A$AP Nast and Ganna Bogdan Show You How To Navigate the No-Rules Era of American Style

In the future, when the humanoids look back on America circa 2018 from the streamlined tidiness of their little sprocket colonies on Mars, they will surely think: LOL. What a shit show!

And also: What were they wearing?

Politically, socially, environmentally—the world is a mess right now, and we're all dressing for it. Fashion has always been a sign o' the times, and the sign currently has a blood-red “A” scrawled across it.

That's right: anarchy. Over the past ten years, men have dressed like preps and lumberjacks. Mad Men and stylish geezers. Even the athleisure movement had its moment. But now a new lawlessness has taken hold of our wardrobes—even here at the GQ offices. Just today I passed one colleague wearing gray sweatpants and another wearing spit-polished Calvin Klein cowboy boots. I'm wearing a tailored suit—but with a T-shirt that's been screenprinted with hallucinogenic mushrooms and tie-dyed. And somehow none of us have been cited by HR.

This chaos in clothing isn't just a street-level trend, either. Designers are on the same gonzo wavelength. The Gucci collections seem concocted by an Italian painter whose evening vin santo got spiked with mescaline and Viagra. Balenciaga looks like the genius brainchild of the forklift-driving manager at a Zappos warehouse. And those are the two hottest fashion houses on earth. (Go figure.)

Naturally, certain people are poised to shine in this messy fashion moment, like the rapper A$AP Nast and model Ganna Bogdan, who have cult followings on Instagram thanks to their uncanny ability to smash together different genres of clothing: a little midcentury tailoring mixed with some shagadelic '70s sportswear, topped off with a dash of '90s athletic gear. In the no-rules era, these two are in complete command.

So what does this mean for you? Well, you can follow your own sartorial muse, no questions asked. Feel like putting on a bolo tie instead of a bow tie at your best friend's wedding? Go for it.

It also means a wide range of contradictory things are in style at the same time. For example: When I started working at GQ back in 2007, we were trying to get every man in America to wear slim-fit plain-front pants. Full stop. But now you can wear baggy double-pleated cords on a Monday, skinny black jeans on a Tuesday, and high-waisted Fred Astaire trousers on a Wednesday.

The important thing to remember is that when you resist anarchy, it feels terrifying and chaotic. But when you embrace it, it feels like total freedom. So let's all swan-dive into this unruly and change-tastic new era.

Hey, if the world ends, at least we'll look the part.

Will Welch is GQ’s Creative Director

This story appears in the March 2018 issue of GQ with the title “Welcome to the No-Rules Era of American Style.”

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