Edgy Fashion Tips for Men

While a shift in the buttoning style on a double-breasted suit jacket may rock some men in the fashion world, the fact is that many men are more interested in edgier fashion styles. For the edgy look, men can look to urban street styles for inspiration. The key is to make the look your own, as opposed to cookie-cutter, by combining pieces in interesting ways, such as pairing a vintage designer jacket with some skinny jeans.

Denim

• Denim is always a standard in men's style, but it has been reinterpreted for those wanting an edgy look. The skinny-leg jean have overtaken oversize and relaxed-fit jeans as the fit of choice. In addition, vintage washes are more fashion-forward than traditional washes or color dyes. Distressed denim of the 1980s has made a comeback, with frayed seams, rips and holes a must. Leg length has changed, too, with many spring and summer styles offering a cropped or rolled-up leg. The cropped jeans look has inspired designers to offer cropped pants with suits, and even to crop or roll up sleeves on suit jackets.
  

Basics

• Edgy men are redefining your outfit basics. Take the T-shirt. Multimodal knits, longer lengths, form-fitted tailoring and deep V-necks have all but killed that boxy look of the '80s. Labels of choice are American Apparel, Diesel, Prada, Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss. Likewise, today's sneakers are a world away from the styles of yesteryear. Converse, Nike and Adidas are still favorite brands, but the look is about custom. Artists, graphic designers and rock stars have designed custom kicks for the general public. Styles may feature graffiti lettering, clashing patterns, neon colors, soles with embedded designs and distressed fabric.
  

Accessories

• Sunglasses have always been the accessory of choice for edgy guys. These days, frameless styles and aviator glasses are hot trends. Scarves have been making a comeback, especially vintage styles you can score in thrift stores and flea markets. On the more permanent accessory front, tattoos are a contender, becoming more popular than piercings. Beards are back in style, but with a lumberjack, untrimmed look as opposed to the carefully maintained goatee or soul patch.
  

 

 

5 Tips for Building a Successful Edgy Brand

 

It’s true that an edgy brand can make a product much more memorable for consumers, but it’s also true that it’s easy for an edgy brand to go too far and alienate its intended customer base entirely. Naturally, there are factors that determine whether an edgy brand sinks or floats, and fortunately they’re all easy things to keep in mind. Whether your brand succeeds or not is up to your creativity and work ethic and no brand is 100% foolproof.

Thinking about the line between edginess and maliciousness, remembering not to pander, remaining confident, striving for authenticity and keeping quality in mind should put you well on your way to a brand that’s both prosperous and edgy.

Be Edgy, Not Nasty

There’s a distinctive difference between edgy branding and branding that is just plain mean, spiteful or offensive. An edgy brand will, by nature, turn a certain amount of people away while entrancing others. The goal is to win the audience you want, not to alienate most of the world. Good marketing for a specific product with a specific audience in mind will succeed without the needless degradation of people, be it entire groups or certain individuals. Targeting a specific or niche customer base is great, but it can be done without haphazard bridge burning and marginalizing people who might compose a future audience.

People in their late 20s and younger love a good amount of snark, but that doesn’t have to include outright nastiness. Edgy ideas will always make some people uncomfortable, which will obviously cause them to move away from your brand. Those people are lost to you but there’s no need to go after them with torches and pitchforks. The success of an edgy brand resides within those people who gravitate toward products that eschew the boring in favor of something a little different.

Don’t Pander

There is never any reason to reduce your brand to a guy dressed in a fat suit falling down the stairs. Everyone appreciates a good, cheap laugh but there are many laughs that are just far too cheap. Lowering your brand to appeal to the lowest common denominator embarrasses you and your core audience. Being edgy is all about pushing buttons, but in order to be successful you need to know which buttons to push. Understand your audience and push the right buttons. Don’t resort to fart jokes and talking animals unless you can firmly stand behind them with your head held high. Edgy brands should cause people to think, to converse and to remember. It is very possible to be edgy without being silly, offensive or pathetic. Hold yourself to a high standard.

Be Confident

Believe in what you’re doing, trust your instincts and stick by your decisions. Once you launch an edgy brand be prepared to fight for it. Commit to your brand and leave any trace of hesitation behind. This is not something you can crawl away from, this is a brand that you firmly believe in and plan to support with all of the resources at your disposal. Your skin needs to be thick because negativity’s coming.

The brand is the important thing to focus on, not the controversy it creates. An edgy brand will be polarizing, but if you’re fully on board with what you’re doing then the polarization will create dialogue and open new avenues to you. Your backbone needs to be strong. Once you commit to something edgy, backing down or sulking away with a scared look on your face will ruin all of your hard work more quickly than you can imagine. Step up and stand tall.

Be Authentic

Your brand is not just some marketing illusion cooked up by out-of-touch suits in a musty boardroom; it represents you and what you stand for. Whether your brand says that you’re fun and lighthearted, that you’re serious and vigilant or that you’re dark and mysterious depends totally on who you are. You’re different from everyone and everything else that has ever existed in this world and your brand is your opportunity to show that to the world.

A good brand is never pulled out of thin air; it represents important aspects of who you are and what you believe. People are complex, and your brand should represent something that’s never stagnant or two dimensional. You’re not going to win everyone over with an edgy brand, but if you’re sincere and authentic then the people that you do connect with will stay with you forever.

Be Outstanding

Your brand should have meaning and never be superficial. Your actual product, the brand and the people behind it should all be excellent. This is something you should be proud to talk about. As mentioned several times previously, this brand and this product has to be something that you believe in and are willing to put a part of yourself into. Controversy and distraction aren’t important at the end of the day; it’s the core message and the quality of the band that matter. Your audience can tell if your brand is a fake, manufactured abomination that you don’t care about. If you care about your brand and invest thought, emotion and energy into it then it will be outstanding. Just because it’s edgy doesn’t mean it can’t be a thoughtful, high quality brand.

