fashion bulletin: not a dandy, just well dressed

I’ve created a Tumblr on the Suit-Distraction theme! While it’s awesome for having an automatic feed of  my areas of interest, it also is kind of distracting me from the harder work of intelligently posting here…

Allow me to borrow a bit, and post about one of the fashion crushes I am not watching in anything right now, but still deserves a post.

photos courtesy ChinaNews on WordPress

Blue Lan or Lan Zheng Long

There are guys who can carry off the kind of non-traditional suits that aren’t altered for avant-garde look, a look that kind of makes itself, as long as the person is attractive.

In this case, the suit is made of a velvet material that could come off as either feminine or dated in some way (both looks valid) but Blue carries it off instead as a luxurious fashion choice.

This is a particular charisma, which can pull of white suits without looking bridal, and odd collars without looking clerical. Of course, he just has a face that makes you take him seriously, but I think it’s also a particular style. More edgy fashion looks don’t draw him out, though he can carry them off, but these kind of more subdued choices against the traditional only set him off.

 

JYJ’s prettiest man — and you’re not going to forget it

The meta of this character’s treatment in the drama can be quite amusing.

he has a face for the morning...

Jae Joong, recently voted as Asia’s most attractive star in China, is the kind of idol whose standing as a teen heart-throb is better capitalized than forgotten. This has come to the fore from the second week of airing where secondary characters can take a bit more time to introduce themselves…

"Make you uncomfortable?" "No, I like it...I mean, no! Not like that?"

I love that this show is delivering fanservice…and then pointing it out. This character is written as the kind of polite, attractive guy who the heroine sees as untouchable, like Won Bin or Hyun Bin. I like that dynamic: she’s not going to turn him down when he takes her out to eat, but she knows it doesn’t mean anything. He’s the kind of guy who would just do that…

basically, it feels like a field trip, when it has all the trappings of a date...

I love that when she takes him out to “rebel”, though he gives the same sort of excuses Ji-Heon does about not going into clubs or whatever…it totally sounds like an idol having to not be caught doing something against their image. Ji-Heon’s just fastidious…or agoraphobic.

Note how many of his suits are straight black or navy.

cuz is trying to break up my lunchdate? plz

Just as Cha Ji-Heon is suited up in brighter colors, even primary tones, it’s no accident that this sort of ambivalent character in opposition to him is in monochromatics, even to black-on-black sets like this little number. It appears more than once!

It’s after their adventure at the amusement park (where Ji-Heon starts to feel that he likes Eun-Seul) that he begins to wear some grays and lighter colors. It may be her influence, it may be the return of the girl he really likes, and it may be just that the costumer got bored, but I think it’s interesting. The high-contrast clothes don’t look bad on him, either.

even his room is the chic chaebol stereotype, unlike Ji-Heon's...

And then there are a few moments where it feels a little too tongue-in-cheek, but because he’s adorable, it’s okay…

she is slapping his butt. OK, she's just being childish because his rebellion kinda worked, but still

MOOOM

but that’s not his reaction. He’s the ideal son. I’m betting we aren’t going to see his tattoos in this show…