaswamy and Pete Hegseth…

— derek guy (@dieworkwear) March 5, 2026

I'm surprised anyone disagrees with this. The growth of my social media account and root of my legitimacy is purely in the fact that I know how the ruling classes in Britain, Italy, and the United States dressed during the 20th century.

When Vivek Ramaswamy and Pete Hegseth wear tan shoes with navy suits, I can say "this looks like shit to most people because it's not how King Charles and Gianni Agenlli would have dressed." When Kash Patel puts contrast buttonholes on his suits, I can say it's wrong because the ruling classes across these countries during that period would have never chosen such a thing.

You read this as legitimate purely because you accept the legitimacy of these classes in forming our sense of aesthetics. Someone who has no interest in these classes — such as Paul Harden and Yohji Yamamoto — rightly disregards all of these notions and makes tailoring according to different rules.

The polo shirt is no different. The spread of the polo shirt is a story about how a pullover garment migrated from the polo fields played by British imperialists to tennis legends in France and eventually to the golfing middle classes in the United States. This is entirely a story about race, class, and gender. Football jerseys and basketball shorts don't enjoy such history, and thus they are not seen as legitimate business clothes.

The difference between me and other menswear writers is that: 1) I make this history and dynamic transparent and 2) I don't think the white upper class are the sole source for cultural legitimacy. There are many legitimate aesthetics that have nothing to do with this class, such as biker gear, workwear, punk and rap aesthetics, etc.

I just think it's weird to shit on contemporary women's athleisure while wearing a polo shirt, one of the original pieces of athleisure, albeit primarily worn by upper class white men.

Until Ralph Lauren came along, I never knew they were polo shirts. 👕 I called them “Izods.” If I understand correctly, the precursor to the soft collar polo shirt was the button down collar, so they wouldn’t flap in the player’s face.

I only have a couple of polo shirts now, but almost all of my regular shirt have button down collars. I suppose I’m still a slave to the “upper” classes. What can I say? I learned to dress when the Preppie Handbook came out. That and my boss wor button down dress shirts, and I greatly admired him.

i stopped going to menswear forums the day i realized i couldn't think of anything i've learned there in the last five years. i've since started wondering what i've learned from reading social media and i honestly can't think of a single meaningful thing. https://t.co/rPwd61JP0u

— derek guy (@dieworkwear) March 5, 2026

my hot take is that this is not a good medium for learning. you have to dwell and spend time with ideas. write notes at the margin; engage in long conversation. social media is too fast moving, limited, and superficial to deliver meaningful info in an impactful way.

— derek guy (@dieworkwear) March 5, 2026

I can’t think of a better reason to put this phone down and pick up that Kierkegaard biography I’ve been trying to finish.

Or maybe just try to revive my long neglected piano skills. 

It’s much more likely I’m gonna read the biography….