All marketers and designers know that there are no absolutely magic brands or solutions. The key to success is keeping the fundamentals in mind while putting passion into everything you do. There might be some mistakes along the way, but if you build a ship that you absolutely love then you should be more than willing to sink with it if that time ever comes.

 

Writing edgy . . . for all the wrong reasons

by C.J. Darlington

Am I ashamed of the gospel?

A Conversation with Randy Elrod’s: Why Christians Are Creating More “Edgy” Art, and Jeff Goin’s, Are Christians Writing “Edgy” for the Wrong Reasons?

In the last couple of years I’ve noticed a trend in Christian fiction. More and more aspiring authors desire to write edgy fiction. And by edgy I mean pushing the envelope of what has generally been considered acceptable in novels regarding violence, sex, language, etc.
Now I’m all for writing real. I want my characters and situations to be true to life. I don’t want to write about saints. But somewhere there’s a line, and I admit, it’s a gray one. Personally, I think it comes down to motives. Why do we want to write edgy? Is it to shock? To do it because we can?
Don’t get me wrong. I know full well there are different books to reach different people. Someone who might not be inclined to pick up Beverly Lewis might love Ted Dekker. That’s the beauty of this ever increasing market. There’s so much great material! Twenty years ago this wasn’t the case. I’m very thankful to be writing Christian fiction in today’s world.

But in some Christian novels I’ve read recently I’m hard pressed to find anything (besides a lack of swearing) that sets them apart from their secular counterparts. And again, that may be exactly what the author and publisher want—to write clean fiction. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I sometimes wonder if the author shied away from the Christian aspects because he/she didn’t want to offend.

A couple years ago I noticed this in my own writing. I kept hearing I wasn’t supposed to preach in my fiction. The message needed to come organically from the story. Sounded great in principle, but I found myself (and this is just me) actually shying away ever so slightly from what I most wanted to include in my novels—good news. The gospel. Hope. God’s love.

I started evaluating my motives and realized I was indeed acting, in so many words, ashamed of the gospel. Something I never ever wanted to be ashamed of. I looked up the Scripture in Romans 1:16 ”I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”

As I pondered it, something stuck out to me: the gospel is the power of God. And what is the gospel? The good news of Jesus! If I want to write a powerful novel, then I need to include the good news. If I want to reach people for the Lord, I need to share the good news.

Of course, the gospel comes in various forms, and I still don’t want to write preachy, but I also don’t want to be ashamed.

In my debut novel Thicker than Blood (January 2010, Tyndale House) there’s a strong evangelical message. In all my fiction my goal is to show that no one is ever too far gone for God to love. I’m now proud of that.
I’d like to encourage you today not to be ashamed of the gospel. It holds the power of God to transform lives.

Now let me just add here that I’m not saying clean, moral fiction (like one of my favorite authors James Scott Bell’s Ty Buchanan series) are not valuable. They are very much needed, and I love reading them too. Mainly I’m talking about motives here. You may be called to write moral fiction. We write different books to reach different people. I totally support that. Some won’t be ready for my novels, but they may receive from someone else.

 

Cool Edgy Hairstyles and Haircuts

Edgy hairstyles work beautifully on women with powerful personalities simply because the edgy look needs to be worn with confidence in order to look great. Find out how you can choose a cool edgy hairstyle for your hair length so you can look incredibly stylish.  

When it comes to hairstyles, people have different tastes and preferences, thing which doesn't come as a surprise since people differentiate themselves through a number of things like style, face shape, hair type, hair length, etc. Some people prefer to wear their hair regular without any impact, while others prefer to emphasize their unique style with cool edgy looking hairstyles.

Cool edgy hairstyles can be styled on different hair types and hair lengths. It is the cut which gives the hairstyle a cool edgy look, a look which suits perfectly with powerful personalities. Confidence is needed in order to be able to wear this type of hairstyles because they are meant to attract attention. These magnet like hairstyles have a certain attraction attached and it's no surprise why. The facial features are usually emphasized by the cool edgy hairstyles, so having the right face shape is necessary. You don't want to emphasize your flaws only your qualities, so choose the best cool edgy look for your facial features.

Because the edgy look is given by the cut, cool edgy hairstyles can be created on short, medium as well as long hairstyles. The sharper the cuts, the edgier the look, so choose the right edginess for your personality.

Short cool edgy hairstyles look amazing and suit perfectly women with oval face shapes and well defined jaws. When choosing a short hairstyle it is crucial to make sure your face shape can pull it off. The edginess of the style will emphasize your facial features and if the length does not suit you, you will not look good.

Women with very feminine facial features can use short edgy hairstyles to emphasize their gorgeousness. Short cuts with longer side swept bangs look great and are very popular among women.

Medium cool edgy hairstyles are a great option for women with facial features that don't match with shorter cuts. Round face shapes usually work great with mid-length hairstyles that fall under chin length, so medium cool edgy hairstyles can work beautifully. There are a variety of ways you can add an edgy look to your medium length hairstyle by cutting it asymmetrically or using sharp or blunt cuts. Bangs can be a great option for medium hairstyles and can offer versatility as well.

Long cool edgy hairstyles suit almost every face shape depending on the chosen cut. There are so many cutting techniques available to create different results. You can choose blunt cuts, asymmetrical cuts, even sharp cuts depending on the desired result. You can go for different levels of edginess, from edgy mullet hairstyles to more feminine and toned down blunt cut hairstyles.

Choose the right cool edgy hairstyle that matches your personality and style and you will look fabulous. Consult with your hairstylist if you cannot make a decision as there are so many hairstyle types available to choose from.